emost citizens. And even if she had, she would
not have got the trunks taken up-stairs.

The prospect of discarding Sallie Kingsbury's makeshifts and wearing a
dress which belonged to her had more comfort in it than Agatha had ever
believed possible; and the reality was even better. She made a toilet,
for the first time in many days, with her accustomed accessories,
dressed herself in a white wool gown, and felt better.

"Are these the relatives you were visiting, Miss Redmond?" inquired
Lizzie, eaten up with curiosity, which was her mortal weakness.

Agatha paused, struck with the form of the maid's question; but,
knowing her liking for items of news, she answered cautiously:

"Not relatives exactly. The Thayers were old friends of my mother."

Lizzie shook out a skirt and hung it in the wardrobe in the far corner
of the room. She was bursting to know everything about Miss Redmond's
sudden journey, but knew better than to appear anxious.

"The message at the hotel was so indefinite that I didn't know at all
what I should do. After the excitement quieted down a little, I went
out to visit my cousin Hattie, in the Bronx."

"What sort of excitement?"

"Oh, newspaper men, and the manager, and Herr Weimar, of the orchestra,
and a lot of other people who came, wanting to see you immediately.
They seemed to think I was hiding you somewhere."

Agatha smiled. She could imagine Lizzie in her new-fledged importance,
talking to all those people.

"You spoke of a message--" ventured Agatha.

"Yes; the one you sent the day you left, Miss Redmond. The hotel clerk
said you had suddenly left town on a visit to a sick relative."

"Oh, yes."

Lizzie's quick scent was already on the trail of a mystery, but Agatha
was in no mood just then to give her any version of the events of that
Monday afternoon.

"Was there any other message, Miss Redmond? Some word for me, which
the clerk forgot to deliver?"

"No, nothing else."

"Mr. Straker came Tuesday morning with some contracts for you to sign.
He said that you had an appointment with him, and he was nearly crazy
when he found you had gone away without leaving your address."

Agatha smiled more and more broadly, to Lizzie's disgust, but she could
not help it. "I don't doubt he was disturbed. Did he come again?"

"Come again, Miss Redmond!" Lizzie hung a blue silk coat over its
hanger, held it carefully up to the light, and turned toward her
mistress with the mie