"I didn't let her go any further. I told her _I_ cared and I cared all the more since I had heard her story; and that she _was_ honest, or she wouldn't have told me about herself. What did I care what she had been or done? Her life was going to begin right then with me. I couldn't budge her. I talked and pleaded, and at last she gave in--a little. She said she'd think it over and meet me at the little park in the morning, and then she'd talk some more about it. "So we parted until morning came. But I made up my mind that if she wouldn't consent, I'd simply kidnap her and bring her up here to Mrs. Kingdon. "I was on hand bright and early at the park next morning, and after a while a slovenly slip of a girl came up to me and asked my name. I told her. She gave me a note and then started off like a skyrocket, but I'm some spry myself and I caught her and held her till I'd read the note. It was from her and she said she couldn't give me the worst of the bargain. That she was going to try hard to see if she could make good and live without stealing, and when she was sure, she'd send word to me through Mr. Reilly, and if I never heard, I could know she had failed and for me to forget her. "'Where is she?' I asked the girl, who was squirming like an eel. "'I dunno,' she said. 'She's left town.' "'I don't believe it!' I said. "'Yes, she has,' said the girl. 'She pawned all her togs--that new white dress and the swell shoes and her new suit and hat to get money to make a getaway.' "I might as well have tried to hang on to a fish as to hold that slippery little street Arab. She broke away and ran. I was after her, but it was no use. She knew the ins and outs of the alleys like a rat and I lost her. You see, I didn't know my girl's last name. When I asked her, she said: 'Call me Marta.' I didn't care about knowing her last name then, because I was so keen to give her my own name. "I was just about crazy. I hunted all over the part of the city where I'd left her the first night. Then I went to see Reilly, but he didn't know who she was. I made him see what it meant to me to find her, and he promised to try his best and to forward at once any letter that came to him. If I don't hear after a while, when work gets slack so you can spare me, I'm going to Chicago and go through it with a fine tooth comb. Reilly will help me follow every girl by the name of Marta that's ever lived there." Kurt's eyes, full of infinite pity and regret, turned to Jo as he broke the little pause that followed. "She is doubtless a poor little stray of a girl and luck has been against her, but, Jo, put all thoughts of marrying her away, just as she has. Wait--" he hurried on, seeing the anger kindling in the lad's eyes--"if it were any other offense--But a thief! 'Once a thief, always a thief,' is the truest saying I know. Your love couldn't--" "It didn't make any change in my feelings when she told me," said Joe staunchly. "She could steal anything I had."