Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1893-04-09
AoT RRoVE DIFIRoRDS.

you had so many. Bat how do you know
they are dianonds?"
"Well, Suggitt said they were, and
showed my landlady's son, who works
at a jewelers. store, just one little one"
she explained.
why, they must be worth thous-
ands," he said. II really don't know
what to advise"
He was prevented from considering
the matter further just then by Mrs.
Lee, VINO Knocked at the door, opened
IL, glanced with some aSpcEity at MISS
Jebson, begged pardon, and remarked
that, thinking the lady must have gone,
she had gone up to fasten the front
door.
On this hint Miss Jebson rose, and
/ the curate, who trembled at the thought
Of such wealth going unprotected, pre-
pared to escort her home. Their way
| Law through quiet streets on the out
skirts OF the town, and as they went the
spirit Of Irritation resumed its sway.
They are, as the novelists say, when
1 they have enough 10 work on without
padding the volume with another love
/ scene, conversations which the imagin-
alton of the reader will therefore doubt
/ less De equal TO the task Of picturing to
itself how the influence OF the diamonds
gradually materialized the spirit Of f1irt-
alton on this occasion, until IL present
ed an appearance indlstinguishaolef from
that of serious loVemaking.
The serious lovemaking, moreover, did
not end with the walk. Mr.. Peele be-
/ longed by birth TO much the same social
stratum as Miss Jebson, and his univer-
/ sity career had somehow failed TO Undue
/ him with either arstocratic prejudices
or high aspirations. He had no means
beyond his stipend, and confessed to
himself in moments Of candor that he
/ had neither virtues, talents, nor inter-
est enough to expect high or speedy
promotion. The pretty dressmaker and
her diamonds might, he felt sure, be his
| for the trouble OF asking, and ere long
/ be put his confidence TO the test.
The lady had no reason for saying no.
As a clergyman's wife, she thought,
she would have an assured and desirable
position in society, and she liked well
enough the Clergyman who was willing
&C give her the chance OF taking 1t.
Whether be would have married Der
without the diamonds she did not ask
herself-for, indeed, she knew that it
would have been impossible for him to
do so.
Neither OF them had any relations to
/ consult, so within month OF the sale
/ OF the stones-which the curate effected
with the help OF his banker for between
G12, 900 and e13, OO0-they were quietly
married. Three months later the cler-
ical journals notified the appointment
OF the Rev. Edward Peele, late curate
at st. Marks, Shelburn, TO the So
called living Of Petherby-one Of those
unfortunate places which are occasion
ally advertised as needing an earnest
clergyman with enough private means
to make him independent Of any official
income.
One evening toward the end OF last
June the vicar Of Petheroy sat in his
garden arguing with his wife, or rather
listening resignedly TO what she had to
say on the subject Of the annual migra-
ton 10 the seaside.
The position OF Vicaress seemed to
have suited Mrs. Peele. She had grown
stout, but was still quite as good look
| ing as any woman OF forty, the mother
of three children, can expect to be.
Her eyes were as bright as ever, though
the giances thereof had lost all un.
seemly leYity and assumed the power
that comes of much practice in the art
Of keeping farmers wives in their
proper places. She ruled her husband
and the parish with an autocratic, but,
on the whole, benefcent sway.
The Rev. Edward Peele had distinctly
degenerated since his Shelburu days.
He too had grown stout, as lazy men
In easy places are apt To do. His face
was red, and as the face Of one who
lives almost too well. As his wife's
lieutenant he administered the affairs
OF his parish in way that,if 1t did not
call forth the admiration Of his Bishop,
yet escaped his admOnltion as perhaps
the best that could be expected from a
man little below the average for next
/ to nothing year
His only remaining taste Of an ele-
waiting character was a fondness for
cricket The village club he managed
himself, and its affairs consequently
showed more tendency to get into a
tangle than is common even in village
cricket clubs. With the hope Of seeing
his iavorite game played in perfection
again, he had tried 10 persuade his wife
to take her summer change at Skelmer-
sham, an inland watering place famed
for its cricket fortnight.
1t was not to be, however. Parsons
Of high degree were common at Skel-
nersham, and Mrs. Peele there felt her
self nobody. ANY one above the rank
OF q dissenting minister counted for
somebody at Barmby, a ffth-rste sea-
side place, and so to Barmby she had
determined TO go as usual.
After condescending to set forth more
in detail than usual her reasons for this
step, she remarked by way OF preora-
tion:
Then that settles'it, Edward. II you
90 on Monday TO look for rooms, you
ought to get back by Wednesday nighs,
and we can leave here early Thursday
morning"
Next Monday evening the vicar &C
cordingly found himself in the melan-
chOly coffee room of the only hotel at
Barmby, gazing into the empty fire.
place, which was not yet decorated for
the season, smoking and thinking-if
the word can be applied to the vague
musings Of man who for fifteen years
has lived life as idle and self-indulg-
ent as is compatible with sustaining
without III repute the character of vicar
OF a small country parish.
He had just come to the comfortable
but probably false conclusion, that but
for his wife and her diamonds, he might
have been better, or at least q more
eminent man, when the door opened