"
"They don't match," I objected. "They--they wouldn't look natural, Miss
Cobb."
"They don't look natural on you, either. Do you suppose anybody believes
that the Lord sent you hair in seventeen rows of pipes, so that, red as
it is, it looks like an instantaneous water-heater?"
"I'm not lending them," I said firmly. It would have been like lending
an engagement ring, to my mind. Miss Cobb was not offended. She went at
once to what had brought her, and bent over the counter.
"Where's the Summers woman?" she asked.
"In the gym. She's made herself a new gym suit out of her polka dotted
silk, and she looks lovely."
"Humph!" retorted Miss Cobb. "Minnie, you love Miss Jennings almost like
a daughter, don't you?"
"Like a sister, Miss Cobb," I said. "I'm not feeble yet."
"Well, you wouldn't want to see her deceived."
"I wouldn't have it," I answered.
"Then what do you call this?" She put a small package on the counter,
and stared at me over it. "There's treachery here, black treachery." She
pointed one long thin forefinger at the bundle.
"What is it? A bomb?" I asked, stepping back. More than once it had
occurred to me that having royalty around sometimes meant dynamite. Miss
Cobb showed her teeth.
"Yes, a bomb," she said. "Minnie, since that creature took my letters
and my er--protectors, I have suspected her. Now listen. Yesterday I
went over the letters and I missed one that beautiful one in verse,
beginning, 'Oh, creature of the slender form and face!' Minnie, it had
disappeared--melted away.
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