The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1919-10-31
CUT DIAMOND
Jane Bunker

occur TO me II the chance TO speak
of them vent by.
The seance room was as queer to
my eye as it seemed TO have"been to
Claire's. i think the impression upper.
most in my mind was the soundless.
ness Of the place. 1t seemed as re-
mote from the bustling life of the
great city in the midst Of which 1t was
as II 1t had been in the heart Of a
desert.
But Mrs. Delario left NE but little
time for observation; merely remark
: ing that this was the seance room, she
asked if I'd secD Claire and what
thought Of her.
WE'LL thought a great deal Of / sr
md many things about her, and while
was considering my answer Mrs.
pelariO prOpounded a question that
fairly stunned me: "Do you think the,
girl could be a THEIR
ooh, never-Dever in the world.
What-Claire !" ] cried hotly, and the
picture Of the high-bred girl came be-
tore me. ! could as soon have thought
NY W sister q thief. Nevertheless l
was soon at q loss TO explain the cpl
bodes Mrs. DelariO told me.
On the steamer. for instance, she
pad twice caught Claire turning over
things In her-Mrs. DeIariO's-suit-
M Claire excused 1t once by say
ing she'd accidentally put some Of her
,wn toilet articles In II by mistake
while she was too sick to notice"
But what finally brought about the
,risis WAS this: A sitter had given
Mrs. DelariO ii ten-dOllar bill IN pay
nsent for a reading. and she had gone
hastily to her room for change, and
returning had left her bedroom door.
ajar and A quantity of bills lying on
the bureau which she hadn't stopped TO
put back into her purse. The moment
Ehe had shown the sitter out she went
back TO replace her purse and found
Claire in her Claire was In the
act IF closing the wardrobe door and
said she was looking for her muff!
And why her muff IN Mrs. DeIario's
wardrObe7
But did she steal any money!" !
demanded, almost in fear Of the reply.
Mrs. DelariO tool some time 10 IN
swer and this is what she said: "You
know I'm SO fond Of the child Iii
rather think / made II mistake than
that she robbed me. had two five
dollar bills-a lot Of twOs and one and
several tens-and what l think l did
was TO take q five and a twO-seven
dollars-and rush downstairs. But
what l might have done was taken the
two fives-a five instead of a two
and give them to the lady. She didn't
look at them. Anyway, the other FIVE
was gone"
Ii was this sort of thing about her
that made me like Mrs. Delario SO
much-her willingness to excuse and
to wait for final proofs of peoples de-
li%nquencies. She hadn't even men,
toned Der suspicion to Claire; at the
same time the incident decided her
that she could OF no account keep the
child longer in the house. the worry
Of looking after her was too great, and
she had told Claire this ana {hafH her
didn't arrive by Monday Qaire
would have to go to a boarding sehool
for safekeeping till he dih. Monsieur
lie pere opportunity arrived next
morning and took Claire away. That
was Thursday-the day before she
called on me-and Claire had been
with Mrs. Delario just since Monday.
Very naturally, then. in all the story
l never once thought Of the slipper and
that Mrs. Delarfo might be suspecting
Claire of taking II also. But having.
SO to speak, settled Claire in saying
that she had left on Thursday after
noon, Mrs. Delario quickly switched
the conversation on the real subject OF
my visit. She introduced 1t by saying
that Lila-who was still in q boarding
school near Philadelphia-was break
Ing down and might have to be Bent
for treatment-she seemed to
be developing spinal trouble, though
the doctors here really didn't seem to
what allied the child; and then
the sentence I clearly remember was.
I'm very greatly In need OF money"
I fear I must have drawn back sud-
denly-I actually thought she was try
ing to borruw of me-for she smiled
and answered my unspOken words: II
don't mean ! want to borrow anything.
l have some property ! want to dis |
pose Of. l want to sell some rubies."
why. Mrs. DelariO, I'm not q
l replied quickly.
II know you're nOt-that's why l
Thought you could help me better than
else. The stones were left me
by a great-uncle in France, and I may
well confess It now-they came In
duty free"
Struggled r. l interjected.
"Well, a friend brought them owe
and they weren't found when the bag
gage was examined. But don't you .
that was VII. ! could sell them at .
1919 a. L