The Mystery Megapack

let you go out and talk to them. They said experience wasn’t important. They want a girl that’s young and of good appearance. And they want a girl from outta town. The fee’s five dollars. What’s the name?”
    “Irma Rollins.”
    The manager of the agency filled in a form to be given to the employer and gave Irma a receipt for five dollars.
    “You go to Wendley station. They’ll meet you there with a car. The fare is sixty cents and if they don’t hire you, they’ll pay your fare both ways. You get a train at two-ten and take your clothes because if they hire you, you got to start right in.”
    The manager of the agency nodded her head in dismissal and her responsibilities were ended.
    Irma hurried to her room to pack. With a little crowding, a suitcase and handbag held her worldly possessions. When the packing was completed, her roommate entered. Irma drew herself up to a statuesque pose and invited her friend to “Pipe the slavey!” Hurried and scant details of the job followed, and Irma prepared to depart. “I’ll write to you, dearie, and if I meet some millionaire sheik out there I’ll try to make it for two.” A farewell kiss and Irma was gone.
    At the pretty little station of Wendley, decorated with well-kept lawn and shrubbery, Irma found a large limousine waiting her. She noticed, with a trace of disappointment, that the liveried chauffeur was some sort of colored person. The chauffeur advanced and took her baggage. The door of the limousine opened and a voice of cultured dignity bade her enter.
    Irma found the speaker to be a strikingly beautiful woman of early middle age. A mass of orange-gold hair shone beneath her hat, and the woman’s eyes were the green of the sea. The lady leaned far back upon the cushions in regal poise, and when she spoke it was in soft, musical tones.
    “English,” Irma observed inwardly, “or uppitty Bostonian.”
    “You have come from the agency?” the woman asked.
    “Yes, ma’am,” Irma replied, and handed her the employment slip.
    The lady read it carelessly and asked, “Where is your home?”
    “In Columbus, ma’am.”
    “And you have no relatives in the city?”
    “No, ma’am.”
    “The reason I ask,” the lady continued, “is because we find that girls whose homes are in the city want to run in to town too frequently.”
    “Oh, I don’t care about going to town,” Irma told her prospective employer. “I have no one there.”
    “Very well, my child, I think you’ll be satisfactory.”
    “Thank you, ma’am.”
    Irma’s employer signaled the chauffeur and the car started.
    During the short interview, Irma had noticed that the lady’s questions were asked in a mechanical manner, and that her employer appeared to be vaguely troubled. The face had lost its beauty temporarily, and become lined and haggard. The green eyes were fixed straight ahead and were strangely devoid of expression, while a great struggle appeared to be going on in the mind behind them. Irma jumped to the conclusion, that her employer was a dope fiend. “Sure, wasn’t a lot of these society dames hop-heads?”
    Her reflections were interrupted by the soft, musical voice: “We are going to the city now. I am to meet my husband at our town house. You may come with me.”
    Irma replied with another, “Yes, ma’am.”
    She was on her employer’s time now, and it mattered not a whit to her where they went. She would as soon spend the afternoon riding in a purple limousine as doing housework. She settled herself back to enjoy the ride.
    The summer afternoon lulled her sensibilities and she gave herself up to day dreams. She would meet some handsome young millionaire who would marry her, and then she would have a limousine like this for her own. A short flight of the imagination brought her to the ownership of this very car. She was oblivious to her employer and gazed out of the window, occasionally nodding to imaginary acquaintances.
    If Irma was oblivious of her, that beautiful lady was far from being oblivious of her new employee; and if Irma had given the lady as much attention as the lady was giving her, Irma’s thoughts might have been uneasy ones.
    Sometimes as the older woman’s eyes fell on the young girl beside her, she would survey Irma from head to foot in careful appraisal. The result was apparently satisfying. At other times she looked strangely uneasy and sad.
    At last the car came to a stop. “Here we are,” the lady said.
    They left the car and