Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-05-12
CHAPTER XII.
MR srRANaF1ELp,s coNsrRuc

MIR. sTRANGFIELD's CONSTRUCTION.
 Mrs Strangfeld started and fell back with inimitable wildness of amazement. Her face was puffed out with the force of her surprise, and she drew no breath until a feel ing of suffocation made her cry out.
 "His wife-his sUife, Jenny, do you says" she exclaimed, in a tone almost as deep as a man's searching meanwhile her daughters countenance for any hint to make her doubt the truth of what she heard.
 The girl fell upon her knees, with her hands clasped above her head.
 "We were married when I went to Syden- ham," she said, in voice that had lost nearly all it's sweetness My fear of father kept me silent. But Cuthbert should have come last night to claim me before thee and him, and-Oh! my heart-where is he now, and why has he left mel"
 With which, and with her fearless face in her hands, she fell to moaning-in her humble, needless posture of woe, a piteous sight. Then must her mother begin to | weep.
 70, Jenny, what has thou been and done? | O, my child, what shameful counting has made you stoop to this decita Alas! What a strange, wild thing to doT And with streaming eyes she poured forth her interjec- l tions.
 Now, it befen that the servant, Polly, hay ing cast herself down upon kitchen chair to indulge in one of those aggravating fits of whimpering, which seized her after every collision with her mistress, overheard some | of Mrs. Strangfe1ds startling ejaculations to which she listened, with her mouth gradu- ally opening, and her head slowly lifting out of the greatness of her arm sleeve; and being a blockhead as well as slut for dirt and ig- norance love each others company, and eager to show how forgiving she was, and how smart was the watch she kept over the interests of the family, the draggletail sped softly out of the kitchen into the shipwright's yard, and, deaf to various personal remarks on her figure called slyly to her by the work men, ran up to Mir. Strangfeld, and cried out:
 "Master, if you wanta to do ye shall see j! in tn parlor! There's bin man, and naissus is callin' Miss Jenny bad words; and sich blubberin' as is goin' on might fill 1
 copperp
 of surprise into the seamy face of the hand
 maid, and not choosing to risk any question:
 in the hearing of the men-for Polls excite ment was something to balance a stout voice
 upon-he sensibly concluded certain direc tions he was giving to one of the hands, 1nt walked to his house.
 On entering the parlor he found Jenn,
 standing at the table, and her mother sob
 ping in her handkerchief. He was mal
 with keen eye, but no sharpness of visiol
 did he need to know that he stood in tn
 presence of sorrow the like of which ha' , never before darkened his home. In tn girls short recoil as he entered. the suddel
 mutinous flash of the eye, that changed tn !, whole character of the face, the swelling nos
 tril and passionate resolution of misery in 9 forming the whole figure of her, he read it - For, in truth, in the blight and shock tha
 had come to her with the news MT. Saundel 2 son had brought fear of her father was lost ]. her recoil was an involuntary effort of ir / stinct; firm in her misery she stood now, an Q her eyes were steady on her fathers face. 7, Though his wife heard him enter the roo1 = she would not lift her head from the hand
 kerchief In her dread to tell him wha }, Jenny had done she gave the mischief nor 'S sinister aspect than it need have worn a preserving her weeping posture and silence t He knitted his brows and clasped his hand
 strongly, to preserve an evenness of voie s and subdue the dull pain in his breast. Blu @ do what he would, he looked a man strivin ,e with might and main to prepare himself fe l. a shocking disclosure.
 IS "Jane," said he, in low, hard voice. "d ,e you not hear my footstepss Why are yo n crying, and what makes Jenny so white ar
 wild-looking?