The Delta independent., 1889-01-15
The Successful Detective.
BY ROSE EYrINGE.

AAS heu iohS susfcCUcu noF.
True, she was always kind and affec-
tionate to him.
That was just it.
She was too kind and affectionate, Tor
ne was forced to acknowledge to him
self,-himself, mind you; to no one else
would he make such an acknowledge
ment,-that sometimes, only sometimes.
he might be a little trying.
For instance, when he came home to
dinner at seven-thirty, after promising
TO be at home at five sharp, and then
raising Cainn because the dinner was
over-cooled,
or stopping out with the boys" till
three O'clock in the morning, when his
wife had sat waiting, in evening bonnet
and gloves, from seven-thirty till ten-
thirty, in expectation of being taken to
the theater, in accordance with fort
night-old and oft-renewed promise.
But why did she so carefully and per-
sistently keep her desk in the sitting
room lockedP And why, when the post
mans whistle was heard, did she blush
so wildly, and become so embarrassed
True, she was always at home. In
deed he sometimes reproached her for
not going out oftener, for he could not
help noticing that she looked sadly pale
and thin.
These were the reflections of Mr..
Thomas Bleakly, as he walked down
town one frosty morning, from his cosy
little home in ~ street; and he
there and then determined that he would
learn what her desk contained, and why
she blushed at the sound of the pc T.
mans whistle.
So, a few mornings after his reflec-
tions had taken this definite form, he
asked his wife to pack his travelling
bag, as he was going to Albany for
few days.
Cicely Bleakly turned her large blue
eyes on her husband in startled way,
and trying vainly to keep back the
tears, she said:
why, Tom, dear! isn't it rather
suddenp You never said"-
"Yes, yes," said Mr.. Bleakley, look
ing not over comfortable,-for this
was his first essay at private detective
business; and as his wife stood there
before him, with her sweet, gentle face
SO pale, trying so hard to control her
trembling lips, and clasping her hands,
her hands, that used to be SO plump
and dimpled-looking, so thin and
white he did not like it overmuch.
'Yes, yes; I'm going for the firm,
some business before the Legislature:
be back in three days at farthest, sooner
If possible. Goodbye" and with
hasty kiss, he fed.
Fled in the word, for one more look
at Cicely's face, and bag, and fb, and
detective business, and all, would
have all gone by the board.
But just at that moment the bell
rang sharply, and the postman whis-
tied. Cicely's face flushed crimson, and
her hands fluttered like two little Gagged
birds beating their pretty wings against
their bars.
This sight nerved Mr.. Blealley to
frmness, and with cold .'Ta-ta," he
left the house, and walked sharply
away.
1t was nearly ten o'clock on the night
of the day of which Mr.. Bleakley,
armed with his traveling-bag and his
suspicious, had started on his trip to
Albany.
The snow, which had been falling all
day, was still steadily coming down,
and there was strong east wind blow
ing,-one of those east winds that have
way of depositing small specimens of
ice just between your neck and your
muffier, behind your ear,-an east wind
that makes your fingers and toes, and
your ears and your nose, feel like
small sections of Siberia.
The Bleakly house did not look so
cheerly as usual. The light seen through
the vestibule doors burned dim and low;
the parlor and basement windows were
In total darkness; but the light which
shone out upon the cold, bleak night
from the three windows in the second
story, looked uncommonly warm and
gracious.
At least this is the way it struck
man who passed rapidly, but furtively,
up and down on the opposite side Of the
street, trying Intellectually to keep him
self warm.
This was Mr.. Thomas Bleakley, and
as he tramped up and down in the pitt
less cold, he could not help thinking
how CHEEKY and cosy that room was.
And he thought, too, that the day now
ended had certainly been the longest
he had ever known. Though he had
been perfectly free to go and dine in
true Bohemian fashion "with the boys"
somehow he had not felt inclined to do
30. Indeed, on the contrary, he felt
the strongest objection to seeing, or be-
ing seen, by any of "the boys, and now
he found himself cold, miserable, faint,
ana hungry.
Just as the bell in the tower of
neighboring church rang out ten
o'clock, his long, cheerless vigil was
rewarded.
There, walking swiftly down the
ctraaf thare cama the tall afrai iOhf