Catoctin clarion., 1893-05-11
THAT YELLOW CUSHION.

1t was a sofa cushion Of faded yellow
silk. badly stained in half a dozen places
and clumsily ripped down one edge
A handsome buhl cabinet was its rest
ing place and it stood in the smaller
drawing. room.
Everything else around was hand
some and tasteful, the general scheme
Of the coloring being brownlsh red
The bilious staring yellow Of that dilap-
idated cushion was the one incongruous
spot and the ey e was irresstably drawn
to it.
None of the family ever even men
toned the yellow sofa cushion, though
| often noticed one or other OF them
would turn toward the buhl cabinet
and stare at its contents thoughtfully
However, the tale Came out at last
without my asking for 1t. | was dining
at the house one Christmas day, and
my host lifted his glass and sald:
MY dear. in remembrance of the old
yellow cushion, the best Christians box
we ever had and then The pair Of them
drank the toast.
Nothing more was said then, but at
,erward IN the small drawing room my
hostess nodded toward the buhl cabiue,
and asked if ! knew the history Of ITS
curious contents. | said No. She
seemed surprised.
Il thought Douglas Cher husband
had told you the story years ago, but
as he hasn | II take upon myseld to &c
it now. 1t will be something to talk
about, and We old folks are often HARD
put tc it to find subjects tor conycrsa'
ton.
Now, you always took rs frr rich
sqnattcrs from Australia, dldn you
Perhaps, then, if you didn't know You Il
be surprised to hear that we had anoth
er life before that, lie in the whill uI
society in London, life as different
from the ether as possibly could be Ia
vented or even imagined.
we married Very Young, Douglas
and !. He WAS ust If age and | was
only eighteen when we set up house
Keeping on our own account, and I'm
afraid Ne were both VERY, very bra,n
less. We'd GOT plenty of money, and
our one idea was to nave as good tlmc
as possible.
We went everywhere, did everything
and lived IN ducal magnlhcence Tn,
expenses we We're let into were some
thing awful to contemplate and oul
limited income went no way to NEE,
them but to withdraw from the scene
was thing which We We're far too young
and happy and foolish even to think Of
so We kept on dipping into the capita
time after time" oni Y Just for this once.
1t vii. complete the sum OF OH
iooishness when | tell you that ewclry
was one of our greatest extrayagances
dotted on gems, and Douglas loved tc
see me wear them he said that SCI
them off so we'll. and SO they were d
good investment, or somethi lg usually
! witty. And we got more and more bare
up and had f wcr and fewer resource:
to draw upon and yet we gave small
thought for the future then, SO happy
was our present.
One morning crash came. W.
woke up TO find that nv j"wel box hac
been plundcred. By afternoon all Lon
don WAS ringing with the news of the
robbery, Nothing but stones had beel
taken away. The gems had been forceC
from the settings and the battered gold
work left Uttered in az untidy heap.
Under the public attention "hicl
watched their efforts, the p"llce author
tics strained every nerve, They earch
ed the house for signs from cellar tC
g;.rret. They watched suspicious per
sons. They had theories innumerable
They confidently expected to lay hund'
on the thief to morrow
But nothing came of it. The dall,
bulletins in the papers became shorter
and at length ceas ed and in month
/ time We ourselves had gwen up all hop,
Of seeing the jewels again. Torn from
their settings they would be easily car
ried away and disposed of; and, more
over, it was probable that most of then
had been reground, SO as to remove tn,
faintesl chance of iden iication.
/ ITO any couple possessed the eas
grain of sense the loss would have been
IL waning, but to us it seems only {
spur to new extravaganza. Douglas
said lie would be uncomfortable withou