The Van Buren press., 1896-12-26
MRS. DAVENPORT'S DILEMMA.

Mr. Davenport hated society, but Mrs.
Davenport adored it; and so. like ami
pble married people, they agreed to diff
fer, and each to go their own way, quite
cordially enjoying, after the battle was
over, narrating TO each other what had
, happened. When Mrs. Davenport was
very young, Mr.. Davenport had care
fully accompanied her to her carriage,
had sent her maid to take care of her
and had himself sat up TO receive her
when she returned. But as she grew
| older, this sensitive care relaxed. He
found that she was quite content to
60 alone, and he allowed her to do so,
with the family coaehman on the box
She in her turn was determined that
he should not be deprived eli his natural
rest, but should allow some satellite to
sit up and watch for her as she came
| home
There had been talk of a nightkey,
but Mrs. Davenport thought that was
| too masculine, and she also had sus-
picion that she should never learn how
to use it. So Mrs. Davenport. strong in
the confidence of her husbands love.
serene of conscience, and enjoying the
devotion of Il large family of servants
who loved her, went off to Mrs. Apple
by's ball, on the evening of November
Il. looking lovely
The ball was large and fine, and Mrs
davenport enjoyed it. She is a pop
ular woman and both men and womec
like her. She would have left at ont
O'clock. her usual hour. but that Herr
Won Bergmans. the German philologist
was presented to her, and talked so well,
and was SO evidently inspired by her
bright eyes, that she stayed on; and
then the hostess had the great singer,
Iaremburinani, who must be spoken TO
in Italian, and Mrs. Davenport speaks
italian with the true Tuscan purity.
So she left the ball very late. Stick
nell. her eoaehman, was sleepy and
cross, and after depositing her at
No. 50, he drove off very quickly.
II was a fine nght-moon brilliant,
Mars splendid, Jupiter magnificent.
Mrs. Davenport gazed upward admir-
| ingly, almost regretting TO leave scene
| which paled the ornamentation of the
ballroom ceiling
She was destined to see good deal
| mere of those same stars than she had
| bargained for on that particular night,
| poor woman!
She rang sharply
| Nobody came.
She rang again, and again, and again.
Nobody came.
Mrs. Davenport began to feel chilly
about the feet which were delicately
clad in white satin slippers and silk
stockings.
She wrapped her cloak about her and
looked up at No. 50, her own familiar
brown stone, four-story, comfortable
house.
| Not a sign of movement, although the
| gas burned in the hall.
She rang, and rang, and rang. No
response.
! And then she realized that she VS.
locked out, that everybody %5s asleep,
and that there she might stay all the
rest of the night. She remembered,
alas! too late, that she had trusted to
her waiter, gentleman of African de-
| scent, who had been known to go to
sleep on these night watches, to let
| her in. Now he seemed to be sunk in
| the deepest oblivion. But then, if Or
| lando slept, some one else mad general
| w walked. and either reused him or let
her in individually. Mrs. Davenport
shuddered. A night on her own front
steps!
She kept on ringing desperately, and
| pounded the door with a delicate fist.
Presently policeman came along, and
to him she appealed.
"Oh! got key?" said he. let me
help you unlock the door"
"But / have not a key!" said the
miserable woman. "Ineyer had key!"
bad, bad" said the guardian Of the
| public peace. Il never knew them to
wake up. However, I will rap for
YOU" SO he pounded the blinds with
his club, and made a terrible noise,
| Two or three heads looked out of the
opposite windows. Ono invalid at Al
raised a window and begged pteously
that her rest might not be thus ruth
lessly ruined.
Lady locked outl" sang the police
| man.
well, is that any reason why you
should try 10 wake the dead?" said the
nate clergyman opposite,
The policeman walked on, leaving
Mrs. Davenport in despair.
Haven't you any friends in this
neighborhood? he asked, as he pre-
| pared to move on.
81 should think not" said she, feebly.
| She drew her fur cloak about her, and
sat down on the door-mat. She had not
| regarded that useful article in the light
of a diyan before; now she was glad of
even that medium between herself and
the cold doorstep. To weep would not
mend matters; to ring and pound and
rattle the blinds was useless. Every
body in 80 was hopelessly asleep. She
had been forgotten. She, the core Of
the whole thing, the handspring OF that
vast establishment! Her husband and
her children and her servants had, each
trusting TO somebody else, gone to bed
| and forgotten her.
She looked up at the moon, at Jupiter
and other illustrious denizens of the
sky, and found them cold and unsymps-
;hete. She began TO think OF her sins,
and feared that she had not been suti-