The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-07-13
The Window 
 By MARY ROBERTS RINEHARI
CContinued.)
 CHAPTER III. Ninety-eight Pearls.

miles 1rOm tue Clty. OLfe0L CUTS
 had so far failed to spoil it's tree bordered streets, and it was ex- elusive to the point of stagnation. The Maitland place was at the head of the main street. Miss Letitia, who was seventy, had had sufficient commercial instinct some years before to cut her ancestral acres-their ancestral acres, though Miss Jane hardly counted-into building lots, except perhaps an acre which surrounded the house. Thus the Maitland ladiecSvere reputed to be ex- tremely wealthy. And as they never spent any money. no doubt they were.
 I had taken dinner at Bellwood be- fore, and the memory was not hilari- Ous. Miss Letitia was deaf, but chose to ignore the fact With superb indif ference she would break into the con- versation with some wholly alien re- mark that necessitated a reassembling of ones ideas, making the meal se- ries of mental gymnastics. Miss Jane, through long practice and because she only skinned the surface of conversa tion, took her cerebral flights easily, but am more unwieldy of mind.
 Nor was Miss Letitia's dominance wholly conversational. Her sister Jane was her creature, alternately snubbed and bullied. To Miss Letitia, Jane, in spite of her sixty-ive years, was still cy2d, and sometimes bad one. Miss Letitia gave her expurgated books to read and forbade her to read divorce court proceedings in the newspapers
 ka fluttering cordiality in the hall that night, safe in being herself for once, with the knowledge that Miss Letitia always received me from thronelike horsehair sofa in the back parlor She wore a new lace cap and was twitter- ingiy excited.
 Our niece is here," she explained as took off my coat-everything was tours" with Jane; "mine'' with Letitia -'and we are having an ice at dinner Please say that ices are not injurious, Mr. Knox. My sister is so opposed to themr and had tosbeg-fo sthis,,,<
 "6n the -cuntrary; the doctors have ordered ices for my young nephews," I said gravely, "and dote on them myself" e
 Miss Jane bean1ed. Indeed, there was something almost unnaturally gay about the littles old lady all that evening.
 Miss Letitia received me, as usual, in the beck parlor. Miss Fleming was there -aaso; sewing by a window, and in her straight white dress, with her hair drawn back and braided around her head, she looked even younger than before There was no time for conversation. .AIiss Letitia launched at once into the extravaganza of both moiasses and butter on the colored orphans bread
 You have had no news at all?" Miss Fleming said cautiously, her head bent over her work
 "None," I returned, under cover of the table linen to which Miss Letitia's mind had veered. q have good man working on it.'' As she glanced at me questioningly, '.It needed detec- tive, Miss Fleming" With every movement of the girl I could see the Z gleaming of diamond on her engage ment finger
 If I didn't watch her. Jane would ruin them," said Miss Letitia. 'sShe gives 'em apples when they keep their faces clean,-and the bills for soap have gone up double. Soap once a days enough for a colored child Do you smell anything burning. Knox?'
 I sniffed and lied, whereupon Miss Letitia swept her black silk, her color ed orphans and her majestic presence out of the room. As the door closed, Miss Fleming put down her sewing.
 I do not dare to tell them. MT. Knox," she said. 'aThey are old, and they hate him anyhow. I couldn't sleep last night I have hemmed tea towels for Aunt Letitia today until I am frantic, and all day | have been wondering over something you said yesterday You said, you remember. that you were not a detective, that some men could take nineteen from thirty-five- and leave nothing. What did you mean?''
 1 was speeches. for moment.
 The fact is-I-you .see," I blun- dered, it was a-merely a figure of speech, a-speech of figures is more accurate" And then dinner was an, nounced Miss Letitia presided in garrulous majesty. The two old ladies picked at their food, and Miss Jane had a spot of pink in each withered cheek Mar gery Fleming made a brave pretense, . but left her plate almost untouched. As for me, I ate substantial mascu- line meal and half apologized for my appetite, but Letitia did not hear She tore the board of managers to shreds with the roast and md FFiefnounced them with the salad. =. sa
 Please do eat your dinner,'' Jane whispered. T made the salad myself And know what it takes to keep big man going. Harry eats more than Letitia and I together. Doesn't he, Margery?''
 'sHarry?" asked.
 Miss Jane leaned forward to me aft er smiling glance at her niece across.
 Harry Wardrop, a cousins son, Rnd'-she patted Margery's hand with It's ring-"soon to be something closer"
 The girls face eolored, but she re- turned Miss Jane's gentle pressure.
 'aThey put up an iron fence," Miss Letitia reverted somberly to her griev-