This determined effort to ferret out Miss Hildebrand was due to a report from No. 7, on whom he called one day in regard to an electrical disturbance in his apartment. No. 7 told him that No. 4, who was the proprietor of a plumbing establishment in Amsterdam Avenue, had seen Miss Hildebrand on top of a passing Fifth Avenue stage. By means of some remarkable sprinting No. 4, fortunately an unmarried man, overtook the stage at the corner above (Forty-fifth Street and Fifth Avenue), and climbed aboard. Just as he sat down, all out of breath, two seats behind the young lady, she got off and entered Sloane's. No. 4 had a short argument with the conductor about paying fare for a ride of two blocks, but it was long enough to carry him to the corner above Sloane's, so that when he got back to the big shop she was lost. He was not discouraged. Saying that he was waiting for his wife he continued to invest the approach to the elevators with such success that after nearly an hour (and an hour as computed by plumbers is no small matter) he was rewarded by the appearance of Miss Hildebrand. Without notifying the floorwalkers that he couldn't wait any longer for his wife, he made off after the young lady, leaving them to think, if they thought at all, that his wife was a very beautiful person who had married considerably beneath her station. Miss Hildebrand waited at the corner for a stage. No. 4 already had squandered ten cents, but he didn't allow that to stand in the way of further adventure. He had his dime ready when the 'bus came along--in fact, he had two dimes ready, for it was his secret hope that she would recognise him. But alas! There was room for but one more passenger, and he was left standing on the curb, while she went rattling up the avenue in what he reckoned to be the swiftest 'bus in the service. Sampson's deductions were clear. She wouldn't be shopping at Sloane's unless she was buying furnishings of some sort for a house, and it was reasonable to suppose that the house was somewhere within reach of the stage line route. No. 4 had failed to note, however, whether she took a Riverside Drive or a Fifth Avenue stage. Although Sampson was not in need of a plumber's services, he looked up No. 4 and had him send men around to inspect the drain in the kitchen sink. It cost him nearly twelve dollars to have a five minutes' profitless interview with the master-plumber. It was at this time that he began his pilgrimages up and down Fifth Avenue, and it was also about this time that he acknowledged himself to be a drivelling, silly, sentimental idiot--worse even than the drooping No. 7.