Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1885-12-10

above stack of sheet-music which oc-
cupied corner of the piano.
81 was just asking Mamie to look
out What Are the Wild Waves Say
ing?'" continued the hostess, seeing
that her first remark elected no re-
Spouse. 'sSit right down and listen to
it always did like to hear that, es-
pecially since poor james was lost.
Come, hurry up, Mamie. and find it. !"
Mamie, nodding and smiling away
from behind the music, cried:
at makes her feel so downhearted,
Mr.. Kyle, and if there's any way Ma
likes to feel it's downhearted!'
Still confused. Officer Kyle said
| nothing. He could not understand how
one could feel downhearted in the same
/ house with that face behind the music.
The widow spread out her hands in a
! gesture intended to be very elegant
! and dashing.
':Now, leave it to YOU, Mr.. Kyle, if
i I'm not the cheerfulest person!'
| Poor Officer Kyle grew yet more con-
fused under this ELUSIVE style of con-
versation, but, finding it necessary to
make a plunge into the talk, he he
marked boldly that Mrs. Trussel was,
indeed. as cheerful a person as he ever
remembered 10 have met.
| Mamie. who had as kind a little
heart as ever beat beneath muslin
| keIchief, came to the rescue. She
| played not only what Are the Wild
| Waves Saying?" but other melodies
| more to the taste of the stalwart visitor,
and sang in a clear, modest soprano.
| Officer Kyte's head was completely
turned. He felt he had rushed
| upon his destiny. In vain he looked in
| the direction of the widow in the hope
that she might retire. The widow APP
| propTiated the chances with a fiattered
smile and chatted on. She showed her
| own aulograph-album and her daugh-
ters; she exhibited her collection of
| biography, so far as she knew, of every
person whose portrait had a place in
her photograph-album.
At one page, from which looked the
face Of a youth with Q well-nurtured
black mustache and a polka-dotted
necktie, Mrs. Trussel was discreetly
silent
lis this another cousin of yours?"
asked the visitor, inwardly wishing 60!
how devoutly) that it was Nannie's
shapely fingers turning the leaves for
him. The widow shook her head in
reply to the questions.
"A nephew, perhaps?" ventured Of
ficer Kyle, not in the least caring what
the relationship might be.
''No relative at all-yet," the
| ilT Il in fIa f,l1 oct
enjoyment Of the mystery.
''Yet?" repeated the guileless man
blankly.
You'll have to ask Mamie how
soon he sciU be-" continued Mrs. Trus-
sci, coming out of her shade of mys-
ticism into the blandest sunshine of
confidence. There arose throb from
the simple heart of the listener that
lodged helplessly in his throat, choking
him. He dared not lift his honest eyes
from the book, but kept them fixed on
the page with the young face. How
he hated polka-dotted neckties! AS for
Mamie, she caught the last two sem
fences and turned about with flaming
face.
Mother" she protested, ''what are
you sayins?" Her eyes fell on the
| panied face of the distressed, foolish
Greatheart on the sofa by her urbane
mother, and she lost the power to say
more. There swan mist before her
eyes. Officer Kyle forced to look up,
caught glimpse of her flying blue
skirts as she tlirted them out of the
room. The realization that she was
| gone aroused the cOmb3tiveneSS which
circumstances had cultivated to 80 high
degree in the sturdy policeman. He
determined to fight He began SEEM
ing retreat.
Il have kept You up long enough"
he said, rising with decision that
checked Mrs. Trussers vehement ex-
| postulations.
''Say goodnight to Miss Mamie for
me. And may [ come tomorrow at
one o'clock and see you alone for
moment? l want to see you about
some particular business.
The relict of the late Captain James
Richard Trussel, being of a mind that
no time was so good as the present,
quered; why not now?''
| mo. not now," returned the deter
mined guest, and. repossessing himself
| OF his helmet and the hghtest and most
| useless of canes, marched out in the
moonlight with stride as martial as
if he were leading an onslaught against
| barricade.
A middle-aged lover is the most in
fatuated of his kind. The hitherto
practical brain of duty-loving Police
man Kyle was as full of visions. for the
nonce. as poets. His dreams that
night after he left the widows house
were broken by floating phantoms of
golden-headed, dove-eyed maidens.
They tloated about the lumber docks.
they dived into the river-legions OF
them-and he was positively relieved
when morning broke, even though he
awoke to the consciousness Of rival
for his love. The days familiar mo-
notony seemed strange and unreal.
This inward tumult was something
quite foreign to Officer kyte's ordinary
placidity, but at last the hour for dim
ner came and he hurried to the home
of Widow Trussel.
She was waiting for hun in the par