gment on Miss Henrietta Towell was different from yours and
mine. She found her just what she had expected to see from the
warnings long ago issued by Mrs. Judson Flack in putting her daughter
on her guard. In going about the city she, Letty, was always to be
suspicious of elderly ladies, respectably dressed, enticingly
mannered, and with what seemed like maternal intentions. The more any
one of these traits was developed, the more suspicious Letty was to
be. With these instructions carefully at heart she would have been
suspicious of Henrietta Towell in any case; but with Steptoe's
description to fall back upon she couldn't but feel sure.

By the time Miss Towell had arrived at the hospital Letitia Rashleigh
had sufficiently recovered to be dressed and seated in the armchair
placed beside the bed in the small white ward. On one low bedpost the
jacket had been hung, and on the other the battered black hat.

"There's nothing the matter with her," the nurse explained to Miss
Towell, before entering the ward. "She had fainted in the subway, but
I think it was only from fatigue, and perhaps from lack of food. She's
quite well nourished, only she didn't seem to have eaten any supper,
and was evidently tired from a long and frightening walk. She gives us
no explanation of herself, and is disinclined to talk, and if it
hadn't been that she had your address in her pocket----"

"I think I know how she got that. From her name I judge that she's a
relative of the family in which I used to be employed; but as they
were all very wealthy people----"

"Even very wealthy people often have poor relations."

"Yes, of course; but I was with this family for so many years that if
there'd been any such connection I think I must have heard of it.
However, it makes no difference to me, and I shall be glad to be of
use to her, especially as she has in her possession an article--a
thimble it is--which once belonged to me."

At the bedside the nurse made the introduction. "This is the lady
whose address you had in your pocket. She very kindly said she'd come
and see what she could do for you."

Having placed a chair for Miss Towell the nurse withdrew to attend to
other patients in the ward, of whom there were three or four.

Letty regarded the newcomer with eyes that seemed lustreless in spite
of their tiny gold flames. Having a shrewd idea of what she would mean
to her visitor she felt it unnecessary to express gratitude. In a
certain s