too, in
their automobiles, and old gentlemen and young and all like that....
Here's part of her outfit"--leading Athalie to the centre table and
opening the green morocco box.

In the box was a slim bronze tripod and a big sphere of crystal. Mrs.
Meehan placed the tripod on the table and set the crystal sphere upon
it, saying dubiously: "She claimed that she could see things in that.
I guess it was part of her game. I ain't never seen nothing into that
glass ball, and I've looked, too. You can have it if you want it. It's
kind of cute to set on the mantel."

She began to paw and grub and rummage in the big paper parcel,
scratching about in the glittering mess of silk and embroidery with a
pertinacity entirely gallinaceous.

"You can have these, too," she said to Athalie--"if you want 'em.
They're heathen I guess--" holding up some tawdry Japanese and
home-made Chinese finery.

But Athalie declined the dead woman's robes of office and Mrs. Meehan
rolled them up in the wrapping paper and took them and herself off,
very profuse in her gratitude to Athalie for consenting to occupy the
apartment and thereby remove the "jinx" that had inhabited it since
the tragedy of the month before.

A very soft and melancholy mew from the basket informed the girl that
Hafiz desired his liberty. So she let him out and he trotted at her
heels as she walked about inspecting the apartment. Also he did
considerable inspecting on his own account, sniffing at every
door-sill and crack, jumping up on chairs to look out of windows,
prowling in and out of closets, his plumy tail jerking with
dubiousness and indecision.

The apartment was certainly clean. Evidently the house had been a good
one in its day, for the trim was dark old mahogany, rich and beautiful
in colour; and the fireplace was rather pretty with its acanthus
leaves and roses deeply carved in marble which time had toned to an
ivory tint.

The darkly stained floor of hardwood was, of course, modern. So were
the new and very hideous oriental rugs made in Hoboken, and the
aniline pink wall-paper, and the brand new furniture still smelling of
department store varnish. Hideous, too, were the electric fixtures,
the gas-log in the old-time fireplace, and the bargain counter
bric-a-brac geometrically spaced upon the handsome old mantel.

But there were possibilities in the big, square room facing south and
in the two smaller bed chambers fronting the north. A modern bathroom
conn