That she might remove her thoughts from a painful subject, she forced her eyes to take in her present surroundings. Then, with a little cry, she sprang forward. "Books! 'Everything in books.'" She read the sign aloud. She disappeared through a dingy door into a room which was brightly lighted. The lights and the face that greeted her changed all. The madly fantastic world was, for the moment, quite shut out. She was at home with many books and with a girl whose face shone, she told herself, "like the sun." "A book?" this sales girl smiled. "Something entertaining? A novel, perhaps. Oh no, I don't think you'd like 'Portrait of a Man with Red Hair.' It's really rather terrible. One of the chief characters is a mad man who loves torturing people." The girl shuddered. "But this now--" She took up a well-thumbed volume. "'A Lantern in Her Hand.' It is truly lovely--the story of brave and simple people. I'm afraid we're neither very brave nor very simple these days. Do you feel that we are?" "She really is able to think clearly," Grace whispered to herself. "I am sure I am going to like her." "I'll take one, that one," she said putting out her hand for the book. And then, because she was alone in a great city, because she was bursting to confide in someone, she said, "He buys trunks, trunks full of other people's things. He takes the things out and sells them, other people's things. They packed them away with such care, and now--now he takes them out, throws them about and sells them!" "Who does?" The girl's eyes opened wide. "My uncle, Nicholas Fischer." "Oh, Nicholas Fischer." The girl's voice dropped. "But he is the kindest man! Comes here with books. He sells them to Mr. Morrow who owns this store--secondhand books. Perhaps they come from the trunks. And Mr. Morrow says he helps poor people, your uncle does, and he doesn't let anyone know who it is." "But he buys trunks, other people's trunks, and sells them!" Grace insisted. "Yes, buys them at auction, I guess. Several people on this street do that. Express auctions, railway auctions, storage house auctions and all that. And you are to help him open them up!" she exclaimed quite suddenly. "You are to explore them? How I envy you!" "Envy?" Grace stared in unbelief. "But why not? Think of the things you may find. Diamonds perhaps; stocks and bonds; rare old coins and rarer old books; ancient silver plate. Just think of the things people pack away in their trunks! Letters; diaries; quaint old pictures. It--why it's like a trip around the world!" "But it--it seems so unfair," Grace wavered. "You're not the one that's being unfair," the bright-eyed one reasoned. "Those people can't have their things in those trunks. Perhaps they are dead. In some cases they lost their trunks because they were too poor to pay storage or express charges. You can't well help that. So why think about it?"