The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-10

| already framed upon my sisters lips
froze into little frosty nod, while a
delicate flush of shame and outraged
| confidence spread itself over her hand
some features. Her friend sat like flesh
and blood turned of sudden into an
| excellent quality of granite, while not
! the faintest trace of pity cleaned from
the four eyes turned haughtily upon
the shrinking figure beside me.
l had stood so much that / think 1
had little reason left; besides. although
l knew the circumstances were against
me, / was a little indignant, which
still farther blinded me. So, without
thought of their amazement. indeed.
with scarcely consciousness of the
! tfrunderbolt / was leveling al their
heads. took my companions hand,
and led her little forward, remarking,
in a perfectly vacant manner: .'Oh,
how do You do. Flo? Let NE make
you acquainted with nv. wife. And
Miss Thompson, also, / should like to
4 have you meet my wife. Pleasant
morning, isn't it?" And then. utterly
apathetic from despair, L stood and
stared HstlesSlv.
| 1 have always admired women, but
the conduct of the outraged Miss
Thompson at that moment moved me
to such Incorporate wonder that, with
the insane tendency one has. to grasp
at trifies in moments of peril. thought
for moment of nothing else, save the
sudden glittering composure which fell
down over and staid about her, as the
fatal words slipped past my babbling
| lips. Not the shrek of my sister in
] that public place, nor the violent start
| and reprOachful cry or my wife had
power for that moment to rouse me-
We'll, really now, quite abrupt and
theatrical, 1 do declared" cried Miss
Thompson, while every other mortal on
hn rnrl oVra led xx-irh
And to think, Flo, that YOU lost
nights sleep worrying over such a re-
freshingly romantic creature, l would
tear my hair just little, my dear If
were YOU OF course 1 should recon-
mend the greatest discretion while
you're about it.
II lad its root in the unaccountable
dislike taken to me by the young bride
flung so strangely on my care. This
it was which robbed me of my appe-
tite, destroyed my pleasing manners,
made me peevish with my sister, intol-
Grant of the cook. pettish to a degree.
with the housemaid, and downright
savage with the Sinking coachman
who privately considered himself
party to all my unwholesome notoriety.
And how they bore with me, Won
dered at their goodness, even while L
kept on trampling over them in my
unbridled egotism.
When one looked from the pitiful,
frightened face of the child beside me
to the chill, white face of Flo, glaring
down at us from the carriage door,
their rafting talk sounded like profan-
ity, and yet l did not blame Miss
Thompson. At heart | was guiltlesS,
yet i covered beneath the glitter of
her eye as though confronted with ac-
tual bigamy. l have said before that
Flo is a good woman. She is. She is
that trying moment she proved as
much. After all was said and done.
1 was her brother, and my honor was
her honor.
II am very glad to meet your wife,
/ am sure" she at length gasped out,
with smile which must have come
much harder than the last defiance of
many a hard baked martyr. do get
in and come with US. both of you.
was on the way to the morgue to iden-
tify you, but we will drive home now"
1t sounded suspiciously friendly, but
/ was looking for floating straws, and
l turned to assist my trembling charge
in beside the others.
Forgive me-" L whispered, as i half
lifted her upon the cushions; but she !
would not raise her eyes to mine. When |
/ murmured in my sisters ear, Flo, be |
kind, will explain she turned her |
face away, with a low order to the I
driver which sent the carriage spinning |
towards home at rate that threat !
ened to cripple every slow-footed pc
destrian along our track. But if my
bride would not look at me. nor my |
sister talk, Miss Thompson did both,
and to spare. Heavens, how she !
scourged me with her merry speeches,
And to think, Flo. you naughty girl" |
she cried, turning a vengeful glare on
my poor sister, who writhed beneath |
~ -
off on us as a gay bachelor. What if |
had lost my hearth" and she glared
at me, while i wondered to think she
dared to claim to own such an organ.
1 don't suppose we were more than
ten minutes making that drive, yet l
seemed to grow old and gray before it
ended. Helples to retaliate on Miss
Thompson, my manhood seemed to de-
sert me, and l sat huddled up upon the
seat like some poor relation out for an
airing
At last were were at home once more
Some one, only the coachman, / think,
drove off with Miss Thompson. and,
after more confusion, I was standing
before my brother-in-law. who had
been telephoned for in great haste;
with Flo, showing symptoms of hys-
tericS on a sofa. at hand, and my poor
bride doubtless weeping her pretty eyes
out in a chamber above uS-whither
she had fled without one word or back
ward glance for me- Thus standing.
by all, pitied by none. 1 pour
ed out my strange tale for perhaps the
hundredth time.
| can see my brother-in-law now as
he sat there, large, loose limbed and
filled with uneasy embar-
rassment at the irregularity of being in ;
MS own house during business hours,
his eyes roaming in conjugal anxiety
20 where his wife lay, yet ever return
ng TO me with friendly light in their ,
sharp, gray depths. Not figure to
romantic yarns, and yet 1 ,,
poured mine out to him. and saw him ;
shift and vince, and heard his NUT !.
ered by Georges" and his "Oh, come :
low, old fellows" without flinching;
both sat and gazed at me with pale
aces and frightened eyes, much as
hey might have looked had l been !,
brought home to them spread out on
shutter.
Never mind, Flo," were the first !
words gasped out by poor William when {
had ended. George. my dear boy.
IL see you through this" and then
teps came hurrying along the hall. and
he door fell open to admit servants
lustered face. But before it had fairly
awned upon us it was showed aside,
md in bounded a small, stopped figure
Which l recognized as the lawyer 1 had
onsulted that morning. Something ex-
iting he had to tell; his face showed
hat. and before 1 could speak to him
lie and my brother-in-law ran at each {
ther and fairly exploded with a lot {
f legal jargon in which / seemed to
gure as both John Doe and "Rich-
I'D Roe" so involved had my affairs