WHITEWASH
opening doors and the stir of voices announced an arrival.
"Bring him here, Sonia," she begged. "The child is so weak, she needs him first."
The hotel-keeper, talking excitedly and followed by a commissaire and a gendarme, pressed into the room.
"This is the lady," indicating Sonia. "It was she who gave the alarm—"
"The doctor—didn't the doctor come?" interrupted Victoria, beside herself with disappointment.
"Not yet, mademoiselle,—presently," the gendarme answered, kindly, as he advanced to the bedside. His face grew graver as he watched the child's labored breathing. "We must get on the rascal's track at once. Did you see him, too? I understand you and the other lady room together."
Victoria prevaricated. "My friend recognized him when she saw him going down the fire-escape, but I can give you a good description of him, for I noticed him particularly during the day."
She rapidly portrayed the stranger, while her hearer jotted hastily in a note-book. In the win-
