y cat. I've had him ever since I had tonsilitis. Aunt Kate
says the law won't let him live here with me, so I'm boarding him over
there." And she nodded in the direction of the alley and the
hospitable Mr. Jerry.

"Cats here? I should say not!" exclaimed Mrs. Schuneman. She watched
Mary Rose as she carefully locked the door of the Bracken apartment.
The child puzzled her and when Mrs. Schuneman was puzzled over anything
or anyone she had to find out all about them. She had nothing else to
do. Once she had been an active harassed woman, busy with the problem
of how she was to support herself and her two daughters, but just when
the problem seemed about to be too much for her to solve a brother died
and left her money enough to live comfortably for the remainder of her
life. She had moved from the crowded downtown rooms to the more
pretentious Washington and tried to think that she was happier for the
change, but really she was very lonely and discontented. Miss Louise
Schuneman was too busy with church work and Miss Lottie Schuneman had a
bridge club four afternoons a week and went to the matinee and the
moving picture shows the other afternoons, so that neither of them was
a companion for their mother. Mrs. Schuneman had nothing to do but
wonder about the neighbors she did not know and tell her maid how much
admired her daughters were and how hard she had worked herself until
the good God had seen fit to take her brother from his packing plant.
"If you're the janitor's niece you can come in and clean up the mess
the plumber made on my floor. It isn't the place of the girl I pay
wages to, to clean up the dirt the workmen make."

"Isn't it?" Mary Rose did not know and she followed Mrs. Schuneman
into the living-room. "What a pleasant room," she said, when she
crossed the threshold, for the sun streamed in through the windows in a
way that made even a rather garish decoration seem attractive.

Mrs. Schuneman's grim face relaxed a trifle. "It ought to be pretty,"
she grumbled. "It cost enough but it don't suit Louise. And Lottie
don't like the rug. She says it's too red. But I like red," she
snapped. "It's a thankless task to try and please girls who think they
know more than their old mother."

"There is a lot of red in it." Mary Rose had to admit that much. "But
red is a cheerful color. It makes you feel very warm and comfortable."

"It isn't cheerful to my girls. They won't stay at home, always