Again she said: "Yes; there is still time." Sylvia had kept her room all day, and Mrs.Owen had rigidly respected her wish to be alone.

She voluntarily appeared at the evening meal and talked of irrelevant things: of her school work, of the sale of the house at Montgomery, of the projected school at Waupegan.
"I'm going out for a while," she said, after an hour in the little office.

"I shan't be gone long, Aunt Sally; don't trouble about me.

I have my key, you know." When she had gone, Mrs.Owen called one of the colored men from the stable and gave him a line to Harwood, with a list of places where Dan might be found.

Her message was contained in a single line:-- "Sylvia has left the house.