Taking the average length of the voyage as ten days, and allowing ten days for delay in New York, a month would give ample time for the two journeys; and John Saltram had been away more than a month.
Gilbert could see that Marian was quick to take alarm on discovering this.
"My dear Mrs.Saltram, be reasonable," he said gently.

"Finding such a cheat put upon him, your husband would naturally be anxious to bring your father to some kind of reckoning, to extort from him the real secret of your fate.

He would no doubt stay in New York to do this; and we cannot tell how difficult the business might prove, or how long it would occupy him." "But if he had been detained like that, he would surely have written to you," said Marian; "and you have heard nothing from him since he left England." "Unhappily nothing.

But he is not the best correspondent in the world, you know." "Yes, yes, I know that.

Yet, in such a case as this, he would surely have written, if he were well." Her eyes met Gilbert's as she said this.