What Diantha Did

id the Sticks, an

said the Thread

hts came and t

ot and the R

t men find i

r on the Rope'

shoppers

e, the far

there is

ntific mind on alien tasks of financial calculation and practical psychology, but he liked it

And there were five backs at home to be covered, to use the absurd metaphor-as if all one needed for clothing was a four foot patch. The amount and quality

load of tradesmanship. Continually his thoughts went back

ory of his own, or a personal test of his own, rather, which he wished to apply to a well known theory. It would take some years to work it

sympathy with her aims, even if she achieved them-in which he had no confidence. He had no power to cha

and ruin both our lives like this? I cannot come to see you-I would not come to see you-calling at the back door! Finding the girl I love in a cap and apron! Can you not see it is wrong, utterly wrong, all this mad esc

will not live in my mother's house-and we are drifting apart. It is not that I car

and his failing strength under the unnatural strain, till Diantha grew to

that of house-maid, a distinction which made Diantha smile rather bitterly. Even her father wrote to her once, suggesting that i

mitted to herself; but she wrote as pleasant a

valuable suggestions as to the account keeping of the big house. They all assumed that she was permanently settled in this well paid position, and she

e hit upon a melancholy Dane-a big rawboned red-faced woman-whose husband had been a miller, but was hurt about the head so that h

-I can't leave him at all. But he'll take the clothes if I give him a paper with directions,

er the laundry. "There'll be work for him, too," she said. "We need a man there. He can do a d

both, and considered Diant

chen: not the jovial and sloppy personage usually figuring in this character, but a tall, angular, and somewhat cynical woman, a misanthrope in fact, with a small son. For men she had no respect whatever, but conceded a grudging admiration to Mr. Thorald as "the u

or rolled large adoring eyes at her, but said nothing. His mother accepted the proposition, but without enthusiasm. "I can't

name, Julianna?"

d. "Dere was several of 'em, all havin' different names, and to tell you de truf Mis

theories about the surname

?" she asked with

't none of 'em

e, Julianna," she continued sympathet

p with great gravity. "No'm," she said again, "dey didn

re beyond Diantha's comprehensi

long rainless summer drew to a close; but the social atmosphere fairly sparkled with new interest. Those who

orne's has started h

s. Weatherstone fairly infat

actually taken Union House? Go

a Bell's really going to try to run her ab

g out by the day," or the delivery of meals, the number of wealthy residents gave opportunity for catering on a large scale; the crowding tourists and health seekers made a market for all

ants carefully. She had studied the local conditions thoroughly, and knew her ground. A big faded building that used to be "the Hotel" in Orchardin

besides the $100 she had saved at Mrs. Porne's; and Mrs.

said Diantha, "I want

sed to be my housekeeper and I hope you will continue to be my friend. As a friend I claim the privile

all?" ask

, in a series of years, work up this business all stark alone. I have every confidence in those qualities I have mentioned! But what's the use? You'll need credit for groceries and fu

Diantha reluctantly agreed.

or so, varying from time to time. The many families with invalids, and lonely invalids without families, were glad to avail themselves of the special delicacies furnished at Union House. Picnickers found it easier to buy Dianth

al resistance of inertia and prejudice,

re sympatheti

with those twenty-five to feed, and they only

reed, "but such is my faith in Diantha

expect-it wont ruin me," she told Isabel. "And if she succeeds, as I firmly believe she

y ahead of him in that art, and, if it came to recriminations, had certain controvertible charges to make against him, which mode him angrily silent. He was convinced in a dim way that her ruthless domineering spirit, and the sheer ma

" he said to himself. "A damn fine

he had gone to Alaska suddenly, to cool off, as it were. His Grandmother, finding Mrs. Thaddler invincible with this new weapon, and what she had so long regarded as her home now visibly Mrs. W

kled for the hundredth time. "She ought to make good, and

. Moreover he was the husband of Mrs. Thaddler. She did not know that he was still the largest owner in the town's best gro

m much alarmed at this new venture," he wrote, "but you must get your experience. I wish I could save you. As to the

putation as a high flyer, and had really intended to sacrifice himself on the altar of friendship b

kitchen and dining room would have stood idle till supper time. But the young manager knew she must work her plant for all it was worth, and speedil

tables or in the flat-armed chairs in the big room, or on the broad piazza; and as this gave good food, ch

ations"-"bread and leavings," and when he saw these piles on piles of sandwiches, listed only as "No. 1," "No. 2"

cup of coffee, finding hot milk, cream and sugar crystals at hand. "I never saw a cheap j

"There's no scum on the milk, and the cream's

determined expression gave way to one of pleasure. "Why

le bread was even now melting away in large bites behind the smiling mouths and mustaches of many men. Perfect bread, excellent butter, and "What's the filling I'd like to know?" More than one inquiring-minded patron split his sandwi

cakes," sweet and spicy, were two for five. Every man spent fifteen cents, some o

a profit," urged Mr. Eltwood, making a pa

ich is domestic waste. I buy in large quantities at wholesale rates, and my cook with her little helper, t

did you create?-those heav

e Danes are so fond of sandwiches that, in large establishments, they have a 'sandwich kitchen' to prepa

lunch business paid well,

ry work on a large scale, big dining, dancing, and reception rooms, and broad shady piazzas on the sides. Its position on a corner near the business part of the litt

, had received six dollars a week "and found." They now worked an agreed number of hours, were paid on a basis by the hour or day, and "found" them

the only difficulty which really worried Diantha was t