of a child," said Mrs. Hargrave. "The way of a
tender little motherless child! I do not want to be hard on you, but I
have told you for forty years that your pride would be your undoing."

"The telephone!" said Mrs. Horton. She rushed to the instrument and
talked for a little with a member of the police force, then she came
dragging back to the library.

"They have finished searching the hospitals, and nowhere is there a
child answering to the description of Rosanna. I was actually hoping to
find her in one of the hospitals."

Suddenly she buried her proud head in her hands and broke into hard
sobs. Mrs. Hargrave went over and put an arm around the bowed shoulders.
Presently Mrs. Horton said: "If we only get her back! I never meant to
be hard, but I did try so hard to bring her up so she would never have
to live and die as unhappily as my little sister, and I felt that if she
could be made unbending and proud she would never choose unworthy
friends."

"But you were wrong, my dear," said Mrs. Hargrave. "Don't you see it
now? There is nothing to be gained in this life by remaining narrow. We
must know life and our fellowmen in order to be able to choose wisely
and well. How can we tell the worthy from the unworthy unless we have
known enough of people to be able to recognize both the good and bad?
Oh, Virginia! I feel that Rosanna will come back to you, to us, and we
must remember that we are old women, and she is a child, and like calls
to like. We must remember that God expects us to love and guide her but
she must have friends and outside interests."

"Oh, if she only, only comes back!" cried Mrs. Horton.

CHAPTER XVII

The dreadful day dragged to a close, while the detectives and the entire
police force scoured the city and the surrounding country.

For the one day they had succeeded in keeping the disappearance out of
the papers, hoping that if Rosanna was actually in the hands of
kidnapers they would not be frightened into taking her away or harming
her to insure their own safety.

Mrs. Hargrave went restlessly back and forth between her own house and
Mrs. Horton's, while Mrs. Horton walked endlessly up and down near the
telephone, listening and praying for news and imagining horrible things.

Throwing her pride to the winds, Minnie settled herself at Mrs.
Horton's, determined to be on hand if her darling Miss Rosanna needed
her. Minnie, for all her dismal predictions, did not give up hope but
th