“In hopes of finding a note from Ned, I suppose.  I don’t believe there can be one there that would bring you later news than yesterday’s telegram.  But I have no objection to making sure, and would as soon ride in that direction as any other.”

Nothing from Edward was found at the office; and the young wife seemed much disappointed, till Ella suggested that that looked as if he expected to be at home before night.

It was a cheering idea to Zoe:  she brightened up at once, and in the afternoon drove over the same road, feeling almost certain Edward would be on the incoming train, due about the time she would reach the village, or rather at the time she had planned to be there.  Ella, who had asked to accompany her, was slow with her dressing, taxing Zoe’s patience pretty severely by thus causing ten minutes’ detention.

“Come, now, don’t be worried:  it won’t kill Ned to have to wait ten or fifteen minutes,” she said laughingly, as she stepped into the carriage, and seated herself by Zoe’s side.

“No, I dare say not,” returned the latter, trying to speak with perfect pleasantness of tone and manner; “and he isn’t one of the impatient ones, who can never bear to be kept waiting a minute, like myself,” she added with a smile.  “Now, Uncle Ben, drive pretty fast, so that we won’t be so very far behind time.”

“Fas’ as I kin widout damagin’ de hosses, Miss Zoe,” answered the old coachman.  “Marso Ed’ard allus tole me be keerful ob dem, and de roads am putty bad sence de big storm.”

Zoe glanced at her watch as they entered the village.  “Drive directly to the depot, Uncle Ben,” she said.  “It’s fully fifteen minutes past the time for the train to be in.”

“I ain’t heard de whistle, Miss Zoe,” he remarked, as he turned his horses’ heads in the desired direction.

“No, nor have I,” said Ella; “and we ought to have heard it fully five minutes before it got in.  There may have been a detention.  That is nothing very unusual,” she hastened to add, as she saw that Zoe had suddenly grown very pale.

The carriage drew up before the door of the depot; and the girls leaned from its windows, sending eager, searching glances from side to side, and up and down the track.

No train was in sight, and the depot seemed strangely silent and deserted.

“Oh!” cried Zoe, “what can be the matter?”

“I suppose the train must have got in some time ago,—­perhaps before we left Ion,” replied Ella, in a re-assuring tone; “and all the passengers have dispersed to their homes, or wherever they were going.”

“No, there could not have been time for all that,” Zoe responded, in accents full of anxiety and alarm.

“Our watches may be much too slow,” suggested Ella, trying to re-assure both herself and her cousin, yet trembling with apprehension as she spoke.

“No, it isn’t possible that they and all the timepieces in the house could be so far from correct,” said Zoe despairingly.