San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-10-27
A SET OF ROGUES.
Continued from Sixth page.

L followed her into the house, but
there l learned from Mrs Butterfly that
her mistress was gone to her own cham
Der.
As was sitting in my Office in the
afternoon Jack Dawson came to me in
his seaman's dress, his hand still
wrapped up, but his face more healthful
for his long ride and cheerful thoughts.
why, this could not have fallen out
better" says Iwhlh we had exchanged
greetings, 'for Moll is all alone, and
down in the dumps by reason of her
husband having left her this morning
ON business that will hold him absent
for three or four days. We will go up
presently and have supper with her."
''No, Kit" says he very resolutely,
"I'll not. 1 am resolved won't go
there till tomorrow, for this is no hour
to be a-calling on ladies, and her hus-
band being away twill look as if we
had ordered it of purpose. Besides, if
Moll's in trouble, how am to pretend I
know nothing of the matter and care
less, and this Mother Butterfly and a
parcel of sly, observant servants about
to surprise one at any moment? Say no
more-'tis useless-for I won't be per-
suaded against my Judgment -
GAS you WILL" says L
"There's another reason, if other S
needed" says he, "and that's this pla-
guy thirst of mine, which seizes me
when I'm doleful or joyful, with force
there's no resisting. And chiefly it
seizes me in the later part of the day ;
therefore I'd have you take me to the
court betimes, ere it's at its worst. My
throat's like any limekiln for dryness
now, so do pray, Kit, fasten the door
snug, and give me mug of ale. "
This ended our discussion, but as it
was necessary should give some reason
for not supping with Moll l gave Daw-
son a bOIUio and went up to the house
70 ind Noll. There I learned that she
Was still i'll her chamber, and sleeping,
as Mrs. Butterfly believed. So babe the
good woman tell her mistress when she
awoke that Captain Evans had come TO
spend the night with me, and he would
call to pay her his deyoirs the next morn
ing.
Here, that nothing may be unaccount-
ed for in the sequence of events, must
depart from my train of present obser-
walton to speak from after knowledge.
/ have said that when Moll started
forward, as if to overtake her husband,
she suddenly stopped as if confronted
by some menacing specter. And this in
deed was the case, for at that moment
there appeared to her heated magma
ton, for no living soul was there, lit
tie, bent old woman, clothed in a single
white garment of Moorish fashion, and
Moll knew that she was Mrs. Goodwin,
though seeing her now for the first time,
come from Barbary to claim her own
and separate Moll from the husband she
had won by fraud.
She stood there, says Moll, within her
gates, with raised hand and most bit
ter, unforgiving look upon her wasted
face, barring the way by which Moll
might regain her husband, and as the
poor wife halted, trembling in dreadful
awe, the old woman advanced with the
sure foot Of right and justice. What re-
proach she had to make, what maledic-
ton to pronounce, Moll dared not stay
to hear, but turning her back fed to the
house, where, gaining her chamber, she
locked the door and flung herself upon
her husbands bed, and in this last dear
refuge, shutting her eyes, clasping her
ears as if by dulling her senses to escape
the phantom, she lay in a convulSiOn Of
terror for the mere dread that such
thing might be.
Then, at the thought that she might
never again be embodied here in her hus-
bands arms, an agony Of grief succeed
ed her fit of maddening fear, and she
wept till her mind grew calm from
sheer exhaustion, and so, little by lit
tie, as her courage revived, she began
to reason with herself as how twas the
least likely thing in the world that if
Mrs. Goodwin were in England she
should come to the court unattended
and in her Moorish clothes, and then,
seeing the folly of abandoning herself
to foolish fancy, she rose, dashed the
tears from her face and set herself to
find some occupation to distract her
thoughts. And what employment is near
er to her thoughts or dcarer to her heart
than making Things straight for her hus-
band? So she goes into the next room
where he worked and falls to washing
his brushes, cleaning his paint board
and putting all things in order against
his return, that he may lose no time in
setting to work at another picture, and
at dinner time, finding her face still
disfgured with her late emotions and
ashamed Of her late folly, she bids her
maid bring q snack to her rcora, under
the preteuso that she feels unwcll This
meal she eats, Still working in her hus-
bands room, for, one Improvement
prompting another, she finds plenty to
do there--now thinking that the hang
ings of her own private room, being
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