COMMUTER'S WIFE 301 



for a caretaker, and had gone abroad to "study 

 art." 



The community was amazed, for to it " art " was 

 an extremely indefinite term (which, by the way, it 

 really is in such cases), variously meaning china 

 painting, embroidering fat strawberries or flowers 

 on tea cloths in such high relief that the cups and 

 saucers go rocking about among them as if at sea. 

 Or, more novel yet and quite the latest thing, 

 copying chromos of gamebirds in oils on well-var- 

 nished bread boards, the same to be hung by an 

 elaborately careless knot of hemp rope over the 

 dining-room mantle, surmounted by either the family 

 gun, a tennis racket, boxing gloves, or a fishing 

 basket, according to material available. 



The Emporium was sure that Dora Penfield (she 

 was never called "Miss" that was common) must 

 have lost her money, and hoped if there ever was 

 an auction up at the mansion, she might be alive to 

 go to it. 



The Village Liar took an entirely different point 

 of view, affirming that a certain young doctor was 

 at the bottom of the change. He, after serving two 

 years at the hospital for a special course of study, 

 had gone to a distant city as junior assistant to a 

 well-known physician. The why and wherefore of 



