He shook his head and turned away. "Very well," said I to myself, "then I will." CHAPTER II. Accordingly, the next day I called upon Mrs. Walworth. She lived, as I already knew, in a small and unpretentious house just on the verge of our most fashionable quarter. But there was great taste displayed in the furnishing of that house, and I was not at all surprised to see evidences here and there of a poverty which the general effect tended to make you forget. I was fortunate enough to find her in, and still more fortunate to find her alone, but my courage fell as I confronted her, for she has one of those appealing faces that equally interest and baffle you, making you feel that unless your errand be one of peace and comfort, you had better not confront so tremulous a mouth and so tender a hazel eye. But I had steeled myself against too much sympathy when I entered her presence, so barely pausing to make my most ingratiating bow, I took her by the hand, and gently forcing her to stand for a moment where the light from the one window fell full upon her face, I said: "You must pardon my intrusion upon you at a time when you are naturally busy, but there is something you can do for me that will rid me of a great anxiety. You remember being in ---- Hotel one morning last month?" She was looking quietly up at me, her lips parted, her eyes smiling and expectant, but at the mention of that hotel I thought--and yet I may have been mistaken--that a slight change took place in her expression, if it was only that the glance grew more gentle and the smile more marked. But her voice when she answered was the same as that with which she had uttered her greeting. "I do not remember," she replied, "yet I may have been there; I go to so many places. Why do you ask?" she inquired. "Because if you were there on that morning--and I have been told you were--you may be able to solve a question that is greatly perplexing me." Still the same gentle inquiring look on her face, only now there was a little furrow of wonder or interest between the eyes. "I had business in that hotel on that morning," I continued. "I had left a letter for a young friend of mine in the Bible that lies on the small table of the inner parlor, and as she never received it, I have been driven into making all kinds of inquiries, in hope of finding some explanation of the fact. As you were there at the time, you may have seen something that would aid me. Is it not possible, Mrs. Walworth?" Her smile, which had faded, reappeared on the lips which Taylor so much admired, a little pout became visible and she looked quite enchanting. "I do not even remember being at that hotel at all," she protested. "Did Mr. Taylor say I was there?" she inquired, with just that added look of exquisite naïveté which the utterance of a lover's name should call up on the face of a prospective bride. "No," I answered gravely, "Mr. Taylor, unhappily, was not with you that morning." She looked startled.