development of the general store of the country town. We found a place
where they sold everything from handkerchiefs to plows, and wandered
about happily, looking at farm implements whose use we did not even
guess, and wonderful displays of crockery and printed calico. We seemed
to create quite a sensation when we came in although there were other
people in the store. The proprietor came forward hurriedly and asked us
what we wanted. A strange look came into his face when we said we just
came in to look around. He and his wife and the two or three clerks in
the place all looked at each other, but they said no more. But as we
moved up one aisle and down another he was always right at our elbow,
and he never seemed to take his eyes from us. I picked up a pile of
handkerchiefs to look them over, thinking I might buy some, as mine
were in the lost trunk nobody knew where, but they were all cotton and
I despise cotton handkerchiefs. As I put them down again and passed on
I saw the proprietor pick them up and although he turned his back to us
I could see that he was counting them.

We became conscious of a chill in the air. It seemed that everybody in
the place was watching us with suspicious eyes. With one accord we
moved toward the door and stepped out into the street, where we faced
each other questioningly. What was this baffling thing that we were
running up against of late? The people around here seemed to know
something about us which we did not know ourselves. Last night our
landlady for no satisfactory reason had put us out of her house, and
here were the store people plainly suspicious of us. Was Margery the
cause of it? She had not come with us this morning, as she thought it
would be wiser to stay in her room. But even if they knew about Margery
we would hardly have expected them to act this way. Why did they make
no attempt to take her away from us?