Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-05-22

It was as he had surmised. Mrs.
Springer was dead, and must have chris
tian burial. The rector drew out his
notebook of Russian leather, and jotted
down an item:
'Man named Springer wants wife bur
led. No. 9 Alanthus row. Bad speci-
men. Sprinkle camphor on self before
entering house"
'An right" he said CURLY, pocketing
his notebook. 'Tu come. Tomorrow
A o'clock"
He waved his hand in a way that
would have been significant to a railroad
magnate, or literary man. But Mr..
Springer fingered. He had been told
that the rector was very kind man.
Professor Stoneblocker, whose daughter
Mr.. Dibbins had tenderly wept and
prayed over throughout. a consumpive ca
reer, had said SO; and for the tenth or
twelfth time in his life Mr.. Springer
would have liked to know what kind
man was. He did not know himself
what he wanted. but he hoped the par
son would know. He was conscious of
a load of disaster and loss which had
somehow accumulated from his birth up,
and now the mute sharer of the load was
taken from him.
He stood there in the doorway under
Mrs. Dibbins' light gaze, quite oblivions
of Brink.rhoff, who was scowling at him
fit to efface him. He had come with un-
defined hope that fortune had now done
her worst for him, and that, being in
formed of this, the parson would apply
some of the balm, of which, he had been
told, parsons we're the sole manufactur-
ers and proprietors. This hope, how
ever, was slowly turning to certain dis
appointment, when the parson waived all
doubt'by remarking:
swell, if you're hungry, go to the
kitchen. Ny time is valuable Brinker-
hoff, show this person out"
Brinkerhoff beckoned with his fat fin
ger, and preceded Springer, after the
manner of an earl in advance of a COM
moner.
Springer told him istlessly that he
might show him the door to the street,
as he wasn't going to the kitchen.
sour kitchen amt to be scorned," said
Brinkerhoff. "But it amt a-suffering
for your comply, neither"
Mr.. Springer made haste to get over
the wide porch and into the street below,
thinking of the stark form at home, and
glad that Mary Ann was in a world
where human hurts and disappointments
made no difference.
81 suppose we amt the right sort for
Parson Dibhins to put hisself out of the
way for" he thought. There's too
much flowers and gim-cracks on the one
side, and too much bad smells and
trouble on the other, betwixt u.s.
He sighed at the uncompromising
truth of his reflections.
"Well, it amt to be expected"
Meanwhile Mr.. Dibbins had recovered
his poise, and gone to the library with
his wife to examine anew Giotto's por-
traits of Dante. They sat in an en-
brasure, where the sun slanted over Mrs.
Dibbins' cheek, and lent such enchant-
ing brightness to her hair that Rev.
Arthur seized her in his arms with al
most boyish fever.
''In what great measure the Lord has
blessed me p he exclaimed. "This room,
my darling" glancing up at the tapes
tried walls, "shall be our refuge from
the worlds storms. The unkindness of
destiny shall matter very little to us, so
long as our lives are spared for mutual
sacrifices, for mutual joys"
And Mrs. Dibbins, unchilled by four
teen months of married life with this ex-
emplary man, responded in murmurs of
tenderness and satisfaction; for the pair
were truly loving and contented.
An hour later the great archdeacon
came and banished personal thoughts.
Something in his presence was calculated
to eradicate selfshness and send the
mind abroad
The wax lights shed softened glow
through the darkened rooms. Flowers
banked against the walls expanded odor-
ously in the warmth. It was strange
scene to be summoned there-that of the
sinful soul, sinking instantly upon the
commission of its crime into the depths
of a vivid hell, while the surface phan-
tom, the surviving body keeps going to
and fro! Disembodied souls-the figure
was commonplace. But disensouled
bodies-who but Dante could have
drawn the desolate lines?
Mr.. Dibbins' thoughts ran back to the
Borgias and the prosecutors of the in
QUESTION. They even Lit up a mordern
or two, and shuddered. He
reviewed his own life with pardonable
No shame confronted him,
no wilful act of wrong or cruelty arose
to confuse him. The wife of his choice,
radiant and TREMENDOUSLY conscious of
his presence, was at his side. The chair
in which he sat, the rug on which the
stood the very name of the
florist who had supplied the flowers, all
wore marks of the divine approval. In
his heart he thanked God that he was
reaping the harvest of virtue and good
works.
At the close of the lecture one lady
fingered. Mrs. Dibbins did not retire,
but seated herself on a hassock beside
her husband. She was absorbed in
grave thoughts occasioned by the arch
deacon's words. Each commented upon
them, Mr. Dibbins at some length; when
presently the lady, who appeared well
known, remarked upon the unreasonable
warmth of the morning, their was fine
sparkling light in her eyes, tiny Grim
son spot on either cheek.
The rector replied, with a smile and
slight expansion of his frame, that upon