young and very beautiful woman. Yes, Aunt Ella, he actually called
my wife here a very beautiful young woman."

"That is a capital beginning!" cried Aunt Ella. "Go on, Quincy."

"In order to continue the conversation, I ventured the remark that Bruce
Douglas came from an ordinary country family and one not very well off;
for which aspersion, I humbly ask your pardon, Mrs. Sawyer. Father
replied that he thought that I must have been misinformed; that Bruce
Douglas was worth fifty thousand dollars in her own right, and he added
that she would become a very wealthy woman if she kept up her literary
activity."

"What did sister Sarah say?" asked Aunt Ella.

"Well," said Quincy, "I resolved to do something desperate, so I asked:
'Doesn't she look countrified?' again asking your pardon, Mrs. Sawyer."

"No," said mother, "she has the repose of a Lady Clara Vere de Vere, and
is as correct in her speech as was the Lady Elfrida Hastings."

"It will come out all right," cried Aunt Ella; and Quincy, kissing his
aunt and wife, and promising to write or telegraph every day, caught up
his hand-bag and started forth in search of the Hon. Stuart Fernborough,
M.P.

When Quincy left his aunt's house he had not the slightest idea which
way would be the best to turn his footsteps. He commenced his search,
however, at the Revere House, then he tried the American House, but at
neither place was Mr. Fernborough a guest.

At the Quincy House the clerk was busy with a number of new arrivals. He
had just opened a new hotel register, and the old one lay upon the
counter. Quincy took it up, and turning over the leaves, glanced up and
down its pages. Suddenly he started back; then, holding the book closer
to his eyes he read it again. There it was, under the date of September
10, "Mdme. Rose Archimbault and daughter." The residence given in the
proper column was "New York." Quincy kept the book open at the place
where he found this entry until the clerk was at leisure. He remembered
Mdme. Archimbault and daughter in a general way. He was sure that they
arrived from Europe the day that they came to the hotel, and he was
equally sure that they went to New York when they left. What made him
positive was that he remembered asking the young lady when she wrote New
York in the register if she had not just returned from Europe. She said
yes, but that her home residence was in New York.

Quincy thanked the clerk, and started forth again in search