Part 23 (1/2)

It was Miss Ann t.i.tus who evinced interest next in the ”lost and found” advertis.e.m.e.nt. Miss Ann t.i.tus was the woman whom Dot called ”such a fluid speaker” and who said so many ”and-so's” that ”ain't-so's.” In other words, Miss t.i.tus, the dressmaker, was a very gossipy person, although she was not intentionally unkind.

She came in this afternoon, ”stopping by” as she termed it, from spending a short sewing day with Mrs. Pease, a Willow Street neighbor of the Corner House girls.

”And I must say that Mrs. Pease, for a woman of her age, has young idees about dress,” Miss t.i.tus confided to Mrs. McCall and Agnes, who were in the sewing room. Aunt Sarah ”couldn't a-bear” Miss Ann t.i.tus, so they did not invite the seamstress to go upstairs.

”Yes, her idees is some young,” repeated Miss t.i.tus. ”But then, nowadays if you foller the styles in the fas.h.i.+on papers n.o.body can tell you and your grandmother apart, back to! Skirts are so skimpy--and _short_!”

Miss t.i.tus fanned herself rapidly, and allowed her emphasis to suggest her own opinion of modern taste in dress.

”Of course, Mrs. Pease is slim and ain't lost all her good looks; but it does seem to me if I was a married woman,” she simpered here a little, for Miss t.i.tus had by no means given up all hope of entering the wedded state, ”I should consider my husband's feelings. I would not go on the street looking below my knees as though I was twelve year old instead of thirty-two.”

”Maybe Mr. Pease likes her to look young,” suggested Agnes.

”Hech! Hech!” clucked Mrs. McCall placidly. ”Thirty-twa is not so very auld. Not as we live these days, at any rate.”

”But think of the example she sets her children,” sniffed Miss t.i.tus, bridling.

”Tut, tut! How much d'you expect Margie and Holly Pease is influenced by their mother's style o' dress?” exclaimed the housekeeper. ”The twa bairns scarce know much about that.”

”I guess that is so,” chimed in Agnes. ”And I think she is a pretty woman and dresses nicely. So there!”

”Ah, you young things cannot be expected to think as I do,” smirked Miss t.i.tus.

”I take that as a compliment, my dear,” said the housekeeper comfortably. ”And I never expect tae be vairy old until I die. Still and all, I am some older than Agnes.”

”That reminds me,” said Miss t.i.tus, more briskly (though it did not remind her, for she had come into the Corner House for the special purpose of broaching the subject that she now announced), ”which of you Kenways is it has found a silver bracelet?”

”Now, _that_ is Agnes' affair,” chuckled Mrs. McCall.

”Oh! It is not Ruth that advertised?” queried the curious Miss t.i.tus.

”Na, na! Tell it her, Agnes,” said the housekeeper.

But Agnes was not sure she wished to describe to this gossipy seamstress all the incidents connected with Queen Alma's bracelet. She only said:

”Of course, you do not know anybody who has lost such a bracelet?”

”How can I tell till I have seen it?” demanded Miss t.i.tus.

”Well, we have about decided that until somebody comes who describes the bracelet and can explain how and where it was lost that we had better not display it at all,” Agnes said, with more firmness than was usual with her.

”Oh!” sniffed Miss t.i.tus. ”I hope you do not think that _I_ have any interest--any personal interest--in inquiring about it?”

”If I thought it was yours, Miss t.i.tus, I would let you see it immediately,” Agnes hastened to a.s.sure her. ”But of course--”

”There was a bracelet lost right on this street,” said Miss t.i.tus earnestly, meaning Willow Street and pointing that way, ”that never was recovered to my knowledge.”

”Oh! You don't mean it?” cried the puzzled girl. ”Of course, we don't _know_ that this one belongs to any of those Gypsies--”

”I should say not!” clucked Miss t.i.tus. ”The bracelet I mean was worn by Sarah Turner. She and I went together regular when we were girls.

And going to prayer meeting one night, walking along here by the old Corner House, Sarah dropped her bracelet.”