New Britain herald., 1927-01-27
CHAPTER VIII

i at all like an ordinary roomin house.
 It was large and spotless witt white paint. In all of its shininl square-paned windows were cleal white curtains, and before ] stretched . smooth green lawl { bordered by a three-foot hedge O geraniums with big velvety ret blooms glowing among its greer leaves. On the porch were willow rock CTS and willow settee piled witt soft-looking cushions of floweret cretonne. There were magazines on a wicker table.
 Only one thing-a small square sign tackled beside the street nun ber-betrayed the fact that thu house was anything but private home. That sign read simpl, Rooms"
 Robbie went up the steps. after . short look around her, and rang the doorbell.
 It was answered by a middle. aged woman who wasn't 50 tall a. she looked to be. Her hair wa gray. So were her tired eyes. Sc was her house-dress. and even hel skin seemed to have taken on [ faint tinge of gray. She was as colorless as her house was gay and cheerful. Robbie glanced from her to the folded newspaper in her hand.
 'I came about a room to rent, she said. her voice faltering a lit- tie.
 "Oh, yes." The woman's voice was like her eyes-tired and gentla
 Its up here" she said. 'at tn. head of the stairs. Come right along" There was a fresh, airy. clean smell in the house, and the stairs and the upper hallway were just as spotless as the outside of the house had been.
 Heres the room," the gray-look- ing woman said, and opened g NHlte UCoT dt tlic ucdu ol lle stairs.
 Robbie stepped in ahead of her It was a large square room lighted by two front windows. The floor was waxed and there were green blue rag rugs on 1t. The sheer white curtains were bound ir green-blue voile.
 The furniture was painted soft green-blue. too. There was 8 smell of fresh paint in the room, and the woman laid work-hard- ened finger on the foot of the bed.
 Dry as a bone" she remarked. T painted it myself last week. Put three coats on it.".
 There was a little thrill of pride in her voice when she said it.
 "I learned how to do it last spring, when we had an interior decorator living here with us." she added plaintively. 'she got joh in one of the studios and took a flat by herself"
 Robbie gazed all around the room. She remembered how Aunt Gertrude had warned her not to take any room until she had thrown back the bed covers to see If the mattress were clean, and to he sure to peep into the clothes closet to see if that were clean and sweet smelling, too.
 She knew she ought to do these things. But, somehow, she couldn't do it with the landlady standing there looking at her with proud, pathetic eyes.
 Would you like to see the bath room ?" she asked in her tired voice. and Robbie followed her to bathroom almost as large as the front bedroom itself.
 The first thing she noticed about 1t was the quantity of towels in it. There were six towel racks and five of them were loaded with clean towels.
 The sixth was empty.
 This would be your rack, Miss" she said.
 "Ransom," Robbie told her. and she went on:
 T have three young ladies living with me now. The other two racks belong to MT. Mangan and me. We all have to use this cne bathroom, so everybody in the house has a special time for con- ing into it in the morning. And we always have plenty of hot water. l had a new heater put in last winter. I always say there's nothing so dreary as 8 luke-warm bath, unless it's luke-warm coffee"
 This ad said kitchen privi- leges'," Robbie said timidly. "Does that mean I could get break fast in your kitchen?"
 "Yes, and any other meal you wanted to cook for yourself" the landlady answered. But there's one thing I won't have in my house and that's cooking and eating in the bedrooms. I won't have food kept any place but in the kitchen. I've got boxes downstairs where you can put the things you buy"
 AS she talked she started down the stairs once more. and Robbie followed after her.
 Through a shining, well-fur- nished living room, through a din- ing room that was fairly alive with sparkling glassware in glass cup boards they went.
 The kitchen at the back of the house was like the kitchens in fairy-story books for children. The cupboards were filled with blue and white china, and the shelves were all trimmed with lace paper.
 There were thin curtains of blue and-white ginghan in the sunny windows, and on the sills were potted pink geraniums. A canary sang in a brass cage on the porch just beyond the screen door, and on the floor three tiny cats were It..