ternoon in that old phaeton with young Marsh."

Rosemary's heart paused for a moment, then resumed its beat.

"She's a play-actin' person, he says, or at any rate she looks like one,
which amounts to the same thing. She's brought four trunks with her--one
respectable trunk, same as anybody might have, one big square trunk that
looks like a dog-house, and another big trunk that a person could move
into if there wasn't no other house handy, and another trunk that was
packed so full that it had bulged out on all sides but one, and when Jim
and Dick took it up into the attic there wasn't but one side they could
set it on. And whiles they was findin' a place to set it, she and young
Marsh was laughin' down in the hall."

[Sidenote: Servant's Gossip]

"Who is she?" demanded Grandmother. "Where did she come from? How long
is she goin' to stay? Where'd Mis' Marsh get to know her?"

"The milkman's wife was over last Monday," Matilda continued, "to help
with the washin', and she says she never see such clothes in all her
born days nor so many of 'em. They was mostly lace, and she had two
white petticoats in the wash. The stocking was all silk, and she said
she never see such nightgowns. They was fine enough for best summer
dresses, and all lace, and one of 'em had a blue satin bow on it, and
what was strangest of all was that there wa'n't no place to get into
'em. They was made just like stockin's with no feet to 'em, and if she
wore 'em, she'd have to crawl in, either at the bottom or the top. She
said she never see the beat of those nightgowns."

"Do tell!" ejaculated Grandmother.

"And her hair looks as if she ain't never combed it since the day she
was born. The milkman says it looks about like a hen's nest and is
pretty much the same colour. He see her on the porch for a minute, and
all he could look at was that hair. And when he passed 'em on the
river-road after they come from the post-office, he couldn't see her
hair at all, cause she had on a big hat tied on with some thin light
blue stuff. He reckoned maybe her hair was a wig."

[Sidenote: Discussing the Stranger]

"I'd know whether 'twas a wig or not, if I saw it once," Grandmother
muttered. "There ain't nobody that can fool me about false hair."

"I guess you ain't likely to see it," retorted Matilda, viciously. "All
we'll ever hear about her'll be from the milk folks."

"Maybe I could see her," ventured Rosemary, cautiously. "I could put on
my best white