once in front they let their
tongues run loose again. I, who cared nothing for their babble when it
contained no information, walked slowly about the room and finally
stopped before the bed.

It had a fresh look, and I at once asked them if it had been lately made
up. They assured me that it had not, saying that they always kept their
beds spread during their absence, as they did so hate to enter a room
disfigured by bare mattresses.

I could have read them a lecture on the niceties of housekeeping, but I
refrained; instead of that I pointed to a little dent in the smooth
surface of the bed nearest the door.

"Did either of you two make that?" I asked.

They shook their heads in amazement.

"What is there in that?" began Caroline; but I motioned her to bring me
the little cushion, which she no sooner did than I laid it in the little
dent, which it fitted to a nicety.

"You wonderful old thing!" exclaimed Caroline. "How ever did you
think----"

But I stopped her enthusiasm with a look. I may be wonderful, but I am
not old, and it is time they knew it.

"Mr. _Gryce_ is _old_," said I; and lifting the cushion, I placed it on
a perfectly smooth portion of the bed. "Now take it up," said I, when,
lo! a second dent similar to the first.

"You see where that cushion has lain before being placed on the table,"
I remarked, and reminding Caroline of the pin I wanted, I took my leave
and returned to my own house, leaving behind me two girls as much filled
with astonishment as the giddiness of their pates would allow.

XIX.

A DECIDED STEP FORWARD.

I felt that I had made an advance. It was a small one, no doubt, but it
was an advance. It would not do to rest there, however, or to draw
definite conclusions from what I had seen without further facts to guide
me. Mrs. Boppert could supply these facts, or so I believed. Accordingly
I decided to visit Mrs. Boppert.

Not knowing whether Mr. Gryce had thought it best to put a watch over my
movements, but taking it for granted that it would be like him to do so,
I made a couple of formal calls on the avenue before I started eastward.
I had learned Mrs. Boppert's address before leaving home, but I did not
ride directly to the tenement where she lived. I chose, instead, to get
out at a little fancy store I saw in the neighborhood.

It was a curious place. I never saw so many or such variety of things in
one small spot in my life, but I did not waste any time upon