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Page 48
"How should I know? Is she not in your possession? What is the meaning
of this, Mr. Claire?"
The lady spoke sternly, and with the air of one both offended and
irritated.
"Somebody enticed her away, on her return from school this afternoon,"
said Claire. "Mr. Jasper said that he would have her; and my first and
natural conclusion was that he had executed his threat. Oh, ma'am, if
this be so, tell me, that my anxiety for the child's safety may have
rest. As it is, I am in the most painful uncertainty. If she is here,
I will feel, at least"--
"Have I not told you that she is not here, and that I know nothing of
her," said Mrs. Jasper, angrily, interrupting the young man. "This is
insolent."
"How soon do you expect Mr. Jasper home?" inquired Claire.
"Not for several days," replied Mrs. Jasper.
"Days! Is he not in the city?"
"No, sir. He left town yesterday."
Claire struck his hands together in disappointment and grief. This
confirmed to him the lady's assertion that she knew nothing of Fanny.
In that assertion she had uttered the truth.
Sadly disappointed, and in far deeper distress of mind than when he
entered the house, Edward Claire retired. If Mr. Jasper left the city
on the day previous, and his wife had, as he could not help believing,
no knowledge whatever of Fanny, then the more distressing inference
was that she had been enticed away by some stranger.
On his way home, Claire called again at the store of Jasper. It
occurred to him to ask there as to his absence from the city. The
reply he received was in agreement with Mrs. Jasper's assertion. He
had left town on the previous day.
"Where has he gone?" he inquired.
"To Reading, I believe," was the answer.
"Will he return soon?"
"Not for several days, I believe."
With a heavy heart, Claire bent his way homeward. He cherished a
faint hope that Fanny might have returned. The hope was vain. Here he
lingered but a short time. His next step was to give information
to the police, and to furnish for all the morning papers an
advertisement, detailing the circumstances attendant on the child's
abduction. This done, he again returned home, to console, the best
he could, his afflicted wife, and to wait the developments of the
succeeding day.
Utterly fruitless were all the means used by Claire to gain
intelligence of the missing child. Two days went by, yet not the
least clue to the mystery of her absence had been found. There was
no response to the newspaper advertisements; and the police confessed
themselves entirely at fault.
Exhausted by sleepless anxiety, broken in spirit by this distressing
affliction, and almost despairing in regard to the absent one, Mr. and
Mrs. Claire were seated alone, about an hour after dark on the evening
of the third day, when the noise of rumbling wheels ceased before
their door. Each bent an ear, involuntarily, to listen, and each
started with an exclamation, as the bell rang with a sudden jerk.
Almost simultaneously, the noise of wheels was again heard, and a
carriage rolled rapidly away. Two or three quick bounds brought Claire
to the door, which he threw open.
"Fanny!" he instantly exclaimed; and in the next moment the child was
in his arms, clinging to him, and weeping for joy at her return.
With a wonderful calmness, Mrs. Claire received Fanny from her
husband, murmuring as she did so, in a subdued, yet deeply gratified
voice--
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