The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-08-19

stroke of 9 every morning he walked
Into the dingy little Office in Basinghal
street, nodded mechanically to his broth
er clerks, then fell to work on his great
ledgers. With the first stroke of In
the evening his pen dropped. his ledgers
closed, and the chief clerk of Matthew
Baxter & Son, East India merchants,
vanished During business hours he
never Joined in the general talk of the Of
lice. And the unanimous verdict of his
associates was, that more aggressively
unsociable creature than Abner Jones
did not cumber the face of the earth
Basinghal street opinion concerning
Abner Jones was, although unanimous,
out of line with the truth Abner Jones
loved life and enjoyed life at sixty-eight
years Of age, even more than he had
loved or enjoyed life when his years
numbered less than twenty. At his two
little rooms in the north of London he
often entertained distinguished people.
Moreover, he had Travelled to nearly ev-
cry country under the swift-racing sun.
Why was Abner misunderstood by his
fellow clerks? How could the old book
keeper. whose income had never ex-
ceeded 30 shillings a week. entertain the
great and travel to the far away?
The answer to both questions is the
same. For half century Abner Jones
had been a professional humbug, his
chief victim being Abner Jones.
Until he was twenty and turn Abner
Jones was like other English lads, al
though a touch of his mothers Spanish
blood did, at times, dominate that in
herited from his bluff seafaring English
father. He lived a surface life; thought
little, read less; worked hard at the Of
flee in the city, but only lived all over
when in the cricket field.
At twenty, however. Abner Jones
Changed; for at twenty Abner fell in love
with Emily Dane, little governess who
lived in the house where he lodged
Abner's courtship ran swiftly into an
engagement Of marriage. The young
people, however, could not wed in the
morning hour of love; the home had to
be won first. Abner shaved and saved
In the city; Emily went to Rome as gov
erness with a family willing TO pay well
for long hours and hard work. Then fol-
lowed six months in which Abner was
indeed q maI of letters, living in and
by the many missives which flew be
tween London and Rome. Then break
came in the chain of letters-two months
Of silence. Then a letter in strange
handwriting. Roman fever had claimed
tnother English victim. Emily Dane was
l4ad!
At first Abner was too weak to read
he terrible letter to the end. Indeed, a
month passed before he summoned cour-
age to do this. Then it was that he
first learned how Emily, a prey to the
lever fancles, had just before her death
whispered to the doctor:
Il, Emily, take thee, Abner to be my
welded husband;" then she had fallen
asleep, ard from that sleep passed to
the house not made with hands in that
other Eternal City.
Abner Jones, in his attic room at
twilight, read of this uncompeted we'd
ding ceremony. And as he read
light seemed to go out in his body; but
a new light-softer, colder-suffused his
mind And 1t was in very truth a new
Abner Jones who. an hour later, took up
his prayerbook and right hand out
stretched into the shadows, slowly re-
peated the words:
I, AbEer, take thee, Emily, to be my
welded wife"
Then, a new light in his large blue
eyes, he continued:
This is Our little home. wife-ours for
And on the instant there rang clearly
In Abner's ears:
Eyes. Abner, husband-our little home
forever"
And then was born Abner Jones, the
humbug, and dream-life began
Abner before Emily's death had never
been reader. But EmiIys books, which |
had beea forwarded to him from Rome,
possessed a new attraction; and every !
night, after he had eaten his supper, !
ne would now settle to read before |
the blazing fire-a long read out of
Emilys books, to Emily his wife. For
Abner was as conscious of EInily's pres
ence in the room as he was Of his own |
existence. There she sat, IN the low
chair to the left of the fireplace, smiling, |
happy. And every time he looked up
from his book she nodded, smiled, and
said:
Read on. Abner dear; I'm listening-I
love YOU
And Abner, the happy humbug, would |
read on and on. until the night grew |
old and his eyes dim from looking at
the much that was and the
more that was not.
Such play with probability was dan
gerous for one who, like Abner lived
a mechanical, unimaginative life during
the Gay, and at night came home to
small iH-furnished lodgings And very
soon he found his city life, his city as
sociates, becoming shadowy, unreal, the
mere creatures Of dreams; while his
dream-wife and his dream-life took on n
more aggressive reality. Indeed, in a
large measure he came to be one who
in his life realized the saying, Nothing
Is but what Is not"
Abner's seafaring father had loved
home, loved little children. Abner held
IN memory colorless picture of that old
home-mother, father, boy and girl and
a baby. The picture lacked color because
that sea-captain father had sailed away
with his little family leaving Abner at
school in England-sailed away, and
We're never heard of afterwards That
first tragedy had come too early in Abb
ners lie to iDffict an incurable wound
But In way it quickened hereditary
home love and family love; on the other
hand, it left IN Abner's queerly furnished
mind a very indefinite idea of what
family life really was.
Now one day, about year after Abb
ner began his humbugging married life
the wife Of brother clerk called at the
office; she carried a baby in her arms.
and was accompanied by two children-a
boy and girl.
Abner, being alone in the office, was
forced to show the woman some atten-
ton This trifling episode worked a
little miracle
For that night when Abner lit the
swinging lamp in his own room, he dis
covered that he was the central figure
Of an orthodox family party Emily was
there, and Emily held in her arms a lit
tie baby, and at Enily's side stood two
little children. He could see his own
face reflected in the face of the boy. The
girl was pocket edition of Emily And
as he looked and looked, too full of
wonder and joy tc speak, Emily and child
dren cried: