Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-04-13


went nd second time, to my great sur
prise, [ saw Mr.. Lewis. To-day he was
| talking 70 tall man In plain clothes who
had lust the look of warder out Of his
| uniform: they were in the middle Of the
road, % Mr. Lewis might have been ask
inc his way: but / vas CONFIDENT from
| their eager hurried manner, that he was
not. Yet. when he recognized me, he
raised his cap, and the warder-I sm sure
Il was q wardeI-poinsed along path, as
/ though be was giving some direction, and
! then we lost sight of them; but did Lot
/ forget the incident. Z
A few nights after this was surprised,
on answering knock al the door, TO find
some one inquiring for Mr.. Lewis, for he
had never lad q visitor before. The
stranger gave the name OF Brown, and
was st once invited up stairs. After
visit Of half an hour, he left, and then my
ledger, who had seemed, fancied, to avoid
| me Of late, came into my little kitchen,
and began, in a chatty manner, TO talk
about the gentleman who had just left
He said he was connected with one of the
chief hotels, and had called TO speak about
an appointment. Now, had lived in
Weymouth, maid, wife, and widow, for
thirty two years, and knew by sight every
gentleman connected with every hotel
there, and this was none of them. And,
If my judgment was worth anything, this
man was q warder from Portland, and,
what was more. was the very warder had
seen Mr.. Lewis speaking with on the
island / was quite sure Of this, and
knew, therefore, that for some purpose
my lodger was deceiving me; but re-
| fected that every family has its secrets, 50
supposed he had his reasons for trying TO
mislead me.
Just now q complete change took place
In my lodger's habits, for whereas he had
previously been the most retiring of crea-
lures, keeping himself so totally within
doors that scarcely soul in the street
knew him, he now seemed to be never
tired Of hanging about the front door. He
cleaned my windows twice as often as
had ever cleaned them; he painted my
shutters; he painted my flower boxes, and
was frequently trimming the flowers in
them; while he actually went two
or three times to the White Lion,
the public house at the corner Of
our street, and drank his ale at the
bar, instead Of allowing the potman to
bring it for him, as had hitherto been the
case took the liberty Of saying-for
was quite old enough TO be his mother
that hoped this last would not grow into
habit which might lead to harm, when,
Tn my surprise, he burst out crying, and
cried 20 bitterly that thought he would
20 into Mysteries. l tried TO sooth him
and took his hand in mine-he had soft
and delicate hand, too; but he rose and
mastering himself by great effort, went
up to his room. In the morning he apOl-
ogized for disturbing me by his absurd
ways: he had had bad news from
home, he said. or course told him not
to think any more of such trifle; but in
my own mind wondered where he had
got the letters from which had so upset
him, as was quite certain the postman
had not been near my house all day. All
this time had heard no more Of the stu
alton he expected; but soon after the
same stranger called again-Mr. Brown,
l mean. He called very late one night,
and went up straight to Lewis room,
came down in very short time, and left
without word, as before. AS had ad
mitted him, had a fair chance Of con-
firming my opinion; he was waIder, /
was sure. He was a tall, big bearded, big
whiskercd, and mustached man, who stood
very square when he spoke to you, as a
soldier does; weather. Drowned, as all the
Portland warders are, and with a certain
quick, watchful look Of the eye, which
they all acquire very soon.
The next morning brought heavy fall
Of rain, with gusts Of wind from the sea-
and, on taking up Mr.. Lewis breakfast,
noticed that he looked excited, If not wild,
and l feared he had taken cold. told
him so, but he said: "No. The fact Is,
r An1I
secret am married; and expect my
wife from town to-day.
"Indeed!" lexClaimed, for had never
dreamed Of such q thing.
EYES," he went on, "she Is coming this
evening and am a little worried to think
what an unpleasant ride she will have"
"She certainly will, poor thing" said;
"but will do my best to make her com
Portable, Mr.. Lewis"
81 know you will" he replied II
thank you heartily Mrs. Gerran. We rely
on you very much"
Ileft him his breakfast, and went down
stairs, considerably astonished by what I
had heard. The weather grew worse
during the day, and by night it was little
short Of tempest. often thought of
the poor young woman who was coming
all the way from London. on such night;
and what made it worse was, that could
not offer to 60 and meet her, for, strange
to say, Mr.. Lewis did not not know by
what train she would come, or whether
she would travel by the Great Western or
the Southwestern line. -TIt blew harder
and harder; the furious, blasts Of wind
swept through our little street, and drove
the rain before IL so as to almost blind
you. If you tried to face it. There was not
a gaslight which was not blown out, and l
need not say the sky was pitch dark. On
such nights always sit and think of my
poor husband, and Of the MANY others
who earn their living on the dreadful sea
and l can hear nothing, attend to nothing,
but the bowling Of the storm. So 1t was
no wonder that the potman knocked two
or three times whom he bought Mr.. Lewis
beer, before / heard him; and when
opened the door twas almost blown out
Of my hand by the force Of the wind.
ut Is q terrible night, Robert" said,
for he was q very civil young man, and
had been at tho White Lion for years.
ut is, indeed MA am, he said, "there's
sea on tonight that's adying over the
Chesil Bank like yeast They've been
firing artillery onthe Island; but, except
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