Arthur Tracy alone was registered among the list of passengers, and only Arthur Tracy was on the books at the hotel.

He had come alone, and been alone on the sea and at the hotel.
Gretchen was a myth, or at least a mystery, though he still persisted that she would arrive with every train from Boston; and for nearly a week they humored him, and the carriage went to meet her, until at last there seemed to dawn upon his mind the possibility of a mistake, and when the carriage had made its twentieth trip for nothing, and Mr.St.
Claire, who was standing by him on the platform when the train came up and brought no Gretchen, said to him: 'She did not come.' 'I am afraid she will never come,' he answered, sadly.

'No, she will never come.

There has been some mistake.

She will never come.