St. Landry democrat., 1884-08-23

peruuOuS GIL; anu Wn6n LON eueCEEVeIy
described Jocasta' S friendless and forlorn
condition Jack booked angry, ashamed
and uneasy all at one and the same
time. He was silent for at least five
minutes after Fields had concluded his
narrative, and occupied himself with
smoking furiously into the pause.
Fields surveyed him with tiBge of
regretful interest as he lounged away
down the street, thinking. with little
sigh, OF Jacks elegant home and elegant
leisure. He looked around his dingv
apartment with its fugitive bits of paper,
heaps Of sketches, pipes and tobacco,
and thick mantle of dust over all; then
turned again to the window and the
upright, Well-knit figure so nearly out
of sight. Jack had a pretty sister, too,
who kept house for him, or pretended
to, and altogether Tom considered that
his friend was unnecessarily best
Then he pulled himself together with
shrug and went back to his easel, reso-
lutely putting away from him all
thoughts of Helen Walkers clear, hand
some face with cynical little smile,
He was fool Helen Walker would be
the wife of luckier man, But art and
his cigar were left to him!
It was soon after that letter came
to Jocasta from Aunt Jack containing
an unexpected invitation to spend few
months with the writer at her coun-
try home; and, being rather jerky and
incoherent> Jocasta concluded that Aunt
Jacks peculiarities were still rampant
in spite of her patriarchal years, and
wondered gloomily if it were that lady's
intention to decoy her into the en-
chanted castle and eat her without con-
diments. Still she replied dutifully
enough that she would be pleased to
accept her relatives kind hospitality,
and Slipped the missive into the letter.
box, with a doleful SILVER, though it
was early August and enterprising Their
mometers were valiantly trying to climb
out of the nineties.
One of Jocasta's reasons for rushing
so blindly to her fate was that she was
in deep disgrace when Aunt Jacks let
ter arrived most OPPORTUNITY. She had
dropped the big china tureen that had
been her mother s-but that didn't
matter-and broken it into great many
pieces. l am not prepared to say there
were hundred, but the number was
amply sufficient to retire it from active
duty-which did not matter extremely!
Jocasta was always in disgrace, it is
true, and Aunt jack letter might have
arrived almost any day since the first
Mrs Lockridge died quite as oppor-
timely as now; but there are different
degrees of disgrace, and this happened
to be the superlatiVe.
Mrs. Lockridge Immediately fell to
bewailing the outlay necessary for a
new dress, and congratulating herself
vehemently in the same breath on ''git-
tin shet" of Jocasta at last Jocasta
was not so sure about this, but she
wisely refrained from saying so. The
dress was only a brown merino after
all, purchased with the weekly Install
ment of eggs at the village store, and
with couple of black-and-white prints
to keep it company Jocasta and the lit
tie hair trunk that had been her moth
er's set out with inward palpitations for
Aunt Jacks. That is, the palpitatiOns
were confined to Jocasta; the trunk 'sp-
parently took the whole affair very
calmly, and did not even shy off by it
self, after the manner of its kind, and
have to be hunted up at every junction
with nervous trepidation on the part of
its owner, and cheerful unconcern on
that of the baggageman-
Aunt Jack had remarked in her let
ter that she was spending the summer at
the old homestead, and as Jocasta APP
- ~ 1L1oUzyoI Rho+ xxynS
grim, gloomy aud frowning, presuma-
bly, partaking to an uncomfortable de-
gree of its owners characteristics. It
stood mile or two out of the city-the
big, busy, preoccupied city, the like of
which Jocasta had never seen-and
mightbe made to look pleasant if only
its proprietress were a person to whom
was agreeable.
Aunt Jack was not visible when
Joeasta arrived that evening, nor was
she any following evening, having been
put safely under the sod, with a twelve
foot granite column on top to hold her
down, some six months previous to Jo-
casta's visit.
It is useless for me to deny that Jo-
casta forgave the deception with sus-
picious readiness, or that she did not
grieve to an alarming extent over Aunt
Jacks detection. l may even confess
that she privately considered Aunt
Jacks substitute the more agreeable of
the two; all of which goes to show that
somebody had been slandering Aunt
Jack during her unavoidable absence.
They visited Tom Fields studio one
day, and Toms face was study when
the subject of his country sketch was
introduced. In fact he behaved in such
an imbecile manner that Jack Walker
was obliged to draw him aside and ex-
plain, with his nose buried in port
folio of views.
..1,hnt ala rrnroan 1uas NV Amt