To prevent this, the fearless girl at once secretly set out alone to overtake and bring back the delinquent.
For two or three hours the house was thus left to the sole occupancy of Mr.and Mrs.Forsyth and the invalid--a fact only dimly suspected by the latter, who had become vaguely conscious of Josephine's anxiety, and had noticed the absence of light and movement in her room.

For this reason, therefore, having risen again and mechanically taken his seat in the porch to await her return, he was startled by hearing HER voice in the shadow of the lower porch, accompanied by a hurried tapping against the door of the old couple.

The half-reasoning man arose, and would have moved towards it, but suddenly he stopped rigidly, with white and parted lips and vacantly distended eyeballs.
Meantime the voice and muffled tapping had brought the tremulous fingers of old Forsyth to the door-latch.

He opened the door partly; a slight figure that had been lurking in the shadow of the porch pushed rapidly through the opening.

There was a faint outcry quickly hushed, and the door closed again.