dBooks desire

``Oh, it's very clean and comfortable there,'' said he.
``They'll treat you right.''
``Is it respectable?'' said she.
``Well, now, it doesn't LOOK queer, if that's what you
mean,'' replied he. ``You'll do very nicely there. You
can be just as quiet as you want.''
She saw that hotel New York would not believe her
respectable. So to the Ripon she went, and was admitted
without discussion. As the last respectable clerk
had said, it did not LOOK queer. But it FELT queer; she
resolved that she would go into a boarding-house the
very next day.
Here again what seemed simple proved difficult. No
respectable boarding-house would have Miss Mary
Stevens. She was confident that nothing in her dress
or manner hinted mystery. Yet those sharp-eyed land-
ladies seemed to know at once that there was something
peculiar about her. Most of them became rude the
instant they set eyes upon her. A few--of the obviously
less prosperous class--talked with her, seemed to be
listening for something which her failing to say decided
them upon all but ordering her out of the house.


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