came the last time in his shirt-sleeves; so
she supposed he'd pawned his coat."

"Well?"

"Well, I sent one of our men last night to see if he'd come again, but
he never did."

"And what can you do now?"

"Oh, I've left the photograph with the landlady, and she is to see if
any of her customers recognise it; it'll stand on the counter."

"And what do you think about him now?" asked Sir Thomas.

"That he'll turn up again in a day or two, if he's not ill."

"Oh, can he--can he have destroyed himself in a fit of despair?" gasped
Lady Oldfield.

"I think not, madam. Pray don't distress yourself. I believe we shall
be able to hunt him out in a day or two. I shall send a man in plain
clothes to the gin-shop again to-night to watch for him."

Early the next day the superintendent called again.

"We've found him," he said.

"Oh, where, where is he?" exclaimed the poor mother; "take us to him at
once! Oh, is he living?" she asked vehemently, for there was a look of
peculiar seriousness on the superintendent's face which made her fear
the worst.

"He is living, madam, but I'm sorry to say that he's seriously ill."

"Send for a cab at once," cried Sir Thomas.

"I have one at the door," said the officer; "one of you had better
secure a respectable lodging and nurse for him at once, while the other
goes with me."

"Let _me_ go to him," cried Lady Oldfield.

"It will be a strange place for a lady, but you will be safe with me."

"Oh yes, yes, let me go," was the reply; "am not I his mother? Oh, let
us go at once."

"Well, then, Sir Thomas," said the superintendent, "we will call at the
hotel as we return, if you will leave the direction of the lodgings with
the landlord."

"And how did you find out my poor boy?" asked Lady Oldfield, as they
hurried along through a labyrinth of by-streets, each dirtier and more
dismal than the last.

"My man in plain clothes, madam, watched last night for a long time by
the bar, but saw no one come in like your son. At last an old woman,
who was come for a quartern of gin, stared hard at the likeness, and
said, `Laws, if that ain't the young gent as is down ill o' the fever in
our attic!'"

"Ill of the fever!" exclaimed Lady Oldfield.

"Yes; it seems so. Of course that was enough. My man went home with
her, taking the photograph with him, and soon ascertained that the young
gentleman in question is your son. But we must stop here. I'm sorry to
bring your ladysh