He said something about getting a piece of string and left. A couple of minutes thereafter the lad Johnnie appeared, with a stout bit of cord in his hand; and he, having affixed that to the head and the tail of the salmon, caught it up, and stood in readiness. She seemed surprised. ’Where is Ronald?’ said she—for he was always at her bidding. ’He asked me to carry the fish to the Doctor’s house, mem,’ said the lad. ’Will I go now?’ Moreover, this salmon was accidentally responsible for a still further discovery. When Miss Carry went along to call on the Douglases, little Maggie was with her friend Meenie; and they all of them had tea together; and when the little Maggie considered it fitting she should go home, Miss Carry said she would accompany her—for it was now quite dark. And they had a good deal of talk by the way, partly about schooling and accomplishments, but much more largely about Ronald, who was the one person in all the world in the eyes of his sister. And if Maggie was ready with her information, this pretty young lady was equally interested in receiving it, and also in making inquiries. And thus it came about that Miss Carry now for the first time learned that Ronald was in the habit of writing poems, verses, and things of that kind; and that they were greatly thought of by those who had seen them or to whom he had sent them. ’Why, I might have guessed as much,’ she said to herself, as she walked on alone to the inn—though what there was in Ronald’s appearance to suggest that he was a writer of rhymes it might have puzzled any one to determine. But this was a notable discovery; and it set her quick and fertile brain working in a hundred different ways; but mostly she bethought her of one John C. Huysen and of a certain newspaper-office on Fifth Avenue, Chicago, 111. ’Well, there,’ she said to herself, as the result of these rapid cogitations, ’if Jack Huysen’s good for anything—if he wants to say he has done me a service—if he wants to show he has the spirit of a man in him—well, _now’s his chance_.’ *CHAPTER II.* *CONFESSIONS.*