ime to ruminate upon past affairs. It was his business now to
glean from Mr. Hurlhurst all the information possible to assist him in
the difficult search he was about to commence. If he gave him even the
slightest clew, he could have had some definite starting point. The
detective was wholly at sea--it was like looking for a needle in a
hay-stack.

"You will lose no time," said Basil Hurlhurst, rising to depart. "Ah!"
he exclaimed, "I had forgotten to leave you my wife's portrait. I have
a fancy the child, if living, must have her mother's face."

At that opportune moment some one interrupted them. Mr. Tudor had not
time to open the portrait and examine it then, and, placing it
securely in his private desk, he courteously bade Mr. Hurlhurst
good-afternoon; adding, if he _should_ find a possible clew, he would
let him know at once, or, perhaps, take a run up to Whitestone Hall to
look around a bit among the old inhabitants of that locality.

It was almost time for quitting the office for the night, when the
detective thought of the portrait. He untied the faded blue ribbon,
and touched the spring; the case flew open, revealing a face that made
him cry out in amazement:

"Pshaw! people have a strange trick of resembling each other very
often," he muttered; "I must be mistaken."

Yet the more he examined the fair, bewitching face of the portrait,
with its childish face and sunny, golden curls, the more he knit his
brow and whistled softly to himself--a habit he had when thinking
deeply.

He placed the portrait in his breast-pocket, and walked slowly home. A
brilliant idea was in his active brain.

"I shall soon see," he muttered.

His wife met him at the door, and he saw that her eyes were red with
weeping.

"What is the commotion, my dear?" he asked, hanging his hat and coat
on the hat-rack in the hall. "What's the difficulty?"

"Our protegee has gone, Harvey; she--"

"Gone!" yelled the detective, frantically, "where did she go? How long
has she been gone?"

Down from the rack came his hat and coat.

"Where are you going, Harvey?"

"I am going to hunt that girl up just as fast as I can."

"She did not wish to see you, my dear."

"I haven't the time to explain to you," he expostulated. "Of course,
you have no idea where she went, have you?"

"Wait a bit, Harvey," she replied, a merry twinkle in her eye. "You
have given me no time to tell you. I do know where she went. Sit down
and I will tell you all