The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1882-07-19

Sympatnetlc lhdles hlied the room, doctors
were called in, and reporters were jotting
down paragraphs
Meanwhile another letter, with black
seal, addressed to Mrs. Bixby, arrived at the
hotel. When she was able to read it she did
So It was from her lawyers A later viii
of her Uncle Jediaiah's had been discovered.
He had taken dislike to one of the trustees
of the Attorneys Orphans" and had left
all his fortune to his dear niece, Matilda
Bixby."
g If poor Augustus had but lived to share
it, sobbed the widow
But, after all, it was a consolation.
She remained at the hotel all winter, visit
ed by grave legal gentlemen, and wearing
the deepest weeds. In the spring she
bought cottage near the beach, furnished
it luxuriously and became a regular summer
resident. Wealthy, hattered, courted, she
became quite handsome. Attentions were
showered upon her Serious offers were
made for her hand
At length Jenkins, the reporter, mention
I'D. s ies, i--a~a fs.sss-tsss-fsa., sss
her Romantic History !" how her fortune
had been left her when she was plunged in
agonies of grief, how much her residence"
was worth, and what her Grape cost yard
And one sutton, more persistent than the
others, wound himself about her heart. She
had determined to remain widow, but she
was very lonely. She had vowed to marry
no handsome man. This man whom she
preferred was not handsome he had one
crossed eye and club foot but Matilda
believed that she should be perfectly happy
with him.
Her mourning faded into lilac silk and
violets, while tulle and pansies. And one
day she walked upon the beach, slowly
making mp her mind as to the form in which
her acceptance of written offer, which she
had received, should be couched, when look
ing ont upon the sea, her eyes met an object
which petrifed her with amazement 1t
was simply swimmer, who, having gained
a spot where the water was only up to his
waist was advancing toward her. but the
surprising point in this otherwise very ordi
nary object was that it wore Mr. Bixby's
bathing costume. His wife knew it too well
to be mistaken. Had she not embroidered
that pattern on the collar herself2 Was not
that braid made to order2 Were not the
buttons some which had descended from
the past Real gold buttons-too good,
Mrs. 6;xby had over and over again averred,
for bathing suit The widow turned faint
as she gazed, for not only did she know the
dress, but the handsome head above It, She
knew that it was Mr.. Bixby's ghost
Her limbs failed her. She sat down on
the sand, and hid her face in her trembling
hands. But now a splashing sound of feet
treading the damp beach aroused her. She
look up. The spectre stood beside her,
looking very solid, indeed, for ghost, and
it spoke and said:
"Don't be frightened, lilly, dear. I am
not an apparition. am your own Angus
tus. Look up, love. Look up And fell
exhausted--or SO it seemed to Matilda-at
her side.
Matilda shriaked, clasped him in her arms,
wet as he was; sobbed that the Joy of that
moment would be too much for her, and
never thought for moment of marvelling
how gentleman who had disappeared in
the sea should walk out of it alive and un-
harmed year afterward.
But Mr.. Bixby explained, nevertheless.
He had swan out too far, and been picked
up by a boat attached to a whaling vessel
the Sea dull, Captain Brownie was care.
full to explain had been i'll and delirious for
weeks, and ally recovered to find the ship
driving before fearful gale, which wrecked
her in mid-ocean. With seven others he
took to raft, and was cast ON a deserted
island, where he had since lived in his bath
ing suit, subsisting on shell-fsh and berries.
And how at last, knowing himself tc be
good swimmer, he had resolved to make
bold stroke for life.
And here am" added Mr.. Bixby.
Poor Matilda, crediting every word of his
abominable falsehood, again embraced
him.
"And what must have been your strug-
giles, my poor wife ?" sighed the husband.
Then Matilda astonished him by an ac-
count of her legacy, and conducted him
home, to the amazement OF every one who
met them-joy in her eyes and in her poor,
honest heart
Left alone in his apartment while the
faithful wife prepared beef tea and other
restoratives for the individual she had re-
Gently been in the habit of alluding to as
"her sainted husband" Mr.. Bixby indulg-
ed in astonishing fits of silent laughter, and
several times repeated to himself:
Hang 1t !! was there ever such fool as
lilly ?" And tramp who wandered on the
shore was at the same time overjcyed by the
discovery of rather seedy suit of clothes, in
the pockets of which, besides several re-
proachful pink notes, signed Rosalie, he
found Chicago newspaper in which the
enterprising reporters account of Mrs.
Bixbys g romantic history" her good for
tune and her seaside mansion had been faith
fully copied.
However, Mrs. Bixby, having good deal
in her power, was not as often snubbed in
the future as she had been in the past. Her
husband no longer Airted In her presence,
and she considers herself an exceedingly
happy woman, and is very fond of repeating
the history of Mr.. Bixby's adventures, which
she has no doubt the whole world believes
as thoroughly as she does.--Mary Kyle
DILlas
ARTILLERY FIRING.