rdiner had been visiting the old basket-maker
and thinking so much of his daughter, he had by no means neglected his
patient, Miss Rogers, in whom he took an especial, almost brotherly,
interest, and who rapidly recovered under his constant care, until at
length he laughingly pronounced her "quite as good as new."

One day, in mounting the handsome brown-stone steps to make more of a
social than a business call, he was surprised to see the mansion closed.

He felt quite grieved that his friend should have packed up and departed
so hastily--that she had not even remembered to say good-bye to him. He
felt all the more sorry for her absence just at this time, for, after
much deliberation, he had decided to make a confidante of Miss Rogers,
and pour into her kindly, sympathetic ear the whole of his unfortunate
love story from beginning to end, and ask her advice as to what course
he should pursue. He had also resolved to show her the last letter he
had received from Miss Pendleton, in which she hinted rather strongly
that the marriage ought to take place as soon as she returned to the
city.

And now Miss Rogers was gone, he felt a strange chill, a disappointment
he could hardly control, as he turned away and walked slowly down the
steps and re-entered his carriage.

The next mail, however, brought him a short note from Miss Rogers. He
smiled as he read it, and laid it aside, little dreaming of what vital
importance those few carelessly-written lines would be in the dark days
ahead of him. It read as follows:

"MY DEAR DOCTOR GARDINER--You will probably be
surprised to learn that by the time this reaches you I
shall be far away from New York, on a little secret
mission which has been a pet notion of mine ever since
I began to recover from my last illness. Do not be much
surprised at any very eccentric scheme you may hear of
me undertaking.

"Yours hastily and faithfully,

"MISS ROGERS."

The terse letter was characteristic of the writer. Doctor Gardiner
replaced it in its envelope, put it away in his desk, with the wish that
she had mentioned her destination, then dismissed it from his mind.

At the identical moment Doctor Gardiner was reading Miss Rogers' letter,
quite a pitiful scene was being enacted in the home of the old
basket-maker.

It was with a shudder that he awoke and found the sunshine which
heralded another day stealing into his narrow little room.

Be