"Call Sarah."
Sarah came.
"Where is Constance?"
"I don't know, ma'am."
"Did she go out this afternoon?"
"Yes, ma'am. She went out about two hours ago, ma'am."
"That's strange," said her mother. "She always tells me where she is going."
Both parents left the tea-table, each with a heavy presentiment of coming trouble about the heart. They went, as by one consent, to Constance's chamber. The mother proceeded to look into her drawers, and found to her grief and astonishment that they were nearly all empty.
For some time, neither spoke a word. The truth had flashed upon the mind of each at the same moment.
"It may not yet be too late," were the first words spoken, and by the mother.