The state republican. (Jefferson City, Mo.) 1871-1896, 1895-01-24

The person who was nearest at
hand answered the SUMMONS and
without asking any questions a man
strobe into the passage.
"What do you want?" demanded
the woman who had opened the door
and who was shrewish and shrill of
tongue.
"My rights" was the terse reply.
"Indeed, and what may they be?"
"This 'ere place belongs to me
her as is dead was my sister.o This
statement brought several of the
other inmates who had been listening
on the stairs. forward to look at the
new proprietor.
He would not stand Investigation
and at the same time command con-
f1denco.
He was an i'll looking man of about
fifty, with a shaggy beard and long
%unkempt hair. But the most un-
pleasant part of his face was his
eyes, which were bloodshot and
savage and, while they looked you
through and through, made you
shudder, as you felt there was no
crime from which he would tarn if it
were made worth while for him to
commit it. In clothes and general
appearance he was shabby genteel.
He had no pretensions to bsin a
gentleman, but at the same thN, lid
not apparently bel2n2tsft,A ssss
Iof the people. \
1t goes without saying that the IA
mates Of the City Road lodging house
were very disinclined to accept this
man as a landlord and were strongly
imbued with the idea that he was an
impostor and a blackguard, who had
been attracted by the advertisement
and was trying it on.
He stated that his name was James
Glendinning and he declined in toto
to be referred 10 the firm of lawyers
in the adjacent street, 'they might
fetch whom they pleased to look at
him." he said, shut he should go
tramping to please nobody" and
into the house as master he intended
to come.
Nor did he give them the chance
of preventing him, for before they
had collected their considerably
scattered senses, he had pushed his
way into the little passage and closed
the outer door.
In f ct he was already in the par
lor looking around before anyone
had time to speak.
eyes, that's my sister," he said,
pointing to a photograph on the
mantel- shelf, "and that's her hus-
band-dead and gone this ten years.
He wasn't over civil to me 80 | don't
regret him"
This and various odds and ends
that he happened to recognize led
them at last to believe that this
dreadful man, was, at all events,
some relation to the dead woman.
They asked him if he knew Lis
beth-"her as was a cousin of the
dead Ellis?"
He was silent for a moment and
then muttered:
"Lisbeth. faint more than two
Lisbeths as l have known in my lite
but no Ellis"
After this he did not seem inclined
to talk any more, but made himself
quite at home by sitting down in an
arm chair, and taking a short clay
pipe from his pocket began to smoke.
Without letting him know one OF
them had slipped out surreptitiously
and gone round to the lawyers, and
i'll less than ten minutes a sleek gen
tleman arrived and interviewed the
new conner.
To the annoyance of everyone the
interview was a tete-a-tete and the
result was that the o-ealled James
Glendinning was not dispossessed
though it was given out that several
formula must be gone through before
he could receive rents and be thor
oughly accepted as the new master.
No one liked either him OF the
idea of living under his rule, but
they were all too much afraid OF him
to make any noisy objections. They
decided that they would get away
quietly and certainly his coming had
the effect of silencing scandalous
tongues.
This state of affairs went on for a
week. Lawyers, proverb ally slow,
did moi hurry themselves unncessa-
rily because a house in the City Road
was in question, and the new conner
was master in name if not yet in
reality.
To hang about smoking a pipe in
his shirt sleeves was his usual occu-
patton, the monotony of which was
varied at times by attending to the
door-this he seemed to think his
especial province.
He was sitting one day in his arm