the
centre of the room, on the vase half full of partly withered roses, on
the mantel-piece, the Shakespeare, and Macaulay's History lying on the
stand at my right, thought my own thoughts, but said nothing.

"You found the door locked this morning?" asked I, after a moment's
scrutiny of the room in which three facts had become manifest: first,
that the girl had not occupied the bed the night before; second, that
there had been some sort of struggle or surprise,--one of the curtains
being violently torn as if grasped by an agitated hand, to say nothing
of a chair lying upset on the floor with one of its legs broken; third,
that the departure, strange as it may seem, had been by the window.

"Yes," returned she; "but there is a passageway leading from my room
to hers and it was by that means we entered. There was a chair placed
against the door on this side but we easily pushed it away."

I stepped to the window and looked out. Ah, it would not be so very
difficult for a man to gain the street from that spot in a dark night,
for the roof of the newly-erected extension was almost on a level with
the window.

"Well," said she anxiously, "couldn't she have been got out that way?"

"More difficult things have been done," said I; and was about to step
out upon the roof when I bethought to inquire of Mrs. Daniels if any of
the girl's clothing was missing.

She immediately flew to the closets and thence to bureau drawers which
she turned hastily over. "No, nothing is missing but a hat and cloak
and--" She paused confusedly.

"And what?" I asked.

"Nothing," returned she, hurriedly closing the bureau drawer; "only some
little knick-knacks."

"Knick-knacks!" quoth I. "If she stopped for knick-knacks, she couldn't
have gone in any very unwilling frame of mind." And somewhat disgusted,
I was about to throw up the whole affair and leave the room. But the
indecision in Mrs. Daniels' own face deterred me.

"I don't understand it," murmured she, drawing her hand across her eyes.
"I don't understand it. But," she went on with even an increase in her
old tone of heart-felt conviction, "no matter whether we understand it
or not, the case is serious; I tell you so, and she must be found."

I resolved to know the nature of that must, used as few women in her
position would use it even under circumstances to all appearance more
aggravated than these.

"Why, must?" said I. "If the girl went of her own accord as some things
seem