San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-09-12


did not much like the arrangement
| Of James new house when came to stay
in it. The way the two bedrooms, hers
and mine, were shut off from the rest OF
the house by door, barred and locked
| at night for fear of burglars, was,
thought, unpleasant, especially as once
in my room for the night there was no
possibility of getting out of it, the key
of the door of the passage not being even
allowed to remain in the lock, but retir-
ing with Jane, the. canary cage and
other valuables into her own apartment
| I demonstrated, but l soon found that
Jane had not remained unmarried for
nothing. She was decided on the point.
The outer door would be locked as usual,
and the key would be deposited under
the pincushiOn in her room as usual, and
Il was so.
The next morning, as Jane and / went
out for stroll before luncheon, we had
to pass the house to which had driven
by mistake the day before. To our as
constituent there was a crowd before
the door, and policeman with his back
to it was guarding the entrance. The
blinds We're all drawn down. The image
of the pale, lonely woman sitting by her
little fire, whom had disturbed the day
before, came suddenly back to me with
a strange qualm.
"What is it," | hurriedly asked a
bakers boy who was standing at an
area railing rubbing his chin against the
loaf he was waiting to deliver. The boy
grinred.
Its MURDER he said, with relish.
Burglars in the night. I've supplied
her regular these two months. One quar-
tern best white, one-half quartern brown
every morning, French rolls occasional;
but it's all up now" And he went off
whistling tune which all bakers boys
whistled about that time, called my
Grandfather's Timepiece," or something
similar
A second policeman came uptne street
at this moment, and from him | learned
all the little there was to know. The
poor lady had not been murdered, it
seemed, but being subject to heart com
plant had died in the night of an acute
attack, evidently brought on by fright.
The maid, the only other person in the
house, sleeping as maids of all work only
can, had heard nothing, and awoke in
the morning to find her mistress dead in
her bed, with the window and door open.
Strangely enough, the policeman added,
although nothing in the house had been
touched, the lock of an unused bedroom
had been forced and the room evidently
searched.
Poor Jane was quite overcome. She
seemed convinced that it was only by
special intervention Of Providence that
she had changed her house, and that her
successor had been sacrificed instead of
herself.
1T might have been mel she said over
and over again that afternoon.
Wishing to give turn to her thoughts
1 began to talk about Sir Johns legacy,
in which she had evinced the greatest
interest the night before, and greatly to
her delight showed her the jewels. 1had
not looked at them since Sir John had
given them to me, and / was myself as
tonished at their magnificence as spread
them out on the table under the gas
lamp.
Jane exhausted herself in admiration,
but as l was putting them away again,
saying it was time for me to be dressing
and going to meet Carr, who was to join
me at the Criterion, she begged me on
no account to take them with me, affirm
ing that it would be much safer to leave
them at home. was firm, but she was
firmer, and in the end l allowed her to
lock them up in the tea caddy, where
her small stock of ready money repOsed.
met Carr as we had arranged and
we had a very pleasant evening. Poor
Carr, who had seen the papers, had
hardly expected that l should turn up,
knowing the catastrophe of the previous
night had taken place at the house l was
going to, and was much relieved to hear
that my sister had moved and had thus
been spared all the horror of the event.
The dinner was good, the play better.
should have come home feeling that l
had enjoyed myself thoroughly if it had
not been for little adventure with our
cab driver that very nearly proved seri-