She was in the train with me, and should have gotten out when I did, but
she must have been asleep and carried by.'
'Gr-gr-gretchen! Who is she?' Frank stammered, while the cold sweat
began to run down his back.
The 'us' in the telegram did mean something, and mischief, too, to his
interests, he felt intuitively.
Instantly into Arthur's eyes there stole a look of cunning, and a
peculiar smile played round his mouth as he replied:
'She is Gretchen. See that the carriage goes for her, will you?'
His voice and manner indicated that he wished the conference ended, and
with a great sinking at his heart Frank left the room and returned to
his guests and his wife, who had not seen the stranger when he entered
the hall, and thus did not know of Arthur's arrival until her husband
rejoined her.
'He has come,' he whispered to her, while she whispered back:
'Is he alone?'
'Yes, but somebody is coming to-morrow; I do not know who; Gretchen, he
calls her,' was Frank's reply.
'Gretchen!' Mrs. Tracy repeated, in a trembling voice. 'Who is she?'
'I don't know. He merely said she was Gretchen; his daughter, perhaps,'
was Frank's answer, which sent the color from his wife's cheeks, and
made her so faint and sick that she would have given much to be alone
and think over this evil coming upon her the next day in the shape of
the mysterious Gretchen.
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