84 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



March l, WIS. 



"The old woman lifted the folds of 

 her double chin and looked at me 

 through spectacles. 



" ' You must come and help me to get 

 Bettina . . .' I broke into distracted 



sobbing on the name. ' Bettina ! 



Bettina !' I seized the lady's hand 



and tried to draw her out of her chair. 



" But I was full of trembling. She 

 sat there massive, calm, with a power 

 of inert resistance that made me feel I 

 could as easily drag her house out of 

 the Square by its knocker as move the 

 woman planted there in her chair. 



" Neither haste nor perturbation in the 

 voice that asked me : ' What has hap- 

 pened ?' 



"'Not yet!' I cried out. 'Nothing 

 has happened }et ! But we must be 

 quick. Oh, God. let us be quick !' " 



LOST. 



But these old people did not know 

 \\hat quickness was. There is a terrible 

 scene later when Sister has rushed, in 

 her slight evening dress, to a police sta- 

 tion. After an inspector has written 

 pages with a stubb}', pointless pencil, he 

 asks: "And where is this house?-" 



" ' It is— it is ' 



"A pit of blackness opened. I felt 

 myself falling headlong. I heard a cr\' 

 that made m\- flesh writhe — as though 

 the cry had been Bettina's, and not 

 mine. 



"A voice said : ' It is not possible you 

 have forgotten the address !' 



" I had never known it ! " 



Then Sister faints. . . . 



A suggestion is made when she re- 

 covers that the}- should try the Alton 

 Street station. 



" There, shamefaced. I asked ]\Irs. 

 Harborough if the inspector knew of 

 ' any house where a woman takes young 

 girls.' 



"She and all the rest were one as 

 silent as the other, till I steadied my 

 voice to say again, this time to the man 

 himself: 'You have no knowledge, 

 then, of " such a place " ?' 



" ' I don't say that,' he answered. 



" I looked at him bewildered. ' You 

 mean you do know of a house — a house 

 where * 



" He hesitated too. ' We know some,' 

 he said 



'"Don't wait to write it all asrain !' I 

 prayed. ' Telephone for help.' 



" But he, too, made little of the need 

 for haste. 



" He. too, made much of what I had 

 noticed as we left \'ictoria — the homely 

 woman and the policeman watching as 

 we drove away. 



" ' You think,' Mrs. Harborough said, 

 'that the woman was suspicious?' 



" ' No doubt — and no doubt the 

 policeman was suspicious too.' The in- 

 spector spoke with pride. 



Oh, we get to know those people ! 

 The}' meet the trains. The}-'re at the 

 docks when ships come in.' 



" It was then I saw that my aunt could 

 be stirred too. ' If the policeman knew.' 

 she said — 'if he so much as suspected, 

 why did he not stop the motor?"' 



" The inspector shook his head. 



"' Wh}- didn't he arrest the woman?-' 

 He is not allowed.' said the in- 

 spector." 



THE BROKEN TRAIL. 



So passes a night of untold agony, 

 aunt, policemen, Sister, all equally help- 

 less. No wonder that as a result Sister 

 is taken dangerously ill. No one is al- 

 lowed to see her. At length she begs to 

 see Bettina's lover. He comes, or rather 

 she hears the step of an old man coming 

 upstairs. 



"Then Rann}' lifted his e}-es. 



" Oh, poor eyes ! Poor soul looking 

 out of them ! 



Ranny,' I whispered, ' speak to me.' 



"'I have failed,' he said. He leaned 

 heavily against the chair. 



" ' I have heard,' I managed to say, 

 ' how hard }'0u have been trying.' 



"'But I have failed!' he said once 

 more, and I hope I may never again hear 

 such an accent. 



" I pointed to the chair ; we could 

 neither of us speak for a while. And 

 then he cleared his throat. 



" ' They took her out of that house 

 and hid her,' he said. ' And then thev 

 took her abroad. I traced her to their 

 house in Paris. But she had gone. Al- 

 wavs I have been too late !' " 



