The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-10-05

terest. The two ladies walked about the streets
| without even noticing the new shape in bonnets
| which came in about midday on the morrow of
Mr.. Ballyhooley's departure, and continued in
| fashion till near the end of the week. And they
| sat at dinner without noticing that Mr.. and Mrs
| Smith, who had quarreled through the atten-
! tions paid by the former to Miss Jones, had
made 1t up again, and that Miss Jones was now
setting her cap at the gawky young son of Mrs
! Robinson, to that lady's intense indignation and
the young mans immense delight.
| Every morning and every evening the Misses
MacSneevil examinee the visitors book and
! cross-examined the hall porter, but the result
| of both processes was always the same. Mon
sieur Ballyhooley had not arrived. At last, one
afternoon as the two sisters were coming in after
long and dreary walk about the Streets the
hall porter saluted them with a smiling face.
"Ah, Mees,n he cried, running over to the
! visitors book, "Monsieur Ballyhooley has ar
rived. Voila!' and he pointed to an entry in
| the volume.
With palpitatiug hearts the two Misses Mac
Sneevil hurried to the book. The sight of the
entry made them stagger and almost faint, for
1t was 'M. p Ballyhooley and lady !"
Without word the sisters turned away, and
with weak steps and throbbing hearts sought
their room. There they flung themselves in
their chairs and gave free vent to their feelings
"Oh, the wretch, the viper ~ cried Miss
Martha
"oh. the betrayer of my fond heart p cried
Miss Magdalene.
''To pass himself off on us as single man ~
sobbed Miss Martha.
cor widower,n murmured Miss Magdalene
"And he married all the time,n screamed Miss
Martha.
81 shan,t dine at table d'hote tonight" said
Miss Magdalene.
won't you? Well, l SHALL" cried Miss
Martha. 81 want to see this wife of his"
I'm sure she's horrid thing, F" said Miss Mag
dalene.
'Hateful, I'm confident" answered Miss Mar
| tha. 'Ihatis inst why | want tn her -
This was a view of the matter that had not oc-
| Cured to Miss Magdalene, and it caused her at
once to change her mind-never very difficult
| process.
The Ballyhooleys that night were late for din
| ner. The first course was finished before they
| entered the room. So the Misses MacSneevil
| had capital chance of seeing the lady. She was
| fine, fashionably- dressed woman of about forty
| with dark hair and darker eyes. Most people
would have thought her handsome and attrac-
| tive, but not so the Misses MacSneevil "Bold
as brass" was Miss Martha's verdict EAST and
| vulgar" was Miss Magdalene's.
During dinner Mr.. Balyhooley was too much
| occupied with his wife to observe who the others
| about the table were. But just as he and she
were rising to leave the room his eye caught
that of Miss Magdalene. Instead of being
abashed as that lady thought he should be-
he simply smiled and bowed to her.
| "Ihose lrish!' muttered Miss Martha, in
dignantly; ''they have the impudence-of-of
| Satan"
sat up till uncanny hours discussing Mr.. Bailey
| hooley. The opinions expressed, however, were
| not quite consistent with those stated on the
previous occasion. Badly, however as they now
thought of him, their views of his wife were ten
times worse. Indeed, before they went to bed
they had come to the conclusion that she was
not, and could not be, a woman of good charac-
| ter. 1t is true, as Miss Martha admitted, that
they knew nothing of her past life, but then, as
she clearly pointed out, any one with half an eye
could lpDrayitV
The next day the Misses MacSneevil went out
for their usual stroll about the sunit bouleyards
In spite of the brightness of everything about
them, it was a doleful walk for them. In the
midst of sunshine and bustling life their hearts
were dark and dead within them.
When they came back to the hotel they found
the hall porter-witn whom they had become
very friendly-in a great difficulty over parcel
that had been left with him. 1t was addressed
to "Mrs. O'Brien, Hotel Glasgow" Now there
was nobody answering that name in the visitors
book He appealed to the Misses MacSneevil to
help him to solve the mystery.
As the two ladies were discussing the matter
who should walk in but Mrs. Balyhooley.
'Has parcel come for me ?" She asked the
porter
"This is for Meeses OBree-en," said the hall
porter.
"Oh, yes, that's my name, thank you. Just
send it up to my room," said she, in the coolest
manner possible
The Misses MacSneevil were dumfounded
Sdlu MISS Martina, VINO
was the first to recover her breath-'I thought
Francois, that that lady was Mr. Ballyhooley's
wife,
FRANCOIS grinned. Foreigners are never ultra
respectable.
"Ma fol, do not know" he answered
| "But- but" persisted Miss Martha, ''does she
pass as his wfe?"
'Ah, oui," replied FRANCOIS, with another
! grin
The Misses MacSneevil glanced at one another
in speechless horror.
"What an escape! - muttered Miss Magda-
lene, when she could speak.
'The villain ~ was the more energetic re-
mark of Miss Martha.
Again the ladies paused, unable to decide
what under the circumstances they should do
While they stood hesitating several other highly
respectable ladies came in. Miss Martha saw
her opportunity and raised her voice.
"Francois!' she cried, in voice loud enough
to be heard by all the people about, 'please tell
| Nj. Rouke from my sister and me that Mr.
| Ballyhooley and this person who passes as his
wife must leave the hotel this day or we shall
| We are respectable women and will not be
| brought in contact with such personsn
The effect of her words was tremendous
| Those ultra-respectable guests in and about the
after the Misses MacSneevil had swept in q
stately way up to their room; then, with one ac-
cord, they rushed to the hall porter to discover
the cause of Miss Marthas language and to dis
cuss the situation.
The Misses MacSneeVl had not long reached
their room and were still gloryng over the JUS
tice they had meted cut to Mr. Ballyhooley and
Mrs. O'Brien when, without even pausing to
| knock at the door, the usually Oyer-polite NJ