into the lighted street. Over
there not four blocks away rose the steeple of the church where Betty
had gone to be married! Around the corner was the great brick pile of
the hospital where her stepmother said she had been taken from the
church, and from which she was believed by the other servants to have
escaped.

Standing thus looking out into the light-starred city, Candace began to
form a plan, her plump tightly garmented chest rising and falling
excitedly as she thought it all out. It was up to her to find out what
had become of Betty. But how was she to get away without being
suspected? Somehow she must do it. She knew perfectly the address that
had been on that letter. She had written it down carefully from memory
as soon as it had been taken away from her. She must go to Boston and
find that man to whom it had been written, and discover whether he had
ever received it. But she could not go until she found out certainly
whether or not Betty had ever really escaped from the hospital. Who knew
but that she was shut up there yet, and the madam telling this tale all
about and advertising with a five thousand dollar reward! In the movies,
too! Such a disgrace on the family! How the master would have writhed at
the publicity of his beloved daughter--"poor wee thing!"

Candace turned from the window with her lips set, and tiptoeing to the
door, listened. Yes, it was Aileen who was coming lightly up the stairs,
singing in a low tone. It was Aileen's evening out. That meant that
Marie would be more than usually active on the upper floor. She must
manage it before Aileen left and Marie was called upstairs, or there
would be no opportunity to get away without Marie seeing her.

Hastily she gathered her silk dress, her cloak and her apoplectic hat
into a bundle with her purse and her gloves, and tied them into an old
apron, with the strings hanging free. Then stealthily opening the
window, she dropped them out into the kitchen area below, close to the
region of the ash cans. It was a risk, of course, but one must take some
chances, and the servants would all be in the kitchen just now, laughing
and talking. They would scarcely have heard it fall.

She listened a tense instant, then closed the window, and possessing
herself of a few little things, gathered hastily about the room, which
she could stuff in her pockets, she opened her door softly, closed it
behind her, and trotted off down the stairs just as if she were goin