Vanstone had fixed on as the day for their return. With this intimation,
and with the customary messages, the letter, abruptly and confusedly,
came to an end.


For the first few minutes, a natural sympathy for Mrs. Vanstone was the
only feeling of which Miss Garth was conscious after she had laid the
letter down. Ere long, however, there rose obscurely on her mind a doubt
which perplexed and distressed her. Was the explanation which she had
just read really as satisfactory and as complete as it professed to be?
Testing it plainly by facts, surely not.

On the morning of her departure, Mrs. Vanstone had unquestionably left
the house in good spirits. At her age, and in her state of health, were
good spirits compatible with such an errand to a physician as the errand
on which she was bent? Then, again, had that letter from New Orleans,
which had necessitated Mr. Vanstone's departure, no share in occasioning
his wife's departure as well? Why, otherwise, had she looked up so
eagerly the moment her daughter mentioned the postmark. Granting the
avowed motive for her journey--did not her manner, on the morning when
the letter was opened, and again on the morning of departure, suggest
the existence of some other motive which her letter kept concealed?

If it was so, the conclusion that followed was a very distressing one.
Mrs. Vanstone, feeling what was due to her long friendship with Miss
Garth, had apparently placed the fullest confidence in her, on one
subject, by way of unsuspiciously maintaining the strictest reserve
toward her on another. Naturally frank and straightforward in all her
own dealings, Miss Garth shrank from plainly pursuing her doubts to
this result: a want of loyalty toward her tried and valued friend seemed