he place she had seen advertised, but,
O dear, when I went up to her room----"

"Was she gone?" burst in Lena.

"O no, but there was such a smudge in it, and--and I could cry when I
think of it--there in the grate were the remains of her beautiful silk
blouse, all smoking and ruined. She had tried to burn it, and she had
succeeded too. I could not get a piece out as big as my hand."

"But you got some of it!" blurted out Lena, guided by a look which I
gave her.

"Yes, scraps, it was so handsome. I think I have a bit in my work-basket
now."

"O get it for me," urged Lena. "I want it to remember her by."

"My work-basket is here." And going to a sort of _etagere_ covered with
a thousand knick-knacks picked up at bargain counters, she opened a
little cupboard and brought out a basket, from which she presently
pulled a small square of silk. It was, as she said, of the richest
weaving, and was, as I had not the least doubt, a portion of the dress
worn by Mrs. Van Burnam from Haddam.

"Yes, it was hers," said Lena, reading the expression of my face, and
putting the scrap away very carefully in her pocket.

"Well, I would have given her five dollars for that blouse," murmured
Mrs. Desberger, regretfully. "But girls like her are so improvident."

"And did she leave that day?" I asked, seeing that it was hard for this
woman to tear her thoughts away from this coveted article.

"Yes, ma'am. It was late, and I had but little hopes of her getting the
situation she was after. But she promised to come back if she didn't;
and as she did not come back I decided that she was more successful than
I had anticipated."

"And don't you know where she went? Didn't she confide in you at all?"

"No; but as there were but three advertisements for a lady-companion in
the _Herald_ that day, it will be easy to find her. Would you like to
see those advertisements? I saved them out of curiosity."

I assented, as you may believe, and she brought us the clippings at
once. Two of them I read without emotion, but the third almost took my
breath away. It was an advertisement for a lady-companion accustomed to
the typewriter and of some taste in dressmaking, and the address given
was that of Miss Althorpe.

If this woman, steeped in misery and darkened by crime, should be there!

As I shall not mention Mrs. Desberger again for some time, I will here
say that at the first opportunity which presented itself I sent Lena to
the shops with ord