oors. Then she came down stairs and went out.
She was gone just about long enough to have been to the nearest hack-stand
and back again. A few minutes after she returned, the door-bell rang.

"I'll go," she called to Kate; "it's a man I sent here on an errand, and I
shall have to see him."

"Very well, miss," said Kate, and went singing down the back-stairs with
her broom.

"This way," said Gypsy, opening the door. She led the way to her room, and
the man who followed her shouldered her trunk with one hand, and carried
it out to a carriage which stood at the door. Gypsy went into her aunt's
room and left a little note on the table where it would be easily seen,
threw her veil over her face, felt of her purse to be sure it was safe in
her pocket, and ran hastily down stairs after him, and into the carriage.
The man strapped on her trunk, slammed the door upon her, and, mounting
his box, drove rapidly away. Kate, who happened to be looking out of one
of the basement windows, saw the carriage, but did not notice the trunk.
She supposed Gypsy was riding somewhere to meet her aunt or uncle, and
went on with her dusting.

The carriage stopped at the Fitchburg depot, and Gypsy paid her fare and
went into the ladies' room. The coachman, who seemed to be an
accommodating man, though a little curious, brought her a check, and hoped
she'd get along comfortable; it was a pretty long journey for such a young
creetur to take alone.

Gypsy thanked him, and going up to the ticket-master, asked him something
in a low tone.

"In just an hour!" said the ticket-master, in a loud, business-like voice.

"_An hour!_ So long as that?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Gypsy drew her veil very closely about her face, and sat down in the
darkest corner she could find. She seemed to be very much afraid of being
recognized; for she shrank from every new-comer, and started every time
the door opened.

"Train for Fitchburg, Rutland, Burlington!" shouted a voice, at last, and
the words were drowned in the noise of hurrying feet.

Gypsy took a seat in the rear car, by the door, which was open, so that
she was partially concealed from the view of the passengers. Just before
the train started, a tall, whiskered gentleman walked slowly through the
car, scanning the faces on each side of him.

"You haven't seen a little girl here, dressed in drab, with black eyes and
red cheeks, have you?" he asked, stopping just in front of Gypsy.

Several of the passenger