Mrs.Zelotes also waylaid both of the Boston reporters, but with results upon which she had not counted.

One presented her story and Fanny's and Eva's with impartial justice; the other kept wholly to the latter version, with the addition of a shrewd theory of his own, deduced from the circumstances which had a parallel in actual history, and boldly stated that the child had probably committed suicide on account of family troubles.

Poor Fanny and Eva both saw that, when night was falling and Ellen had not been found.

Eva rushed out and secured the paper from the newsboy, and the two sisters gasped over the startling column together.
"It's a lie! oh, Fanny, it's a lie!" cried Eva.

"She never would; oh, she never would! That little thing, just because she heard you and me scoldin', and you said that to her, that if it wasn't for her you'd go away.