Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-03-01
Miss Todd's
Mistake
By Clement E. Rushton

Copyright. 1917. West

Copyright. 1917. Western Newspaper Union.)
"Snub-nosedI"
"Freckledi"
"And homely as sin!"
"But we must pamper and coddle
this dear ancient lady of ours on act
count of the shekels."
Miss Tabitha Todd gasped. Her
hand fell away. She made a dash
for the heartless tell-tale monograph
and shut it off. .
courageous !" she almost shrieked.
"Abominable !" she added and went
to the mirror and surveyed herself.
Yes, she was snub-nosed, and yes, she
was freckled. AS to her LONELINESS
there was no question. Her faded old
eyes filed with tears and her lips puck.
cred.
"It isn't that I am that" she breath.
ed brokenly. "It's the heartlessness Of
1t, after my shekelsl' Willis, whom ]
loved as an W sonl Clara, who
was to be a joint heiressl A shallow,
faithless, undeserving pair of wretched
schemers. Well, 1 am warned in time
thank goodness !"
1t had all come about through her
nephew, Willis Rand, and his wife,
Clara, whose guest she was, leaving
her alone in the house that morning
They had treated Aant Tabitha like
an own mother. So far her weeks
visit had attached her more than ever
to this h~appy-spirite.l young couple,
who, in the absence Of any very ma
terial wealth, seemed to live and thrive
on love and kisses.
Miss Todd hustled from the room, to
reappear ten minutes later ready fol
the street, suitcase in hand. She pro-
ceeded to remove the wretched record
from the instrument. She replaced ii
where she had accidently discovered it
way upon the plate rail. She loved the
photograph, but had tired Of those sc
often played records in the cabinet and
had resolved to try this old one ia
while the time away.
"There !" she voiced tartly. "They
shall never know how their perfidy
came to be exposed"
Then Miss Tabitha Todd scrawled
q few lines on a sheet of paper, left II
on the table and iounced from thai
treacherous roof, on fire with indigna
ton and resentment.
1t was four hours later when Willis
and Clara returned. Willis was first
ito discover the note. "What in the
Iponaa 90 xponHar Aoac this +, 2o he
calculated, and both, petrified, read:
do not ever speak to me, write to
me, or even think of me again.
"Why !" gasped Clara.
"What," cried Willis. "Oh, Aunt Ia.
bitha has gone crazy" He rushed up
Then he hurried to the nearest tele.
graph office and indited a wire to the
home of their missing relative.
anxious. Clara worried to death.
What has ~happenedY' the telegram
ran, but there came no reply.
Clara wrote the next day, but the
letter, unopened and enclosed in an.
other envelope, came back. Willis
called up Aunt Tabitha on the long-dis-
lance telephone, but as soon as his
voice was recognized the irate old maid
hung up the receiver.
"It's no use," Willis told Clara final
ly. "She has taken some perverse kink
and won't be conciliated."
Miss Todd passed a desolate year in
her lonely village home. Many a time
a longing thought to see her discarded
relatives intruded on her mind, but
she banished 1t r~esolutely. She took
In several cats as pets, superseded
them with canine ~favorites, then in
turn with canary birds and began to
develop fads and eccentricities that
aged and soured her.
One day Miss Todd was compelled
to go to the city on business. She
sighed drearily as she recalled the
warm greetings a certain home had
once held for her. She transacted her
business and had to put in the after
noon as best she could, for there was
no home train until late afternoon.
Finally she paused to read a bill
board In front of a little bijou of a
theater. 1t announced that 1.-THE Eng
lish players" were to give a matinee
that afternoon, program "the sterling
old standard drama, she Stops to
Conquer preceded by the equally an
Gent, but famous skit, The Bitter
Bit" Miss Eodd entered the theater.
The curtain rose. She was only in
differently interested, she fancied, but
her mind aroused nightly as the cur
tain rolled up and a stage dressing
room vas the scene. A faded, bedi-
zened queen of tragedy, powdered,
roughed and furbelowed, was going on
in her part and her obsequious maid
and her husband were hypocritically
fiattering her as to her beauty and
ability. But as she left them; behind
her back they derided her through ges-
lures and grimaces. Then, the instant
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