A week or more passed, during which time Claire heard nothing from the guardian of Fanny; and both he and his wife began to hope that no further attempt to get her into his possession would be made, until the child had reached her twelfth year. It was in the summer-time, and Mrs. Claire sat, late in the afternoon of a pleasant day, at one of the front-windows of her dwelling, holding her youngest child in her arms. "The children are late in coming home from school," said she, speaking aloud her thought. "I wonder what keeps them!" And she leaned out of the window, and looked for some time earnestly down the street. But the children were not in sight. For some five or ten minutes Mrs. Claire played with and talked to the child in her arms; then she bent from the window again, gazing first up and then down the street. "That's Edie, as I live!" she exclaimed. "But where is Fanny?" As she uttered this inquiry, a sudden fear fell like a heavy weight on her heart. Retiring from the window, she hastened to the door, where, by this time, a lady stood holding little Edie by the hand. The child's eyes were red with weeping. "Is this your little girl?" asked the lady. "Oh, mamma! mamma!" cried Edie, bursting into tears, as she sprang to her mother's side and hid her face in her garments. "Where did you find her, ma'am? Was she lost?" asked Mrs. Claire, looking surprised as well as alarmed. "Won't you walk in, ma'am?" she added, before there was time for a reply. The lady entered, on this invitation, and when seated in Mrs. Claire's little parlour, related that while walking through Washington Square, she noticed the child she had brought home, crying bitterly. On asking her as to the cause of her distress, she said that she wanted Fanny: and then ran away to some distance along the walks, searching for her lost companion. The lady's interest being excited, she followed and persuaded the child to tell her where she lived. After remaining some time longer in the square, vainly searching for Fanny, she was induced to let the lady take her home. After hearing this relation, Mrs. Claire said to Edith, in as calm a voice as she could assume, in order that the child might think without the confusion of mind consequent upon excitement-- "Where is Fanny, dear?" "She went with the lady to buy some candies," replied the child. "What lady?" asked the mother. "The lady who took us to the square." "The lady who took you to the square?" said the mother, repeating the child's words from the very surprise they occasioned. "Yes, mamma," was the simple response. "What lady was it?" "I don't know. She met us as we were coming home from school, and asked us to go down and walk in the square. She knew Fanny." "How do you know, dear?" disked Mrs. Claire. "Oh, she called her Fanny; and said what a nice big girl she was growing to be." "And so you went down to the square with her?" "Yes, ma'am." "And what then?"