“I think, sir, that she has been pressed away from us in the crowd.  We shall find her when we get through the gate into more space.”

“Well, I hope so.”

“She is quite able to take care of herself, sir.  Pray do not be alarmed.  She will be sure to find us.”

“Well, I hope so.  Yes; of course she will.”

At this moment the gates were opened.

“Take my arm.  Don’t let me lose you in the crowd.  I suppose Mrs. Stillwater cannot fail to join us.  Oh! of course not!  She knows the train, and there is but one.”

He drew Cora’s hand close under his arm, and holding it tightly, followed the multitude through the gate, looking all around in search of Rose Stillwater.

But she was nowhere to be seen.

“She may have gotten ahead of us, and be on the train.  Come on!” said Mr. Rockharrt, as he hurried his granddaughter along and pushed her upon the platform.

The cars were rapidly filling.

Mr. Rockharrt seized upon four seats, in order to secure three.  He put Cora in one and told her to put her traveling bag on the other, to hold it for Mrs. Stillwater.  Then he took possession of the seat in front of her.

“As soon as this crowd settles itself down and leaves something like a free passageway, I will go through the train and find Mrs. Stillwater.  She is bound to be on board.  She is no baby to lose herself,” said Mr. Rockharrt, and though his words were confident, his tone seemed anxious.

The people all got seated at last and the long train moved.

Mr. Rockharrt left his seat, and stooping over his granddaughter, he whispered: 

“I am going now to look for Mrs. Stillwater and fetch her here.”

He passed slowly down the car, looking from side to side, and then out through the back door to the rear cars, and so out of Cora’s sight.

He was gone about fifteen minutes.  At the end of that time he reappeared, and came up the car and stopped to speak to Cora:  “She is not in any of the rear cars.  I am going forward to look for her.  This comes of traveling in a crowd.”

He went on as before, looking carefully from side to side, passed out of the front door and again out of Cora’s sight.  This time he was gone twenty minutes.  When he come back his face wore an expression of the greatest anxiety.

“She is not on the train.  She has been left behind!  Foolish woman, to let herself be separated from us in this stupid way!” testily exclaimed the Iron King, as he dropped himself heavily into his seat.

“What can be done?” exclaimed Cora, now seriously uneasy about her unwelcome companion, because she feared that Rose might have been seized with one of her sharp and sudden headaches and had stepped away from them as she had done in the church.

“I hope she has had the presence of mind, on finding herself left, to return to the hotel and wait for the next train.  This is the express, and does not stop until we reach Garrison’s.  But when we get there I will telegraph to her and tell her what train to take.  It is all an infernal nuisance—­this being jostled about by a crowd.”