The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1919-10-17
Jane Bunker

i CeIiItSS IL StIutk liz GS ACNio
rio talked and told me how shed been
| trying to make arrangements for one
of these persons to come over With her
that she was getting up new turns In
her own shows much as a vaudeville
manager hunts up new performers for
his. She asked me to visit her In New
York. not professionally but as q
friend, aud still, if | were interested
| and would undertake some investiga-
tons, she'd be glad to help me, and
/ couldn't refrain from saying, That
is. you'll put me ext to some first
class spOoks?"
l think this rather hurt her, for she
answered q little tartly, "YOu may not
be interested nOw-but you Will be.
! The occult is coming into your life and
you can't prevent it. You'll get mani
festatiOns that will-at least that may
drive you almost insane if you're
! not prepared for them and don't know
how to handle the forces that are
already at work about you" And with
| that parting shOt-that, of course, any
body might fire into yOu In s~elf-iefense
or just to be q little nasty-she went
away to Claire. And I'm going to con-
TESS right here that in spite Of my
skepticism l felt creepy.
also felt clearer in my own mind
on many little things I'd noticed about
Claire: her coming to my staterOOm
that time her constant hanging about
me ever when she must have seen II
was incOnvcnicrlt for me 10 have her:
and The way she seemed so much OF
the latter part of the voyage to be
trying to Keep away from Mrs. Della.
rio, STAYING by herself in her state.
room. Had there been manifestations
occurring In the stateroGn? Or had
Mrs. nelNrio been telling Claire things
till she got the child 81 nervous the
doctor vas really serious over herr
Mrs. DeIario was not ct dinner that
! night and Claire left the table after
the M and as ] WAS busy packing
/ saw neither Of them until morning,
when all was hustle and excitement,
for we'd passed the Statue Of Liberty
and were steaming up the bay and
would be on dry hand almost before we
knew 1T. And then We were hanging
over the rail and locking down at the
friends of the passengers on the dock,
and l heard Claire, in an agOnized
voice: Mamma isn't meeting mel!
Claire began to cry, not b~oisterously
hui in q dreadfully pathetic, lOst-child
way, into q very beautiful French en-
brOidered handkerchief, and all the
customs inspectors gathered about her
and she asked them each in turn if
he'd seen mamma and described mann
ma, and ne shook his head and told
her he'd help her look for mamma in a
minute as Don as he got the baggage
our %suitcases opened and made Claire
open her bags and her trunk and we
implored the inspectors to look at our
ueager belongings In a hurry and the
inspectors We're all too busy asking
Claire what her mother looked like
and what hotel she stayed at: and
Claire would use her exquisite hand
kerchief on her more exquisite eyes
and say she supposed it was Hotel
d'Ancleterre-they always stepped at
d'AngleierreS when they travelled.
Finally I managed to induce an iDspec-
tor TO take his eyes off Claire for q
minute and devote them to the bag
gage of a m~iddle-aged persOn-my-
self-and he east a glance over my
suitcase and Mrs. DelariO's, which vas
open on q bench beside mine, and said,
That's all right. Where does the
young lady come from, and isn't it
awful her mother isn't here, and may
be she's met with an accident On the
way and been killed"
Claire heard hin-and almost faint
ed into MyS. DelariO's arms.
Now just 81 moment before he said
these wordSI noticed that n of the
two pairs of turquOise-studded slippers
had fallen between the two s%uitcases.
/ picked it up and | was on the point
OF asking Mrs. DelariO If it belonged
to her when Claire collapsed. and three
seconds later l saw my cousin. who
piiOUlu law ihSt IhC, Sobs4A6 Up vi IN
trOt.
He made the first sensible sugges-
ton that had heen o~ffered-that as
Mrs. DelariO had Claire in charge
she'd better take the child home with
her and cable to the father for instruc-
lions.
The slipper was all this while in my
hand, and without giving II another
thought-indeed, hardly being con-
scious what I did, stuffed 1t In
among some clothes in my W suit
case and shut the lid and away VIC
went. Wasn't 1t, under the circum-
stances. a perfectly natural thing to
do? Well. the moral is "dont'-dont
every carry of an old slipper unless
vOn're sure IT'S yOurs. That old slip