ne your wires I
may discover the difficulty. Meanwhile, if you wish, I'll step to the
nearest drug store and telephone our own man, who attends to the
building in which we are."

The color returned to Miss Lucy's face and the courage to her voice.

"Oh! if you will be so good! It would be a great favor to me. My life
runs so smoothly, in ordinary, that I find myself upset by the unusual
circumstances of the last few days. The blizzard, Sir Christopher's
death, Lionel's coming and terrible experience in the storm, and now
this extraordinary ringing of my door-bell, which even the neighbors
have heard and are inquiring about--altogether I--I am quite
unstrung."

Again the reporter thought regretfully of the item which would appear
in that evening's paper, and earnestly hoped she would not see it. He
determined to caution Towsley to keep her from doing so, if possible;
so he walked to the nearest drug store, rang up the electrician,
returned to the house, and proceeded to do a little investigating on
his own account.

Just then Molly arrived, for in her loneliness at the desertion of her
"girls" Miss Lucy had sent Jefferson to ask her presence. She had come
as soon as possible, which had not, however, been very promptly,
because it was market morning for her mother, and a few of the
to-be-expected accidents had befallen the twins.

"You see, Miss Armacost," said Molly, in explanation, "I was just
whisking down the kitchen to make all tidy for mother, and had put
Ivanora on one side the table and Idelia on the other. I gave Idelia a
bag of buttons to play with, and because Ivanora hadn't eaten much
breakfast I gave her a dish of molasses and some bread. I knew, of
course, she'd mess herself, but I thought it would keep her contented.
And it did!" she cried, going off into such a peal of laughter that
the reporter had to join.

"What'd she do, Molly?" asked Lionel.

"Why, I happened to set her alongside of father's chair. That has a
feather cushion in it and I didn't know there was a hole in its cover.
But there was, and Ivanora found it. I would have known she'd do that
if I'd suspected the hole. When I turned around to see if all was
right--my sake! There was that precious child all stuck up with
feathers till she looked like some big bird. The molasses on her hands
had made them stick as tight as burrs. They were all over her curls,
her face, her clothes--everything! Well! When I'd done laughing so I
could, I to