turned out anything decent or that would sell in the market.
Therefore the money he spent for paints, brushes and canvas--money I
worked hard to earn--was absolutely wasted. Does your father keep any
servants?"

"One maid, an Irish girl born in the town."

"Still economical, I see. Well, that's all the information I require.
You have given your word of honor not to notify him that I have
discovered his whereabouts. Is it not so?"

"Yes," said Alora.

"Now sign the note."

Alora, pen in hand, hesitated while she slowly read the paper again.
She hated to give fifty thousand dollars to this scheming woman, even
though the loss of such a sum would not seriously impair her fortune.
But what could she do?

"Sign it, girl!" exclaimed Janet, impatiently.

Alora searched the note for a loophole that would enable her afterward
to repudiate it. She knew nothing of legal phrases, yet the wording
seemed cleverly constructed to defeat any attempt to resist payment.

"Sign!" cried the woman. With pen hovering over the place where she had
been told to write her name, Alora still hesitated and seeing this the
nurse's face grew dark with anger. A sudden "click" sounded from the
hall door, but neither heard it.

"Sign!" she repeated, half rising with a threatening gesture.

"No, don't sign, please," said a clear voice, and a short, stumpy girl
with red hair and freckled face calmly entered the room and stood
smilingly before them.

Janet uttered an exclamation of surprise and annoyance and sank back in
her chair, glaring at the intruder. Alora stared in speechless
amazement at the smiling girl, whom she had never seen before.

"How did you get in here?" demanded Janet angrily.

"Why, I just unlocked the door and walked in," was the reply, delivered
in a cheery and somewhat triumphant voice.

"This is a private apartment."

"Indeed! I thought it was a prison," said the girl. "I imagined you,
Mrs. Orme, to be a jailer, and this young person--who is Miss Alora
Jones, I believe--I supposed to be your prisoner. Perhaps I'm wrong,
but I guess I'm right."

The nurse paled. The look she flashed from her half-veiled eyes was a
dangerous look. She knew, in the instant, that the stranger had come to
liberate Alora, but the next instant she reflected that all was not
lost, for she had already decided to release her prisoner without
compulsion. It was important to her plans, however, that she obtain the
promissory note; so, insta