The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1890-06-03
padded. Fred paused IN triumph.
lis that ALL | cried.

us that ALL" ! cried.
'All. indeed, Why, don't you see:
It's as clear as daylight Hes subject
to fits, and throws himself all over the
place. and the walls are padded so that
he shan't hurt himself
Fred'S argument seemed plausible
enough: and IL his conjecture was cor
rect. here was splendid manner OF con-
vincing my father of the impOssibiliJy
of my marriage with Gilbert.
Why. it's clear case OF just cause
and impeachment" cried Fred. Even
four thousand pounds per annum can't
make up for those fits. Why. he might
bite you in one OF them. and give YOU
hydrophobia, and then therc'd be the
fat in the fire with vengeance"
But if he was subject 10 fits. why had
he never had them during the time we
had been in the house? lie had neTa3
failed. a. we knew TO our cost, 20 put IN
Al appearance IL what happened to be
going OF each dGy. and usually behaved,
as Fred reluctantly allowed, like
Christian" Finally. in our ignorance
Of matters medical in general and fits in
particular. we decided that he only had
them by night, and that this was the
reason why he never slept away from
home.
After much consideration we deter
mined with reluctance that the only
way to discover the true state of affairs
was for Fred TO conceal himself in Gill
bert's room and find out if our conject-
ure was correct.
! scarcely slept wink on the night on
which Fred had settled to put his project
into execution, expecting every minute
TO hear piercing shrieks from the remote
quarter of the house in which they slep:.
However, nothing occurred to disturb
me: and meeting Fred before breakfast,
as we arranged, in the garden. | over
whelmed him with flood of questions.
did he brighten you much? How did
you manage to hide? Is he very violent?
Does he foam at the mouth?'
After a tantalizing and. to me, mex
plicable fit of laughter, Fred told me
what had happened II managed to hide
myself in a wardrobe in his room, and.
after what seemed a fearful time Gilbert
came up and began to undress- Good
heavens. You should see the way that
fellow ogles himself in the glass-why,
he's nearly as bad as you-as a girl,
mean. Well, / was in an awful funk
that he'd open the wardrobe. but he
didn't: and at last he got into bed with
out having shown the slightest symp-
toms of having a fit. | can tell you /
wasdisappointed, and determined to wait
till he was asleep, and then leave the
room. | must have dOZed of, for sud
denly i woke with a fearful start, at
what thought was a clap of thunder,
about an inch from my ear. In three
seconds | had found out the secret of
the padded walls; he snores like a
fog-horn:'
Fred was right. This was the horrible
seamy side to the silver lining of four
thousand pounds year.
We had certain delicacy about in
forming my father of the one failing of
his dearest friends son, so We had re-
course TO stratagem. We managed to
contrive that Gilbert and my father
should be boxed up together for a ten
mile drive home from a ball in the
county.
We left Darien Hall the next day
II assure you, my dear, that young
fellow cracked the carriage window, not
to mention the drum of my ear. with his
snoring. could not think of you mar
rying such a man. His poor father
never did such a thing.
Journal.