ow."

"I don't think much of Madame More," observed Isabella, "and after
Paris----"

"Do you like La Mole better?" I inquired, bobbing my head to and fro
before the mirror, the better to conceal my interest in the venture I
was making.

"I don't like any of them but D'Aubigny," returned Isabella. "She
charges twice what La Mole does----"

Twice! What are these girls' purses made of, or rather their father's!

"But she has the _chic_ we are accustomed to see in French millinery. I
shall _never_ go anywhere else."

"We were recommended to her in Paris," put in Caroline, more languidly.
Her interest was only half engaged by this frivolous topic.

"But did you never have one of La Mole's hats?" I pursued, taking down
a hand-mirror, ostensibly to get the effect of my bonnet in the back,
but really to hide my interest in their unconscious faces.

"Never!" retorted Isabella. "I would not patronize the thing."

"Nor you?" I urged, carelessly, turning towards Caroline.

"No; I have never been inside her shop."

"Then whose is----" I began and stopped. A detective doing the work I
was, would not give away the object of his questions so recklessly.

"Then who is," I corrected, "the best person after D'Aubigny? I never
can pay _her_ prices. I should think it wicked."

"O don't ask us," protested Isabella. "We have never made a study of the
best bonnet-maker. At present we wear hats."

And having thus thrown their youth in my face, they turned away to the
window again, not realizing that the middle-aged lady they regarded with
such disdain had just succeeded in making them dance to her music most
successfully.

The luncheon I ordered was elaborate, for I was determined that the
Misses Van Burnam should see that I knew how to serve a fine meal, and
that my plates were not always better than my viands.

I had invited in a couple of other guests so that I should not seem to
have put myself out for two young girls, and as they were quiet people
like myself, the meal passed most decorously. When it was finished, the
Misses Caroline and Isabella had lost some of their consequential airs,
and I really think the deference they have since showed me is due more
to the surprise they felt at the perfection of this dainty luncheon,
than to any considerate appreciation of my character and abilities.

They left at three o'clock, still without news of Mrs. Van Burnam; and
being positive by this time that the shadows were thicken