The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-01-23

appear as witness against her, woult
 have condoned great deal, and diG not like the idea of sending such youns
 girl to prison. Her mother knew to bl
 an honest, hard-working widow, who
 would be heart broken at lanes behav.
 for. So told her that, on account ot
 her previous good character and my Ye
 spect for her mother, 1 had decided mol
 to call in the police, but that she must
 leave the house immediately, and need
 never refer to me for a character and
 hoped my being so lenient would induce
 her to repent and reform.
 She listened without the smallest soft
 ening that could see, and turned at the
 door to say: "Well, ma'am, can only
 say you ve been deceived. Some day
 you will know the true from the false"
 She departed. Kind Eliza helped hel
 to pack her boxes, fetched a cab for her
 and gave her tract at parting, with, as
 cook afterward told me, some excellent
 advice. must say this made me ad.
 mire and respect the parlor maid more
 than ever. There are not many who will
 say kind word to a detected thief
 Then came up the disagreenble prob.
 lem of getting another house maid at a
 moments notice; but here, fortunately,
 Eliza came to my relief. She knew a
 girl, she said, distant connection of her
 own, who was just leaving her situation
 at South Kensington. l wrote to her
 mistress, who gave her an excellent char
 acter, and in a few days she was installed in our house. She was not quite So pre-
 possessing in appearance as Eliza, as she had rather cast in her eyes, but she
 pro sed an excellent servant, and now that Jane had gone, was not annoyed by
 petty offerings.
 It is not often that my good husband finds fault with anything in the house, but one evening, as we were sitting at din ner, he did take exception to the tarnished condition of our plate generally, and especially of one piece on the sideboard "a large silver salver, which we used for a tea tray on state occasions /; two very massive cups, and fine tankard, quite eighteen inches high, which had belonge d to his grandfather. "Yes, know it wants cleaning badly" said. !" intend to have it all done one of these days. The London atmosphere soon tarnishes it,"
 We had great deal of plate-most of 1t very old, and which had been in my husbands family for generations. As he was an only child he had inherited it all. had also good many handsome silver articles among my wedding pres ents. hope shall not be accused of bsastful arrogance when say that be- tween us, we had almost more than we knew what to do with. ltwas nuisance to keep clean, and constant worry to me. We kept it all in that house. We had tried leaving it at our bank, but the method was very inconvenient when we were giving dinner party and needed number of extra articles. Also, my hus. band liked to have it to look at, as also to show occasionally some particularly old and valuable piece to some connois- seur friend. So, though we have often been threatened by our friends with bur glars, and warned that we should have our plate stolen, we contin ued to store 1t, except those articles in use, in a small room at the head of the stairs, next to our bed room, where we must hear any sound there in the night. The plate was not in safe, being so large in quantity but we had had an especially strong oak press, with double doors lined with iron, made expressly for it. The press was fitted with shelves and drawers lined with green baize. Connected with it was an electric bell, which must infallibly ring if any unaccustomed hand essayed to open the outer lock. The locks themselves were of complicated construction, and we never left the house in the daytime with out at least one servant in it. On the rare occasions on which could persuade my husband to indulge himself with few weeks of holiday, we always sent all the plate to the bank. l may add that the door of the plate room itself was al- ways kept locked and the key in my pos session, and that the window was pro- tected by heavy iron bars outside.
 My husband laid but few restrictions upon me bat there was one point upon which he was resolute-nobody must ever go to the plate-room but me. No matter how trustworthy the servants might be, l was never to give the keys, or even to let them know how much plate we had. Charlie's firm belief was that at least three-fourths of the burglaries that occur were planned either by the servants or by associates and friends of others.
 must say found the restriction some- times rather tiresome, when l was busy preparing for dinner party, and the came to say that she wanted more spoons and forks and other articles for the table. It would often have been an immense relief to me to hand her the keys and say: "I am very busy; get what is required yourself" But never did, although might think Charlie over cautious.
 The very day after my husband had spoken being pouring wet, and the ser wants not having much to do, it occurred to me that had better 20 to the plate room and get out what silver required cleaning, and let them have it. It was always tedious operation. So went up stairs, got out my keys. opened the