ming the woman that she
was engaged in tracing the missing girl, Alora Jones. "I am not sure
what name you knew her by, but her real name was Gorham."

"No one has left us this week," returned the housekeeper, who seemed
disposed to converse freely with her visitor.

"Are you sure of that?"

"Why, I'm positive. We treat our help well and they seldom leave us.
I'm sure no woman employed in this hotel, down to the lowest kitchen
scullion, has resigned or been discharged during the last few days."

"And there is no one still in your service named Gorham?"

"No one. It's an unusual name and I should have remembered it."

"Do any of the guests ever use the servants' entrance?"

"Certainly not. It is reserved exclusively for the employees. Some of
our guests have private maids, who occasionally use the rear entrances,
and Mrs. Tolliver's trained nurses are allowed to pass out that way,
too; but----"

She stopped abruptly, as if some new thought had occurred to her.

"What is it?" asked Josie, who was watching her face.

"Why, I have just recollected that Mrs. Tolliver's night nurse did not
show up Tuesday evening, for some reason, and they were obliged to
telephone for another."

"Who is Mrs. Tolliver?"

"One of our permanent guests, who is suffering just now from a severe
attack of rheumatism. She employs two trained nurses, a day nurse and a
night nurse."

"And the night nurse left her post Tuesday morning and did not return
in the evening, as she was expected to do?"

"That's it, miss. Mrs. Tolliver was greatly annoyed, but fortunately
she was able to secure another nurse at once."

"What was the nurse's name--the one who abandoned her job without
notice?"

"Let me see. It wasn't Gorham. I'll call Alice, my assistant; I feel
quite sure that she will know."

Alice promptly answered the bell and on being questioned said:

"The nurse was Mrs. Orme. She'd been with Mrs. Tolliver ever since she
was took sick, and was the best nurse she's had."

"Why did she leave?" asked Josie.

"I don't know, miss, I'm sure. She were a quiet body, never sayin' much
to no one. But quite ladylike, she were, an' most of us liked her."

"Can you describe her?"

"Well, she isn't tall--not so very tall, you know--an' she's got a good
form an' good manners. I take it she's about thirty-five, an' handsome
for her age. Good eyes, but mostly looks down an' don't show 'em. Very
neat an' tidy. Brown hair. She wore gray clothes,