Athalie

Her small steamer trunk went by a rickety private express for fifty

cents: with the basket containing Hafiz, her suit-case, and a furled

umbrella she started for her new lodgings.

Michael, opening the lower grille for her, stammered: "God knows why

ye do this, Miss! Th' young Masther'll be afther givin' me the sack av

ye lave the house unbeknowns't him!"

"I can't stay, Michael. He knows I can't. Good-bye!"

"Good-bye Miss! God be good to ye--an' th' pusheen--!" laying a huge

but gentle paw on Hafiz's basket whence a gentle plaint arose.

And so Athalie and Hafiz departed into the world together; and

presently bivouacked; their first etape on life's long journey ending

on the top floor of 1006 West Fifty-fifth Street.

The landlady was a thin, anxious, and very common woman with false

hair and teeth; and evidently determined to secure Athalie for a

lodger.

But the terms she offered the girl for the entire top floor were so

absurdly small that Athalie hesitated, astonished and perplexed.

"Oh, there's a jinx in the place," said the landlady; "I ain't aiming

to deceive nobody, and I'll tell you the God-awful truth. If I don't,"

she added naively, "somebody else is sure to hand it to you and you'll

get sore on me and quit."

"What is the matter with the apartment?" inquired the girl uneasily.

"I'll tell you: the lady that had it went dead on me last August."

"Is that all?"

"No, dearie. It was chloral. And of course, the papers got hold of it

and nobody wants the apartment. That's why you get it cheap--if you'll

take it and chase out the jinx that's been wished on me. Will you,

dearie?"

"I don't know," said the girl, looking around at the newly decorated

and cheerful rooms.

The landlady sniffed: "It certainly was one on me when I let that jinx

into my house--to have her go dead on me and all like that."

"Poor thing," murmured Athalie, partly to herself.

"No, she wasn't poor. You ought to have seen her rings! Them's what

got her into trouble, dearie;--and the roll she flashed."

"Wasn't it suicide?" asked Athalie.

[Illustration: "'Wasn't it suicide?' asked Athalie."] "I gotta tell you the truth. No, it wasn't. She was feeling fine and

dandy. Business had went good.... There was a young man to visit her

that evening. I seen him go up the stairs.... But I was that sleepy

I went to bed. So I didn't see him come down. And next day at noon

when I went up to do the room she lay dead onto the floor, and her

rings gone, and the roll missing out of her stocking."