WEALTH WITHOUT WINGS. 127

 

“So I went with them, and tried my best not to
cry. They brought me into a large house, and
there were a good many men inside. ‘The men all
looked at me, and I was so frightened! Then they
talked together, and one of them kept pointing
toward me. At last I was taken back to the
house, where I stayed all day and all night with the
lady. ‘This morning we got into the cars, and
came back to the city. The lady took me to a
large house in Walnut street, where I stayed until
after dark, and then she brought me home in a
carriage.”

Such was the child’s story; and greatly puzzled
were Claire and his wife to comprehend its mean-
ing. Their joy at her return was intense. She
seemed almost as if restored to them from the
dead. But, for what purpose had she been carried
off; and who were the parties engaged in the
act? These were questions of the deepest mo-
ment; yet difficult, if not impossible of solution—
at least in the present. That Jasper’s absence
from the city was in some way connected with
this business, Claire felt certain, the more he re-
flected thereon. But, that Fanny should be re-
turned to him so speedily, if Jasper had been con-
cerned in her temporary abduction, was something
that he could not clearly understand. And it
was a long time ere the mystery was entirely un-
ravelled.