"'In one sense I have,' said Mrs. Weston, 'but hope and prayer have sustained me, and the Inspector has been very kind to me. Tell me of my daughter.' "He briefly related the particulars of his interview with Constance, but made no mention of the red silk scarf. She thanked him with great sweetness for the trouble he had taken, and said that she had been wonderfully comforted by the belief that she had providentially met with so true a friend. "'Time will prove,' said our reporter, 'that you are not deceived in your belief, but the manifestation of this proof will depend greatly upon yourself. To speak more precisely, in your hands appears to me to rest the power of accelerating events and of setting wrong things right. I am speaking partly in the dark, from a kind of spiritual intuition as it were, but when I strike a trail I have something of the bloodhound in me; innocence will find in me a firm champion, guilt I will pursue till I track it to its threshold.' "The words were grandiloquent, it is true, but it was scarcely possible to doubt their sincerity. "'In resolving to confide thoroughly in you,' said Mrs. Weston, gazing earnestly at him, 'I am risking more than you can possibly imagine. I am like a shipwrecked woman to whom a prospect of deliverance has suddenly appeared. I ask for no professions; I will trust you.' "'You will live to thank the chance which has thrown us together,' said our reporter. 'I do not hesitate to say that you have aroused in me a strange interest; I devote myself to your cause heartily, in the conviction that I am championing the cause of right and innocence.' "Tears sprang in her eyes. 'Shall I be released to-day?' "'I am confident of it. I want to say a word to the Inspector.' "To Inspector Jealous, who was standing near, he expressed his thanks for the kindness he had shown Mrs. Weston. "'Well, you see,' said the inspector, in the first place it was enough that she is a friend of yours; in the second place, it was enough that she is a lady. I can read signs; she does not belong to the classes we are in the habit of dealing with.' "'She does not,' said our reporter. 'The whole affair is a mistake, excusable enough on the part of the policeman, but regrettable because of the distress it has caused an innocent lady. I shall make no complaint against the policeman, on the score of over-officiousness; he was within his rights, and on abstract grounds is perhaps to be commended for his mistaken zeal.' "It was a wise and prudent speech, and the Inspector, already kindly disposed, conveyed it, before the case was called on, to the ears of the policeman who had made the charge. Assured that no attempt would be made by our reporter to bring him into disrepute, he toned down his evidence considerably, and himself assisted in the dismissal of the case, the brief particulars of which we extract from our police columns: