The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1907-08-29

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gentlemen and ladies up stairs. You
can go on with your dancing.
The two guests looked at one another
and broke into q strained laugh. Then
they calmed their faces again and went
back up the stair.
And was envying that man a min
ute ago" said one OF them. We'll, all
mesh Is but ~rass, as the poor beggar
would say himself. Shows how little
you can gauge mans finances from
seeing what he spends. j say, bet you
a fiver my wife goes to the trial. She
knows a judge
The music stopped at the end Of a
polka, and the gable of talk burst
promptly out and was carried about all
over the house But by degrees 1t
OF whispers. The scandal microbe trav-
els quicker than his cousin of cholera.
Some were sorry. some were shocked,
a few were grimly glad. The band
broke out into ''Eldorado," and being
the best band In London 1t played so
the very chairs tried to Jig about and
dance of their own accord. But no
leather scie kissed the glistening par
quet Of the ballroom. The only things
that moved there We're the music play
ers and latter of tulle which whirled
about to the gale of the cornet.
Mrs. Theodore Shelf stood like a
woman mazed. She could not change
color, for happily, that was fixed, ac-
cording to the canons of the day. but
she stood behind a chair in the drawing
room and gripped with her gloved
hands upon the back till muscles arose
in her plump white arms which had
never shown there before. Through the
doorless doorway she saw an unspoken
stream of her guests, cloaked and
shawled, making their way to the head
OF the stair. Most kept their looks
studiously before them, and of the few
who cast her a glance, half scared, half
curious, none added the smallest ghost
OF bow. 1.a a ~. 81.
OF all the wondrous crowd, only two
men came up to her before they went.
One said, Good night, Mrs. Shelf"
The other said, Goodnight, Laura,
I'm very sorry" :.l. .
Then these followed the rest. and
when ali had gone white faced ser
want came up and told her what had
happened. The police had been quick
with their reach, but the man they
wanted had been quicker. He had left
the house ten minutes before they ar
rived.
els that all?"
THAT is all, madam" =.
Very WELL" said Mrs. Shelf, II
shall not want you any more tonight.
Lock up, and then you may go to bed"
leisurely out OF the drawing room and
went to her own boudoir.
That Mr.. Theodore Shelf had made
his own exit and brought about his
| wife's social downfall most dramati-
! cally even the worst hit OF his VIC
| Tins could not but admit. The police
| with exquisite trouble had traced him
| to Paddington station and found that
he had taken a first class ticket to
| Liverpool, and after using the wires
| they had returned to bed with the Arm
| conviction that their seaport associates
would meet the gentleman at Lime
street. OF course they could not pos
sibly guess that he and wire haired
| fox TERROR dog had changed their
route to Monmouthshire and had ar
| rived in Newport in ample time to go
| on board one OF his own steamers
| which had just finished coaling there.
| The police and the victims said a
1 good many things when they learned
\ the simple means by which Mr.. Shelf
had escaped, and they confidently ex-
pected never to see him again in this
\ world and hoped to miss him in the
next. And consequently all were con-
4 siderably astonished and not a little
| pleased when only two days later Mr..
| Shelf re-entered London with all his
| freer movements hampered by vulgar
| fetters.
or course Mr.. Shelf could not forsee
that when his steamer was passing
/ Lundy at a brisk fifteen knots her
steering gear would break down and
! jam jam the rudder so hard aport that
| she would take the ground before re-
! yersed engines could check her way.
| And because OF this lack OF foresight
! he was after some formality though
regular diet, to which he went among
the wailings and curses of q ruined
multitude. And there requiescat
AS to Mrs. Shelf, do not know what
has become OF her; neither do par
| ticularly care. But the odds are she
| is keeping on her feet somewhere,
! somehow. She Is a clever woman, Mrs.
| Theodore Shelf, II expensive.
| The good she did in this world dur
ing her sway may be summed under
the heads Of encouraging dressmak-
ers society journalists and the manu-
| facturers of old masters, and by these
and few others she wiL be missed.
The evil she did is the talk of the
street, and the poor folk who were
ruined by the failure of her husbands s
| companies can be eloquent thereon.
But her loss is not without one gain.
| Now that she has gone the poor wo-
man makes a very pretty neg for hus-
| bands who knew her to hang a moral
! on for the delectation Of their unfrr-
tunate wives.
Continued Next Week.j
|