The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1891-03-15


SO attached to him, almost as if he was
one OF our own folks. ] was SO glad to
have him here, and now it seems as
though my heart would break"
It was now Anne's turn to sink down
on the sofa trembling and white as
chalk. You don't mean, mother, that
you think he robbed your You would
not dare to say it, and the color rushed
back in an impetuons food to Anne's
face.
II don't know what to think, Anne.
I'm completely stunned He might have
been up. You know be told us how poor
he was when he was trying to get up a
practice at Kettletas Perhaps it was a
sudden temptation, and he thought he
could put the money back before
should discover the loss. You know
some folks thought it was queer he
should take such an interest in trying to
catch the thief, and his efforts have
como to just nothing at all. II might
have been done to cover up.
Only such town gossips as Miss Car
yer and Widow Harkaway ever sus-
pected any wrong motive on his part.
Why, he was just goodness itself, Moth
er Bissell, and you know he was, and
now you are turning against him
81 don't believe you would think he
could do any wrong If you saw him in
the act" returned Mrs. Bissell with
mild asperity.
81 refuse to believe this, mother, for
it Is unreasonable and impossible aud
Anne boldly put on an air Of perfect as
surance. He has received this horrid
bill in change somewhere and hasn't
looked at it. Do you think he would in
criminate himself If he was thief and
had robbed the bureau drawerg'
Don't seem like it, Anne, /" said Mrs.
Bissell gloomily, sinking her chin into
the hollow Of her hand "But a body
never knows what folks will do when
they think Themselves safe from getting
found out, and he came to Us a perfect
stranger, and we did take up with him
and trust him to beat all. 1t all comes
back to me now as clear as daylight. He
was up chamber good while that day
gran'ther was sick, and the old man is
most blind anyway and in doze. He
wouldn't have noticed what the doctor
was doing there round the bureau"
Don't talk that way" cried Anne,
getting up with fury and fiinging herself
round the room. tits vulgar and low.
tell You he's-a gentleman, and I'll stake
my life on his honesty
Now, Anne, you needn't go into hys.
<ns~ her h T. 81
day he came. that he was starved out Of
KettletasP / forgot all about it when
saw his nice Office furniture, and the
horse and carriage that cost him oven
three hundred dollars. Mebbe he wa:
wee tempted and fell for the first time
and as for his giving methe. bill, it was
all mistake He was in q hurry and
forgot himself and pulled out the wrong
one. can't keep him here any longer
Anne. I don't know how to treat hin
or even how TO look him in the face.
must make some excuse to get him GU
of the house."
Anne felt it was time to clap on ths
screws, and exercise the full force of he
daughterly authority. you won't d.
any such thing, Mother Bissen. Yol
don't mean to ruin his prospects for life
You don't want old Carver and tn
Widow Harkaway to trumpet this littl
thing from one end of Littlefeld to tn
other. All that talk about his beinI
starved out of KettIetas was joke. Hi
mother is travelling in Europe and ha
means. He told me 80 himself. | hav
drawn the hundred dollars saved iron
myschool teachings out Of the bank, ant
you are to pay it ON the mortgage. pu
it by to get a new cloak and furs mex
winter, but now shall make the oil
things answer. You9ar to do exactly a
I say. You must keep him on here, an,
act as if nothing had happened, and II
pledge my life he will clear himself il
time. l shall start tomorrow morning
on visit TO Uncle Hiram, at Bell
Cove. and if he doesn't clear himself an,
come out bright and shining like tn
sun, will never come back to Little
field so long as he stays In town."
but suppose should speak to hin
and he should try to lie out of its' asket
Mrs. Bissell, now submissive to her girl
viii. .sOh, dear, / did like him SO much
/ trusted him as if he had been my son
and, Anne, am so sorry for you"
Anne did not ask why her mother wa
sorry for her, but she intensified he
autocratic tone, knowing that she wa
well under her thumb. "You must no
think of speaking to him, mother. Yol
must treat him exactly as If nothing ha'
happened"