Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-11-27
Goodness. what is it? What has

Goodness! what is it? What has
happened to you now"
Nothing" responded he with al.
tered voice; absolutely nothing"
lyon are deceiving me-" insisted
Nine. Bernard: ''you are concealinp
something from me; do not spare me,
Speak! l am strong. What cid the
new proprietor tell you? Does he
think of turning US off?'
III 1t were only that. But lust
think. he told me with bis own lips-
ne told me to-ah! you will never be.
lieve me-"
'Oh, yes only do 90 on"
"1ou Will have it then! Well,
then, he told me to notify all the
tenants that-he lowered their rents
one-third! Did you hear what I saidY
lowered the rents of the tenants
-o
But neither Nine. nor Mile. Ber-
nard heard him out-they were twist.
ing and doubling with convulsiye
laughter.
Lower" repeated they. 'ah, what
a good joke, what a droIl man!
Lower the tenants renJsw
But Bernard, losing his temper and
insisting that he must be taken seri-
ously in his own lodge, his wife lost
her temper, too, and a quarrel fol-
lowed, Nine. Bernard declaring that
NJ. Bernard had beyond doubt taken
MS fantastic order from the bottom
OF liter Of wine in the restauran t
at the corner. But for Mile Amanda
the couple would undoubtedly have
come to blows, and finally Nine. Ber-
nard, who did not wish to be thought
0emented. threw shawl over her
mead and ran to the proprietors
house. Bernard had spoken truly;
with her own two ears, crnamented
with big gilded hoops, she heard the
incredible word. Only as she was a
wise and prudent woman she de-
manded "a bit OF writing" to put. as
she said, her responsibility under
cover"
She, too, returned thunderstruck,
and all the evening in the lodge
father, mother, ana daughter DELHI
Grated.
Should they obey or should they
warn some relative Of this mad young
man, whose common sense would op-
pose itself to such insanity?
They decided to obey.
Next morning Bernard buttoni NC
himself into his best frock coat, made
the rounds Of the three and twenty
dodgers to announce his great news
len minutes atterward the house
In the Rue de la Victorie was in a
stage Of commotion impossible to de-
scribe. People who for forty years
had lived on the same floor and never
honored each other with SO much as a
tip of the hat now clustered together
and chatted eagerly
500 you know, mOnrieur?"
sit is very extraordinary"
"Simply unheard Of"
"The proprietor's lowered my remit"
'One-third, is itnot? Mine Also"
astonishing! 1t must be mis-
take"
And despite the aifirmations of the
Bernard family, despite even the
''bit of writing under cover" there
were found among the tenants doubt
ing Thomases VINO doubted still in
the face of everything.
Three Of them actually wrote to
the proprietor to tell him what had
passed, and to charitaDly warn him
that his concierge had wholly lost his
mind. The proprietor.responded to
these sceptics, confirming what Bern
ard had said. Doubt thereafter was
out of the question.
Then began reflections and COM
mentaries.
why had the proprietor lowered
his rents?"
eyes, why?"
"What motives" said they all, sac
tuate this strange man? For GER
tainly he must have grave reasons
for step like this! An intelligent
man, man of good sense. would
never deprive himself of good fat rev.
enues, well secured, for the simple
pleasure of depriving himself. One
would not conduct himself thus with
out being forced. constrained by
POVClAuA VI UClIlUIC SlICuluSU
And each said to himself:
There is something under all
this.'
But what"
And from the first floor to the
sixth they sought and conjectured
and delved in their brains. Every
ledger had the preoccupied air of a
man that strives with all his wits to
solve an impossible cipher, and
everywhere there began to be vague
disQuiet, as il happens when one
finds himself in the presence of sim
lister mystery.
"Some one went so far as to haz-
zard:
'"This man must have committed
great and still hidden crime; remurse
pushed him to philanthrophy"
ut was not a pleasant idea either,
the thought OF thus living side by
side with rascal-nO, by no means;
he might be repentant and all that,
but suppose he Welded to temptation