"
There was no slip of paper, no letter, no clew to her absence.
Mother and son looked blankly at each other.
"Ronald," she cried, "where is she? Where is the poor child?"
He tried to comfort her, but fear was rapidly mastering him.
"Let me see if Airlie can suggest anything," he said.
They went down to the breakfast room where Lord Airlie still
waited for the young girl he was never more to meet alive. He
turned round with a smile, and asked if Beatrice were coming.
The smile died from his lips when he saw the pale, anxious faces
of mother and son.
"Hubert," said Lord Earle, "we are alarmed--let us hope without
cause. Beatrice can not be found. My mother is frightened."
Lady Helena had sunk, pale and trembling, upon a couch. Lord
Airlie looked bewildered. Lord Earle told him briefly how they
had missed her, and what had been done.
"She must be trying to frighten us," he said; "she must have
hidden herself. There can not be anything wrong." Even as he
spoke he felt how impossible it was that his dignified Beatrice
should have done anything wrong.
He could throw no light upon the subject.
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