Page:Frank Owen - Woman Without Love (1949 reprint).djvu/78

. She felt lazy. It gave her time to think, to plan her campaign carefully. No use to jump into anything blindfolded. She had definitely decided that she would quit drinking to excess. It was the one bad habit Monty Camp had taught her. However it was quite easy to break. Save for a cocktail before dinner, now she seldom drank anything. She must keep absolute control of her faculties. She must be able to pit her mind against that of tricky men.

After looking about carefully she rented a small furnished house on Walnut Street. Her decision was arrived at because there was a splendid colored woman looking after the place. She had the euphonious name of Jobyna. Louella was never able to find out her other name. When she inquired she was met with a bland smile and the simple reply: "Just Jobyna." Perhaps she had her own reasons for persisting in refusing to tell her more about herself. In any event she was clean and neat. She had some education, was a good housekeeper, an excellent cook.

"I served Miss Keller who used to live here for seven years," she said, "and I'd been with her yet if she hadn't married Joe Gilroy, a rich harness-maker from Bloomington. He used to come here often. He was one of her steadiest customers. He was a heavy spender and just crazy about my mistress. At last he asked her to marry him. He was sick of sharing her with other men. After pondering a while, she accepted him. You should of seen the big diamond he gave her. He showered her with jewels and they have a regular mansion to live in at Bloomington, more than twenty rooms."

"She did very well," murmured Louella.

"Fine," declared Jobyna.

"But I don't understand," mused Louella, "having married so well, why she didn't take you with her."

Jobyna smiled, showing perfect, white, even teeth.

"That's easy to explain," she said. "Her husband was one of the handsomest men I have ever seen, tall, well-built, refined, cultured. But he had a few drops of Negro blood in his veins. His grandmother had been a Negress. Even though he was white and showed no trace of it, he was sensitive. He