TABLE MISS

ely gray transformation that adorned her on less intimate occasions,-she looked much less formidable and more innocently placid than those could ever have imagined who had only felt the bite of her tart wit at such functions as the state Van Gorder dinners. Patrician to her finger tips, independent to the roots of her hair, she preserved, at sixty-five, a humorous and quenchless cu

had hesitated between wishing to be a locomotive engineer or a famous bandit-and when she had found, at seven, that the accident of sex would probably debar her from either occupation, she had resolved fiercely that some time before she died she would show the world in general and the Van Gorder clan in particular that a

world people were murdering and robbing each other, floating over Niagara Falls in barrels, rescuing children from burning houses, taming tigers, going to Africa to hunt gorillas, doing all sorts of exciting things! She could not float over Niagara Falls in a barrel; Lizzie

pot would have added some spice to the quest-but this ideal place had practically fallen into her lap, with no trouble or search at all. Courtleigh Fleming, president of the Union Bank, who had built the house on a scale of comfortable magnificence-Courtleigh Fleming had died suddenly in the West when Miss Van Gorder was beginning her house hunting. The day after his death her agent had called her

us for people who were used to the country. And Lizzie, of course, had sworn that she had seen a man trying to get up the stairs but Lizzie could grow hysterical over a creaking door. Still-it was queer! And what had that affable Doctor Wells said to her-"I respect your courage, Miss Van Gorder-moving out into the Bat's home country, you know!" She picked up the paper again. There was a map of t

tingly brief. The Union Bank had closed its doors; the cashier, a young man named Bailey, was apparently under suspicion; the article mentioned Courtleigh Fleming's recent and tragic death in the best vein of newspaperese. S

zzie-get up and dress. The bright morning sun, streaming in through the long win

he was glad Sally's daughter-young Dale Ogden-was here in the house with her. The compani

t has cut its hair. Before Mr. and Mrs. Ogden left for Europe, Sally had talked to her sister Cornelia ... long and weightily, on the problem of Dale." "Problem of Dale, indeed!" thought Miss Cornelia scornfully. "Dale's the nicest thing I've seen in some time. She'd be ten times happier if Sally wasn't always trying to marry her off to some young snip with more of what fools call 'eligibility' than b

m pretty sure she's just as pleased to get a little holiday from Sally and Harry-she amuses herself-she falls in with any plan I want to make, and yet-" And yet Dale was not happy-Miss Cornelia felt sure of it. "It isn't natural for a girl to seem so lackluster and-and quiet-at her age and she's nervous, too-as if something were preying on he

at had passed almost unnoticed at the time-something about Dale and "an unfortunate attachment-but of course, Corn

e him up and finds she can't. Well-" and Miss Cornelia's tight little gray curls trembled with the vehemence of her decision, "if the young thing ever comes to me for advice I'll give her a piece of my mind that will surprise her and scandalize Sally Van Gorder

her shoulders. "Who is it-oh, it's only you, Lizzie," as a pleasant Irish face, crowned by an old-fashioned pompadour of graying hair,

too-if that was all of it," she added somewhat tartly as she came into

keeping with a better-mannered age than ours. One could not imagine Miss Cornelia without a Lizzie to grumble at and cherish-or Lizzie without a Miss Cornelia to baby and scold with the privileged frankness of such old family servitors. The two were at once a contrast and a complement. Fifty years of American ways had not shaken Lizzie's firm belief in

it, Lizzie?" queried Miss Cornelia sharp

ed an expression of

my grandmother last night, God rest her-plain as life she was, the way she looked

, slitting open the first of her letters with a paper knife. "Nonsense, Lizzie, I'm not go

ndles?" said Lizzie heatedly. "Was it a bad dream that ran away from me and out the back door, as fast a

ie Al

tubbornly. "And why did the lights go out-tell me

we're staying here all summer. I suppose I may be thankful," she went on ironically, "that it was only y

eature, the Bat!" She came nearer to her mistress. "There's bats in this house, too-real bats," she whispered impressively. "I s

," she said. "There are always bats in the countr

pose?" said Lizzie with mournful satire. "Oh, Miss Neily, Miss Nei

instant that there was any real possibility of our being in danger here-" she said slowly. "But-oh, look at the map

at of the letter ye had when ye first moved in here? 'The Fleming

Cornelia's voice was firm. "I never p

bottom of the pile-" persisted Lizzie. "It looked like the o

the Van Gorder manner on now. "I don't care to discuss

of prim rebuff, "Miss Dale'

nto the

this morning, early-long distance it w

You didn'

as a study in injured virtue. "Miss Dale too

ere outsid

id Lizzie fiercely. "But it's yourself knows well enough the

ia rebukingly. "But-tell me, Lizzie,

wn to breakfast, after the call, she looked like a ghost. I

'm sorry if-well, Lizzie, we must

ma'

say when she

orgettin'-she told me to tell you, particular-she said while she w

r night. The place is beginning to look run down-so many

d to impart. Finally she took the plunge. "I might have told Miss Dale she could have been lookin

k-and a housemaid? But we have a cook and a h

"Yes'm. They're leavin

e, why on earth didn'

g with bad news like that! And thinks I, well, maybe 'tis all for the best after all-for when Miss Neily hears they're leavin'

th servants or without them. You should have told me at once, Lizzie. I'm really very much annoyed with you be

" said Lizzie sorrowfully. "And yet he'd b

, if he is. With you to help him, we shall do very well until I can get other servants." Miss Cornelia had risen now and Lizzie was helping her with the intricacies of her toilet. "But it's too annoying," she went on, in the

comes into the kitchen with her hat on and her bag in her hand. 'Good morning,' says I, pleasant enough, 'you've got your hat on,' says I. 'I'm leaving,' says she. 'Leaving, are you?' says I. 'Leaving,' says she. 'My sister has tw

zzi

d's leaving, too.' 'Has her sister got twins as well?' says I and looked at her. 'No,' says she as bold as brass, 'but Annie's got a pain in her side and she's feared it's appendycitis-so she's leaving to go back to her family.' 'Oh,' says I, 'and what about Miss Van Gorder?' 'I'm sorry for Miss Van Gorder,' says she-the falseness of her!-'But she'l

she said. "But I'm glad you didn't give her b

to a Kerrywoman without getting the flat of a hand in-but that's neither here nor there. The truth of it is, Miss Neily,

better place, though it would seem as if when one pays the present extortionate wages and asks a

el, ma'am," said Lizz

k and housemaid may discover before I'm through with them. Send them int

ighed and let them go, though not without caustic comment. Since then, she had devoted herself to calling up various employment agencies without entirely satisfactory results. A new cook and housemaid were promised for the end of the week-but for the next three days the Japanese butler, Billy, and Lizzie between them would have to bear the brunt of the s

e had overlooked somehow. She took it up. It must be the one Lizzie had wanted to throw away-she smiled at Lizzie's

longer-DEATH. Go back to the c

e looked at the envelope-at the postmark-while her heart thudded uncomfortably for a moment