Gilpin observer., 1909-10-28

shall never forget the shock
that night just as Dick and were
sitting down to our cozy, tete-a-tete
dinner.
l had barely time to fly upstairs
when the dining-room door burst open
and there they were-the Russell boys
Jack Uptongrove, and that horrid Mr.
Fisher. come to keep Dick from hav
ing a lonely evening in Mrs. Cara
ways absence!"
The laws of hospitality demand that
I draw the veil on that nights hap.
penings.
Dick argued (quite sensibly) that
II l had really been at the exposition
U'm sure he wished me there that
nightly l shouldn't have been up
stairs listening (through the floor)
to the noise they made and those vul
gar songs, and l shouldn't have known
about Jack Uptongrove getting SO dis
gracefully intoxicated.
Ignorance may be bliss, but now
that l do know just what happens
when l am supposed to be away, /
shall never, never. even make believe
to leave him again so long as l live!
Why, is it, wonder, that one is SO
often punished for an unselfish, noble
action? If l had not heroically in
sisted on Dicks going to church that
next morning, l would have been
spared the most ghastly and terrify.
ing experience of my life!
This is the way it happened:
Dick had been gone for some time
when there came a loud knock at the
front door.
There was no one to answer 1t. I
held my breath. Oh. why had rash
ly allowed Amarylys to go to her sick
sister?
Another knock!
racked my brains. Could / have
forgotten to fasten that front door?
The next instant / heard it opened
softly and some one enter the house.
Footsteps were coming distinctly up
the hall.
1t was an awful moment for me.
dining-room. l slipped into the parlor
beyond, catching through the crack
in the dining-room a fieeting glimpse
of Mrs. Bentley stepping majestically
in, a plate of waters in her hand.
she's putting them on the side
board l told myself. as l heard the
silver being moved about, with,
must confess, a CLEAN of satisfaction,
for 1t had all been cleaned beautifully
the day before.
The steps began again.
"Of course she's going away now"
/ argued half-heartedly.
But Mrs. Bentley did not go away!
The spirit of discovery was upon
her. and it was not every morning
that she had deserted, defenseless
house at her mercy!
People in the village would hardly
believe me II l told them-and the
worst of 1t is. can't tell them!-what
that woman did next! And l myself
can never tell her what think of her,
which is the most unkindest cut of
all!"
Instead of being able to turn her in
righteous indignation out of my own
house, l, the lawful mistress OF it,
had to cover ignominiously in dark
corner of the front hall, listening help
lessly to distant closet doors opening.
drawers shutting. as Mrs. Bentley
pried unmolested into the most sacred
recesses of my store-room.
''At any rate. she won't come up.
sound Of the returning footsteps.
Vain hope!
Before | could even reach my room
there was an ominous creak of the
banisters, and by the time / had shut
myself up in the wardrobe my enemy
was in the upper hall, just outside.
She was actually on the threshold,
and l was grimly clutching the ward
robe door, on the point of my medi.
tated sortie, when far in the distance
came longexpected. blessed sound,
the slam Of the kitchen door.
Amarylys to the rescue!
Never shall l forget the way Mrs.
Bentley double-quicked out OF my
room that morning. or the swift re-
treat she beat down the stairs two
steps at time.
Just as she reached the front door
1t opened suddenly from the outside.
and. through my own hysterical gig.
giles. l could hear Mrs. Bentley ex.
planning breathless;y to some one who
had just stepped in--obviously Dick
that she had taken the liberty OF put.
ting a plate Of waters for his supper
on the sideboard. where the flies could
not reach them!
The next day returned from the
exposition.
was SO anxious to get back that l
really could not pretend to stay away
from home another moment.
reached the village on the night
train-from Upton-and was on the
veranda the next morning to greet