Page:The Clue of the Twisted Candle (1916).djvu/195

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

THE CLUE OF THE TWISTED CANDLE

ness?" suggested T. X. humorously. "Won't you sit down, Mrs.—"

"Mrs. Cassley," beamed the lady as she seated herself. "He was in the paper hanging business. But needs must, when the devil drives, as the saying goes."

"What particular devil is driving you, Mrs. Cassley'?" asked T. X., somewhat at a loss to understand the object of this visit.

"I may be doing wrong," began the lady, pursing her lips, "and two blacks will never make a white."

"And all that glitters is not gold," suggested T. X. a little wearily. "Will you please tell me your business, Mrs. Cassley? I am a very hungry man."

"Well, it's like this, sir," said Mrs. Cassley, dropping her erudition, and coming down to bedrock homeliness; "I've got a young lady stopping with me, as respectable a gel as I've had to deal with. And I know what respectability is, I might tell you, for I've taken professional boarders and I have been housekeeper to a doctor."

183

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.