She looked into his face inquiringly day' after day, but nothing she saw there gave hint of hope.

The mare was lost.

She would never be recovered.
Sometimes a fit of peculiar despondency would come upon Sim.

At such times he would go off without warning, and be seen no more for days.
Rotha knew that he had gone to his old haunts on the hill, for nothing induced him to return to his cottage at Fornside.

No one went in pursuit of him.