At last there floated up from some depth of troubled memory
the name of the firm of St. Louis jewellers by whom Mr. Ramy was
employed. After much hesitation, and considerable effort, she
addressed to them a timid request for news of her brother-in-law;
and sooner than she could have hoped the answer reached her.

"DEAR MADAM,

"In reply to yours of the 29th ult. we beg to state the party
you refer to was discharged from our employ a month ago. We are
sorry we are unable to furnish you wish his address.

"Yours Respectfully,

"LUDWIG AND HAMMERBUSCH."


Ann Eliza read and re-read the curt statement in a stupor of
distress. She had lost her last trace of Evelina. All that night
she lay awake, revolving the stupendous project of going to St.
Louis in search of her sister; but though she pieced together her
few financial possibilities with the ingenuity of a brain used to
fitting odd scraps into patch-work quilts, she woke to the cold
daylight fact that she could not raise the money for her fare. Her
wedding gift to Evelina had left her without any resources beyond
her daily earnings, and these had steadily dwindled as the winter
passed. She had long since renounced her weekly visit to the
butcher, and had reduced her other expenses to the narrowest
measure; but the most systematic frugality had not enabled her to
put by any money. In spite of her dogged efforts to maintain the