in time to publish
this week, Magnis, and through the proper channels."

Three doors farther down the avenue Selah Adams sat upon the front
veranda, looking like the vestal virgin of the moon.

She had taken the precaution to enter the house through the back door
when she returned with the other women. The Colonel was fuming in the
library. She could hear him through the open door as she fled
noiselessly up the staircase.

"Not a light in the house, by Jove! First time in forty years I've come
home to a darkened house. No candle in the window to guide an old man's
wandering feet, nobody to greet me, no slippers--no nothing!" he moaned.

And Selah, leaning over the banisters above, could hear him stumbling
over the chairs. She knew what that meant. The Colonel regarded all
chairs as his mortal enemies when he was in a certain condition. She
heard the crash of the big Morris chair as it struck the wall, and feet
attacking it furiously. Then the Colonel lumbered out into the hall.

"Hey, there! Tom! Becky! Where's everybody? By Gad! if somebody don't
come, I'll--I'll----"

"What is it, father?" came Selah's voice, tinkling like ice in a glass.

"Selah! whatsh thish mean?" he roared.

"What does what mean, father?"

"No light! I've just been asshaulted in my own house!" he shouted.

"Assaulted?" she giggled, turning the switch.

The hall below was instantly flooded with light. She beheld the Colonel
leaning against the newel post, looking up but not seeing her. He was
lifting first one foot and then the other and feeling them tenderly
with his hands.

"Yesh! thas what I shaid! That Morris chair met me at the door and
barked every shin I've got. Get out of here!" he roared at the two
servants who had entered from the kitchen. "Selah, where've you been?"

"I'm up here, father. I didn't know it was so late. I'll be down in a
minute."

To lie is not the nature of women, but it is often their necessity.

"Bring the arnica with you, me dear-- I'm a wounded man! But I'm glad
you were at home. I've been nervous 'bout you all day; there's something
wrong in this town!"

* * * * *

All that had happened an hour ago. The Colonel was now peacefully
snoring with both feet bandaged and elevated upon pillows; and Selah was
waiting upon the veranda. She was evidently waiting. When a young and
beautiful woman is not waiting for a lover, she does not look so calmly,
sweetly indifferent. She