ds, he held it closely and waited.

"I was sent here by my law partner and my closest friend, Mr. Alexander
Herron, of Philadelphia," said the stranger. "Both he and Mrs. Herron
were bitterly opposed to your mother's marriage, because they knew life
and human nature, and there never is but one end to men such as she
married."

"You may omit that," said the Girl coldly. "Simply state why you are
here."

"In response to an inquiry from your husband concerning the originals
of some photographs he sent to a detective agency in New York. They have
had the case for years, and recognizing the pictures as a clue, they
telegraphed Mr. Herron. The prospect of news after years of fruitless
searching so prostrated Mrs. Herron that he dared not leave her, and he
sent me."

"Kindly tell me this," said the Girl. "Where were my mother's father and
mother for the four years immediately following her marriage?"

"They went to Europe to avoid the humiliation of meeting their friends.
There, in Italy, Mrs. Herron developed a fever, and it was several years
before she could be brought home. She retired from society, and has been
confined to her room ever since. When they could return, a search was
instituted at once for their daughter, but they never have been able to
find a trace. They have hunted through every eastern city they thought
might contain her."

"And overlooked a little insignificant place like Chicago, of course."

"I myself conducted a personal search there, and visited the home of
every Jameson in the directory or who had mail at the office or of whom
I could get a clue of any sort."

"I don't suppose two women in a little garret room would be in the
directory, and there never was any mail."

"Did your mother ever appeal to her parents?"

"She did," said the Girl. "She admitted that she had been wrong, asked
their forgiveness, and begged to go home. That was in the second year of
her marriage, and she was in Cleveland. Afterward she went to Chicago,
from there she wrote again."

"Her father and mother were in Italy fighting for the mother's life,
two years after that. It is very easy to become lost in a large city.
Criminals do it every day and are never found, even with the best
detectives on their trail. I am very sorry about this. My friends will
be broken-hearted. At any time they would have been more than delighted
to have had their daughter return. A letter on the day following the
message from the agency