Only Mrs. Clayton’s death was recorded there, and the tears gathered in Magdalen’s eyes and dropped upon the register as she felt that her hopes were being swept away. It was Guy who comforted and reassured her by suggesting that Madeline might have died before the christening, and Magdalen caught eagerly at it, and springing up exclaimed, “Yes, and they neglected to record her death; that’s it, I know; we will find this Mrs. Storms; we will go at once to Cynthiana. Is it far? Can we reach it to-day?” It was not very far, the clergyman said. It was on the railroad between Cincinnati and Lexington, but he did not believe she could go that day, as the train was already gone. It seemed an age to wait until the morrow, but there was no help for it; and Magdalen passed the day as best she could, and when the morning came and they started for Cynthiana, she was almost sick with excitement, which increased more and more the nearer she drew to Mrs. Storms, who was to confirm her hopes or destroy them forever. CHAPTER XLIII. IN CYNTHIANA. *--------------------------------------------* | GEORGE P. STORMS & CO., | | | | DEALERS IN | | | | DRY GOODS, GROCERIES & PROVISIONS. | *--------------------------------------------* That was the sign which our travellers saw after landing at the station in the little town of Cynthiana. Magdalen was the first to see it, and the first to enter a low room where a young man of twenty-five or more was weighing a codfish for a negress with a blue turban bound around her head. Magdalen was taking the lead in all things, and Mr. Grey and Guy let her, and smiled at her enthusiasm and the effect she produced upon the young man. He was not prepared for this apparition of beauty in so striking contrast to old Hannah and her codfish, and he blushed and stammered in his reply to her question as to whether “Mrs. James Storms was a relative of his, and lived near them.” “She is my mother, and lives just down the street. Did you wish to see her?” he said, and Magdalen replied: “Yes; that is, if she is the Mrs. Storms I am after. Is she a church woman, and has she ever been in Cincinnati?” “She is a church woman, and has been in Cincinnati,” the young man said, and then he followed Magdalen to the door and pointed a second time to his mother’s house, and stood watching her as she sped like a deer along the muddy street, leaving Mr. Grey and Guy very far behind her. A very respectable-looking woman answered Magdalen’s knock, and inviting her to enter, stood waiting for Mr. Grey and Guy, who had just reached the gate.