r
the signal I would give him in case I wanted Mr. Gryce, I turned to the
woman, who was now all in a flutter, and asked her how she proposed to
get me into the house without the knowledge of Mr. Blake.

"O sir, all you have got to do is to follow me right up the back stairs;
he won't notice, or if he does will not ask any questions."

And having by this time reached the basement door, she took out a key
from her pocket and inserting it in the lock, at once admitted us into
the dwelling.

CHAPTER II. A FEW POINTS

Mrs. Daniels, for that was her name, took me at once up stairs to the
third story back room. As we passed through the halls, I could not but
notice how rich, though sombre were the old fashioned walls and heavily
frescoed ceilings, so different in style and coloring from what we see
now-a-days in our secret penetrations into Fifth Avenue mansions. Many
as are the wealthy houses I have been called upon to enter in the line
of my profession, I had never crossed the threshold of such an one as
this before, and impervious as I am to any foolish sentimentalities,
I felt a certain degree of awe at the thought of invading with police
investigation, this home of ancient Knicker-bocker respectability. But
once in the room of the missing girl, every consideration fled save that
of professional pride and curiosity. For almost at first blush, I saw
that whether Mrs. Daniels was correct or not in her surmises as to the
manner of the girl's disappearance, the fact that she had disappeared
was likely to prove an affair of some importance. For, let me state
the facts in the order in which I noticed them. The first thing that
impressed me was, that whatever Mrs. Daniels called her, this was no
sewing girl's room into which I now stepped. Plain as was the furniture
in comparison with the elaborate richness of the walls and ceiling,
there were still scattered through the room, which was large even for
a thirty foot house, articles of sufficient elegance to make the
supposition that it was the abode of an ordinary seamstress open to
suspicion, if no more.

Mrs. Daniels, seeing my look of surprise, hastened to provide some
explanation. "It is the room which has always been devoted to sewing,"
said she; "and when Emily came, I thought it would be easier to put up
a bed here than to send her upstairs. She was a very nice girl and
disarranged nothing."

I glanced around on the writing-case lying open on a small table in