The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1899-12-01
on" felt called upon to send d LONG letter

on" felt called Upon to send d long lette,
70 the Daily Paragraph" headed. "ls
Novel Reading ,DangerousT' In which lie
kindly assumed the truth OF the ''hya-
"Society's Verdict" belonged to the most most
mischievous. class of literature. He con.
cluded by showing that novel reading Ii
only mild form Of suicide. 1t was tho
silly season. aud the editorial mind up.
pearcd to have run amuck, for the fol-
lowing morning 'icader' was published
in which one Of the Paragraphs spirited
stances of people having been led by SEN
sational romalices into acts Of folly, ind
WARNED parents against the so-called $50
ciety fiction" Next morning Il letter
signed "Falr Play" appeared, in which
the writer laid himself out to prove that
"a Sturdy Briton" was an mllspeakable
idiot. From that moment the fun be-
OF fiction became the topic of the day,
and were discussed wherever two or
gether. talbot Was furious. lie was
unpardohably rude to interviewers, and
was not even decently grateful when
they described him as a Handsome and
rising young barrister."
Whs quite annoyed with him. Twill
nothing satisfy yuu?'- asked. Here
are a. number Of young fellows telling
lies about you gratuitously, your photo
graph is in the Daily Graphic, and yet
you growl. Pull yourself together, man,
and tackle your briefs. Many a man
w4olsnck and slept there for years"
But three weeks elapsed without any
news Of his wife, while all classes Of SO.
eiety..,includihg "A British Schoolboy.' ~
"A Book-reading Chimneysweep," IA
Country Vicar" and "A Bread-alld- But
ter Aliss"--contributed astonishing letters
to the daily press on runaway wives''
and ''modern novels with sidelights on
such matters as patent Cures for Head
tatoesl,' 1t renll " seemed as If the Unit
cd Kingdom had gone mad. One night
we TURNED into Il music hall and heard a
prominent comedian call upon the audi
elice to rejoice with him because his wife
had RUN away, under the Intoxicating in
tiuence Of a novel, called "Dotty Dolly
or, who Stole the Baby's Coug hy' it
was humor Of a DELICATE class, and in
volved frequent illusions to his mother
m, n-iaw, a policeman and kipper. l led
talbot out, put him into Il cab and took
him home. He was in a state of mental
collapse.
Suddenly the case took new turn.
Mysterious messages began to appear in
the agony column of the Standard, the
first of which ran: ''T.. can you ever
forgive me?-Dolly.' Talbot, Of course,
insisted on replying, and advertised:
.know of nothing to forgive. Come
back, dearest #" Two days later, one
ran: Il am. broken-hearted and long to
see you Your own Dolly" And Tai
bot advertised an affcctionate and equal
ly inane reply.
The police were very suspicious of
these advertisements, and believed them
to be a hoax, all the more so, seeing that
we could not trace the advertiser. The
advertisement was always sent to the of
nee OF the paper by post, and the adver-
t'ser changed her address after each i'll
sertion.
Then this message appeared: II have
been very wicked and extravaganza An,
ashamed to tell my debts. Dolly" Here
Was the money question cropping ul
again. | asked Talbot what it meant.
"No.hing.' he said with ii good.
humored smile. ut appears she owes a
warm one, but nothing to worry about
If that's the cause of the trouble. FIJI
soon set her dear little mind at rest
lie wrote out an advertisement for the
Standard and looked happier than Ii,
mad done for weeks, though I felt con
tldent that. there was more in it than
| milliner's bill
~ the meantime an enterprlSlng jour
nalist had been watching the agony col
umn, and putting two and two together
IN IN his mind, guessed it was the celebrated
Lady Dolly case, and published a Ions
ana speculative account Of it, reDrOduc
ing all the advertisements, and giving
his readers to understand that all the
trouble had arisen about a milliner's bill
One morning l went round to Talbot's
| place to breakfast, and was startled tt
hpHr VOicoc II, tho Tiuino 7
the door open and walked in. There was
| talbot, seated at breakfast with a lool
or radiant bashfulness on his face. an(
opposite him-his wife, Lady Dolly. She
| received me as calmly and naturally as
If nothing had happened, and asked mt
to join them, which did in silent won
der.
----@1W'hen utu you arr1ve! 1 managed e
| say at last with tolerable conlposure.
quite late last night" she said. with
charming smile, land do you know
was dead tired. 1t was such NASTY
long Journey
| tried to make an intelligent remark
but failed. '''A n
who is going to tell him?'' asked Tai
bot.
You tell him" said Lady Dolly; but
of course, it's in strict confidence. You
won't tell anybody, will your
pledged my word and begged her tc
proceed, because l knew she intended tc
tell the story herself
You see, dear old Talbot has written
book she began, with proud glance
at the brainy man, who looked half in.
clined to crawl under the table, land it
struck me that if disappeared, Just like
the girl does in the book, and left it lyine
open, so that everybody should know
why | disappeared, it would be a lovely
advertisement for it. Nobody would
know was the wife of the author and |
didn't dare to tell Talbot for fear he
should object. The dear old goose hasn't
any head for business. you know. OF
course, l was awfully cut up when l
thought how worried he would be about
it, but, after all, little worry doesn' I
matter much, does it? Fancy, they have
sold fifty thousand copies already. Isn't
it sllendid?'
Fifty thousand copies?' echoed,
weakly, looking at her pretty face in
amaZement.
YES, and wasn't it good idea writing
that letter signed "A Sturdy Briton, and
contradicting it next day by one signed
Fair Play. Of course advertising in the
agony column kept the interest up and
comforted Talbot, too
Its queer thing, Cliff said Talbot,
''but I've had more briefs in the last
three weeks than I've ever had in my
life. l do believe this mad escapade of
Dolly's has been the making of me-
And so it had, for they are living in a
smart, little house near Park lane, and
Talbot has taken silk, and Lady Dolly
gives the neatest dinner parties in Lon
don. And society's verdict is that she is