midnight
In their work was the same little mark of distinction , and so now-a-days it was very easy to tell which was Kittie and which was Kat . It was just a year since Ernestine had gone , and such a long , sad , hopeless year ! Not a clue or trace of any kind could they find except that she had gone to New York . The Canfield ticket agent had had his suspicions when a lady had bought a ticket and gone on the midnight train ; but it was none of his business , to be sure ; so she had gone on her way unmolested , and farther than that , they knew nothing . Where she went on reaching the city , no one knew , though no mode of search had been left untried , and no expense spared , either by Mrs. Dering , or the relatives and friends who so heartily sympathized in her heart-broken search . There was nothing , from himself to the last dollar he possessed , that Mr. Congreve did not offer ; and Jean sent a tear-stained note with a crisp ten dollars -- all she had , and saying : `` Mama , please spend it to find Ernestine ; and I ask God every few minutes , if He wo n't please let us have her again . '' But it had all been in vain .