The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1876-12-21

selves; and once or twice he began to
speak, and broke off with a kiss, and
finally he told me that should not see
him for few days, as he was going out
of town on bank business" Mrs. Dunn
paused, and sighed profoundly; Mr..
Royburne walked to the window, and
shivered as he looked out on the wild
night.
alt was only few days later when
Langton, the assistant cashier, who
boarded with me, came into my private
parlor and said he wanted to speak with
me confdentially about jules. You
can't tell what a chill it gave me.
thought nothing but he had dropped
dead and I'd rather it had been SO!
Itseems Jules had been using the banks
money to speculate. He had lost, of
course, and Langton had been the first
to discover it, and he came to me, he
said, in order that might warn Jules
that it couldn't be kept from the board
of directors, as they'd already got wind
of something wrong, unless he could
replace the money Immediately by beg
ging or borrowing. You may guess my
feelings! made no question but Jules
had gone out of town with view of
raising the money somehow, too much
ashamed to ask me for it and tell me his
fault; but he had left no address, and
all | could do was to wait his return in a
fever of impatience; and it was
Christmas-week, too, when every body's
expected to be cheerful, and there's
no end of work to be done. Some of
my boarders had gone to keep the sea-
son among their friends, but there were
a few left, who, like you and me, Mr..
Royburne, had nowhere to go; and
while we were sitting at tea on Christ
mas-eve it suddenly seemed to me as if
heard some body going over the front
stairs, and the thought passed through
my mind, 'Who can it be!' and then |
reflected, son, it's probably Nancy car
rying up the clean clothes from the
wash, and 1 rang the bell for Tild7,
the table girl, to bring up the toast, and
asked her, aside, where Nancy was.
"In the kitchen, marm,' said she,
'a-folding off the clean clothes from
the bars
"'And Bridget, is she there tooP'
said.
60 Yes, marin, a-stoning of the rails
ings.'
"'And isn't Mary Ghe chamber
maid) helping herP' 1 asked.
"'Not she,' said Tidy; 'she's shiv-
ering out at the pump, sure, a-blather-
ing along of Barney
81 don't know what possessed me.
but just asked Miss Gruder to take
my place at the urn, and went up
stairs alone. I'd left light burning in
my parlor, but the hair of my flesh stood
up when | saw that it was burning in
my bedroom instead, which opened out
Of the parlor. However, after little
reflection, l considered that | might
have been mistaken in my absence of
mind, and | stepped into the parlor,
which was just light enough to show me
my desk with the lid open and the pa,
pers scattered about. l thought of my
stocking in a minute, and you could
have knocked me down with feather,
though I'd taken the precaution to sew
it into the mattress that very day, till L
should get ready to use it. l felt GER
tain that whoever it was must be well
acquainted with my ways, and had OBJ
served where put my keys. And who
but one of the servants could that be?
And just as l was wondering if
lilly could be in conspiracy with the
thief, l saw the door of the closet, that
was a jar, tremble. Without second
thought, | flew to it and wrenched it
open, and-it was Jules Adderley who
stepped out! We looked at each other
full minute in the half-light, but we
never exchanged word. He had been
too faint-hearted to confess his sin and
ask my help, and craven enough TO
steal into my house for my money. Do
you think could forgive him? l just
motioned toward the door, and his
head fell upon his breast, and he walk
ed slowly out and down stairs, follow
ing, and out into the wide lonely night.
The Christmas-bel were just begin
ming to vibrate upon the air as l closed
the door upon him; and they found me
at tho foot of the stairs in dead faint.
al had meant all along to give him
the five thousand. With that and what
l could have raised on my house we
could have made good the banks loss,
and he would only have forfeited his
situation.
"By the next week the affair was
town talk, and every body knew that
he had decamped. He'd dropped a let
ter into the mail for me, to be sure, but
L never opened it. didn't care to read
his lame excuse; he couldn't say any
thing | didn't know already. l didn't
want to keep alive any spark of regret
or affection for him. | wanted to tread
on it, as would on a serpent that had
stung me. But nature is sometimes
stronger than resolve; L couldn't bring
myself to burn the letter. I've kept it
with the seal unbroken, and I've writ
ten it in my will that it shall be buried
with me.
"Well, it was ten years later before
married Mr.. Dunn-not for love, of
course; that was all over with me. But
he was going to the bad, and needed
helping hand, and vowed it would be
the same thing as giving him over to
damnation if l refused. But l was
rightly served. He led me hard life
and spent my money, and here [ am a
widow, not so well off as l was at TWEEN