“My dear Arthur, you alarm me!” cried Mrs. Lanier; “there is something dreadful behind all this. Go on, and tell me everything you know.”
“Well, after I bought the bird, and while I was writing my address for the man to send him home, a funny little old Frenchman came in, and suddenly pounced on Tony, and began to jabber in the most absurd way. I thought he was crazy at first; but after a while I made him understand that the heron belonged to me; and when I had calmed him down somewhat I gathered from his remarks that this identical blue heron had been the property of ’one leetle lady’ who formerly lived on Good Children Street.”
“Good Children Street,” interrupted Mrs. Lanier; “what a remarkable coincidence!”
“That the bird had been lost, and that he had searched everywhere to find it for the ‘leetle lady.’ Then I asked him for a description of the ‘leetle lady.’ And, as I live, Mrs. Lanier, he described that child to the life,”—and Arthur Maynard pointed to the photograph as he spoke.
“Oh, Arthur, can it be that Jane Chetwynd is dead? What else can it mean? Where is the child? I must see her. Will you go with me to Good Children Street early to-morrow?”
“Certainly, Mrs. Lanier. But she is not there; the old man told me a long story of a Madame Jozain, who ran away with the child.”
“Madame Jozain!” cried Mrs. Lanier excitedly—“the same woman who had the jewel-box.”
“Evidently the same, and we are on her track—or we should be, if she were alive; but unfortunately she’s dead. The little Frenchman says so, and the child is now in Margaret’s Orphans’ Home.”
“Oh, I see it all now! It is as clear as day to me!” cried Mrs. Lanier, springing from her chair and walking excitedly back and forth. “It is all explained—the mysterious attraction I felt for that child from the first. Her eyes, her voice, her smile are Jane Chetwynd’s. Arthur, would you know her again if you saw her?”
“Certainly; she hasn’t grown out of my recollection in two years, though of course she may not resemble the photograph so much. You see it is four or five years since that was taken; but she can’t have changed in two years so that I won’t know her, and I’m very sure also that she’ll remember me.”