In the hall he met Elizabeth.
"Did you see him ?" she asked eagerly.
"Not here," he answered huskily.
Her eyes grew wide with terror, and she swayed as if about to fall, but her father put out a sunburnt hand for her support.
"We must go back!" he said, mastering himself at sight of her suffering.
"We have missed him here, he's gone home, that is all--it means nothing." They drove in silence through the streets.

Pallid, fearful, and speechless in her suffering, Elizabeth leaned back in her seat.

The hope that had sustained her was lost in the realization of defeat.

There was nothing beyond; this was failure, complete and final; the very end of effort! Suddenly her father's big hand closed about the small one which rested in her lap.
"You must not give up; I tell you it will be all right!" he insisted.
"He is avoiding us!" she cried chokingly.

"Oh, what can we do when he will not even see us!" "Yes, he will.