Page:Frank Owen - Woman Without Love (1949 reprint).djvu/80

 beyond her capabilities. She cooked wonderfully and Louella did not bother about the meals. Jobyna prepared them and her creations were fit for the gods. She baked her own bread, pies, cakes. At every meal she served home-made biscuits.

"If you keep feeding me like this," objected Louella, "I'll grow fat."

Nevertheless that did not prevent her from enjoying the fried chicken, the corn pone and Virginia ham baked in egg and milk.

In her later years, when Louella was so ponderous that she was far beyond the stage where diet had any effect, she used to think about Jobyna and shake her head.

"She was the one real menace of my life," she reflected. "Had it not been for her I never would have eaten myself so permanently out of shape."

Louella found Jobyna's conversation interesting. She could converse on any subject. Every day when Madame was too tired to read the papers, Jobyna gave her a résumé of the news with strong emphasis on the sensational. She knew the tastes of her mistress.

But the most important knowledge which Jobyna possessed was the names and addresses of some of the richest clients of Miss Keller and it was not long before they were coming once more to the house they knew so well. Man is fickle in his amours and several there were who declared that Louella was far more interesting than Miss Keller had ever been.

The house was a cozy little place, with a patch of lawn in front and a large garden in the rear. Louella liked to walk about in the garden although she hardly knew one flower from another. Which was astonishing since she had been country born. Always she had been more interested in people than flowers. Flowers couldn't woo you. Every man to her was a possible lover.

Downstairs in the house were three rooms, a large living room and library combined, a smaller dining room and a kitchen that was a model of cleanliness. Upstairs were three large bedrooms and a bath. Louella's room had four windows in it, and ran completely across the front of the house. It was