The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-01-27
CAPTURE OF AMELIA.

patiently walking up and down the plat
form Mt n Paris railroad station, waiting
for the 100 express train, / received
tremendous thump on the back. turned
aronnJ. and 10 and behold 1t was my
friend Jacques.
"where are you goingf" he asked
ITO Nice y
81 am going to Nice, too
"That IL first rate. We will travel to-
gether."
The train bad In the meantime arrived,
and as we went 70 take our places IN the
coupe. we passed the postal car.
IL shouldn't like to be employed In one
of those postal cars with all those dirty
letter bags They have TO stand up all
the time. too. should think they would
be tired out" remarked
"Yes. It Is not agreeable to travel In
one OF those cars. Travelled 200 miles III
one OF them once, and don't think ever
suffered as much in my life"
"How did that happenS'
cts a right funny story. Let US get
our places, and then III tell you all about
It,"
We cot into tho coupe, and Jacques told
the following yarn, which think is worth
repeating:
Eat the tine to which I refer" said
jacques, III was acquainted with GER
tain blonde countess. You knew her, be-
cause several times caught you trying to
fiirt with her. She was living at that
time at her villa near Var. Her name is
Amelia. We used to write to each other
daily. wrote to keep her thoroughly in
formed of the fact that loved her madly.
She wrote TO me because life Is very tedi-
Gus out in the country, and she had to do
something to kill time. Her letters were
rather cold, and I was much afraid that
she was not going to make much of an ef-
fort to reciprocate my affections. Just at
this crisis / was carrying on q correspond
eucc OF pretty much the same character
with another lady whose name was not
Amelia, but Louisa, and who was living
III Normandy"
"a nice man you are"
at Is the prerogative Of innocence to
project the iuitiatory bowlder, " responded
Jacques, lighting cigarette.
II suppose you mean 10 quote that he
who Is without sin among you should cast
the FIST stone.
"Just So" resumed Jacques. Miss
Louisa, this Normandy correspondent OF
mine, was no countess. Neither was she
a blonde. We had reached that point In
our correspondence when she felt it in
cumbent on her to inform me almost
every day that she loved me for myself
alone. IroplIed very coolly and fndider'
entity, for I was DESTROYS Of giving her no
announcement whatever. / was trying
10 give Louisa what Is known as the cold
shake, but l wanted to do 1t genteelly, as
o gentleman should
II presume the countess Is the one that
had the most money" remarked Gym
ically.
"You are o good guesser. The countess
was very wealthy and Louisa was not.
Poor Louisa! I did hate to go back on
her 1t was not her fault, nor mine
either for that matter, that she was i'm
pecunious. There was something about
her looks that reminded me of the coun-
tess" and Jacques sighed heavily
"What has all this got to do with the
postal carp
"You shall hear. Both of these CORE
spondents Of mine had the mania to send
me orders to ill. Hardly day passed
that did not have to buy something and
mail 1t to them. ! was at Paris, you
know, and they were in the country. l
was eternally hunting up samples OF dress
goods and sending them by mail.
"Well, ono morning got two letters.
One full Of love and devotion from Louisa.
She also wanted me to pick out sample
Of merino and send 1t to her. The other
letter was from the countess. 1t was n
very cosby sort Of document, but there
was nothing gushing about 1t. She also
desired me to pick out some samples Of
silks and mail them to her. Louisa was
merino and the countess was silk with a
big S. That was the difference between
them.
II Immediately sat down and composed
two love letters-one Of them, however,
without much love in It. The other let
rer-the one to the Countess Amelia
was running over with affection and hints
at suicide. The one to Louisa was philo-
sophical and non-committal; very much
so, indeed As had something to attend
to, hurried to dry goods store, selected
the patterns, and put them with the let
ters In the envelopes, and put them IN my
pocket. Just at this moment, who should
see driving past In his buggy but my
IrleuQ M0XlIlle. x4o Cd4ieo W uiS w Wv
In. did so, and Just az we were passing
the postoff1ce II occurred to me post the
letters"
eyes, begin to understand.
II got out, bought two stamps, stuck
one of them on the letter 10 the countess,
showed it through the hole, and was about
to do the same for Louisa's epistle, when
! felt faint. gasped for air. ! had adj.
dressed my letter to Louisa to the coun.
tess at Var and posted It, In my hand
was the letter to the countess with the
samples Of silk, addressed to Louisa IN
Normandy"
lyon were in o FIX"
Never was In 90 hideous Ak in all my
life. Unless regaiued that letter 1t was
all up with the beautiful countess, who,
a. I told you, was q rich - she was
pretty"
Eyes, you told me she was quite
wealthy"
mot only that. but was really des-
perately In love with her besides. went
right into the postoflce and asked the
clerk to hand me out the letter. The
clark began to cross-examipe me, and In