one of these she supposed her husband to be employed, although he
had never stated particularly the kind of business in which he was
engaged. This search, after being continued for a greater part of
the day, turned out fruitless. Night found the unhappy wife in an
agony of suspense and alarm. Some one at the boarding-house advised
her to have an advertisement for her husband inserted in a morning
paper. She did not hesitate long about this course. In the morning,
a brief advertisement appeared; and about nine o'clock a man called
and asked to see her.

She descended from her room to the parlour with a wildly throbbing
heart, but staggered forward and sank into a chair, weak almost as
an infant, when she saw that the man was a stranger, instead of her
husband, whom she had expected to meet.

"Are you Mrs. Fletcher?" he asked.

"I am," she faintly replied.

"You advertised for information in regard to your husband?"

"I did. Where is he? Oh, sir, has any thing happened to him?"

"No, ma'am, nothing serious. He has only been sick for a week or ten
days; that is, the man I refer to has. Your husband is a tailor?"

"Is the man you speak of a tailor?" eagerly asked Mrs. Fletcher.

"He is, ma'am; and has been working for me at No.--Fourth street."