The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1886-03-06

ate the next two or three days. She
hung round me in the most bewitching
manner, sewed my shirt-buttons on ran
for my slippers, and would insist on
toasting the bread herself, until her face
was the color of a scarlet tomato, "be-
cause cook is so careless, and dear
Josiah likes his toast Drowned just So"
"What shall order for dinner. dear?
The butchers man is here. Steaks ora
roasting piece?
IL don't care" answered mechani-
cally. "Sut yourself"
"But you know your wishes are my
pleasure, love"
Steaks then"
"And about the pudding, sweet?
Shall tell the cook to make a real old
English plum, or would you prefer baked
suet?"
Really it was very nice TO hear ones
wishes consulted in this sort of manner
And when l departed for the Office,
Lucilla herself stood on tiptoc TO tie the
worsted muller round my neck.
'For if you should take cold, dearest,
and anything should happen, it would
break your dear little wife's heart"
Under these harmonious circum-
stances tina. sudden voyage to India
came like a thunderbolt across the
serene horizon of our matrimonial life.
"How shall l live without you six
months, my dearest?" sobbed Lucilla,
her lovely beryl eyes swimming in tears.
But we cannot always control necessi-
ty, and, after a mournful farewell, in
which my wife fairly succumbcd and
went into Mysteries, departed on ne
cessarv business for the firm of Miner
and Mortlakc, myself being the afore
said Mortlake.
How it happened that my name was
enormously lugged into the details of
that massacre in which the barbarous
coolies murdered so many OF the foreign
population, when l was actually ten
miles farther up the country, never
knew, and then my long fever, during
which found it impossible to write or
obtain an amanuensis, served TO COM
plicate matters. When l recovered,
resolved to proceed Immediately back to
my native land.
"Ill not WRITE" l mentally decided
"Pll surprise Lucilla, bless her dear lit
tie heart! How delighted she will ber'
So took passage in the first English
steamer that sailed, pretty well cured of
all my romantic ideas of travelling in
foreign climes, and thoroughly con-
vnced that when man has lived fifty
odd years in the world his best place is
at home.
Half way across, we hailed an Eng
lish craft, outward-bound, and there
was an exchange of newspapers and
other ciyilities.
As unfolded London paper, scarce
ly more than six weeks old, l saw, un-
der the obituary notices, my own name.
So was supposed to be dead.
a curious sensation. like the running
of cold water water, crept down my
spinal COLUMBIAN involuntary shud-
der.
1t is sudden shock to read of your
own death, and calculate how long you
have been under ground, and not by any
means an agreeable one.
Il don't think I'm Dead" said !,
stretching ont my arms and legs, giving
myself pinch, ana feeling the strong
pulses that projected healthy currents
through my veins, ''and yet this EVIL
dence is certainly very convincing
that I was murdered by barberous ma
tives on the night Of the 25th of May.
Poor, dear little Lucilla! how inconsol-
able she must be!'
So it happened, you see, that l was
going home to comfort my widow.
1t was curious experience, to be
landing at last-to shrink away from
the observation of ones fellow-mortals.
as if one had no business in this created
world; TO feel like disembodied spirit,
come back to revisit the scenes of its
mortality, or ghost, prowling abroad
by garish daylight.
l skunk through by-ways and back
lanes towards my home, not altogether
certain whether some one would not at
tempt to exercise me.
1t was late in the afternoon when we
entered port, and the shadows OF the
autumn evening were gathering round
as l crept up the dools.cps of my own
mansion, and entered, stealthily as a
robber.
Were the shutters down, the windows
draped, the house dressed in seemly
habiliments of woe? Not at all; lights
glowed brilliantly behind the curtains,
gay voices echoed from the parlor, and
could my ear have deceived me? No,
surely that was Lucilla's laugh ringing
merrily on the air.
"A little hysterical, perhaps" /
thouSht, Out nevertheless, instead oil
boldly entering the drawing-room and
confronting my wife. instinctively
passed on to the glazed extension room
behind, communicating, by draperies OF
purple silk, with the larger apartment
room where had been wont TO keep
my books, and which digniAed by the
5 title of library
1t was but family lighted by the Dor,
rowed lustre Of the drawing-room chan
; delier, and as entered stumbled over
something-it was my own portrait, ig.
ANONYMOUSLY turned with its face to the
5 wall
l crept forward with an ominous fore
boding-a. sudden disagreeable recollec.
tion Of Fitz-Rrown's croaking predic.