The Hattiesburg news., 1915-11-10
WAS II 4 sPEeTER!
ANONYMOUS.

a dusty suburban lane. He loved her,
and he was engaged to be married to
her, with the complete disapproval Of
every reasonable person who had
been consulted. And this half-clan-
destine meeting was tonight to take
the place of the grudgingly sanctioned
weekly interview-because a certain
rich uncle was visiting at her house,
and her mother was not the woman to |
acknowledge to a moneyed uncle
match SO deeply ineligible as hers
with him.
So he waited for nef, and the chill
of an unusually severe evening en-
tered into his bones.
| The policeman passed him with
but q surly response to his good
night" The bicyclists went by him
like gray ghosts with fog-horns; and
it was nearly ten o'clock and she
had not come.
He shrugged his shoulders and
turned toward his lodgings. His road
led by her house-desirable, commo-
dious, suburban-and he walked slow
ly as he neared it. She might, even
now, be coming out. But she was
not. There was no sign Of move
ment about the house, no sign OF
life, no lights even in the windows.
And her people were not early peo-
pie. He paused by the gate, wonder
ing Then he noticed that the front
door was open-wide open-and the
street-lamps shone little way into the
dark hall.
He walked up the path and listened.
No sign of life. He passed into the
hall. There was no light anywhere.
Where was everybody, and why was
the front door open? Everyone was
out, evidently. But the unpleasant
sense that he was. perhaps, not the
first casual visitor to walk through
the open door impelled him to look
: through the house before he went
, away and closed it after him. So he
went upstairs, and at the door of the
first bedroom he came to he STRUCK
a wax match, as he had done in the
sitting rooms. Even as he did 80 hi
k felt that he was not alone, and he wa!
" prepared to see something; for wha
!, hO ooW hO Wdo AOt pa OPoASNs
what he saw lay on the bed, in
y white, loose gown-and, it was hi
Ia sweetheart, and her throat was GU
It, from ear to ear. He did not knoV
". what happened then, but the police
r. man found him in a fit, under tn
~. lamp-post at the corner of the stree
=. He could not speak when they pickle
him up, and he passed the night
TO- the police cells, because the policema
had seen plenty of drunken men b
gn, fore, but never one In a ht.
rn- The next, molning he was bette
O7 though still white and shaky. Bl
at. the tale he told the magistrate Wi
ON convincing, and they sent a couple
constables with him to her house.
w There was no crowd about it as
''., had fancied there would be, and Il
). blinds were not down.
AS he stood, dazed, in front of Il
door, it opened and she came OF
He held on to the doorspost for 81
nc port.
She's all right, you see,' said t
'''' policeman who had found him und
est the lamp; 81 told you you W
'ch- drunk; but you would know best
ity, When he was alone with her,
BILE, told her.
st But, my dearest" she said, II da
say the house was dark, for we We
all at the theater with my unc
and no doubt the door was open,
rife, the servants will run out If they
Val left. But you could not have be
Nat. in that room, because Hooked 1t WI
% came away, and the key was in
pocket. dressed in a hurry, ant
anu left my odds and ends lying abor
St. Il know" he said; II saw-why
=, S. even noticed the calendar on
Will mantelpiece-October 21, At lei
Tur- 1t couldn't be that. because this
,u.,. May. And yet it was. Your cal
, dar is at October 21, isn't it?'
n'a' mo, of course it isn't" she 6
liVe' smiling rather anxiously. "You m
Miss have had dream, or a vision
AL something"
ellis He did not believe in visions,
West he never rested day or night till
,pee got his sweetheart and her mot
,1,ss away from that commodious he
and settled them in quite dist
'o" suburb. In the course of the ren
Rev. al, he incidentally married her,
. w. the mother went on living with tn
:. M. His nerves must have been a 9
)avis bit shaken, because he was '
Mrs. queer for a long time. and was
Rev ways inquiring if anyone had ia
the desirable suburban house;
No'o when an old stock broker wit
s. III family took it, he went the lengt
1 ST. calling on the old gentleman and
Mrs. ploring him, by all that he held
Har- not to live, In that fatal house.
III "Why?" said the old stock brt
lorna not unnaturally.
1o5 And then he got so vague and
,,.n,s fused, between trying to tell why
trying not to tell why, that the
o'n broker showed him out.