ly, for the trouble you have taken in
bringing home my little girl. This is a most distressing affair. The
other child has, evidently, been enticed away."

"You will take immediate steps for her recovery," said the lady.

"Oh, yes. I expect my husband home, now, every moment."

While she was yet speaking, Claire came in. Seeing the white face of
his wife, he exclaimed--

"Mercy, Edith! What has happened?"

Edith could only murmur the word "Fanny," as she started forward, and
buried her face, sobbing, on his bosom.

"Fanny! What of her? Oh, Edith! speak!"

The agitation of the wife was, for the time, too overpowering to admit
of words, and so Claire turned to the lady and said, hurriedly--

"Will you tell me, madam, what has happened?"

"It appears, sir," she replied, "that a strange lady enticed the
children to Washington Square, on their way from school"--

"And then carried off our dear, dear Fanny!" sobbed out Edith.

"Carried off Fanny!" exclaimed Claire.

"This lady," said Edith, growing calmer, "found our little Edie
crying, in the square, and brought her home. Edie says the lady took
them down there, and then told her to wait until she went with Fanny
to buy some candies. They went, but did not return."

The meaning of all this was quite as clear to the mind of Edward
Claire as it was to his wife. He understood, likewise, that this was
the work of Jasper, and that Fanny was now in his possession. What was
to be done?

"Our first step," said Claire, after the stranger had retired, "must
be to ascertain, if possible, whether what we believe to be true in
regard to Fanny is really true. We must know certainly, whether she be
really in the hands of Mr. Jasper."

"Where else can she be?" asked Edith, a new fear throwing its quick
flash into her face.

"We, naturally," replied her husband, "take it for granted that Mr.
Jasper has put his threat into execution. There is a bare possibility
that such is not the case; and we must not rest until we have, on this
point, the most absolute certainty."

"For what other purpose could she have been enticed away?" said Mrs.
Claire, her face again blanching to a deadly paleness.

"We know nothing certain, Edith; and while this is the case, we cannot
but feel a double anxiety. But, I must not linger here. Be as calm as
possible, my dear wife, in this painful trial. I will go at once to
Mr. Jasper, and learn from him whether he has the child."

"Go quickly, Ed