The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1890-10-05

e@AT
table, aud during dinner Mary found an
opportunity to tell me chat she had a
Christmas present for mo upstairs; but
she refused, Notwithstanding my urgent
inquiries, to tell me what it was. had
visions Of smoking caps and slippers and
other ornamental and useless rubbish
that girls usually think appropriate
gifts for men. 1t turned out TO be some
thing much more to my liking. / had
and have a weakness for old books, and
my chambers were almost lined with
them.
Mrs. Crump, it appeared, DESTROYS Of
testifying her gratitude for my little at
tentions, had commissioned Mary to pre-
sent to me in her name one of the lnoldy
volumes I had noticed on the chest Of
drawers. This bibEomania Of mine was
shared by Mr.. Bruce, who had mag
nihcent collection; but while he issued
semi-royal mandates to Quaritch and
Torrey, to Ellis and Pickering, had to-
content myself with an occasional pTIze
from bookstall or at a country auction
Mrs. Crump's Christmas present was an
old folio copy of Ambrose Pari in fair
preservation except as to the old calf
binding, which needed repair. was
turning over the familiar leaves and
showing Mary some of the least eccen-
tric of the old woodcuts
eHats said Mr.. Bruce, ga copy of old
Pari, and q nice clean copy, too. Let
me look at it, Mary, and let me have
-r9 and / turned over the book to-
gether and had some talk about the au-
thor. AS Twas closing it the fly leaf fell
to the ground and Auttered to Mr..
Bruce's feet. He picked it up and was
about to hand it to me when be sudden
ly exclaimed with some excitement:
.'This is extraordinary. Did you not
notice this?1
On the fly leaf was written in a
straight, stiff handwriting, .sDaIrymple
Bruce his booke 1890"
We looked at it together IN silence for
about minute. Mr.. Bruce spoke first.
"Who was your Mrs. Crump? Do you
know her maiden Manner
81 know nothing about her-except
that she once told me she was in SER
vice at Chicksands Priory, in Bedford
shire"
in what part of Bedfordshire is
Chickssnds Priory?'
Really don't know; my acquaint-
ance with the place is confined to Asp
ley Guise and Woburn, and it certainly
is not in that neighborhood.
do you mind my keeping this?
must see Mrs. Crump in the morning
and you had better perhaps come with
me. Come to my chambers about II, and
we will go together"
Willingly agreed to be with him at
the hour named, and the next day ac-
cordingly we interviewed Mrs. Crump,
who by this time was well enough to be
up, though not to be about. Poor old
woman She was quite frightened at
cd Of cross-examination. He, however,
ELECTED the information that her maiden
name was Medlock; her father had been
laborer in Lord Ongley's employ at
Warden, in Bedfordshire. Her mothers
maiden name she did not know Both
her father and mother were dead. They
had both died while in service at Chick
sands Priory, and were both buried at
Warden. She was the only child, and
on her parents decease she had sold the
few things they possessed, except two or
three books which she had played with
as a child and did not like to part with
There was no family Bible among them.
There was an old almanac. There they
were on the drawers, and we We're quite
welcome to look at them, or, for that
matter, to take them away The alma
nae was not among the books on the
drawers; it was in her ssboz." Her box
was under the bed, and if we very par
ticularly wanted to see the almanac she
would get it for us.
We did want to see that almanac very
particularly indeed; but / made Mrs.
Crump sit in her chair while pulled
the box out from under the bed and
dragged it up in front of her. She
opened it, revealing a strange, hetero-
geneous collocation Of articles, whence
derived or wherefore treasured only Mrs.
Crump-and possibly not even She
could have explained. All three of us,
even the dignifed Mr.. Bruce, too, united
in ransacking that veteran receptacle. It
seemed as if there was no end of things
except the one thing that we wanted I
began to fear that the almanac had gone
to the limbo of alnanacs, and that we
were destined to another and final dis
appointment. I took up an aged pair of
stays to look underneath them and
dingy pamphlet dropped out of them.
caught up the pamphlet and examined
1t; it was an almanac of the year 1874.
With trembling fingers I turned to the
date of the marriage; opposite it, in
faded ink, were written the words:
''This daye ! was united to my beloved
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