Evening star., 1930-06-22

II.
robe had en- stolen again. Isn't that irritat-
ing!" she mourned, noting her husbands pale
drawn look as he rushed away to dress.
She was saying to herself that she wished to
heaven they'd find sort of criminal who'd
keep respectable hours and not be always spoil
ing Hector's evenings.
When Hector, after hasty change, had gone
. she went back to the bed room and set herself
to tdying up after him. His dressing gown on
the hoor, his slippers on the bed Oh!
Her eyes had lighted on a small table. Scraps
Of cloth, bundle of papers, several suspender
buttons. Hector had forgotten to take his evil
dence with him.
She sat down. the Uttered pile in her lap
and, because there was nothing else to do, let
her imagination play upon the disconnected
fragments of detective lore. There were three
little books of samples; Manuel Hark Merchant
Tailor" was printed on their buckram covers
The smaller one, marked Trousers" revealed
Mr.. Fennigs passion for peculiar plaids.
MAUD loosed the band from bundle of
crisp glazed Photographic surfaces, dimly
marked with smudgy awkward smears Finger
prints. You couldn't fool Maud on that She
had scrubbed too many from the kitchen wall
after the man had come In to fix the gas stove.
But these round ugly blots. Hector swore that
eveTybodys signature the ends of his
fingers She believed It, but to test the theory
she went to the kitchen, rubbed her pinkly
fragile digitS on the gas range pressed them on
a sheet Of paper. Her round brown eyes were
wide as she compared her homemade job with
the neat professional work on Hector's evidence.
Queer little swirls and creases. Surely they
looked alike to her
Finally she set out . percolator for her hus-
bands early coffee, took q peep into the nursery
then sleepiy went to bed. She wondered If that
Frenchman - what you call him - BertilIon
didn't make lot Of mistakes. She never did
believe in palmistry. She wondered about q lot
of things. If Mr.. Fennig's poor brother was
wearing the clothes why didn't somebody catch
him? And what did Manuel Hark do suddenly
asked to make 1876 suits and Sc pairs of trousers?
For that was what making three sets came to!
1t must be like having company descend on
you when there's nothing in the ice box. Oh
well
At IL next morning Maud, holding a pair of
Hector's trousers with one hand and with the
other prOpeling Buds go-cart, bore toward Co
lumbus Circle and the tailor shop where a GER
tain Mr.. Applebaum wove holes out of clothes
In careless moment Hector had sat on ciga-
rette
At Applebaum's Mending and Cleaning Shoppe
she discovered Miss Sybil Applebaum and re-
vealed the hole in HectOrs trousers to Sybl's
alarmed, What do you know about that? A
bullet hole!"
He sat on a cigarette" Maud was digniied
Leave it to us, Mrs. Stoat!" Sybil was chatty
This New Tex Process is just perfect, Mrs.
Stoat. Papa's going to open up two new stores.
We're that rushed. Everybody wants to have
their clothes mended nowadays. Economy
You'd be surprised If you saw the stylish people
coming in here to have things mended"
Maud's imagination unreasoning, flew to the
problem of Mr.. Fennigs lost wardrobe. But
she was casual when she asked, why is it
stylish TO have your clothes mended?"
my deari" Miss Sybil lowered her voice
ITS on account Of the high cost of these ex-
elusive tailors"
"Really?"
Think Of paying $3.50 for a tuxedo suit Lots
of the very swell gentlemen are buying ready
made clothes. They really are. And see all
the fine tailor -mades we're mending just like
new"
Maud gazed along serried ranks of hanging