“Stamped!” we exclaimed.  “What do you mean by that?”

“Why, you see,” answered Pomona, “when Jone an’ I was goin’ to bring our baby over here among so many million people, we thought there might be danger of its gittin’ lost or mislaid, though we never really believed any such thing would happen, or we wouldn’t have come.  An’ so we agreed to mark her, for I’ve often read about babies bein’ stole an’ kept two or three years, and when found bein’ so changed their own mothers didn’t know ’em.  Jone said we’d better tattoo Corinne, for them marks would always be there, but I wouldn’t agree to have the little creature’s skin stuck with needles, not even after Jone said we might give her chloryform; so we agreed to stamp initials on her with Perkins’s Indelible Dab.  It is intended to mark sheep, but it don’t hurt, and it don’t never come off.  We put the letters on the back of her heels, where they wouldn’t show, for she’s never to go barefoot, an’ where they’d be easy got at if we wanted to find ’em.  We put R.G. on one heel for the name of the place, and J.P. on the other heel for Jonas an’ me.  If, twenty years from now,” said Pomona, her tears welling out afresh, “I should see a young woman with eyes like Corinne’s, an’ that I felt was her, a-walking up to the bridal altar, with all the white flowers, an’ the floatin’ veils, an’ the crowds in the church, an’ the music playin’, an’ the minister all ready, I’d jist jerk that young woman into the vestry-room, an’ have off her shoes an’ stockin’s in no time.  An’ if she had R.G. on one heel, an’ J.P. on the other, that bridegroom could go home alone.”

We confidently assured Pomona that with such means of identification, and the united action of ourselves and the police, the child would surely be found, and we accompanied her to her lodgings, which were now in a house not far from our own.

When the nurse reached home with the little carriage it was almost dark, and, snatching up the child, she ran to the nursery without meeting any one.  The child felt heavy, but she was in such a hurry she scarcely noticed that.  She put it upon the bed, and then lighting the gas she unwrapped the afghan, in which the little creature was now almost entirely enveloped.  When she saw the face, and the black hair, from which the cap had fallen off, she was nearly frightened to death, but, fortunately for herself, she did not scream.  She was rather a stupid woman, with but few ideas, but she could not fail to see that some one had taken her charge, and put this child in its place.  Her first impulse was to run back to the gardens, but she felt certain that her baby had been carried off; and, besides, she could not, without discovery, leave the child here or take it with her; and while she stood in dumb horror, her mistress sent for her.  The lady was just going out to dinner, and told the nurse that, as they were all to start for the Continent by the tidal train, which left at ten o’clock that night, she must