Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-03-11
A FiGndiSh Deed.

mia Thorpe, clasping her hands to-
gether.
"Married again!" echoed Miss
Clarissa, tipping over her basket of
Berlin woods in her CONSERVATION,
greatly to the delight of the kitten.
"At his age!" cried Miss Phemy
1.-TWO and fifty, if he's a day-and a
widOwer of fifteen good years. stand
ing."
"And with us to keep house for
nim,' added Miss Clary; "and dinner
always ready at precisely, and his
slippers warmed by the fire, just as
surely as he crossed the thresholdv"
"NIen are fools!" sharply calculated
the elder sister. How old does he say
she is. ClaryI"
"He don't say at all, f." responded Miss
Clary, scrutinizing the pages of the
letter that had brought such dismal
news. "He only says that he was mar
ried on the 3rd day of September last
10 Miss Marian Russell, and that he
will bring her home on the 1st of
October!"
But both the ladies were stricken
dumb with amazement and dismay
when, at the end of the honey
moon, Mr.. Paul Thorpe arrived
at Thorpe Homestead, with his
bride, and they were pre-
sented to a blue-eyed, imid-looking
child of seventeen.
"Brother Paul." cried both ladies in
chorus, sis this your wife?'
"This is my wife," said Paul
Thorpe, complacently. "Come to the
fire, Marian, and warm yourself; it is
a chilly evening and you look
coid!"
paul" she whispered, when at
last she had her husband to herself,
81 am afraid of them l don't think
they like mel"
"Nonsense, my dear, nonsensel'
said Mr.. Thorpe, stroking down the
golden curls of his child-ike wife.
you'll all get along splendidly to-
gether when you're a little better
acquainted with one another"
"Euphemia," said Miss CIarissa, as
she sat before the glass rolling her
scanty hair up in papers, ''what do
you think of Mrs. Paul Thorpe"
81 hate her," said Miss Euphemis,
opening and shutting the cameo box
wherein she kept her few jewels, with
snap as if it were guillotine and
Mrs. PauPs white neck lay under
meath!
"Hate her, Phemy" cried Clarissa.
al don't like her myself, but"
"Ahw said Miss Euphemia, "but
you didn't see; you were getting out
my brothers claret, else you would
scarcely be surprised at my words"
"See what?"
MY false teeth slipped and came
out while l was trying to eat that crust
of toast" confessed Miss Euphemia,
turning red. "Tll never have dry
toast on the table again. / had to look
for 'em. And she-she laughed out
right"
alt was very rude of me-" said
Marian to herself; 'sbut l will be SO
good and loving that they shall be cure
to forget it,"
But Miss Euphemia was not on.
readily to forget or forgive.
Paul Thorpe had not been married
quite year to his daisy-faced little
wife, when Miss Euphemia came to
him one day.
"Can l speak to you alone, Paul?"
''Of course, yc,. can, Phemy; but
what is all the mystery about" he an
,wered, gaily.
"That is for you to judge" Mis-,
Thorpe answered primly, "when
you have read the letter"
"What letter? Who wrote it?"
"One of your wife's admirers, prob
ahlrr -
toss of her head. 81 found it in the
pocket Of the white dress she sent to
the wash this morning!"
Involuntarily, although he knew he
was doing a base and dishonorable
thing, Paul Thorpe glanced at the let
ter, whose signature had been torn
away-a letter written in a bold, mas
culine chirography. 1t began thus:
"My Own Darling Marian: Your
letter of yesterday convinced me more
and more that your love is still mine,
even thought
stop" he cried, aloud, between
ms firmly set teeth. "Who dares to
call my wife his darling2 Who
dares''-
AND then he stopped second.
-, NPHChIid, ne SAID, huSklly. ~
hank you for opening my eyes.
was mad fool for thinking that
child of seventeen could ever care for
me. Perhaps it is not so much her
fault as it is mine"
He turned away, with face like
ashes.
"Paul!" his sister called after him:
"Paul!'
But the door had already closed be-
mnd his retreating footsteps, and Miss
Euphemia felt that the hour OF her
vengeance was near.
Paul Thorpe returned no more. A
brief, cold letter to his wife announced
that business of Importance would
necessltate a few years residence in
Canada, and bade her farewell. =
''But why didn't he come himself?"
walled Marian, wringing her little
white hands. "Why could l not have
gone with him? Have | offended him?
Have done wrong in any unconscious
Miss Euphemia made no reply. The
letter she herself had received by the
same post contained these words, and
these only
81 can never see her again. While
shs lives am an exile from my home.