Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-06-27

asked.
Notwithstanding the flood Of tears which
she held in reserve somewhere ! saw then
that there was fire in the woman The
doleful features hardened; the eyes glittered
dangerously. She sat erect, but still with
folded hands Dreading q scene, an
swsred somewhat hastily:
mo, no. by no means It Is IN excellent
conjuring trick, but nothing mora"
Because she said severely, Il am used
to being insulted; am used to being trod-
den upon, but have never been 50 insulted
or SO trodden upon as that-at least by
gentleman
@Then,nI said, when could in some
measure collect my thoughts, you don't
know what has become Of the vase"
1Sir, have never evn seen it
"But-but-pray excuse my pertinacity;
you came here as q kleptomaniac Now,
aidn't you, Miss White"
Its very hard" she replied, weeping
again, Gfor q poor defenseless woman to To
attacked in this way. But don't complain
mo, don't complain, for Pm used to it l
came here in answer to an advertisement
said to proceed from q gentleman, and
only wish 1 hadn't"
aAnd that advertisement was for klep-
tomaniac. Really, Miss White, must ask
you to let ms see your bag"
Crying bitterly all the time, but without
a word she handed it to me. / opened it
and found it empty 1 don't think that,
! either before or since, l have felt so crushed
as did at that moment, though my con
viction that this shameless woman had got
| the vase was mistaken by my failure t.
find it
And now there burst upon me thought
- 4 L. to-, to-
drops upon my forehead. In every avail
able room in the house there was one Of
these desperate kleptomaniacs, who was
doubtless thieving right and left
Excuse ne one moment-only one mo-
ment," l said, and literally ran from the
room, my intention being to create a scare
and thus prevent any further depredationa
1Go to the hall door at once" l said to
James, who happened to be passing, and
on no account let any of the five ladies out
| Of the house until tell you"
1t really was frightful scene that met
my gaze in the boudoir. Mrs Dark had dis
covered in an Indian cabinet a secret drawer
| OF which had had no knowledge, and this
drawer had apparently contained q large
quantity of jewelry, all of which l felt sure
had been appropriated by poor Maria, In
order to fill her pocket more easily, Mrs
Dark was seated upon the floor, with the
whole collection of rings. bracelets and
brooches in her lap and a paper in her
| hand.
She was a bushy-browed, keen-eyed
elderly woman, with very square shoulders
and a slight stoop A glance at her hard
\ featured face and coarse hands WAS enough
to show that she belonged to a different class
from those Of my other visitors-a fact that
rather surprised me, for her letter had been
the most attractive of all When l heard
her speak was driven to conclude she had
not penned it without assistance, if indeed,
she had nything to do with it
Strangely enough, too, she was the only
one of the five who displayed the least sign
of embarrassment at being caught thieving.
She laughed, it is true, but the laughter had
a very forced ring However, she recovered
much sooner than did. After closing the
cabinet she crammed all the jewelry into
her pocket and rose to Der feet
@I,ooxs fshy, don't it," said Mrs Dar3;,
scrutinizing me from head to foot
"You are a very brazen faced woman"
sud /, carefully keeping between her and
the door. For if she were to get away and
pawn the things Maria had taken there
| would be a terrible explosion.
"Well,n said Mrs Dark with an irritating
pretense at resignation, Il suppose hard
names are all in the days work What
wages are you going to give ms for this job
of looking after your wifel"
WINGED at this
"Hand over the property you have stolen.'
| l angrily exclaimed. You can't escape, for
the door is guarded"
THAT is all right But stolen" The
The abandoned woman was actually wink
| ing at me- That's a hard word, too How
many kleptomaniacs have you got stored
about the house,"
Five, including yourself
They'll carry of every stick OF furniture
| if you don't watch them," said Mrs Dark,
laughing. The very idea of putting them
| in separate rooms! It's just like a man
Shall 1 help you to make the others FORK
outl Set thief to catch q thief, you
know
] jumped eagerly at the suggestion, hop
| ing to come to terms with Mrs. Dark after
the rest of my tormentOrs had been got rid
of. She undertook The management, and,
must admit went ABOUT her work in a very
business like way. In a wonderfully short
space of time the six Of us were collected in
the drawing room, all sitting down except
Mrs Heslop, who preferred standing. l sup
posed she was vexed at having been left in
the hall, but the real reason came out
presently.
"It's no use trying to soap it over" began
Mrs Dark, looking round the circle; we're all
kleptomaniacs It's not our fault, of course,
for We did not make ourselves, SO there's no
harm in owning to it And what we are is
ono thing, and what people think Of us is
another How is this gentleman here to
know I'm not humbug! He advertised for
q kleptomaniac, and he wants the real gen
uine article, take it But how is he to
know he has got his moneys worth unless
he tests US; An incapable kleptomanic
would be Just as bad as vulgar thief. So
what propose is that the five Of US should
empty our pockets, chignons, and such like
places OF resort for missing articles, for"
said Mrs Dark, smiling complacently at the
other four. an lay tanner to brass far
thing, ladies, you've not been idle"
Though the terms of this proposal were
considered Objectionable, it was eventually
agreed to. Mrs. Heslop strongly protesting
on the ground that she had no opportunity
of showing her powers However, l told
her that unless she took part in the COM
petition she would have no chance OIL being
appoiatei to the post, she had no
valuable prizc 20 set OF against the salary,
she recognized thc cxpediency of yielding.
Mrs. Heslop was the first who was calel
upon 20 exhibit what she had got And
aere little difficulty arose which explained
her OBJ ection to sitting down 1t turned
out that she had improved herself-that, l
believe, is the correct ,expression-with my
gong, and accompanied by Mrs. Dark she
had to retire in order to produce il. A
small picture AMI several pairs OF gloves
completed her spoils She was very wroth
with James who she declared had grossly
insulted her by stationing himself in the
hail TO watch her, just as If she were a COM
mon thief
She had scarcely finished speaking when
the door opened and, to my horror, Maria
walked in. What she must have thought OF
me, sitting there with these five women, |
can not even conjecture. For reasons which
will be rendered obvious the subject has
never been discussed between US She
looked as if, by some mistake, she had en-
Tered the wrong house.
Il see You are engaged" she said at
length, and was about 20 withdraw.
was much too confused TO speak or move
But Mrs Dark begged her to remain and
she did remain. She sat down close to me-
and watched and listened like one in a
dream | learned afterwards that Uncle
Joe had had an attack Of govt: hence Maria's
return at an unexpectedly early hour.
There is no need to describe in detail the
process Of dissorging Miss Miliew pro-
duced my ivory paper knife, a number OF
stamps, several packets OF post cards and
two books: Mrs Stone very nearly the
whole contents of the plate basket. and Miss
NJ s%kr sxs l.,-,rx -