A Strange Disappearance

"-and he pointed to the ladder down which we believed her to have come-"to leave a house of which she had been an inmate for a year, baffles me, I can tell you. If it were not for those m

h!" said he with sudden gratification, "here is Mr. Blake again; his appointment must have been a failure. Let us see if his de

im blankly for a moment, then replied in

idea how the girl looked. I did not know till this morning even, that there was such a person

red another question. The answer ca

hall; but whether she is tall or short, light or dark, pretty or ugly, I know no more than you

that

be, Mr. Gryce put

ised stare before replying

alet, but a trifle domineering, something which I never allow in any one who approaches

ake, with the haughty step peculiar to hi

utches," said I, as my superior rejoined me;

ollowing him along the pavement. "Yet it may happen tha

owards him

race of her movements, I shall be tempted to place you where you can study into the ways o

e come across something which I have missed," ob

not in plain sight of any body who ha

head slight

ou were not able to pick up sufficient facts on whic

tablish my reputation with Mr. Gryce before the affair was over. Accordingly hunting up the man who had patrolled the district the night bef

son tell a curious story this mor

t wa

ch, when instead of advancing to where he was, she paused at the gate of Mr. Blake's house and lifted her hand as if to open it, when with a wild and terrified gesture she started back, covering her face with her hands, and before he knew it, had actually fled in the direction from which she had come. A little startled, Thompson advanced and looked through the g

ls you this s

es

hat neither you nor Thompson had better go blabbing it around too much. Mum is the

was closely wrapped about in a shawl. My next move was to make such inquiries as I could with saf

meetings of his constituents. Though to the ordinary observer a man eminently calculated, from his good looks, fine position, and solid wealth to enjoy society, he not only manifested a distaste for it, but even went so far as

, who mentioned Shakspeare to him, nor would he acknowledge to his dying day any excellence in that divine poet beyond a happy way of putting words together. Mr. Blake's uncle hated all members of the legal profession, and as for his grandfather-but you have heard what a mania of dislike he had against that simple article of diet, fish; how his friends were obliged to omit it from their bills of fare whenever they expected him to dinner. If then Mr. Blake chose to have any pet antipathy-as for women for instance-he surely had precedent enough in his own family to back hi

ronounced type, felt for the moment I had stumbled upon something in the shape of a clue; but upon resorting to Mr. Gryce with my information, he s