u paid the fare I ran my fingers down
inside of it to make sure that Miss Chilton's card was still safely
pinned to it."

Then she rolled up her eyes and fell limply back against the wall.

"Girls!" she exclaimed, in a despairing voice, "the card is lost with
it, too. I've no more idea than the man in the moon where Miss Chilton's
friend lives, or what her name is, or what car-line to take to get
there. Do either of you remember hearing her say anything that would
throw any light on the subject?"

Neither Lloyd nor Maud could remember, and the three stood staring at
each other with startled faces.

"Maybe you dropped your belt coming up in the elevator," suggested Maud.
"You might inquire. As soon as we get our clothes on, we'll help you
hunt."

Gay flew to lay aside the picture hat for her own, and, with her hands
clutching her dress to hide the unsightly safety-pins, started on her
search through the store.

"We came straight past the ribbon counter and the embroideries to the
silks, and then we turned here and took the elevator," she said to
herself, retracing her steps. But inquiries of the elevator boy and
every clerk along the line failed to elicit any information about the
lost belt.

"No, it was only an ordinary belt that no one would look at the second
time," she explained to those who asked for a description. "Just dark
blue ribbon with a plain oxidized silver clasp. But there was an address
pinned to it that is very important for me to find."

The floor-walker obligingly joined in the search, going to the door and
scanning the pavement and the street-crossing at which they had left the
car, but to no purpose.

"I can buy a new belt and have it charged," she said to Lloyd, when she
came back to report, "but there is no way to get the lost address. If I
could only remember the name, I could look for it in the directory, but
I never heard it. Miss Chilton always spoke of the lady as 'my friend.'"

"I heard her speak it once," said Lloyd, "but I can't remembah it now."

"Go over the alphabet," suggested Maud. "Say all the names you can think
of beginning with A and then B, and so on. Maybe you will stumble across
one that you recognize as the right one."

Lloyd shook her head. "No, it was an unusual name, a long
foreign-sounding one. I wondahed at the time how she could trip it off
her tongue so easily."

"Then we're lost! Hopelessly, helplessly undone!" moaned Gay. "All our
lovely outing spoiled