CHAPTER XV.
It was Miss Ludington herself who, stirring unusually early, discovered Ida's flight on going to her room.
Paul opened his eyes a few minutes later to see her standing by his bedside, the picture of consternation.
"She is gone!" she exclaimed.
"Who is gone ?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.
"Ida has gone.

Her room is empty." Hastily dressing, he rejoined her in Ida's chamber, and together they went over the letters she had left.
If the revelation which they contained had been made when she had been in the house a shorter time, its effect might have been very different.

But it had come too late to produce the revulsion of feeling it might then have caused.

True, it was under a false name that she had first won their confidence, but it was the girl herself they had learned to love.

If her name proved to be Ida Slater, why it was Ida Slater whom they loved.