“Do you really mean that you have had news of the children?”

“I have had very positive news.  Why, they belonged to the circus we went to see to-day!  I had my suspicions as soon as ever I heard that woman talking and saying that the performance was miserably poor without the children.  At that very instant it came right over me that it was our little Miss Di who had made things so sparkling and lively.”

“Oh, Fortune! let me go to her,” cried Iris.  “Is she there?  Please, Fortune, take me to her at once.”

“Now, Iris, love, that’s just what I can’t do.  Patience has to be exercised always in the matter of trails,” continued Fortune; “and when we hurry or flurry ourselves we lose the scent, and then we are nowhere.  The children did belong to the circus, for I had it from the lips of one of the circus girls.  Poor innocent lambs, to think of them having anything to do with such a defiling place!  But there they were, and there they would not stay, for three nights ago, Iris, they ran away, and nobody in the wide world knows where they are at the present moment.”

“Well, and what do you propose to do?” said Mr. Dolman.  “For my part, I think the police——­”

“Excuse me, sir, this is a matter for me, not the police.  I propose, sir, to stay at Madersley until I bring the children back.  I hope to bring them back to-night.”

“To-night!” cried Iris.  “Oh, Fortune! do you mean it?”

“Yes, my love.  I am an American, and I generally do what I say.  I mean to bring the little dears back to their rightful home to-night.  And now I’m off, and please expect me when you see me.”

Fortune turned abruptly and left the hotel.  She walked down the High Street.

“Now,” she said to herself, “why should not I just go and pay a visit to my old friend and neighbor, Matty Bell.  I want a woman that is a gossip just now, and if there is a gossip in the whole of Madersley, it’s Matty Bell.  As a rule, I can’t abear her, but there are times when a gossiping woman comes in handy; and Matty’s neither very low nor very high up in the world, so she’s acquainted with all that goes on in both circles, the high and the low.  Yes, I’ll go to Matty this very moment; and as there’s not any time to lose, I’ll take a fly and drive there.”

Fortune hailed the first fly she came across, and was quickly borne to the abode of her old neighbor, Matty Bell.

Matty Bell was a woman of about sixty years of age.  At one time she had been a servant at Delaney Manor, but having married, and then lost her husband, she had set up in the laundry line.  In that interesting trade she had done a thriving business, and kept a comfortable roof over her head.  She had never had children, and consequently had plenty of time to attend to her neighbors’ affairs.

“Well, to be sure, Fortune, and what brings you here?” she said, when Fortune alighted from the fly.  “Dear heart!  I didn’t know that you would care to leave Delaney Manor with all the troubles about.”