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 opinion that the chief of police himself would be likely to arrive to explain matters, as that was the custom in “important cases.” But when the children had been hugged, held off for inspection, hugged again, told that they had not “changed,” but, as one young lady darkly hinted, looked as if they had “seen things,” and had been thoroughly bewildered by treatment the like of which neither had ever received before, and when Bateese had been separated from his beloved Cairlo—who was again consigned to the lower regions—and triumphantly led upstairs, from where, strange to say, no welcoming voice had hailed the wanderers, then did the plain-clothes man come in for his share of flattering attention and prove to be a most pleasant spoken gentleman of a cheerful habit of mind. He tactfully won the heart of the widow by requesting sotto voce that she Rh