In the course of that week Gladys had occasion to be over-night in Glasgow, for the purpose of attending a concert with the family in Bellairs Crescent.  It was a very select and fashionable affair, at which the elite and beauty of Glasgow were present.  Gladys enjoyed the gay and animated scene as much as the music, which was also to her a rare treat.  When they left the hall it was nearly eleven o’clock, and they had to wait some time in the vestibule till their carriage should move towards the door.  It was a fine mild night, and the girls, with their soft hoods drawn over their heads, and their fleecy wraps close about their throats, stood close by the great doors, chatting merrily while they waited.  The usual small crowd of loafers were hanging about the pavements, and as usual Gladys was saddened by the sight of the dejected and oftentimes degraded-looking denizens of the lower quarters of the city.  It might be that, in contrast with the gay and handsomely-dressed people from the West End, their poverty seemed even more pitiable.

‘Now, Gladys, no such pained expression, if you please,’ said the observant Mina.  ’Don’t look as if you carried all the sins and sorrows of Glasgow on your own shoulders.  Good, here is the brougham; and pray observe the expression on the countenance of James.  Is it not a picture?’

Gladys could not but laugh, and they tripped across the pavement to the carriage.  When they were all in, and Mr. Fordyce had given the word to the coachman, a woman suddenly swerved from the pavement and peered in at the carriage window.  At the moment the impatient horses moved swiftly away, and when Gladys begged them to stop it was too late; the woman was lost in the crowd.

Gladys, however, had seen her face, and recognised it, in spite of the change upon it, as the face of Walter’s sister Liz.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXVII.

GLADYS AND WALTER.

The fleeting vision of Liz Hepburn’s familiar face appeared to fill Gladys with excitement and unrest.  As Mina looked at her flushed cheeks and shining eyes, she felt a vague uneasiness visit her own heart.  They did not speak of her as they drove home, but when the girls gathered, as was their wont, round the cheerful fire in the guest-chamber before retiring for the night, Gladys asked them a question.

’Did you see her?  She looked very ill, and very distressed.  Do you not think so?  Oh, I fear she has been in trouble, and I must do all I can to find out about her.  If you will allow me, I shall remain another day in town, and I can send a telegram to Miss Peck in the morning.’

Mina, on her knees beside her chair, her plump bare arm showing very white and fair against the black lace of Gladys’s gown, looked up at her with a slightly troubled air.

’Gladys, I wish you wouldn’t bother about that girl.  You lay things far too much to heart.  It can’t possibly concern you now.  Let her own people look after her.’