The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-08-01

Ot OAS, auu | tStt SuIS tuAt u Sne We1e not interfered with, she would do it too
 We'll, didn't blame her. A cat may look at king or play with a mouse, ol may marry Pole, without infringing any law, human or divine. From her poin of view, she was perfectly entitled to be- have as she was doing it was only from my point of view, and from that of my friends relatives, that she was bound tC give an account of herself first.
 ] was not long in arriving at the con. clusien that no account of her was ob. tainable from Miss Warde. That young lady was so reticent, when casually ques toned upon the subject, that at first su 5. pected her of concealing something but l satisfied myself after time that she only withheld particulars from me because she did not happen to be in possession of any l elicited the fact that the Wardes had spent the previous summer in Switzerland where 1t seemed tolerably safe to assume that they had picked up Mrs. Wilkinson and that the latter should be anxious to establish connection with people oi such undoubted responsibility was conn prehensible enough.
 1t was so very kind of her to ask me to stay with her," Miss Warde said grate- fully. "I had made up my mind that was to have no season this year; for papa's gout has been so bad lately tha, he hated the idea of leaving home, and mamma would not consent to come up without him."
 It struck me that both papa and man. ma would have been more prudent if they had not consented to let the young lady come up without them but that was just what might have been expected of the Wardes. They are simple, innocent old pair, who follow the absurd rule of trusting every one who has not been proved unworthy of trust. and was not at all surprised that they should have conhded their daughter to the chaperon- age of an entire stranger.
 However, that was their affair, not mine. My business was to get upon Mrs. Wilkinson's track, and follow it back to its starting point. When say that this was my business, l mean that had re- solved, in poor Poles interest, to make it so. He honestly avowed to me, after we had left the house, that he dis trusted himself "It's all very we'll to tell me that Pm thinking of doing a con- foundedly foolish thing" he said, "but, between you and me, my dear old chap. I've been doing foolish things all my life long, and suppose 1 shall keep up the same game to the end of the chapter, un- less somebody is kind enough to knock me down and sit on my head until the temptation passes"
 l assured him that he might rely upon me to do him this service, in a figurative sense, if necessary, and that would at once set about making the inquiries which the case appeared to call for.
 l did SO; and my surprise at finding what a number of people knew Mrs. Wilkinson was equaled only by my dis appointment at the very meagre informa- ton that they were able to give me re- specting her. Most of them had made her acquaintance through Miss Warde, and those who had not had been intro. duced by those who had. It seems to me that people have come to attach very little importance to credentials in these days. Here was a woman about whom absolutely nothing was known, except that she was pretty and agreeable, and apparently well-off; but that was quite CD ough for the easy-going folks who par took of her hospitality and made her wei come to theirs. She might have been the daughter of the common hangm an, for anything that they cared.
 Of course heard rumors about her. One well-informed person declared that her husband had been an American pork. butcher in large way of business; an- other professed to have discovered that she had an interest in the firm of Wilk inson x Simpson, linen-drapers, in the city while third was sure that he had seen her upon the stage not many years back. But all this was obviously pure conjecture. The only certain thing was that she did not belong to any family that one had ever heard of and this neg ative conclusion was all that could carry back to Pole at the end of ten days of diligent research.
 During this time had seen Mrs. Will kinson more than once, and cannot deny that the favorable impression which she had made upon me at the outset was increased by each visit that paid to her. was obliged to acquit her of being an adventures; her quiet self-possession, her uncsnsciousness of being watched, everything about her made it impossible for any unprejudiced observer to think of her as that. If her position was not quite assured, and if she desired to make it more so by good marriage, her am. Lltion was surely natural and pardona- ble one. Bat l need hardly point out that this made her all the more danger oas. Pole, could see, was wavering miserably. Common sense, his duty to his children, and horror of family jars were drawing him in one direction; Mrs. Wilkinson and his inciinations were pull ing hard all in the other. One did not need to be conjurer> to fore.ell which side would get the best of it in that tug of war.
 And now, suppose, may as we'll confess what, under these circumstances, commended itself to me as the best course for true friend to pursue. What am going to say may sound a little fatuous, but am sure that those who know me will concede that vanity is not