d came
temptingly into view, after which she beamingly backed out of the room,
wishing the couple "a pleasant night, and many of 'em!"

If shame hovered over this pretty place, it did not pale the amber glow
of the sparkling wine; it came not into the ruddy coals upon the hearth,
which gave forth their glowing warmth just as cheerily as from any other
hearth in the broad land; it never dimmed the light from the gilded
chandeliers; it put no crimson flush upon the faces which touched each
other with an even flow of blood, nor quickened the pulses of the hands
that as often met; and God only knows whether, when, as sleep came down
upon the city, and the man and woman rested in each other's arms upon
the bed beyond the rich curtains (which, as the light in the fireplaces
grew or waned, never contained one ghostly rustle or semblance), there
was even a guilty dream to mark its presence!

But what of the inmates of the old log farm-house by the pleasant river?

The morning came, and the agonized parents found that their daughter had
gone. Robert Nettleton set his teeth and swore that he would never
search for her, while his poor wife was completely broken and crushed as
much from the agonized fears that flooded into her heart as from the
actual loss of her child.

The most dejected member of the household, however, was a new-comer, one
Dick Hosford, who years before had drifted into the Nettleton family and
had been brought up by them until, becoming a stout young man, he was
borne away in the gold excitement with the "Forty-niners" to California,
where by hard work and no luck whatever, being an honest, simple soul,
he had got together a few thousand dollars; with no announcement of his
proposed return, had come back as far as Terre Haute, Indiana, where he
had purchased a snug farm, and immediately turned his footsteps towards
Mr. Nettleton's, arriving there the very morning after Lilly's
departure, as he said, "to marry the gal, but couldn't find her
shadder."

He was simply inconsolable, and it took off the keen edge of the
parents' grief somewhat to find that another shared it with them, and
even seemed to feel that it was all his own.

So it was arranged that the inquisitive neighbors should only know that
Lilly had "gone to town for a week or two," while Dick Hosford should go
to Chicago, and then back east as far as Detroit, making diligent search
for something even more tangible than the "shadder" of the lost