aware of the presence of a lady, who was
already seated at their tea-table, regarding
their old Wedgewood with the air of a con-
noisseur.

There were a number of peculiarities about
this intruder. To begin with, she was hatless,
quite as if she were a habitué of the house,
and was costumed in a prim lilac-colored
lawn of the style of two decades past. But
a greater peculiarity was the resemblance
this lady bore to a faded daguerrotype. If
looked at one way, she was perfectly discern-
ible; if looked at another, she went out in a
sort of blur. Notwithstanding this compara-
tive invisibility, she exhaled a delicate per-
fume of sweet lavender, very pleasing to the
nostrils of the Misses Boggs, who stood look-
ing at her in gentle and unprotesting surprise.

"I beg your pardon," began Miss Pru-
dence, the younger of the Misses Boggs,
"but --"

But at this moment the Daguerrotype be-
came a blur, and Miss Prudence found her-
self addressing space. The Misses Boggs
were irritated. They had never encountered
any mysteries in Iowa. They began an im-
patient search behind doors and portières,