as I have no reason to be proud of. Happily Mr. Gryce was not there to
see me.

"Gone? Miss Oliver gone?" I cried to the maid whom I found trembling in
a corner of the hall.

"Yes, ma'am; it was my fault, ma'am. She was in bed so quiet, I thought
I might step out for a minute, but when I came back her clothes were
missing and she was gone. She must have slipped out at the front door
while Dan was in the back hall. I don't see how ever she had the
strength to do it."

Nor did I. But I did not stop to reason about it; there was too much to
be done. Rushing on, I entered the room I had left in such high hopes a
few hours before. Emptiness was before me, and I realized what it was to
be baffled at the moment of success. But I did not waste an instant in
inactivity. I searched the closets and pulled open the drawers; found
her coat and hat gone, but not Mrs. Van Burnam's brown skirt, though the
purse had been taken out of the pocket.

"Is her bag here?" I asked.

Yes, it was in its old place under the table; and on the wash-stand and
bureau were the simple toilet articles I had been told she had brought
there. In what haste she must have fled to leave these necessities
behind her!

But the greatest shock I received was the sight of the knitting-work,
with which I had so inconsiderately meddled the evening before, lying in
ravelled heaps on the table, as if torn to bits in a frenzy. This was a
proof that the fever was yet on her; and as I contemplated this fact I
took courage, thinking that one in her condition would not be allowed to
run the streets long, but would be picked up and put in some hospital.

In this hope I began my search. Miss Althorpe, who came in just as I was
about to leave the house, consented to telephone to Police Headquarters
a description of the girl, with a request to be notified if such a
person should be found in the streets or on the docks or at any of the
station-houses that night. "Not," I assured her, as we left the
telephone and I prepared to say good-bye for the day, "that you need
expect her to be brought back to this house, for I do not mean that she
shall ever darken your doors again. So let me know if they find her, and
I will relieve you of all further responsibility in the matter."

Then I started out.

To name the streets I traversed or the places I visited that day, would
take more space than I would like to devote to the subject. Dusk came,
and I had failed in obtaining th