posal that they should
meet Mr. Kemp and the agent at the Shop and decide what was to be done
about the lease, which had more than a year to run.

"They'll be there shortly after noon," Ernestine reminded Milly, as the
latter was about to leave the house that day.

"All right," she said evasively. "I'll try to be there, but it won't
make any difference if I'm not--you know about everything."

She was not there. Ernestine knew well enough that Milly would not come
to the funeral of their enterprise at the Cake Shop, and though she felt
hurt she said nothing to the men and went through with the last
formalities in the dusty, dismantled temple of cakes. At the end the
banker asked Ernestine kindly what she meant to do. He knew that the
Laundryman's capital had gone--all her savings--and that "the firm" was
in debt to his bank for a loan of several hundred dollars, which he
expected to pay himself and also to take care of the lease.

"I don't know yet," Ernestine replied. "I'll find some place.... And it
won't be in any fancy kind of business like this, you can bet," and she
cast a malevolent glance over the tarnished glories of the Cake Shop. "I
got my experience and I paid for it--with every cent I had in the world.
I ain't goin' to buy any more of that!"

The banker laughed sympathetically.

"What's Mrs. Bragdon going to do?" he inquired.

"I don't know--she hasn't told me yet."

Her answer was evasive because Ernestine suspected very well what Milly
was likely to do.... She turned the key in the lock, handed it over to
the agent, and with a curt nod to the two men strode away from the Cake
Shop for the last time. (That evening the banker, reporting the
occurrence to his wife, said,--"I feel sorry for that woman! She's lost
every cent she had--our Milly has milked her clean." "Walter, how can
you say that?" his wife replied indignantly. "It wasn't Milly's fault if
the business failed, any more than hers." "Well, I'd like to bet it's a
good big part the fault of our pretty friend." "Miss Geyer ought not to
have gone into something she knew nothing about." "Milly bewitched her,
I expect. The best thing she can do is to shake her and go back to the
laundry business.")

It was not Ernestine, however, who was to "shake" Milly. That lady
herself was busily evading their partnership, as Ernestine suspected.
While the short obsequies were being transacted at the Cake Shop, Milly
was lunching in the one good new hotel C