"Well I'll be darned!" muttered Mr. Bill, and he sat down suddenly on the kitchen table.
"Why the dickens didn't I come home last night?" demanded Joe in disgust. "If I had come home I would have found her."
"Perhaps she's upstairs asleep?" suggested Norah. "She said she was tired."
They trooped up the narrow stairs—Granny first. It was Granny who went into the bedroom alone, and at her disappointed exclamation the others ran in, although Granny's disappointed exclamation had told them that Tessie was not there.
"She's gone!" wailed Granny. "She's gone! And look!" She pointed to Tessie's royal raiment on a chair. "She took off her queen clothes!" She pulled the closet door open, and searched among the shabby dresses which had belonged to Tessie Gilfooly. There was something pathetic and ghostlike about the little frocks. Mr. Bill tenderly stroked a sleeve. "She's taken her old black sateen," announced Granny from the closet. "The dress she used to wear to the store. She's left her queen clothes and gone off in her old working clothes! Can you believe it? Deary me!" She sat down on the bed and looked from one to the other. "I'd like to know what it all means?" she said helplessly.
"I bet I know!" Mr. Bill's downcast face had been growing brighter and brighter. If Mr. Bill had been a barometer you would have seen at a glance that he promised fair weather. "I bet I know the hunch that made her change her clothes! You just wait, Granny! I'll find her now!"
"Just a minute!" Joe put a forceful hand on Mr. Bill's arm as he would have dashed away. "Tessie's safe now. We know that if we don't know where she is. But before you follow your hunch you'll take me to your father!"
"Father!" Mr. Bill stared at Joe. Had Joe lost his mind? "Sure," he said soothingly. "That's on my way. Come on!"