The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-08-11
Ne discovery of man in the matter


 ment. And now that you know who Tam. will trouble you to tell me what you were giving my wife,"
 "Some morey-a hundred pounds" !" the dean answered frankly; wonder ing in his innocence whether he were going to get it back.
 A hundred poundsp' the stranger stsmmered, Ca hundred pounds '" And then the deans eyes were opened, and his face grew hot:
 "Stay, stay l' he cried pitiably, for the other was clenching his fists with an unmistakable purpose, "you mis- apprehend me altogether. Indeed you do, my good man. l am the dean ot Dromore. My name is Young. Your wife, with what motive I am quite unable to explain, has been troubling me by passing herself off as my sis ter"
 WAs your sister 1" incredulously.
 "Certainly," the poor dean affirmed. "And to rid myself of the annoyance, I perhaps foolishly gave her hun- dred pounds, as you saw"
 "To do what?"
 1O SO away
 "To go away2 And you dare to tell me this, you reprobate" the sol dier cried furiously. "Do you think that story will wash that-that-pack of lies? You, dean, and tell me to my face that you offered my wife a hundred pounds to go away? Shame on you, old mani Shame! I say"
 An, if any of the subalterns in the -th whom his manners had op- pressed could have seen the dean then! "Oh, dear, dear! this is very terri ble he murmured tremulously, look ing about him for help. "I assure you, my good man, you are quite wrong"
 "Wrong? I will soon show you who is wrong!" cried the sergeant vengefully; "and -"
 But the catastrophe was averted. "Erw ejacuiated some one who had just turned the corner of the garden wall, "er-what is the matter, dean? What is all this7"
 The speaker was Major Andrew Macdonald. The sergeant pulled him. self up and saluted-a machine once more.
 The major had come upon the scene in the nick of time-only just in the nick of time-and yet the dean could not thank him-could for the moment do no more than smile feebly upon him and wave his hand in depreca- tion, while the sergeant stiffiy related his wrongs, or the wrongs he fancied.
 "But," said the major, after listen- ing a moment in Silence, "do l under stand, dean, that you really gave the woman a hundred pcunds?"
 "Yes," the dean admitted. "She will tell you Why, the woman is gone" !" in surprise.
 "Oh, yes, she has gonew the soldier retorted bitterly, his wrath, which the presence of the officer had par tially suppressed, flaming up again. "She has taken her money and her in- structions, old gentleman, and gone Deuce a doubt about it! And where are you going to meet her? That is what would like to know"
 "Be silent, Snell," said the major. But when he said that, he did not sec his way any further. He stood look ing at Mary's father gloomily, as- sured of his guilt. To give hundred pounds to pure impostor seemed to his Scotch mind an incredible piece of folly-a thing which no man in the dean's position, and of his years, would do. "Why, you might have gone away, yourself" he murmured, following out this train of thought, and perhaps calculating the expense of removal to Algiers or Cairo.
 'I wish to heaven 1 had !" the dean ejaculated earnestly. But he could scarcely tell the young man why he had not adopted that course. He could not explain, to him, his hopes about Mary-hopes now dashed to the ground and shattered beyond re- pair Poor Mary! For the only doubt left in Macdonald's mind turned on the nature of the tie be- tween the dean and this woman. Were the soldiers suspicious correct? Or was this vulgar Mrs. She'll really the dean's sister-a sister shamefully disowned and ill-treated? Was this dull non- commissioned officer the deans brother in- law? Macdonald shuddered at this, thinking of the es- cape he had had, and reused himself from a darkling scrutiny of the of- fender to say brusquely, "Now, Shell, you had better come with me for the present. Good-day."
 The last words he flung at the clergyman as he turned, and nothing more. But they did the dean good. The sense of his folly had up to that time paralyzed him. Now, aware that his position was really serious and that something more than folly might be imputed, he felt all the righteous