ensued with Mrs. Daniels that absorbed my whole attention.

"You are very anxious, my man here tells me, that this girl should be
found?" remarked Mr. Gryce; "so much so that you are willing to
defray all the expenses of a search?"

She bowed. "As far as I am able sir; I have a few hundreds in the
bank, you are welcome to them. I would not keep a dollar back if I
had thousands, but I am poor, and can only promise you what I myself
possess; though--" and her cheeks grew flushed and hot with an
unnatural agitation--"I believe that thousands would not be lacking
if they were found necessary. I--I could almost swear you shall have
anything in reason which you require; only the girl must be found and
soon."

"Have you thought," proceeded Mr. Gryce, utterly ignoring the wildness
of these statements, "that the girl may come back herself if let
alone?"

"She will come back if she can," quoth Mrs. Daniels.

"Did she seem so well satisfied with her home as to warrant you in
saying that?"

"She liked her home, but she loved me," returned the woman steadily.
"She loved me so well she would never have gone as she did without
being forced. Yes," said she, "though she made no outcry and stopped
to put on her bonnet and shawl. She was not a girl to make a fuss. If
they had killed her outright, she would never have uttered a cry."