Litchfield enquirer., 1881-07-14
D 0 KilbOurp

tons, with the great black eyes and red cheeks" {"
 II don't see as anything ails her, particular 1 ly ;" and Mrs. Pickens reused up little, for l she had married of nine daughters of her own and felt natural interest in all young girls of Ian age to throw themselves away. She's got beautiful manners-beautiful-I like to see her come into the foom-and the handsomeSt hair I've beheld since our Jocassa's, though it's not quite as long as Marie Antoinette's was."
 ''It's that young monkey I mean-that Frenchman.thats always hanging round Sam Thomas's wife. He'd better come home and
 look after her; fooling away there in New
 York, hain't doubt"
 ''Ithought he seemed quite attentive to her. There! and 1 ain't often mistaken" Mrs. Pickens drew her cap we'll on to her tore head and pinned the strings back over the top. giving her benevolent countenancean unusual ly belligerent expression, as of one prepared
 for any fray she might encounter. "Yes, quite too much 80 for any woman that writes Mrs. to her name Seems to me it's very hot for race week. Just hand me that other fan, won't your" 'Tak about soOmGn being uncharitable, Judge Pickens! l should just like to know
 what men are all of 'em. You're not a mite better than the rest of your ssx-not mite. One minute you say that young mans after Flory Clayton, aud the next that he's paying attentions to married woman How can he be after both, I'd like to know ?"
 "'Tain't sharper work than hoein' cotton, guess-not much. We'll, s'pose am hard, but hate foreigner as 1 hate Yankee ain't much to choose. And that girl of Clay tons, if she was daughter of mine, should be I locked up on bread and water, before she should be marching round galleries. and sing ing songs in private parlOr, by the hour, | with them mustaches about touching her cheeks. Don't tell mel"
 You're awfully prejudiced, Judge,' re-
 torted motherly Mrs. Pickens land always
 was. I've told you so a hundred times. ! wants to? She looks like born nobleman's
 lady, with that high head of hers!' l "He isn't going to make her one But l ain't going to dispute about tits hot enough
 now. Where's my silk handkerchief? These flies bite as if it was summer"
 MT. Pickens caught the bandana drawn of the bureau by his wife and thrown at him,
 with as little unnt ssary exertion on her part as possible.
 "There it is /! How do you know he isn't nobleman?" she added, mYsteriously, glanc- ing round at the keyhole, and under the bed
 "Fddle-sticks end How do 1 know ain't an Abolitionist ?"
 Just as much as you do know. Pm not to be imposed upon at my time of life. I've read ! l lords and are only blacklegs but from the
 very minute saw this Mir. Charles I said to
 myself he'd turn out to be something extraos- dinary."
 Gracious are the women all gone out of
 their senses?" There was tone of conscious
 triumph in his wife's communication thug
 reused the Judge from his favorite attitude for an afternoon nap, bolt upright on the sofa, his feet stretched out, and his face shielde't from the sun and flies by an ample silk hanG. kerchief. First, Sam ThOmas's wife goes distracted, and follows him round from pillar
 to post then that pretty girl; and now here's
 my respectable old woman, with her head turned I think I'd better ferret him out I've been aching to the last six weeks. Where
 did he come from Whats he doing here ? How does he live That's what want to l kuuw."
 'If you wasn't SO unbelieving- But, L
 there's no use trying to convince you! You've
 sent so many people to the Penitentiary that it's got to be regular fever with you. You seem to think everybody ought to go.'
 ''I don't doubt but this chap does if the truth was told. Who knows anything about him That's the point in question" And the Judge made judicial gesture, as If addressing gentlemen of the jury"
 | ''Well suppose do." It was two much to | resist being able to bring such convincing proof to cenfound this suspicious disposition
 Mrs. Pickens had expressly promised not t0 | tell her husband only two hours before, buL as she reasoned, "A man and his wife are one 80 it wouldn't be telling, after all 7" Marquis of Fiddlesticks !" burst forth the Judge, indignantly, at the recital of the TO- mantle incidents connected with the escape of l the Marquis de Legarra-known at present as Monsieur Charles Leroux, of Galveston, Texas from bloody encounter in the late expedi- ton; with few thrilling particulars of the combat, and wound received by the gallant exile, which still bled internally when he was in the least annoyed or excited.
 "Hum, Mrs. Pickene, and who's going to vouch for all this ?"
 "Oh, Mrs. Thomas says he brought quanti. ties of letters to people of the very first re- spectabiliLy in town but he has not delivered one of them, because so much depends on his | keeping secret. He doesn't care for himself you know, but he says his life is worth so much | to Cuba" Letters Oh, thought he escaped with just the clothes he had on, and not even a pocket handkerchief or a clean shirt !' ''Well, so he did" said Mrs. Pickens, indig- nantly.
 "How did he bring his letters, then, let alone stopping to have them written2 That's @ likely story to begin with" The Judge knew his witness, and having | had no doubt whatever of being able to trip up the evidence from the first, took it quiel- ly.
 There's no use telling you anything, Mir, Pickens. Just as 1 said. You wouldn't be- l leve your own mother He's got the letters any way for he showed them all to Mrs. Thomas, and suppose you II allow she can read writing. And he didn't have any clothes, not an article, for when he arrived he | bought carDet-bag with his last dollar. and stuffed It out with something, so nobody 1 should suspect. And she lent him the money | to get those very clothes he wears, and ! trunk, and things respectable. There now!" 1 But instead of being overwhelmed by the accumulated proof, the Judges eyes-whst were to be seen of them-twinkled malicious. ly. Mrs. Pickens grew exasperated. The heart which the warmth of her partisaaship | had excited and the continued increduiity | were too much for her, and she fired her last shot, "t- -s' -F ..- "Well, if you won't believe it, you ,coat and there's the end of it. But let me tell yOn l that Mrs. Thomas has written letters to his mother tune and again since he's 6een here, | and such beautiful affectionate ones she says 1 it would make you cry to read lem over | lie can't write since his arm was hurt but he tells her what to say, aud she's sealed them l with his coat of arms. and directed them to Madame Lusa de Legarra, and put them ia e the post office herself. There, what do ynu | think of that?" l f
 How many answers did she ever see p hey, Mrs. PiCkens !-that's the idea'' "Oh, never thought of that" And the beaming face of moment ago looked slightly crest fallen.
 ''l don't doubt her lending him nnnay not a mite. You see, Mrs. Pickeus, she's just such fool, and not to be left alone twenty four hours. | always said she wasn't capable of taking care of herself The other one, though, has got sense enough, if she ant over head and ears in love" #'.''5'1E l6"t
 Where in the world are you going, Judge ?" asked Mrs Pickens, in alarm, as l,e