Page:Frank Owen - Woman Without Love (1949 reprint).djvu/81

 with taste. Over the windows were curtains that might be drawn to prevent too much sun from pouring in. Louella did not care for strong sunlight. She thrived best in the evenings, under a blue night sky and a lantern moon.

Perfect decorum was demanded in the house. There must be no unseemly noise, nor raucous laughter. When anyone became boisterous he was politely invited to leave. It was seldom that strong arm tactics had to be resorted to, but in an emergency there was no hesitancy. Jake, a powerful Roumanian who tended the furnace and did odd jobs about the house, was summoned and the results were always quickly arrived at.

Jake lived in a tiny house at the foot of the garden. Connected with his room was a small bell. Whenever that bell rang he knew that he was wanted. He enjoyed those occasional battles even though they were always of short duration. Jake was stolid and dumb but he was faithful, like a great shaggy dog. As long as he had plenty to eat and plenty of tobacco he was satisfied.

One of the first things that Louella did in Peoria was to find out whether Hattie Holt still lived in the house on Washington Street. She had no desire to renew the acquaintance. She simply wished to know if Hattie were still there so that she could use care in avoiding her.

She employed Jobyna as a detective and a most capable one she proved to be. There was not much that went on in Peoria in which Jobyna was not able to pry. She discovered that Hattie Holt and Don Raymond, her husband, had left town more than six months before, after Don had got mixed up in a shooting.

"I'll find out more details if you want me to," Jobyna told Louella after she had rendered her rep t.

"It isn't necessary," was the reply. "You have done well enough. The important thing is that they have left town. Now there is no need for caution."

Louella had a horror of close friends. Casual acquaintances were good enough for anybody.

She still kept up her spasmodic correspondence with