Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-09-09

had not slept the night before, or if she had laid her head anywhere it had been on the rug already spoken of.
 These signs of extreme mental suf- fering, so much more extreme than any Loretta had ever before witnessed, frightened her so that the tray shook in her hand as she set it down on the table among the countless objects Mrs. Jeffrey always had about her. The noise seemed to startle her mistress, who had walked to the window after opening the door, for she wheeled i'm petuously about and Loretta saw her face. It was as if blight had passed over it. Once gay and animated be yond the power of any one to describe, it had become in twenty-four hours ghosts face, with the glare of some awful resolve on it; or so it would appear from the way Loretta describ- ed it. se6
 Loretta, who was evidently accus- toned to seeing her mistress arrayed in brilliant colors and much begem- med, laid great stress on the fact that, though it was on the verge of evening and she was evidently going out, she was dressed in black cloth and with out even diamond or flower to re- Meve its severe simplicity. Her hair, too, which was always her pride, was piled in careless mass upon her head as if she had tried to arrange it her self and had forgotten what she was doing while her fingers were but half through their work There was a cloak lying on a chair near which she was standing and she held hat in her hand, but Loretta saw no gloves. As the maids glance and that of her mis- tress crossed, Mrs. Jeffrey spoke, and the effort she made in doing so natu- rally frightened the girl still more 'I am going out,o were her words. q may not be home till late What are you looking at?'
 Loretta declared that the words took her by surprise and that she aid not know what to say, but managed to cov- CT up her embarrassment by intimating that if her mistress would let her touch up her hair bit she would make her look more natural.
 At this suggestion Mrs. Jeffrey cast a glance in the glass and impetuously declared, "It doesn't matter" But she seemed to think better of it the next minute; for, throwing herself in a chair, she bade the girl to bring a comb and sat quietly enough, though evidently in great tremor of haste and impatience, while Loretta combed her hair and put it up in the old way.
 But the old way was not as becom- ing as usual, and Loretta was wonder ing if she ought to call in Miss Futile when Mrs. Jeffrey jumped to her feet and went over to the table and began to eat with the feverish haste of one who forces herself to take food in spite of hurry and distaste.
 This was the moment for Loretta to leave the room, but she did not know how to do so. She felt herself fixed to the spot and stood watching Mrs. Jeffrey till that lady, suddenly becom- ing conscious of the girls presence, turned, and in the midst of the moans which broke unconsciously from her lips said with a pitiable effort at her old manner:
 "Go away, Loretta; am i'll; have been i'll for two days. I don't like peo- pie to look at me like thatr' Then, as the girl shrank back, she added in break ing voice, When Mir. Jeffrey comes home" and said no more for several minutes, during which she clutched her throat with both hands and strug- gled with herself till she got her voice back and found herself able to repeat: "When MT. Jeffrey comes, if he does come, tell him that I was right about the, way that novel ended. Remember that you are to say to him the moment you see him that was right about the novel and that he is to look and see if it did not end as said it would. And, Loretta''- here she rose and approach ed the speaker with a sweet, appeal ing look which brought tears to the impressionable girls eyes-"don't go gossiping@ about me downstairs. shan't be sick long. I am going to be