THE CASE of JENNIE BRICE
By
MARY ROBERTS RINEHART
Author of
THE MAN IN LOWER TEN, WHEN A MAN MARRIES
WHERE THERE'S A WILL, ETC.
Illustrated by
M. LEONE BRACKER
1913
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-----ILLUSTRATIONS-----
1. She Sat up in Bed Suddenly.
CHAPTER I
We have just had another flood, bad enough, but only a foot ortwo of water on the first floor. Yesterday we got the mud shoveledout of the cellar and found Peter, the spaniel that Mr. Ladley leftwhen he "went away". The flood, and the fact that it was Mr.Ladley's dog whose body was found half buried in the basement fruitcloset, brought back to me the strange events of the other floodfive years ago, when the water reached more than half-way to thesecond story, and brought with it, to some, mystery and suddendeath, and to me the worst case of "shingles" I have ever seen.
My name is Pitman—in this narrative. It is not reallyPitman, but that does well enough. I belong to an old Pittsburghfamily. I was born on Penn Avenue, when that was the best part oftown, and I lived, until I was fifteen, very close to what is nowthe Pittsburgh Club. It was a dwelling then; I have forgotten wholived there.
I was a girl in seventy-seven, during the railroad riots, and Irecall our driving in the family carriage over to one of theAllegheny hills, and seeing the yards burning, and a great noise ofshooting from across the river. It was the next year that I ranaway from school to marry Mr. Pitman, and I have not known myfamily since. We were never reconciled, although I came back toPittsburgh after twenty years of wandering. Mr. Pitman was dead;the old city called me, and I came. I had a hundred dollars or so,and I took a house in lower Allegheny, where, because they arepartly inundated every spring, rents are cheap, and I keptboarders. My house was always orderly and clean, and although theneighborhood had a bad name, a good many theatrical people stoppedwith me. Five minutes across the bridge, and they were in thetheater district. Allegheny at that time, I believe, was still anindependent city. But since then it has allied itself withPittsburgh; it is now the North Side.
I was glad to get back. I worked hard, but I made my rent and myliving, and a little over. Now and then on summer evenings I wentto one of the parks, and sitting on a bench, watched the childrenplaying around, and looked at my sister's house, closed for thesummer. It is a very large house: her butler once had his wifeboarding with me—a nice little woman.
It is curious to recall that, at that time, five years ago, Ihad never seen m