"Her name," he said huskily, "was Elsie Welcome. She ran away. Her father had beaten her. On the night she left the father died. We were to have been married. I learned that she had come to Chicago with this man--Martin Druce. I followed her. For days I have tramped the streets. Today I caught a glimpse of Druce as he entered an elevator in this building. I had just reached here when I lost sight of him." The door behind him opened slowly. Miss Masters looked up to see a gray haired woman enter. She wore a waist and skirt of dead black with a little old fashioned black bonnet. Her face was sweet with motherliness, but drawn with sorrow and exhaustion. "Harvey," she said. Harvey turned and hurried to her side. "I saw you come in here, Harvey," the woman went on, "so I followed. I hope we're not intruding Miss--" "Masters is my name," responded the stenographer quickly. "This is the girl's mother," said Harvey. "This is Mrs. Martha Welcome." Miss Masters hastened to bring another chair. "And your daughter," she asked quickly, "have you--" "I--I don't think there was anything wrong in Elsie's going away," interrupted Mrs. Welcome. "She wasn't happy and her father--" "Her father beat her," said Harvey wrathfully. "Harvey," chided Mrs. Welcome, "Tom's dead. He wasn't a bad man, Miss Masters. He lost his courage when he lost his invention." "I understand," said Miss Masters sympathetically. "You haven't heard anything from your lost girl?" "No," replied Mrs; Welcome sadly, "not a word. Patience and I and Harvey came to the city hoping to find her--" "Patience?" "She's my other daughter," replied Mrs. Welcome, "two years older. Elsie was my baby." Her voice broke. "I'm wondering," she went on in subdued tones, "if she's all right. I've prayed, too. Seems as though I've prayed every minute that God would bring my baby back to me. You don't think it makes any difference, do you, Miss Masters, even if we are in a great, noisy city? God is here, too, isn't he?" She put out her hand impulsively and Miss Masters took it into her own cool palm. "Yes, God is here," she replied reverently, "though sometimes it is hard to have faith and believe it." Harvey had walked away and stood looking out at the door. "Here's Patience," he said suddenly. Patience Welcome entered almost immediately. She was dressed in the same somber black as her mother. She wore a heavy veil pushed back from the brim of her hat. Harvey presented her to Miss Masters. "I've good news for you, mother," exclaimed Patience after acknowledging the introduction. "I've got a place in that office I went into when I left you. I begin work tomorrow. Then when I came out and missed you I was terribly frightened, but the elevator man told me you had come in here. And so I found you." "Your mother has been telling me something about the search for your sister," said Miss Masters. "Perhaps I may be able to help you. Could you tell me something about it?"