Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1919-11-26
sex assraed that Mrs. Jimmson bad

can tell what anybody will do-per-
haps she'd have done just the same If
I'd told her not to: for she mixed
those slippers up and set them in a
row beside my bed along with oxford
ties and bath slippers.
1t was on the day that Mrs. Jimm-
son cleaned that Claire came tripping
up to see me and tell me that her ia
Their had arrived.
1t was the first time I'd seen her
since we'd parted at the cable office,
and of course 1 had to spare her
few minutes and hear what she had to
say. She was staying with her father
at a hotel-mamma hadn't yet come,
because grandpapa was dying every
day and she didn't dare to leave him.
And then she suddenly wished to know
if all Americans lived the way Mrs.
Delario did, and did American ladies
workf
l had to ask her what she meant,
and she explained that everything at
Mrs. Delario's was $50 unlike the way
they lived abroad" that Mrs. Delario
never left her bedroom unlocked for
a single minute; that all the upstairs
rooms were locked; that she made
| her-Claire-keep her door locked,
because" she said, "yOu never can
| tell ;" that people, most of whom were
| strangers, were coming to the house
all day from nine till five. Mrs. Della
rio called them "sitters" and gave
| them readings" in an awfully queer
room where the shutters weren't ever
opened; and she = Claire-belieyed
| that Mrs Delario took money for
these readings. though she never would
say what she read; and if she took
money how could she be a lady?
| Though she was very nice and kind
| and papa wanted her to keep her
| Claire-till her mother arrived, and
| Mrs. Delario wouldn't on account of
her work, and what sort of work could
it possibly be?
I saw by that that Mrs. Delario
hadn't taken Claire much into her con-
| fidence-Claire said even her father
couldn't guess what Mrs. Delario did,
| exactly, though he thought he knew
little, only he didn't know that la
dies did it in America.
While I was considering what I'd
! better say the clock struck and l
bounced out of my chair in hurry
| it was the hour of an appointment,
| and here 1 was five miles away, gos-
siping.
I told Claire had to run, and she
| fo1 70 hn6rnOOn WhiIn I
got my coat, and it was she who ex-
claimed, "Why, there's Mrs. Delario's
slipper! She's hunted everywhere for
it. You picked it up at the customs
house and put it in your suitcase"
'Tm the thief" I laughed, slipping
on my coat.
Claire took a couple Of steps toward
the slippers and said, 'IlI take it back
to her."
''No, my dear-just leave it. I don't
know which is hers-I see Mrs. Jimm-
son has mixed them all up-and l
haven't time to find out now"
"Oh, can soon tell" and Claire was
about to pounce on them, but headed
her off.
"Thats a matter for me to attend
to, Claire, and entirely between Mrs.
Delario and myself"
By this time 1 had on my veil and
| gloves, and hearing the elevator stop
ping at the floor, 1 shooed Claire and
bolted for it.
Now I'd looked at the slippers as
Claire spoke, and they were standing
HEEL TO THE WALL, between a
paid of oxford ties and a pair of
bath slippers that were toe to the
wall, as were all the rest but these
three slippers; and I noticed this par
| ticularly and remembered it later COM
ing home in the cars when the incident
required to me, and I wondered why
since Claire was no longer with Mrs.
| Delario-She had been so anxious to
take the slipper back, and if she need
ed an excuse-pOssibly-t her father
for going to the house to see her
friend, and how if it hadn't been for
| Mrs Jimmson I could have let her
| take the slipper and been glad to have
her do it; and how Mrs. Jimmson must
have pleased herself in placing the
slippers just that way, backs to the
wall, so they'd show off to best advan-
tage as works of art and decorate the
room at large with their beauty; and
how it must have puzzled her to find
three slippers all alike IN my room
not two, not four, but three; and why
three? And what would the good
creature say if told her I'd stolen the
| odd one?
! These thoughts may seem too trivial
| to mention, but the point is that
thought them and they were so obvi.
ously suggested by the way Jimmson
placed the slippers, heel to the wall.
But here's the uncanny thing that hap
pened: When 1 got home one hour