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Page 49
"O, God! I thank thee!"
But this calmness in a little while gave way, and her overstrained,
but now joyful feelings, poured themselves forth in tears.
Poor child! She too had suffered during these three
never-to-be-forgotten days, and the marks of that suffering were sadly
visible in her pale, grief-touched countenance.
To the earnest inquiries of her foster-parents, Fanny could give no
very satisfactory answer. She had no sooner left the square with the
lady mentioned by little Edith, than she was hurried into a carriage,
and driven off to the cars, where a man met them. This man, she said,
spoke kindly to her, showed her his watch, and told her if she would
be a good girl and not cry, he would take her home again. In the cars,
they rode for a long time, until it grew dark; and still she said the
cars kept going. After a while she fell asleep, and when she awoke it
was morning, and she was lying on a bed. The same lady was with her,
and, speaking kindly, told her not to be frightened--that nobody would
hurt her, and that she should go home in a day or two.
"But I did nothing but cry," said the child, in her own simple way,
as she related her story. "Then the lady scolded me, until I was
frightened, and tried to keep back the tears all I could. But they
would run down my cheeks. A good while after breakfast," continued
Fanny, "the man who had met us at the cars came in with another man.
They talked with the lady for a good while, looking at me as they
spoke. Then they all came around me, and one of the men said--
"'Don't be frightened, my little dear. No one will do you any harm;
and if you will be a right good girl, and do just as we want you to
do, you shall go home to-morrow.'
"I tried not to cry, but the tears came running down my face. Then the
other man said sharply--
"'Come now, my little lady, we can't have any more of this! If you
wish to go home again tomorrow, dry your tears at once. There! there!
Hush all them sobs. No one is going to do you any harm.'
"I was so frightened at the way the man looked and talked, that I
stopped crying at once.
"'There!' said he, 'that is something like. Now,' speaking to the lady,
'put on her things. It is time she was there.'
"I was more frightened at this, and the men saw it; so one of them
told me not to be alarmed, that they were only going to show me a
large, handsome house, and would then bring me right back; and that in
the morning, if I would go with them now, and be a good girl, I should
go home again.
"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 meaning. 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 moment; 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 reflected thereon. But, that Fanny
should be returned to him so speedily, if Jasper had been concerned
in her temporary abduction, was something that he could not clearly
understand. And it was a long time ere the mystery was entirely
unravelled.
CHAPTER XIV.
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