am sure the girls are
more frightened than ever now, for the storm is more furious." The thunder
and lightning seemed to be having "a second spasm," as Jack put it.

A hush fell upon the little party as the strange woman entered. Even
the careless one, Norton, looked serious. Somehow the presence of a
gray-haired, lonely woman, in that unusually merry crowd, seemed almost
a painful contrast.

"Sit here," said Cora, pulling a chair out in a convenient position. "And
won't you take off your cape?"

"No, thank you," replied the stranger. "I must talk while I feel like
it, or I might disappoint you." This was said with a smile, and the young
folks noted that though the woman showed agitation, her eyes were now
bright, and her voice firm.

"Very well," Cora acceded. Then the woman told her strange story.

"Some time ago I was employed in an office. I had charge of the cataloging
of confidential papers. I had been with the firm only a short time, when
one day," she paused abruptly, "one day I was very busy.

"A big piece of business had just been transacted, and there was a lot of
ready cash in the office. It was my duty to see that the record of all
finished business was entered in the books, and I was intent upon that
task."

Again she paused, and in the interval there came a flame of lightning
followed by a roar of thunder.

"My, what a storm!" gasped the woman. "I'm glad I am not out in it."

The remark seemed pathetic, and served to distract the most nervous of
the girls from a fear that they otherwise would have felt.

"We are glad you are with us," Belle ventured, as Cora hastened out into
the kitchen, to make sure that all was right there.

The maids had been startled. Nettie was assuring a new girl that thunder
storms were never disastrous in Chelton, but the latter had suddenly
become prayerful, and would not answer the simplest questions. Assuring
herself that Nettie could take care of the girl and two newly hired men,
who had assembled in the kitchen, Cora went back to the library.

"Well, that day," continued the woman, "marked my life-doom. As I worked
over my books, and counted the money, I saw two men standing in the door.
A young girl clerk--Nancy Ford--was nearest to them. As she saw them she
screamed, and darted past them out--out somewhere in this big world, and I
have never been able to find her since."

The woman put up both hands to cover her pallid face, and sighed heavily.
No one spoke