The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1907-10-05

Beau
By JUDITH SPENCER.
oooooooooooo
copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles.5

a delicate colonial yellow with white
trimmings and dull green blinds
their i%rreverent niece Angelot called
the Yellow Cucumber"
Miss Anne was small and prim and
timid, but Miss Penelope was tall and
stately and a power much looked ur
to by her sister, though Angelot mis-.
chieyously declared that Aunt Pen
was just as scarey as Aunt Anne, and
Whenever a piece of the old furniture
cracked at night, they both got up and
watched till morning" These two
were practically alone in the great
rambling house, for Bridget-mighty
of hand but weak of head-had a room
quite off by herself at the farther end.
These sisters each had had a ro-
nance. One had buried her lover and
n had airily dismissed hers in the
long ago. But if now they ever regret
ted the past none knew, for they were
too wise to wear their hearts upon
their sleeves. However it might have
been, they advised Bridget almost
daily during the 20 years she had
lived in their service, never to think
Of getting married. While to merry,
m%otherless Angelot, when she came
to visit them, they always gave the
contrary counsel, Now don't be an
old maid, my dear!"
Now Angelot could not be always
with her aunts, and there were times
when she, as well as their other rela-
tives and all their friends, thought it
unwise that they should live in that
great house so entirely alone.
Burglars and fire were the two
things these women feared, guarding
against them yet watching for them
through the years. Bridget slept like
a log in her far-away room. But Miss
Anne and Miss Penelope watched and
listened and shifted the air for smoke
and nightly set traps of chairs turn
ed upside down and buckets filled
with water, before every doorway and
at the head of every stair.
One winters morning as Angelot
was getting ready to go out, a tele-
gram came for her father, a mar of
many affairs, who had left home on
business of Importance the night be-
fore. She tore it open and read:
Damaged by fire last evening and
rooped. Come Immediately to
PENELOPE AND ANNE"
AT last" said Angelot. So she
packed her bag and went up by the
first train. AS the carriage she had
taken approached the long, low house,
she scanned it s~earchingly for traces
of the fire, but none were to be seen.
She found her aunts, Miss Penelope
and Miss Anne, in a state of nerves
bordering upon Mysteries.
Angelot laughed. Now. let me
see" she said, 1T was both burglary
and fire. Poor Bridget's room was
almost burned out, you say, and her
very best clothes and her roll of mon
ey and her poor little trinkets are
gone. You think it a mercy that the
fire was discovered when it was? NV.
yes! Or the entire house might have
been looted? Well, no; l don't think
so. The thief evidently wanted ex.
actly what he took and then set fire
to the curtain, thinking so to cover
up his tracks"
NO, Angelot, you're quite mistaken
there! It's some hidden enemy; some
n has a spite against us, and we
shall be burned in our beds yet! For
this isn't the villains first ATTEMPT.
Five separate times the preserve eel
lar has been broken into and we've
found dozens of burnt matches strewn
all about the place. It's a mercy we've
escaped till nowl"
It's you who are all wrong!" de.
clared Angelot, "You people have no
enemies at all. Now l think that the
man who has done all this is no other
than Bridget's beau"
"Bridget's beaul" cried Miss Pc
nelope and Miss Anne. But Bridget
hasn't any! That is, we never knew
she had one-oh, Angelot!"
Now, go upstairs and rest, you
poor dears; try and get some sleep.
while | go and interview Miss Bird.
get"
Bridget, nervous and trembling, at
first denied, but finally confessed to
the beau" though she Indignantly
resented the charges which Angelot
made against him.
HE was just a handsome. nice
young man" she declared.
Just then the doorbell rang. and as
Angelot saw that Bridget was too
much upset to attend 10 her usual
duties, she went to answer 1t herself.
"A handsome, nice young mani" she
quoted gayly to herself upon first sight
Of the visitor.
u would like to see Miss Penelope."
the young mar said politely. q am
Percival Lestrange, the nephew OF
John Delaney"
"oho!" thought Angelot, "and John
Delaney is Aunt Pens old lover-that
But she demurely said, "And
am Angelot, Miss Penelope's niece"
Percival Lestrange bowed low and
Angelot, having dropped him a quaint
courtesy, asked him to walk In