The Van Buren press., 1893-05-06
THAT YELLOW CUSHION.
It's Contents Gave Start to a
4c Foolish Couple. Ai 49,

-
It was sofa cushion of faded yellow
silk, badly stained in half q dozen
places and clumsily ripped down one
edge. handsome buhl cabinet was
its resting place and it stood in the
smaller drawing-roop1. ftiT sa4 va
Everything else around was hand
some and tasteful, the general scheme
of the coloring being brownish red.
The bilious staring yellow Of that
dilapidated cushion was the one incon.
gruous spot and the eye was irresisti-
bly, 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 it's contents thoughtfully
However, the tale came out at last
without my asking for it. was dining
at the house one Christmas day, and
my host lifted his glass and said:
my dear, in remembrance OF the old
yellow cushion. the best Christmas box
we ever had" and then the pair Of
them drank the toast
Nothing moro was said then, but
afterward in the small drawing room
my hostess nodded toward the buhl
cabinet and asked If knew the histo-
ry of its curious contents said: no"
She seemed surprised.
II thought Douglas (her husband)
had toldy you the story years ago, but
as he hasn't I'll take upon myself to do
1t now. 1t will be something to talk
about, and we old folks are often hard
put to it to find subjects for conversa-
tion. i. ~ s8sst
"Now. you always took us for rich
squatters from Australia, didn't you?
Perhaps then, if you didn't know
You'll be surprised to hear that we had
another life before that, a life in the
whirl of society in London, life us
different from the other as possibly
could be invented or even imagined.
eve married very young, Douglas
and l.. He was just of age and was
only eighteen when we set up house.
keeping on our own account, and I'm
afraid we were both very, very brain
less. We'd got plenty Of money, and
our one idea was to have as good =
time rs possible.
"We went everywhere, did every.
thing and lived in ducal magnifcence.
The expenses we were let into were
something awful to contemplate and
our limited income went no way to
meet them; but to withdraw from the
scene was thing which we were far
too young aud happy and foolish even
to think of, so we kept on dipping into
the capital time after time only just
for this once ,5t.5
.It will complete the sum Of our
foolishness when tell You that jew
clry was one of our greatest extrava-
ganccs. Idoted on gems, and Douglas
loved to see me wear them; he said
that set them of SO well, and SO they
were a good investment. or something
usually witty. And we got more and
more hard up and had fewer and fewer
resources to draw upon; and yet we
gave small thought for the future then,
SO happy was our present rt
zone morning crash came. We
woke up to find ont that my jewel box
had been plundcrcd. BY afternoon all
London was ringing with the news Of
the robbery. 1t was SO odd in its de-
tails. Nothing but stones had been
taken away The gems had been
forced from the settings and the bat
tered goldwork left Uttered in nm un-
tidy heap. t.tt A io4fsy
."Under the public attention which
watched their efforts, the police au-
thorities strained every nerve. They
searched the house for signs from cell
lar to garret. They watched suspicious
persons. They had theories innnmer-
able. They confidently expected to
lay hands on the thief tomorrow
''But nothing came of it. The daily
bulletins in the papers became shorter,
and at length ceased; and in months
ti,.e we ourselves had given up all
hope Of seeing the jewels again. Torn
from their settings they would be east
ly carried away and disposed of; and,
moreover, it vas probable that most
of them had been reground, so as to re-
move the faintest chance OF identifica-
ton.
ITO any couple possessed OF the least
grain of sense the loss would have
been a warning. but TO us it seemed
only spur to new extravaganza.
Douglas said life would be unendur-
ala ..skAA,.l -o.-, k~-.1~.~ n-I I