The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1890-05-31
Two Hearts.

- " AA~~A WV
Who was it that said that nothing
interesting really happened except
outside of fiction? Here's some
thing that occurred out Of which q
good story might be made. On
Xmas day a loving husband gave to
a pretty wife little heart, moon
stone set with diamonds, having
engraved on the gold back -"With
Johns love-" 1t was strung on a
very thin chain, and madame wore
it with great delight.
This was Act the First.
Act the Second saw red-faced
man announcing that he had to go
to Roseburg for two days and a
pretty woman with tears in her eyes
bidding him good bye. AS soon as
he had departed, the pretty woman
sends a note to a friend of her hus-
bands. He appears later on with
a coupe, and the two drive out to
where private rooms are let for din
ners. They had a beautiful time,
good dinner, and the only thing
that annoyed them was that the
waiter said the room had really been
engaged before, and they must leave
a little sooner than they liked, for
people were waiting for them to go.
Home they came, good night was
said on the door step, madame went
to bed and slept the sleep that
comes to the unjust, for the just
seem to get precious little of it.
Act Third showed merry-faced
man, the traitor who was supposed
to be in Roseburg; with him dash
ing young woman in cloth suit,
with a shirt front, stiff sailor hat
cooked on her very much dyed hair,
and something more than sus-
picion of rouge under her eyes.
Seated at the table, she began to
talk in the manner usual to such
highly educated ladies, when sud-
denly she spied something glitter
ing on the floor. She stopped down,
picked it up, looked at it and said,
Hello, do you catch on to the
hearth" Reaching out his hand for
it, her admirer took it, looked at
one side in a quick way, and turned
over the other and read the inscrip-
ton, with Johns love-" His face
underwent as many changes as does
a kaleidoscope. How did that heart
come there9 He couldn't go home
and find out, for he was supposed
to be in Roseburg; it would take
two days to settle it, and then he
would face that wicked woman and
charge her with pertidy.
Act Fourth. Two days after he
came home he met his wife as if she
were an escaped convict, and he
pillar of virtue. He produced the
heart and said: Where did you
lose this?" in tone that made her
fox terrier begin to whine. She
said, "But, my dear, I haven't lost
it," and putting her hand on her
throat she drew up the chin, showed
little heart just like it, with the
self same inscription on the back !
Scene-Injured Innocence. But
quickly came the inquiry from the
innocent, "Where did you find it?"
1t is unnecessary TO say that the
masculine imagination was suffi-
cient to make up some story about
picking it up in the street car and
thinking how careless she had been,
but the masculine insight into the
feminine heart was also sufficient
to make him know that from that
day on he was suspected man.
Was it her heart? Certainly, but
she hadn't read the Three Mousque-
taires for nothing, and within twelve
hours after that heart was lost she
had a duplicate of it with the proper
inscription on the back, and was
prepared to meet her lord and mas
ter and calmly lie, as only woman
can.
This is the story of two hearts,
not with single thought, but in
volved in one adventure. And the
moral? There doesn't seem to be
any particular moral in it, except
the advisability of having your wits
about you, and the reading Of Du-
mas.-Sunday Welcome.