A Woman Named Smith

estoring Hynds House was appallingly real, so real that it left a big, big hole in the bank-account. It is true that we who never really had had a ho

keep, and ours. We had known that from the beginning, and Alicia mapped out the entire plan of how i

d bills between us, the total of which made me feel pale. Alicia, however, was cheerfully

nning his cantankerous approval. He had very bad manners, of which he was totally unashamed, and very good morals, of which he was somewhat doubtful, as they didn't smack of genius; a notion that he was a superior sort of Sherlock Holmes, having the truffle-houn

re intellects." Alicia repeated it dreamily. "I have chosen for him the upper southwestern room with the sunset effect and the pineapple four-poster. It has a claw-footed desk of block mahogany, three hand-carved walnut chairs, two Rembrandt prints, and a French prie-dieu with a purple velve

hare," I reminde

he beginning of things American and has never been exploited, will fetch him at a hand-gallop. Add a hint that we have our own brand of family spook, and you c

ularly good points stressed; such as, say, the library fireplace, the fan-light window

als, the advertisement to carry a stunning little cut of our front porch. We decided to run the risk of expending more mone

just this side of highway robbery. Therefore our demands will be cheerfully, nay, wi

, limply, "boarder

whole South. It has seen the Indians, it has seen the British, it has seen Sherman's men, and escaped them all. Well, then, we propose to allow certai

indeed! An

fe, their car, and her Chow, can't afford to miss Hynds House on their trip South this season. You might explain that Mary Magdalen is

its head off, with nothing coming in. Since I took down those bill-boards, actually the p

worst file-clerk. "In the meantime, Sophy, you have sense enough to understand that we've spent so much money we've got to spend more to

r millionaires!

d Alicia, coolly. "How much

sidered Hynds House, the little we had was beggarly; so I wrote it down, and pushed

and then to regard me with slitted eyes. At the end of ten strenuous minutes she pushed the paper over to me, and watched me grow all but apoplectic as I studied it. It was an entertaining list, beginning with a hat and ending with silk stockin

enty of clothes

ppy, glad-I'm-alive-and-a woman clothes. Here's where you cease to look merely useful, respectable, and responsible, and begin to look the

ave more clothe

with a fleeting smile, "

. "Alicia Gaines, do you real

ad sense enough to forget to r

me how I might become such

al earnestness: "Sophy, it's the better part of wisdom to look like the job you want to hold down. Your job is holding down Hynds House. And we are up agains

for a wipe of a paw, why, we catch it across the nose. Now I," she admitted frankly, "am naturally full of cat feelings myself. I will not do what you want to do-walk off looking aggrieved, after the fashion of Old Dog

s. While we had been busy renovating, while our hands were so full of work that every minute was occupied, we hadn't felt our isolation. It was only when

ssed their appreciation of Miss Smith's action in promptly dropping the suit against them; she was welcome to come and worship God in their church, and to do her duty by the heathen. Such ladies as happened to belong to the missionary society spoke to us pleasantly in the church vestibule. The minister and his w

but shamelessly made friends with the aliens, did not raise us in the town's estimation. Quite the contrary. Nor were they eve

y ever since he was born, that he should stop now to consider the feelings or the prejudices of Hyndsville. It wasn't that he meant to champion us. I

, I have been peremptorily taken by an elbow and led willy-nilly to his waiting car, on Lafayette Street, which is our principal t

ith Doctor Geddes this morning? Me

could explain to Mr. Nicholas Jelnik that his presence in Hynds Ho

elf that nobody knew anything about them, should arouse the avid curiosity and hold the brea

e of an eagle for the glitter of gold and would long since have discovered whatever of value had been in Hynds House? Why d

groes, who could be expected to gossip: his household consisted of a stately bronze-colored man

the acquaintance of his young kinsman; Jelnik was a first-rate chap, declared the doctor; immensely c

ld have noticed this one particularly and expected a like interest on his part. The inexplicable

restoration wouldn't have been so nearly perfect, had it not been for the critical taste of Mr. Jelnik. He had the European knowledge of beautifu

aning. His mere presence ornamented and colored common moments so that they glowed, and remained in the memory with a rainbow light upon t

ppened to glance up I would find him watching us with those reflective eyes that were so full of light and at the same time so inscrutable. And then he would smile, his Dionysiac smile that made him all a

d and dazzled her, though he did not disquiet her as he did me,

ight, drafting a letter to the Head. Of a sudden arose clamor in the hall, and howls, hideously loud at that hour and in that quiet house. There came the noise of running fee

those two handmaids, to train them not to take part in the conversation at table, not to take o

ed the colored women. "Ol' Mis' Sca

elt myself turning pale, and goo

ha'nts!" protested Fernolia. She was the brighte

oborated Queenasheeba. (That's

ering through the scrim curtains, saw a tall white figure disappear into the spring-house. A few minutes later, to their horror, they heard Something moving downstairs in the carriage house-Something like the clank of a chain-footsteps-and then silence. Almost

ottage, set amid Lombardy poplars and thick shrubberies, was some distance away, and we didn't know whether Doctor Geddes was at home or not. It is true we had firearms, a pair of pistols

I held the other. Armed thus, carrying torch-light and lantern, and with the two gray-faced, half-clad negro

ay purchased for our recently acquired Jersey cow gave off a pleasant odor. Over in one corner, in a neat,

ther protected, like the doors, with heavy oaken shutters studded with iron nail-heads. The two small rooms in the rear had once been used as a jail for recalcitrant slaves; they

g!" said I, and had turned to go, reassured and relieved, when A

at one sensed rather than smelled it, so pervasive and haunting that one could not miss it. And it certainl

re," she added pleasantly, "I'll give you a new lace collar, Queenasheeba, and you a red ribbon, Fernolia,

the rooms up-stairs. They, too, had been freshly cle

st possible opinion of ol' Miss Scarlett: she had been bad enough living-but as a spook! We had to let them lug their bedding over and sleep in the room next to

"Now will you get those clothes, Sophy Smith?" she resumed, through her teeth, and the pink came back to her cheek, and her eye

!" s