ng it.

In her letter to her friend she had mentioned the entrance at
Fifty-seventh Street as being near their place of abode, and I had
promised myself that I would be early at that gate to watch for the
coming of Miss Jenrys, and to restore her property--what else?

But I had not counted upon a diamond robbery at the very beginning of
my World's Fair adventures, and as I wished to go unaccompanied, I did
not attempt to stand guard at evening.

But the second morning saw me at an early hour alone, and so near the
gate at Fifty-seventh Street that I could in no possible way miss the
lady should she appear.

I had not needed to avoid Dave. He had been prompt to tell me that he
meant to put in the day looking for Greenback Bob, and that he should
'do his looking' upon Midway.

'And why Midway?' I had asked him.

'Because, if there's a place that is better than all other places in
which to hide one's self, that place is the Midway.'

It was quite true; and as I made my way toward the northern entrance,
I turned over in my mind an idea suggested, or revived, by Dave's last
words.

As I passed toward the entrance between the unique little house of
South Dakota on one side and hospitable and home-like Nebraska State
Building on the other, my gaze was caught by the restfulness and charm
of the western facade of the latter, with its broad portico and the
little lawn lying between the broad steps facing the western boundary
of the grounds, the little stream flowing under overhanging trees of
nature's own planting, and past the little natural arbour of climbing
vines draping themselves among the branches, making shade and coolness
for the groups loitering underneath upon the rustic seats scattered
freely and inviting all.

While I gazed, a voice close behind me said, in a wheedling drawl:

'Dew come in! You never saw sech a place! Why, upstairs beats this all
out of sight. Sech parlours, with velvet chairs, and sofys, and a
pianer; I tell ye Nebrasky beats some o' them stuck-up Eastern
States!'

I turned, to see a fat, rosy-faced and eager woman, in the defiant
bonnet I have learned to know as from 'out west,' piloting a lean and
reluctant woman, quite as typical as a rural New Englander, through
the gate of the inclosure; and, prompted doubtless by the words I had
just heard, I took another and more extended survey of the building so
justly extolled, this time lifting my eyes to the upper window and the
balcony ov