St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-09-08

of making her hear, and that was by |
throwing gravel stones against the |
window. Mr.. Whitaker tried the eX-
pertinent. The first handful produced |
no effect. The sleeper did not hear it, |
Neither did she hear the second hand
full, nor the third, nor the tenth, which |
was dashed against the grass with such |
violence that Mr.. Whitaker expected |
to see it shivered to fragments.
Mr.. Whitaker was at his wits end. |
There was faint light burning in the
room, and as he looked up at it and
thought of his wife slumbering quietly
on while he was in such great trouble,
his wrath grew so fierce that he felt
capable of doing something really ter
rible. But what should he dOP The
poor lady was as much beyond his
reach, for the time, as if she had been
in China. He thought for a moment of
trying to borrow ladder; but where
could he get ladder in the middle of
the night? No: as his sense of per
sonal injury deepened he more and
more firmly resolved that he would
punish Ellen somehow or other for her
indifference. As he could not obtain
admission to his own house, why
should he not fly Why should he not
90 off somewhere and give his wife
something to worry over i'll repayment
for all the wrong she had inflicted up
on him by persisting, against his earn
est and repeated remOnStrance, III
sleeping with her deaf ear up?
Mr.. Whitaker turned passiOnately
away from the house and walked rap
idly down the street. He had no par
ticular destination in his mind, but he
hurried along with vague notion that
he might perhaps go to hotel when
he felt calmer. In few moments he
came to the railroad depot not far from
his dwelling. 1t was brilliantly light
ed, and as he looked at it he remem-
bered that train started for New
York at midnight. He walked into
the waiting room. The minute hand
on the huge marble clock indicated
three or four minutes of twelve. Mr..
| Whitaker walked up to the ticket office
and bought ticket for New York.
| Then he hurried into Il car and took a
seat. He had upon his head a velvet
smoking-cap so that his appearance
did not excite remark. Presently the
train started, and Mr.. Whitaker actu-
ally felt a kind of malicious JOY rs he
thought he would soon be far away
from his wife.
1t was a slow train, and he had plen
ty of time to think, and as he thought
his passion began to cool, and the con
viction began to press in upon him
that he had been behaving very fool
ishly. How absurd it was to blame
poor Ellen because he had locked him
self in the cellar He pictured her ly-
| hN-t l,.. 10 of lah anlp in
the belief that he was still sitting in
the library. This recalled to his mind
her deaf ear and her fondness for sleep
ing with it up. Then he had a Ievul-
sion of feeling and he began to grow
angry again. But this was Il mere
flash. Steadily he advanced toward Il
more reasonable view of the situation,
and as he did so he concluded that it
would be Il great act of folly to go all
the way to New York. He asked the
conductor the name of the next station.
1t was Bristol. He made up his mind
to get out there and to go home early
in the morning. He felt badly to think
how much alarmed and distressed his
wife would be when she discovered his
absence.
When he stepped from the train ut
Bristol rain was falling quite rapidly,
and one feeble light in front of the sta
ton shone through the deep darkness.
Mr.. Whitaker inquired of the man up
on the platform the way to hotel,
and then he started to go to it. In de-
, scending the wet and slippery steps OF
the platform he lost his footing and
a fell. He was very much hurt and
found that he could not rise. He called
for help and when the railroad man
the only man who was anywhere about
came to him, he discovered that fur
A, ther assistance would he required, foI
: Mr.. Whitaker's leg was broken. The
man soon brought three other men
and placing the hurt man upon IA board
they carried him to the hotel and sent
p for doctor. If Mr.. Whitaker, sitting
+ in the car, had thought himself a very
, foolish man, what did Mr.. Whitaker
p lying far away from home in wretch
ed hotel, with his leg broken, think O
! himselfP Mr.. Whitaker thought thai
= if there was colossal idiot on thi,
= earth he was that parsonage.
; Early in the morning he sent il tele-
gram to his wife, urging her to come t.
/ him ut once, and right speedily came 4
| reply from her, saying that she would
r take the train which ordinarily reached
p Bristol at nine o'clock. From the win
( dow of his bedroom in the hotel th,
invalid could see the station and til,
railroad, and as he watched them
p while he longed for the train to come
p he tried to arrange in his mind, for hi.
= wife, an explanation of his cOnduc
!. which would present it in the best pos
i Sible light.
Mr.. Whitaker resolved, after think
e ing the matter over, that the best thing
e. to do would be frankly to confess hi,
n fault and to throw himself upon hi,
# wife's mercy. He heard the whist,
d which announced the approach of the
e nine o'clock train. The train came il
= view and drew up at the station. Mr.
4 Whitaker looked eagerly ut the per
q sons who got ont of the cars, but ElleI
k was not among them. She had no
4 come. He fell back upon the bed Will
e a sigh and began again to grow angr,
| with her.
/. But the poor woman was on tina
c train. Alarmed by the discovery whel
= she rose in the morning that Mr.. Whit
II aker was not in the house, her alarm
r was increased when she received tn,
e telegram sent by him. What could b,
e the explanation of the mystery of hi
e disappearance She was so agitate,
II that she could hardly prepare for tin
u journey But she reached the depo
;. and got into the car, and began T.
@ move toward Bristol. Somewha
= weary from too great nervous excite
ment, she placed her mutf against th
n frame of the car window and rested he
Ie head upon it, while her veil covere,
VI her closed eyes. Unhappily she ha
J. arranged herself with her deaf ear uI
re and so she did not hear the cOnducto
w when he shouted "Bristol =, and sh