st officer felt that he could afford the
expense, opened her eyes when her husband replied to her question
promptly,--

"I guess we'll figure on Herndon Hall."

Mrs. Gardiner inferred that the prospects of the trust company's ward
must be quite brilliant, and she was prepared to do her part.

"Why don't you ask the girl out here over Sunday?" she suggested.

"Oh, she's a queer little piece," the trust officer replied evasively.
"I don't believe you would find her interesting--it isn't necessary."

X

On her next visit to the splendid home of her guardian, Adelle was
received by no less a person than the president of the trust company
himself. In conference between the officers of the trust company it had
been decided that the president, his assistant, and the trust officer
should meet the girl, explain to her cautiously the nature of her
prospects, and announce to her the arrangement for her education that
they had made. But before recording this interview a word should be said
about the present situation of Clark's Field.

The search that the bank had started for trace of the missing Edward S.
and his heirs had resulted as futilely as the more feeble measures taken
earlier by Samuel Clark. It is astonishing how completely people can
obliterate themselves, give them a few years! There was absolutely no
clue in all the United States for discovering this lost branch of the
Alton Clarks, nor any reason to believe in their existence except the
established fact that in 1848 Edward S., with a wife and at least three
babies, had left Chicago for St. Louis. Although the Alton branch of the
Clarks had shown no powers of multiplying,--their sole representative
now being one little girl,--nevertheless there might be a whole colony
of Clarks somewhere interested in one half of the valuable Field. But
more than fifty years had now passed since the final disappearance of
Edward S. Clark, and the law was willing to consider means of ignoring
all claims derived from him. It was the young assistant to the
president, Mr. Ashly Crane, who worked out the details of the plan by
which the restless title was to be finally "quieted" and the trust
company enabled to dispose of its ward's valuable estate. Some of the
officers and larger stockholders of the trust company were interested in
an affiliated institution known as the Washington Guaranty and Title
Company, which was prepared to do business in the guaranteeing of
real-est