The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-10-05

quietly onto the carpet-where the bearer
found Is next morning and kept Il.
Then the colonel went home to the wife
O. n1e bosom: but the driver OF the car
rage Was drunk and lost his way. So the
colonel returned 1t An unseemly honr and
MS excuses were not accepted. II the
coloneps wife had not been an ordinary
vessel Of wrath appointed for destruc-
ton, she would have known that when d
man stays away on purpose his excuse ID
always sound and original.
6ee once more the warning Of Kismetl
Ihe colonies watch which came with
Platte hurriedly on to Mrs. Larkyn's lawr,
choss to stop Just under Mrs. Larkyn's
window, where she saw II early In the
morning. recognized It and picked IL up.
She had heard the crash of Plates cart
at O'Clock that morning. and his voice
calling the mare names. She knew Platte
and liked him. That day she showed him
head on one side. winked and said: How
diseustingi Shocking old mani With his
religious training. tool should send the
watch TO the colonies wife and ask for ex
plantations"
Mrs Larkyn thought for minute Of the
Laplaces-whom she had known when La
place and his wife believed in each other
will do her good. But. remember, We must
never tell her the truth.
Platte guessed that his own watch was In
the colonies possession, and thought that
the return Of the lp-strapped Waterbury
with soothing note from Mrs. Larkyn,
would merely create small trouble for d
few minutes. Mrs. Larkyn knew better.
She knew that any poison dropped would
ind good holding-ground in the heart Of
the colonel's wife.
The packet, and note containing q fe I
remarks on the colonel's calling hours,
wers sent over to the coionei's wife, who
wept in her own room and took counsel
with herself.
II there was one woman under Heaven
whom the colonels wife hated with holy
fervor, it was Mrs. Larkyn. Mrs. Larkyn
WAS q frivolous lady and called the colonel q
wife "old cat The colonel's wife said that
somebody in Revelation was exactly like
Mrs. Larkyn. She mentioned other Scrip
ture people as we'll. From the Old Tesla
person who cared or dared to say anything
against Mrs. Larkyn. Every one else &C.
cepted her as an amusing, honest little
body Wherefore, to believe that her hus-
band mad been shedding watches under
that things" window at nngodiy hours,
coupled with the fact Of his late arrival on
the previous night, was
At this point she rose up and sought her
husband. He denied every thing except
the ownership Of the watch. She besought
him for his souls sake to speak the truth.
lie denied afresh, with two bad words
Then stormy silence held the colonel's
wife while man could draw his breath
five times.
The sreech that followed is no affair of
mine or yours. It was made up OF wifely
and womanly jealousy; knowledge of old
age and sunk cheeks; deep mistrust born
OF the text that says even little babies
hearts are rs bad as they make them. ran
corous hatred Of Mrs. Larkyn, and the
tenets of the creed Of the colonel's wife up
bringing
Over and above all was the damning lip.
strapped Waterbury, ticking away in the
palm of her shaking, withered hand. At
that hour, thil4k, the colonel's wife real.
lied . little of the restless suspicion she
had injected into old Laplace's mind, q
little Of poor Miss Haughtrey's misery,
and some Of the canker that ate into Bux-
toms heart as he watched his wife dying
before his eyes. The colonel stammered
and tried to explain. Then he remem-
bered that his watch had disappeared; and
the mystery grew greater. The colonel's
wife talked and prayed by turns till she
was tired. and went away to devise means
husband" Which, translated, means, in
our slang. "tail-twisting.
You see. being deeply impressed with the
doctrine Of original sin, she could not be.
lieve in the face of Appearances She
knew too much, and jumped to the widest
conclusions.
But it was good for her. It spoilt her
life, a. she had spoilt the life of the La
places. She mad lost faith in the colonel,
snd-here the creed suspicion came in
he might she argued. have erred many