The Case of Jennie Brice

and Sunday, Mr. Holcombe sat on the floor, with his eye to the r

hat occurred on Sunday night, March fourth, and Monday morning, the fifth. Following tha

s for Friday, Saturday a

ing hear

Notice that when Mrs. P. knocks, he g

book. Looks like

s a steam

boy fifty cents. Query. Where does

on new su

an hour on his knees looking behin

ck. Has hidden it twice, once up the

ey or similar small articl

. Light burning. Shal

ep. Is up walking th

ad had nightmare and was calling "Jennie!"

t have slept.

wrote for four hours, sometimes

llyn is the very man." "Devil of a risk-" "We'll see you through." "Lost the

private house?

spering. The visitor has g

He went to the Liberty Theater. Found it was Bronson, busine

a Shaeffer. Ladley appears more cheerful since Bronson's visit. He has bou

P. to take my place here, while

Ladley. Sixth-a lawyer-out at revival meeting. Went to the church and walked home with him. He knows something. Acknowledged he knew Bronso

ot eat. Sent out early for papers, and has searched them all. Found entry on sec

y at Sewickley. Much mutilated by flood débris." Ladley in b

tem. Neither of us doubted for a moment that it was Jennie Brice who had been found. He started for Sewickley that same afternoon, and

im. But they were both back in a half-hour. Mr. Reynolds reported that Mr. Lad

as gone. He was much depressed, and did not immediately go back to the periscope. I asked if the

shanty-boat not far from my house-a curious affair with shelves full of dishes and tinware. In the spring he would be towed up the Monongahe

Both of us knew that behind the parl

Graves, "but this man says he has bought be

use. Come in and look," I snapped. And

en I had shut the door, "w

stai

him q

rly, note-book and all. "Ah!" he said,

s,

raves, "that you are right, partly, anyhow. Ti

and what with the ice, and his not knowing much about a boat, he'd

hat time did yo

He said he couldn't sleep and went out in a boat, meaning to

you see h

inth Stre

ou hai

was making fast to a coal barge

the line to

Avenue to below the Sixth Street bridge. He got pretty clo

u know hi

id to say nothing about it. He didn't want

and let him look through the periscop

I were left alone in the kitchen. Mr. Holcombe le

d. "The chain is just about comp

Peter,-although I don't believe Mr. Ladley e

and hanging out, my mind was with Jennie Brice. The sight of Molly Maguire, next

from school, I bribed Tommy, the youngest, int

coat," I said, with the plate o

es

idn't

Say, Mrs. Pitman,

he coat w

int, on a cake of ice. He thought i

spread itself at her feet, as one may say. However, that was not the question, after all. The real issue was that if it was Jennie Brice's coat, and was found across the river on a cake of ice, then one of

ses who had lined up to see him rescue a dog, and had beheld his return in triumph with a wet and soggy fur coat. At three o'clock Mrs. Maguire

d good," she said, "but I don't give it up to nobody but

d been ripped out. With Molly holding one arm and I the other, we

, with his pen in his hand. His eyes fell on th

rs. Ladley's fu

king. Then: "It can't be hers," he sa

dropped it

why would she do that?" he asked

Maguire jerked it from me and started away. He sto

," he said coolly. "You're too emotional for de

ting in the kitchen, and had the audacity to a

to me. I went to my sister's house! And the fact that I was admitt

hen an automobile came to the door. It wa

m not at all well, a

once? My mother is o

r will bring

A HA

eat, fairly quivering with excitement. This was Alma's car; that was Alma's card-case; the little clock had her monogram on it. Even

ated from the more conspicuous part of the house, there were even pieces of furniture from the old home, and my father's picture

father!

e better for its age. I glanced in the old glass. The chair had stood time better than I. I was a middle-aged woman, lined with poverty and care, shabby, prematurely gray, a l

ighten my hat. Had I met Alma on the stairs, I would have passed

on a little stand at her elbow. She sat up when I went in, and had a maid place a chair for me beside the be

be satisfied until the light was just right for

me. "I'm-I'm just tired and nervo

nd mother her a little,-I had had no one to mother for so long,-but I could not. She would ha

aid suddenly, "who w

She and her husband

was she b

ever thought of that. She w

she y

enty-eig

looking relieved. "But I don't thin

But she sat up in bed suddenly and loo

ke me!" she flashed. "I

u want nothin

that woman. He has acted like a maniac since she disappeared. He doesn't come to see me, he

me to t

though, as far as I know, he was never at the

was

efore she disappeared. The

are telling me, Mrs. Pitman," she said. "You-do you think J

Mr. Howell suspects who did it. He does n

was-was in love with

much in love with a foolish girl, who oug

at, but the next moment she was sittin

e met that Monday morning at daylight, and took across the bridge to

woman across the bridge at

to him. The woman was tall and veiled. Uncle Jim sent for him, a day or two later, and he refused to explain. Then they forbade him the house. Mama o

a little as I looked around the room, with its gray grass-cloth walls, its toilet-table spread with ivory and gold, and the maid in attendance in her

od, he was to have something better. My Uncle Jim o

o could never write a letter without a dictionary beside him! I had a pang when I heard his name again, after all the years.

ven't seen

, but he couldn't tell me just then. The next day he resigned from the paper and went away. Mrs. Pitman, it

f he was with Jennie Brice, she is still l

uch queer things: he talked about an onyx clock, and said he had been made a fool of, and that no matter what came out, I was always t

up over her bare white shoulder. "You won't help anything or anybody by taking co

ht. My heart was heavy as I went down the stairs. For, twist things as I might, it was clear that in s

ace to face with Isaac, the old colored man who had driven the family carriage when I was a child, and whom I had seen, at intervals since I came back, pottering

from the light, but he had seen me. "Miss B

my friend," I said, quiveri

I sure thought you was Miss Bess," he said, and made no further effort to detain me. He led the way back to the door where the mach

, ma'am," h

to keep them back. "Good night

out, my baby na

. "Oh, praise Gawd, i

ing over me, muttering praises for my return, begging me to come back, recal

about my visit; I made him promise not to reveal my identity to Lida; an

here came a basket, with six bottles of wine, and an old daguerreotype