Middletown transcript., 1917-09-08

his trousers legs.
"LOok at that! Three inches TOO
short! Where the Sam Hill did these
come from?"
"Why, you've drawn them up too
high"
"Too high? Let out to the last
notch. When'd you have this suit
pressed?" examining the dress coat
and vest he had thrown on the bed.
To-day"
"Well, it's somebody else's! That
fool taller got 'em mixed. NOW
we're in devil of a fix!'
"Oh, Warren, he couldn't! 1t must
be your suit
"It is, eh? How about this-'H.
Gordon" finding the name on the
tailors label inside the vest pocket.
"Mr. Gordon.' eXcitedly. "Oh, that
stupid delivery boy! Dora'll have to
take it in and get yours"
With anxious directions, Helen fold
! ed the suit over Dora'S arm and sent
/ her across the hall to the Gordons
/ apartment to explain the tailors er-
rOr.
But the girl returned with the dis
concerting message that neither MIR.
nor Mrs. Gordon was in and that she
could not make their Norwegian maid
understand.
| Dear, wear your dinner coat
pleaded Helen. "The LeOnards aren't
very formal"
"The dinner coats all right-but
what about trousers? They happen to
be in style this year"
ooh" despairingly, remembering
Warren had but one pair of trousers
! for both his dress and dinner coat.
"I'l see if l can locate 'em," girdling
about him his long blanket robe.
"No-no, dear, you can't go like
that. Wait. I'm almost dressed. Only
Mrs Gordon's so peculiar hate to go
when she's not there"
If it had been any one but the Cor
! dons, worried Helen, as Dora hooked
her gown. Ever since the unpleasant
| maid incident, last winter, their rela-
tons had been most strained.
"The tailor who presses the clothes
+, left this suit with us, so you must
have Mr.. Curtis" explained Helen
! laboriously to the Gordons' maid.
This Mr.. Gordon's suit?" smiled the
girl. Eyes, l take it in
"But | want the other suit! You
don't understand The tailor got the
suits mixed" she began again with
distinct, painstaking slowness.
"Oh, yes, ma'am-yes, ma'am, l un-
derstand! l get you the suit
Helen waited hopefully at the door,
but it was a blue sack suit that the
girl brought out Once more she eX-
planned that it was black with a satin
! faced collar, ana the maid came smil-
! ingly back with a morning coat.
"KnOw what time it is?" called War
ren, appearing in the hall.
ooh. | can't make her understand"
desperately. "She's brought every
suit but the right one
"Then go in and get it yourself"
ooh. not while they're Outn
ven, IL VIC lC gums " tii't' uAAhNi
we can't stand on ceremony"
| Eyes, ma'am, you come look-that'll
be all right" the maid assured them.
Reluctantly Helen followed her
through the long, dim hail. Though
| they had lived on the same floor with
the Gordons for over two years, it
was the first time she had been in
! their apartment.
Past the dining room, with the table
set for dinner, a glimpse of bath
room with elaborate, but unpOlished
/ fixtures and Helen found herself in an
/ oyerfurnished bedroom cluttered with
cretonne-covered boxes and hand
made knicknacks that suggested
! church bazaar.
"Maybe you find it here" The girl
threw open the closet door.
If was a crowded, disordered closet.
The shelves were jumbled with hat
boxes and the floor Uttered with shoes
ana shoe trees From a cross rod
hing Mr.. Gordon's suits. Helen went
through them hurriedly. frock coat,
a cutaway, four sack suits, an over
/ coat-Warren's dress suit was not
there.
"Maybe in hurry she left it here"
suggested the maid, leading the way
info the smaller bedroom that In their
apartment Helen used as a dressing
room.
Here Mrs. GOrdOn's clothes over
flowed the hooks and crowded the
door. On the croSs-pOle hung her bet
fer frOcks on ribbon-cOvered hangers,
and among them cleaned the satiny
black of Warren's dress suit. The
sound of a closing door, and the maid
ran out with an anxious, "Oh, Mrs.
Gordon-I tell her!"
Helen stood paralyzed. Murmured
voices from the hall. The girl was
irving to explain. But the next in
slant Mrs. Gordon, looming in the
doorway, stared at her intruding WIS.,
itor in speechless amazement.
"Oh, I'm so sorry faltered Helen,
.but the tailor's boy delivered Mr..
Gordon's suit to us, and IL came
to get Mr.. Curtis"
"You came into my bedroom This
is most astonishing! l never heard
of such
Mrs. Gordon, your maid couldn't
find the suit" in c-imsoning embar-
rassment. "She suggested that +"
Sand YOU took advantage of an ig-