ime of her life getting this place
cleaned up?"

The drop-leaf mahogany table in the beautiful old dining room looked
very inviting when Josie informed the master:

"Dinner bane served up, sir!"

A low bowl of violets and early hyacinths that the new maid had found
blooming in the back yard were reflected in the polished surface of the
mahogany. The table must perforce be bare as all the tablecloths in the
house were soiled. She had found some lacy mats which she had washed
and ironed hurriedly. The silver and glass were polished to the nth
degree. The master looked his approval and actually smiled at the
clever maid but Josie's eyes were dull and fishy and on her face
nothing was expressed but dense stupidity. She proceeded to serve the
dinner with meticulous care, thankful for the training she had had at
the Higgledy-Piggledy tea room. Not one false move did she make in her
service, but not once did she allow a gleam of intelligence to flicker
across her countenance.

"Where did you make your find?" asked the guest, who turned out to be
Braxton Denton, Miss Oleander's horse-racing brother, a middle-aged man
with a flashy cravat and a crooked mouth.

"She found me. She seems to be a good enough servant considering she is
so marvelously stupid."

Josie overheard the conversation as she removed the soup plates. In the
pantry she permitted herself the luxury of a grin and after she slid
the broiled pompano from the grill to the fish plates she let off more
steam by a pirouette that a premiere danseuse might have envied.

Silently and efficiently she served the whole meal, managing to efface
herself so utterly that the two men talked as freely as though they had
been alone in the dining room.

"Gloomy old house!" said Braxton Denton. "I wonder you hang on here."

"It has been my home ever since I was a boy and I am more comfortable
here than I would be at a hotel. I am very fond of this place. The
property would run down terribly, too, if I let it stand vacant. It is
only gloomy because I can't get anyone to keep it in order. The
servants have all left and I don't seem to be able to get any more--not
until this girl came last night. How long she will stick I can't tell."

"Until I find out what I want to know," muttered Josie to the empty
fish plates as she bore them off.

"How is your sister-in-law getting?"

"No better," with a heavy sadness in his tone. "I am afraid the case is
a hopeless one. I get daily