The Case of Jennie Brice | Page 3

farther, so the landlord will
have to paper the parlor."
That was at three o'clock. At four Mr. Ladley went down the stairs, and
I heard him getting into a skiff in the lower hall. There were boats
going back and forth all the time, carrying crowds of curious people,
and taking the flood sufferers to the corner grocery, where they were
lowering groceries in a basket on a rope from an upper window.
I had been making tea when I heard Mr. Ladley go out. I fixed a tray
with a cup of it and some crackers, and took it to their door. I had never
liked Mrs. Ladley, but it was chilly in the house with the gas shut off
and the lower floor full of ice-water. And it is hard enough to keep
boarders in the flood district.
She did not answer to my knock, so I opened the door and went in. She
was at the window, looking after him, and the brown valise, that
figured in the case later, was opened on the floor. Over the foot of the
bed was the black and white dress, with the red collar.
When I spoke to her, she turned around quickly. She was a tall woman,
about twenty-eight, with very white teeth and yellow hair, which she
parted a little to one side and drew down over her ears. She had a sullen
face and large well-shaped hands, with her nails long and very pointed.

"The 'she-devil' has brought you some tea," I said. "Where shall she put
it?"
"'She-devil'!" she repeated, raising her eyebrows. "It's a very thoughtful
she-devil. Who called you that?"
But, with the sight of the valise and the fear that they might be leaving,
I thought it best not to quarrel. She had left the window, and going to
her dressing-table, had picked up her nail-file.
"Never mind," I said. "I hope you are not going away. These floods
don't last, and they're a benefit. Plenty of the people around here rely on
'em every year to wash out their cellars."
"No, I'm not going away," she replied lazily. "I'm taking that dress to
Miss Hope at the theater. She is going to wear it in _Charlie's Aunt_
next week. She hasn't half enough of a wardrobe to play leads in stock.
Look at this thumb-nail, broken to the quick!"
If I had only looked to see which thumb it was! But I was putting the
tea-tray on the wash-stand, and moving Mr. Ladley's papers to find
room for it. Peter, the spaniel, begged for a lump of sugar, and I gave it
to him.
"Where is Mr. Ladley?" I asked.
"Gone out to see the river."
"I hope he'll be careful. There's a drowning or two every year in these
floods."
"Then I hope he won't," she said calmly. "Do you know what I was
doing when you came in? I was looking after his boat, and hoping it
had a hole in it."
"You won't feel that way to-morrow, Mrs. Ladley," I protested,
shocked. "You're just nervous and put out. Most men have their ugly
times. Many a time I wished Mr. Pitman was gone--until he went. Then

I'd have given a good bit to have him back again."
She was standing in front of the dresser, fixing her hair over her ears.
She turned and looked at me over her shoulder.
"Probably Mr. Pitman was a man," she said. "My husband is a fiend, a
devil."
Well, a good many women have said that to me at different times. But
just let me say such a thing to them, or repeat their own words to them
the next day, and they would fly at me in a fury. So I said nothing, and
put the cream into her tea.
I never saw her again.

CHAPTER II
There is not much sleeping done in the flood district during a spring
flood. The gas was shut off, and I gave Mr. Reynolds and the Ladleys
each a lamp. I sat in the back room that I had made into a temporary
kitchen, with a candle, and with a bedquilt around my shoulders. The
water rose fast in the lower hall, but by midnight, at the seventh step, it
stopped rising and stood still. I always have a skiff during the flood
season, and as the water rose, I tied it to one spindle of the staircase
after another.
I made myself a cup of tea, and at one o'clock I stretched out on a sofa
for a few hours' sleep. I think I had been sleeping only an hour or so,
when some one touched me on the shoulder and I started up. It was Mr.
Reynolds, partly dressed.
"Some one has