It had been a matter of astonishment to me all day long that nobody, with the exception of the one man at East Ord, had noticed Maisie as she went along the road between Berwick and Mindrum on the previous evening--now I remembered, blaming myself for not having remembered it before, that there was a short cut, over a certain right-of-way, through the grounds of Hathercleugh House, which would save her a good three miles in her journey.

She would naturally be anxious to get to her aunt as quickly as possible; she would think of the nearest way--she would take it.

And now I began to understand the whole thing: Maisie had gone into the grounds of Hathercleugh, and--she had never left them! The realization made me sick with fear.

The idea of my girl being trapped by such a villain as I firmly believed the man whom we knew as Sir Gilbert Carstairs to be was enough to shake every nerve in my body; but to think that she had been in his power for twenty-four hours, alone, defenceless, brought on me a faintness that was almost beyond sustaining.
I felt physically and mentally ill--weak.

And yet, God knows! there never was so much as a thought of defeat in me.