n all this trouble for nothing, and had Reuben Dare
given a satisfactory account of himself after all?

"The bird has flown, ma'am," said the inspector, entering the office
where she sat, with a rather crestfallen air. "He must have got some
notion of what was in the wind; for he went out this morning soon after
Miss Meldreth left the house, and evidently does not intend to come back
again. He has left his portmanteau; but he has emptied it of everything
that he could carry away, and left two sovereigns on the table in
payment of his rent and other expenses for the week."

"He has gone to his daughter!" cried Flossy, starting up. "Why have you
not been to her? I gave you her address."

"No use, ma'am," said the inspector, shaking his head. "We've been round
there already, and left Mullins to watch the house. But I expect we are
too late. We ought to have known last night. Amateurs in the detective
line are sometimes very clever; but they are not always sharp enough for
our work. The young woman has also disappeared."

* * * * *

Mrs. Vane's unusual absence from her home had not been without its
results. Little Dick held high carnival all by himself in the
drawing-room and the conservatory; and Enid, feeling herself equally
freed from the restraint usually put upon her, wandered out into the
garden, and found a cool and shady spot where she could establish
herself at ease in a comfortable basket-chair. She did not feel disposed
for exertion; all that she wished to do was to lie still and to keep
silence. The old unpleasant feeling of illness had been growing upon her
more and more during the last few days. She was seldom free from nausea,
and suffered a great deal from faintness and palpitation of the heart.
As she lay back in her cushioned chair, her face looked very small and
white, the blue-veined eyelids singularly heavy. She was sorry to hear
the footsteps of a passer-by resounding on a pathway not far from the
spot which she had chosen; but she hoped that the gardener or caller,
or whoever it might chance to be, would go by without noticing her white
dress between the branches of the tree. But she was doomed to be
disappointed. The footsteps slackened, then turned aside. She was
conscious that some one's hand parted the branches--that some one's eyes
were regarding her; but she was too languid to look up. Let the stranger
think that she was asleep; then surely he would go upon his