nd it out for some time, as he was abroad.

"Perhaps I did wrong, but I wanted to know how to attend to my business
when I had to. Oh, but Mr. Cross was very angry when he found it out. He
wanted me to go back to boarding school, but I refused. I said I wanted
some practical experience in an office, and, after some argument, he
consented, and got me in the place where Mrs. Raymond worked. I liked
her very much.

"I think my guardian must have had some business dealings with the man who
ran the office. They were often together and finally I began to suspect
that all was not right. I think Mrs. Raymond did also.

"Then my guardian and Mr. Hopwood, the man I worked for, had a violent
quarrel. My guardian threatened to take me out of the place, and send me
back to boarding school, for he was angry at me because I would not give
him certain papers from my employer's desk.

"Then my guardian insisted that I come to live with him and his wife. I
did not want to, for I did not like either of them. But they made me go,
and oh, the life I led!"

"It must have been hard," said Cora.

"It was, dreadfully so. I was virtually a prisoner. Finally I decided to
run away, and do anything rather than submit to my guardian. I hated and
feared him. I got together what money I could, and it was a good sum,
for my quarterly allowance had just been paid. Usually after I got it my
guardian would take it away from me and dole out small sums. But this
time he had no chance.

"So I ran away! It was hard to do, but it was harder to stay. I left the
house one morning, taking my suitcase with me. I stopped in the office,
intending to say good-bye to Mrs. Raymond, and when I had been there a
little while my guardian suddenly came in with another man. I did not know
him, but I feared my guardian had come to take me back. I screamed and
ran out in fright before they could detain me. I have never been back, so
of course I don't know what happened to poor Mrs. Raymond. I did not
tell her my story, and she did not know that the man I so feared and ran
away from was my guardian. Oh, I didn't know what to do!"

"Of course not," agreed Cora, soothingly. "I can piece the story together
now.

"After you left Mrs. Raymond either fainted, or was made unconscious by
one of the two men--your guardian or the other. She doesn't quite know
what happened except that when she came to her senses you were gone, the
money was missing and the men had vanished. She