But why did he not come with you to-day?
You have told him about me, I suppose ?" "Not yet, Marian; I have not been able to do that.

Nor could he come with me to-day.

He has left England--on a false scent." And then he told her, in a few words, the story of John Saltram's voyage to New York; making very light of the matter, and speaking cheerily of his early return.
"He will come back at once, of course, when he finds how he has been deceived," Gilbert said.
Marian was cruelly distressed by this disappointment.

She tried to bear the blow bravely, and listened with a gentle patience to Gilbert's reassuring arguments; but it was a hard thing to bear.
"He will be back soon, you say," she said; "but soon is such a vague word; and you have not told me when he went." Gilbert told her the date of John Saltram's departure.

She began immediately to question him as to the usual length of the voyage, and to calculate the time he had had for his going and return.