Sammy Hall was all excitement over the letter, and at the first opportunity confided the news to his sympathetic girl friends. Of course they talked it over at that quietest hour in the day when the throng of shoppers are out at lunch or gone home to dinner. Tessie Mays, who had the news direct from Sammy, retailed it all to the eager listeners; and no one noticed a handsome, showily dressed young woman who had entered the store and come up to Tessie's counter--Fedora, who, having given the wrong address the other day, had now returned to complain that she had never received her package of gold passementerie. Just as she was approaching the counter she heard the name of Kathleen Carew called, and drawing back with a great start, pretended to be examining some gorgeous brocade silk that was displayed on the end of the counter. The pretty, animated young girls did not observe her, and went on talking. Fedora did not lose a word. Pretty soon she became aware that her prey had escaped her through the efforts of Sammy Hall, and that she was now safe in Boston with a friend, although her father was dead and had disinherited her, and her step-mother had denied her identity. "It is just like a novel, isn't it?" commented one of the young girls. "I would give anything I own for one good look at the beautiful Miss Kathleen Carew, with the bronze-gold hair and proud dark eyes that Sammy raves over." "Tessie Mays, I'd think you would be jealous!" exclaimed another girl, with a meaning laugh. Tessie tossed her dark curly head carelessly. "Why, Sammy Hall is not my beau! I think it was you, Dolly Wade, that he took to church Sunday night--wasn't it?" It was Dolly's turn to blush and bridle. She laughed. "Oh, pshaw! Mr. Hall's only a friend of mine, and I don't think he wants to marry you, anyhow! He is cut out for an old bachelor if ever a man was!" "Have you ever seen that woman again, Tessie?" asked another girl, turning the conversation. "What woman?" "Why, the one that Sammy recognized and is going to arrest, if she ever comes in here again, for kidnapping Miss Carew." "Why, no; and it's strange, too, for she made a mistake, gave me the address of a vacant house, and her gold passementerie came back here. I was certain she would be back here, fussing about it; and I tell Sammy it's lucky she made the mistake, so she will _have_ to come back here. He has the warrant for her arrest, and she'll never get out of Haines & Co.'s without a policeman's escort!" "Won't she?" muttered Fedora, with a low, gurgling laugh of sarcastic amusement. She tripped away in a hurry, in spite of her pretended mirth, and did not breathe freely until she was out of the store and in the cab that was waiting for her near the sidewalk. "Whew! what a narrow escape!" she muttered. "So I have been watched and almost trapped while I believed myself triumphant!" An ugly look crossed the pretty blonde face, and she continued, angrily: