The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-07-24

we're partially closed. He threw them all
open, squared himself before the tempting
little beauty and said earnestly:
Tn not joking at all. have told you
the truth. l am not your husband and /
never saw you till you opened the door
and grabbed me. | advertised for room
in this neighborhood and you answered it
to Il. H." Here is the answer and he
dived into hispocket and brought it out.
I" Look me all over and see if you don't
realize your error. It's hardly possible
that | should be dressed exactly like your
husband, even if | do look like him in
every other respect
THE little woman was dazed. She took
the letter mechanically and looked at him,
getting scared more and mere every min
ute. Her eyes took in the cutaway suit of
dark stuff he wore, as though il was per-
fectly familiar to her
'She looked searchingly into his face,
and at the peculiar expression about the
left corner OF his mouth, and had got so
far in a protest as "Oh, Fred, don't
Tighten when her eyes rested on his
necktie and the pin it held. The pin was
a jagged little nugget of gold which Jones
had got out West, and he had had a little
diamond set In it.
pretty Mrs. Jones' face grew a shade
paler and she took a step backward and
hurriedly snatched the sheet of paper out
OF the envelope. She opened it and read
her own answer to the advertisement
Then she took another look at her hus-
bands double and ran TO the other
end of the room, as scared as though poor
Jones had been Jack the Ripper.
go away! she cried franticallv; go
away
81 suppose she thought of the affection
ate reception she had given him and was
writing mentally. She dropped into
chair and buried her face in her hands
and commenced to cry. This touched
Jones, and he came over and sat down
near her.
"T'm sorry for what has happened. he
said, and will 60 in a minute. First, /
want to know something about yourself
and husband. gather that his name and
mine are identical. just as we appear to be
in person
"The little woman told him. between
her sobs, that she had been married only
three months; that her husband worked
in a certain wholesale house down town,
and they wanted to rent room or two to
help out the rent. That was why she an
swered his advertisement.
when Jones departed she went to the
door with him, and smiled through her
tears as she told him she could never be
certain she had the right man unless she
put mark on him of some sort. She
wouldn't shake hands, and Jones came
away.
"He said he believed she was only half
convinced that he wasn't her husband
then, and that if he had declared it all a
joke she would have thrown herself into
his arms. But he wasn't mean enough to
do that. He sympathized with her in her
dilemma.
"Well, he came and told me all about it,
and we fixed up a scheme to 90 to the
place where the husband worked and look
at him. l was to ask for him and talk to
him, while Jones stood aside somewhere
and sized him up.
eve did it, | asked for Fred Jones,
and when he appeared / was so thunder
struck that | almost forgot my part; but
managed to say had called to see if he
was Fred Jones | had known in New
York, etc. The two men were exact
counterparts.
"When we came away Fred was pale,
and | knew he realized the mental load
that pretty little Mrs. Jones would hence
forth have to stagger under when he said:
"Old man, wouldn't be in that wo-
mans place for 81 600. Whenever that
husband of hers steps out of sight min
ute the next time he appears he will have
to be identified and she won't be sure
then it isn't /. This suspicion that the
man she takes for her husband may be
the other one will follow her through life
and be like a spectef to bob up IN her
path at every turn. 1t will make her
gray haired before her time if it don't
drive her crazy. guess the only decent
thing for me TO do is to go to some other
part of the country and let her know that
I'm no longer in the same town with her
husband
so he went to California the next
week. He is in San Francisco now, and
every week sends letter to Mrs. Fred
Jones in Chicago, proving that he is still
there"
If the man who told this story invented
it, he ought TO enter the list with Rider
Haggard.