The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-07-15

"Deppingham."
 And Browne already has one Mrs. | Browne to his credit don't you see
 Well, that settles it, I'd say. It's hard | ly probable that Browne will murder or
 divorce his wife, nor is it likely that
 her ladyship would have the courage
 to dispose of her incumbrance in either
 way on such short notice."
 "But it means millions to- them,
 Hare"
 That's their unfortunate lookout.
 You are to act as an executor, not as a
 matrimonial agent"
 "But, man, s:'s an outrage to give all
 of it to those "eretched islanders. Bos-
 worth says tlsat rubies and sapphires
 grow there like mushrooms" l ''Bosworth also says that the island
 CTS are thrifty intelligent and will fight
 for their rights. There are lawyers
 among them, he says, as well as jewel dtggers and fishermen"
 "Skaggs and Lady Deppingham's grandfather were the only white men
 who ever lived there long enough to | find out what the island had stored up for civilization. That's why they bought it outright, but I'm hanged if I can see why he wants to give it back to the | natives
 Perhaps he owes 1t to them. He doubtless bought it for a song, and, contrary to all human belief, he may have resurrected a conscience. Any i how, there remains a chance for the | heirs to break the will"
 "It can't be done, Hare; it can't be done. It's as clean an instrument as | ever survived a man."
 It is by this time safe for the reader to assume that MT. TasweI Skaggs had been a rich man and therefore privileged to be eccentric. He came of a sound old country family in upper England, but seems to have married a bit above his station. His wife was serv- ing as governess in the home of a cer- tain earl when Taswen won her heart and dragged her from the exalted posi- tion of minding other peoples children into the less conspicuous one of caring for her own.
 Their only son was killed by a run away horse when he was twenty, and their daughter became the wife of an American named Browne when she was scarcely out of her teens. It was then that MT. Skaggs, practically child less, determined to make himself wife less as well.
 He magnanimously deeded the un- securities into cash and then set forth upon a voyage of exploration. It is common history that upon one dark, still night in December he said goodby forever to the farm and its mistress, but it is doubtful if either of them heard him.
 ho vxvn1I orlo rxyff hi Mrs. Skaggs did most priggish thing. She died six months later, but before doing so she made a will in which she left the entire estate to her daughter, effectually depriving the absent hus- band of any chance to reclaim his own.
 TaSwen Skaggs was in Shanghai when he heard the news. It was on Friday. His informant was that erst- while friend Jack Wyckholme Nat urally Skaggs felt deeply aggrieved with the fate which permitted him to capitulate when unconditional surren- der was so close at hand. His lan- guage for one brief quarter of an hour did more to upset the progress of Chris tian endeavor in the far east than all the idols in the Chinese empire.
 There's nawthin' in England for me, Jackie. My gals a b1oomin' foreigner by this time, and she'll sell the bleedin' farm, of course. She's an American, God bless Ter 'eart. I dare say if I'd go to Ter and say I'd like my farm back again she'd want to fork hover, but Ter 'usband wouldn't be for that sort of hextravagance. Ed boot me off the hisland"
 ''The United States isn't an island, Taszy," explained MT. Wyckholme, gulping his brandy and soda.
 MT. Wyckholme was the second son of Sir Somebody -or-other and had mar ried the vicar's daughter. This put dim into such bad odor with his fam .1y that he hurried off to the dogs-and goodly sized menagerfe besides if the records of the inebriate's asylum are to be credited. His wife, after endur- ing him for sixteen years, secured a divorce. Accepting the world as his home, he ventured forth to visit every nook and cranny of it. In course of time he came upon his old time neighbor and boyhood friend, Taswen Skaggs, in the city of Shanghai Nei- in two years or more.
 "'Ow do you know" demanded Tas- well.
 Haven't l been there, old chap? A year or more? It's q rotten big place where gentlemen aspire to sell gloves and hankerchicfs and needlework over the shop counters. You know, Tazzy, could well afford to starve, and wouldn't sell things, so came away. | But it's no island"
 Well, that's neither here nor there, | Jackie l 'aven't a 'ome, and you 'aven't 'ome, and we're wanderers on the face of the earth. My wife played me a beastly trick, dyin' like that. say marriage is q bloomin' nu1- sance."
 Marriage, my boy. is the convales- cence from a love affair. One wants