Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-08-04


 might choose, but it seemed to reass,1re E her, and she went on. more confidently and very rapidly.
 | don want Sammy to know have been here, but I felt that I must see you. pecause I'm sure you can tell me all about 1t if you will. And you will. won't you? Mr. Thimberly-Alcernos, --for we are such old friends, and you used to pretend that you thought lit tie Dit or me once, though I suppose you nave forgotten all about it by this time you men arc so forgetful. J
 Sae was plump little woman. with pig eyes, into which she could cast a very appealing expression or make them so round and babyish that they seemed to the unsophisticated masculine mind 1ulI of innocence and guilelessness and trustfulness, in which estimate the mas eullne mind would have been distinctly wrong. Algernon stammered and blush ed, actually blushed, and she believed nm at her mercy. He said hesitatingly:
 don t seem to exactly grasp the idea of how can be of any service to you, as
 
 naturally, you know, I would wish to be, Mrs Wagstaff :"
 "Nol Haven't I told you? l thought 1 had, but I'm so 1ustered. Well. it is all Ill one word. I want to know all about Jennie. Who is Jennie?''
 Jennie, Jennie, he replied, assum- ing his most puzzled expression and looking as if laboring to dig up from untathomab1e abysses in his memory some reminiscent suggestion of having heard some such name. "Jennie who?''
 That is what l ask you, and Jennie What? Oh, now, Algernon. don't pre- tend you don know, for I'm sure you do. You will tell me, won't you, Al gernon?' h her willy feminine way of cajolery she laid her chubby little hand upon his shoulder almost caress- ingly and filled her round eyes with ap- peal.
 At that precise moment F1ossy, sew ing ill her own room, miles away, clear ly saw, with her minds eyes, the tab leau thus presented-Algernon, in the private room of his office, caressed-or rather, she should say, familiarly paved by q creature who made baby eyes at himl And he seemed to like itl What an astounding revelation of perfdy
 To understand correctly even the best pantomimic performance on the stage one must know something of the eanons of expression by which certain abstract ideas are arbitrarily conveyed, and is, furthermore, aided by the sequence of action through which the story is pro- gressiyely developed But from mo- mentary glimpse, such as one might catch ill tumbling from the gallery to the parquet, little could be accurately apprehended. So 1t is in real life An instant's view of the attitudes of two persons may suggest an infinite wealth of various misunderstanding We need words, and even with them do not a1- ways succeed in putting things any too clearly. Judging by imperfect sight alone our deductions from what we see are necessarily simply reflections of sub jective conditions i'll our own minds. Had Mrs. Thimberly been very unso- phistieated and unsuspeeting person, she would probably--or at least possibly have imagined that her husbands visitor was simply soliciting typewrit- ing work, CT selling tickets for some charitable benefit, " or seeking sub- scriptions to something--the common annoyances cf office men. But she was naturally jealous and-another wife was started on the warpath. She dropped her sewing and began dressing hastily to go down town.
 Algernon stood well the assault by Mrs. Wagstafr eyes. He met them firm ly, thought of his duty to his fellow man and said, s'I don't know anything about any Jennie. The recording angel doubtless sighed as he jotted down the words, but perhaps, when balancing his books, made little credit entry for Al gernon's s fidelity to his friend. ''If you know there is Jennie, he continued, your knowledge is just that much more comprehensive than mine. ]"
 "But that is all know. And 1 insist upon knowing everything. have no QOuDb SuC NotS Oll0 O1 koulllilIy . O4eA flames before we were married, who continues flirting with him yet-the shameless thing.
 "But how do you know she exists or ever has?"
 eAhl Itwas fatel called at my hus- bands office yesterday and went into his private room, as I always do. He was out, but his desk was open, and there, written on pad to catch his eye when he came in, was message from his bookkeeper, MT. Morgan, who, as it happened, had also been call ed out. The message ran: Jennie was in. I told her you were in the country and 1 didn't expect you back for a month. I hunted his desk through and through for further information about her, but found nothing. The safe was locked, so I could not search it, or I'm sure would have found 8 lot of her letters possibly her picture. l left the message where 1t was. and when he came in pretended to bereadlng paper and never let on knew anything of his