How sweet and cool and silent it was out there in the beautiful moonlight among the flowers! He drew a long breath and murmured:
“Ah, Little Sweetheart, where are you to-night? Are you living or dead? What would I not give to feel your soft little arms about my neck again, and see your sunny blue eyes looking into mine!”
Suddenly he saw the tall figure of a man advancing up the path toward the house. He thought he recognized him, and went hastily forward. It was, as he had thought, the detective he had employed to trace the missing child.
The man lifted his hat with a cry of pleasure.
“Ah, Mr. de Vere, I should not have ventured in so late, but I saw that you were entertaining company, so I thought I would wait about the grounds in the hope of seeing you.”
“You have news?” the young man exclaimed, eagerly.
“Yes. I have found the little girl.”
CHAPTER X.
The guests were beginning to take leave. Already their gay farewells floated out upon the air of the night where Norman de Vere had been walking alone since the detective had left him.
He went back to the house, deathly pale, but calm.