The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-10-11

CHAPTER XVI.
Continued.

AL right" said S+anm0re, and /
understood him to alludc to my silence;
lit suits me. l was ever Volublc
fellow, and my tongue bids fair to
grow rusty with the company I have
kept these last two Or three weeks.
The worst OF your English clodhopper
is that he is dull. l don't complain of
him for being coarse; it is his dulneSs
that mettleS me. He never makes re-
mark worth listening to, and to hold
forth to such scum is enough to give
one the megrims. On the Continent-l
have travelled Gaskell-it is different.
You get Q flash Of wit occasionally;
you meet with farceur who enter
tains you; but here, God save us! there
is nothing but coarseness and drunk
enness No, there is no talking to such
dregs of the cutters. Now you, Gas
kell, are q man of education-no dis
guisinS it, old man-and I must let of
steam, gratified that I have the Oppor-
tunity of doing so in good company.
I come back to what I was saying
you lean toward tragedy in your views,
T toward comedy. Ah, that's right!
look through my portfolio; you'll find
SOME fairish. sketches there-half OF
them taken in foreign lands. Yes, as
Beatrice says, when / was born, my
mother cried; but then there was a
star danced, and under that I was
born I am grateful; it might have
been otherwise; q blessed heritage. /
was fiogged at school; laughed. I
was expelled; laughed. made some
money; laughed. was robbed of it;
I laughed. I married; laughed. My
wife deceived me, and ran away from
me; I laughed. I shall, in all proba-
biity, in this very town meet her and
the man she preferred to me; shall
laugh. Men prate of different philoso-
phies, but I will stake mine against
the lot. There is something in my port
folio that interests you; what is it?'
He came and leaned over my shoul-
der. I was looking at two sketches
which seemed strangely familiar to
me; one was duel scene, the other a
tipsy brawl. Where had I seen those
pictures, or their like, before? I could
not recall, and yet they haunted me.
Not bad" said Stanmore. II have
sold plenty Of copies of those and Of
other pictures in the portfolio. Cont
mental subjects, most Of them; they
are the most popular. Gaskell, for the
last half hour that glass Of wine has
stood at your elbow, and you have not
put your lips to it,"
~ do not drink" said, constrained
to answer him.
Tragedy again. A mistake. I give
you my word, if I could serve you, I
would. However, don't suppose you
will give me the opportunity. Now, if
you had a wife as I had. and if she
had deceived you as mine deceived
me, you would sit down in sackcloth
and ashes and tear your hair. You
wouldn't be any the better off for it,
nor would it the more incline her TO-
ward you by the measure of hairs
breadth. Take my case. My wife
runs away from me. I whistle her off.
The world is wide. and is filled with
fair women. Ny wife is fair. I make
no attempt to discover her. give her
to understand that she is free to go her
way. What is the consequence? After
an interval of three years she finds out
where I am, and suspects that have
money in my purse. She writes to me
oh, in such tender strains! May she
come and see me? Of course she may.
And, Gaskell, she will come, and not
alone She will bring the other fellow
with her-or, rather, he will insist upon
coming with her, telling her that he
will keep: out of my way. Little does
she dream that this will exactly suit
me. The fact is, I feel, rather hampered,
tied to my wife who is not my wife.
without knowing it, she will supply
me with evidence against herself;
shall put her in the divorce court, from
which l shall issue with a clean bill,
to marry again if please. And may
please, for have susceptible heart"
In this way did Stanmorc rattle on
till it was time for bed. 1t was while
we were in bed and in the dark that
he called:
"Gaskell"'
"Yes?" 1 answered.
II have got my wife IN the tolls" he
said, laughing heartily. "a detective
is following her unawares."
He continued to laugh for some time.
1t struck me on the following morn
ing that he cast strange, compassionate
glances at me.
Il have received two letters" he
said; lone from my charming wife, the
other from my detective. My wife will
be here this evening. and, as 1 sus-
pected, her lover is with her. Both the
letters are addressed to me at the post
office; she does not know where am
stopping. She herself will put up at 4
little inn, the name Of which she gives
me in her letter. It is called the Bull
and Mouth. am going to reconnoiter
it,
We walked together to the street in
which it was situated, fingered Z mo-
ment or two outside, and then returned
to our own hotel. We should have re-
manned in the open had Il storm Of rain
not come on, which rendered it advis-
able that we should take shelter under
a roof. Then said Stanmore, with an
other of those compassionate glances
which I had already observed:
"Gaskell, old man. I am going to
show you something; but you must first