STAN--er--JOHN SMITH.




CHAPTER IV

IN SEARCH OF SOME DATES


Very promptly the next morning Mr. John Smith and his two trunks
appeared at the door of his new boarding-place. Mrs. Jane Blaisdell
welcomed him cordially. She wore a high-necked, long-sleeved gingham
apron this time, which she neither removed nor apologized for--unless
her cheerful "You see, mornings you'll find me in working trim, Mr.
Smith," might be taken as an apology.

Mellicent, her slender young self enveloped in a similar apron, was
dusting his room as he entered it. She nodded absently, with a casual
"Good-morning, Mr. Smith," as she continued at her work. Even the
placing of the two big trunks, which the shuffling men brought in, won
from her only a listless glance or two. Then, without speaking again,
she left the room, as her mother entered it.

"There!" Mrs. Blaisdell looked about her complacently. "With this
couch-bed with its red cover and cushions, and all the dressing things
moved to the little room in there, it looks like a real sitting-room
in here, doesn't it?"