The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1897-11-27
Summed in a Single Kiss." "

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelY
lie WAS first of all her husbands
friend, and then her own; and this
is the story of how she saved him in q
time of great danger and stood herself
on the brink of another and greater
peril.
Evey Lancaster was one of those
women who marry men they averagely
love and are faithful wives and devoted
mothers so long as passion, going down
the country lanes of their peaceful lives,
passes them by on the other side She
perhaps loved her husband more than
these women usually do, but then she
was made of sterner stuff, and where
there is more to conquer there is more
to suffer. Small blame to her, since
Heaven had made her charming; small
blame to Edward vers ker, her hus-
bands friend, since he found her so,
and he himself as goodly man as you
would meet on any summers day. Her
husband, David Lancaster, was good
ly man, too, and worthy of her, and of
Edward Vereker, his friend.
But there were three of them, and
three is an evil number concerning
men and women.
1t was during the summer of 1893 that
Edward Vereker and Evey, his friends
wife, began to be more than friends.
He was staying with the Lancasters
down in Surrey, in their pretty little
red house on the edge of the pretty
little blue river, and David was going
up and down to London every day, be-
cause it was yet early and the various
vacations and holidays had not begun.
SO he and she were left good deal on
one another's hands. Satan found mis-
chief, not for those idle hands, but idle
eyes, for that summer ones hands re-
manned in ones lap, and it was too hot
even to talk; but it is as easy to look at
ones neighbor as TO stare blankly into
space, and eyes can do a great deal by
themselves, take it altogether.
So these two sat in the shady garden
under the big cedars and looked at
one another for want of something
better to do, and found the occupation
suffice for all their needs.
Evey Lancaster was a good woman
by nature, not by art. mean she was
naturally good, and had not become so
by trying very hard. She had been well
brought up; she read decent books, and,
therefore, only few, and she meant
every word of her share in the marriage
service.
But alas! and alas! she was a woman.
and pretty one. and Edward vereker
was good-looking, and man, though
somewhat unusually moral and pos
sessed of sense of honor. Moreover,
they both loved David. But David was
away all day, and-I mistfust June and
the devil in green garden!
l don't know that anything would
have come of it if tragedy had not
stepped in; Adelphi tragedy, battle,
murder and sudden death in one of its
most appalling forms in the shape of
hydrophobia.
Evey and Edward had been unneces-
sarily energetic that day; perhaps they |
both uncomfortably realized that sit |
ting under the trees saying nothing was
becoming a little exciting. At any
rate, Evey went to the gunroom and
brought out Smith & Wesson, $3.50, of |
her husbands, and they set up mark |
in the meadow outside the. garden, and,
having prudently removed the COWS. |
practiced shooting in the cool of the
day. They shot very badly, but they
had to look at the target, and that was |
comparative safety. They got tired of |
1t at last, and she sat down under one
OF the great oak trees thanking the
garden with the revolver in her Ian,
while he sauntered across the grass to
rearrange the somewhat shaky target. |
She was near the gate leading to the
road, and it was open. for the cows had (
gone that way to the farmyard, and in
June, '93, gates that 1t was not an inn
perative necessity to shut remained /
open for GOODNESS sake.
And here the Adelphi melodrama
came in, and through the open gate.
too, heralded by Shouts outside"-a
strange, Notwithstanding clamor coming
up from the hush of evening distance
hoarse, scared yelis and the tramp of
running feet, and confused directions
apparently issued in many voices. And
through the open gate horror rushed.
creature with dripping jaws and star
ng eyes, a big, black retriever, bear
ng in its strange, altered state but 1T
tie resemblance to the friendly, kindly
log OF few days back; and al ats heels
concourse of men armed with sticks
md farm implements, and any weapon
hat could be hastily snatched up. but
none, alas! with gun.
Eyey Lancaster, revolver in hand.
nth Sha1lS Sfill |