d about
everybody, I believe, but the mother of this child who is in very
direct descent, eluded us a long while."

"And this child is one of the heirs?" in surprise.

"Exactly. Her mother came here after her marriage. The father was
killed in some machinery mishap. The mother was in a store, a bakery,
I believe, and dying, gave her little girl to the friend she had lived
with, and the friend married and went out to Easton. We found she did
not take the child with her but put her in this Bethany Home with some
important papers. So we want the child and the papers."

"The child was twelve, a year ago September. She was bound-out to some
fairly nice people as a little nursemaid. And an heiress!" in a tone
of glad surprise.

"Well not to any great extent. There are a good many heirs it
seems--ten thousand or so. But we had to know whether she was living
or not on account of the title."

His little Cinderella! Truly this was a fairy story. "Oh, are you
_quite_ sure?" he said.

"Oh, there's no doubt, if she is the true heir. But the woman at
Easton attested a very straight story and knew of the husband's death,
though she had not known him personally. The money is on the mother's
side, you see, so his death is neither here nor there. And now--can't
we go out and interview this place and the keeper?"

"Hardly tonight. The matron is a rather rigid person I believe. We had
best tackle her by daylight, and the child is almost in this vicinity.
A rather unusual child I think, very sweet natured. Oh, I can't
express all my delight. She is the kind of girl that ought to be
educated, that should live in an atmosphere of love, and she is not
really strong enough to take the rough and tumble of life. Oh, I can't
tell you how glad I am." Lorimer surveyed his friend with a rather
humorous smile. They had been chums during a summer in Switzerland
and Holland, but he had not thought Richards much given to either love
or romance.

Then they branched off into old times when both had been rather
wasteful. Lorimer was working hard to redeem that youthful
extravagance; Dr. Richards cared nothing at all for the moneyed end of
life.

He would fain have kept his friend all night but Lorimer had engaged
his room at a hotel. They were to meet as soon as possible in the
morning.

Bethany Home was quite in the suburbs, reached by a walk after one had
left the trolley. The house was a big rambling place to which there
had been made seve