He left town yesterday."
Claire struck his hands together in disappointment and grief. This
confirmed to him the lady's assertion that she knew nothing of Fanny.
In that assertion she had uttered the truth.
Sadly disappointed, and in far deeper distress of mind than when he
entered the house, Edward Claire retired. If Mr. Jasper left the city
on the day previous, and his wife had, as he could not help believing,
no knowledge whatever of Fanny, then the more distressing inference
was that she had been enticed away by some stranger.
On his way home, Claire called again at the store of Jasper. It
occurred to him to ask there as to his absence from the city. The
reply he received was in agreement with Mrs. Jasper's assertion. He
had left town on the previous day.
"Where has he gone?" he inquired.
"To Reading, I believe," was the answer.
"Will he return soon?"
"Not for several days, I believe."
With a heavy heart, Claire bent his way homeward. He cherished a
faint hope that Fanny might have returned. The hope was vain. Here he
lingered but a short time. His next step was to give information
to the police, and to furnish for all the morning papers an
advertisement, detailing the circumstances attendant on the child's
abduction. This done, he again returned home, to console, the best
he could, his afflicted wife, and to wait the developments of the
succeeding day.
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