I expect my husband home, now, every moment." While she was yet speaking, Claire came in.

Seeing the white face of his wife, he exclaimed-- "Mercy, Edith! What has happened ?" Edith could only murmur the word "Fanny," as she started forward, and buried her face, sobbing, on his bosom.
"Fanny! What of her?
Oh, Edith! speak!" The agitation of the wife was, for the time, too overpowering to admit of words, and so Claire turned to the lady and said, hurriedly-- "Will you tell me, madam, what has happened ?" "It appears, sir," she replied, "that a strange lady enticed the children to Washington Square, on their way from school"-- "And then carried off our dear, dear Fanny!" sobbed out Edith.
"Carried off Fanny!" exclaimed Claire.
"This lady," said Edith, growing calmer, "found our little Edie crying, in the square, and brought her home.

Edie says the lady took them down there, and then told her to wait until she went with Fanny to buy some candies.

They went, but did not return." The meaning of all this was quite as clear to the mind of Edward Claire as it was to his wife.

He understood, likewise, that this was the work of Jasper, and that Fanny was now in his possession.