woman with reddish hair who held
baby just now; tell her I have gone to look after the luggage, and ask
her to read it." And though the woman thought the request a little
strange, she took the sealed packet without demur.

As Fay and Nero went outside the station, the porter who had loaded
the cab was standing a little way off, Fay told the cabman hastily to
drive off to King's Cross, as she wanted to take the Scotch express;
and as the porter came up to claim his gratuity he found the cab
driving off, but Fay flung him a shilling. By a strange fatality the
cabman who drove them met with an accident that very day, from the
consequences of which he died in two or three weeks' time; and this
one thing checked all clew. When the inquiries were set afloat, the
porter certainly remembered the little lady and baby and the big black
dog, but he had not heard her instructions to the cabman.

Fay only took her ticket to York; she dared not go straight to her
destination. When she arrived there she would not put up at the
station hotel, but had herself driven to a quiet little hotel for the
night. It was an unpretending place, kept by very honest folk; but Fay
found herself very comfortable. She made some excuse about not
bringing her nurse, and the chamber-maid helped her undress baby. She
was almost too stupefied with grief and fatigue by this time to do
anything but sleep helplessly; but she made the girl promise to call
her early, and ordered a fly to the station; and when the morning came
she got into it without telling any one where she was going, and took
the midday train for Edinburgh. It would be impossible to describe the
nurse's feelings when she opened the packet in the waiting-room and
read her mistress's note. "Dear nurse," it said, "I am really very
sorry to treat you so badly, but I can not help it. I have gone away
with baby, and I could not take you. Please go back to Singleton by
the next train; you will find your box on the platform, and the porter
will help you. Sir Hugh will tell you what to do when he arrives this
evening.--Your affectionate mistress, F. Redmond." And inclosed were
two months' wages. In spite of her youth, Fay had excellent business
capabilities, only her husband had never found them out.

But unfortunately for the bewildered household at Redmond Hall, Sir
Hugh never arrived that evening. First came a hazy telegram, informing
them of a change of programme, and later on a special messenger