e Bertram would have been just about his age now," wistfully.

"My dear Winnie," returned her brother, "I should not allow myself to raise
any such hopes on that point if I were you. You have been disappointed so
often."

"Still," she persisted, "there is just a chance, and we dare not leave a
single stone unturned to find poor Marion's boy."

"No," he replied, "but we have so little to go upon. It is four years now
since Marion died, and the only clue we could have at all is that tiny mark
upon the shoulder."

"Well," she said, "if I go and see the child and find out what I can from
him, will you go to Primrose Place and see if you can trace anything of his
parents?"

"Certainly I will," was the answer. "You know, dear, I am as anxious to
find the child as you are. It maddens one to think of the little chap
being brought up in one of those filthy alleys. I don't wonder it killed
his mother."

"No, indeed," said Miss Elton, her eyes filled with tears. "Poor Marion!"

Some years before our story opens Miss Elton's only sister had married an
artist living in a pretty village in Surrey, and there about a year
afterwards their little boy Bertram was born. His parents idolized him,
and he was the pet and plaything of every one who had anything to do with
him. When he was just about one year old, his mother, Mrs. Vincent,
had in her service a housemaid who had a violent temper. It happened that
one day Mrs. Vincent had occasion to reprove her for some fault, and the
girl was heard to declare that she would "pay her out for it." Soon after
Mr. and Mrs. Vincent went to spend a day with some friends living at a
distance, leaving little Bertram in charge of his nurse, thinking her a
woman they could trust. Great was their dismay, however, when they
returned to find both Bertram and Ellen, the housemaid, missing.
The nurse seemed to be almost beside herself with terror, and they could
get very little information from her. She said that Ellen had offered to
mind the baby while she went to dress. She missed them when she came down,
but thinking that they were somewhere about the grounds, she took no notice
but went on with some work in the nursery. When tea was ready she went out
to look for them, but they were nowhere to be seen. Feeling thoroughly
frightened, she called the cook, and together they searched the house and
grounds, but no trace of Ellen or the baby could be found. Poor Mrs.
Vincent was almost o