]S!t'). 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KKKPER. 



165 



captured i.'i,uu inisbauas, tMree amoug 

 whom luid been Mike's backers, aud 

 helped pay for the powder exploded in 

 firing his "lasht blasht. "— Dan do 

 Qnille in Sin Francisco Examiner. 



Dr. Newman Smythe's Discovery. 



Several years ago the happy thought 

 occurred to uje tLiit a newspaper report- 

 er was a human being, who, like other 

 human beings, was under the necessity 

 of making his living by diligent work, 

 and that he was therefore not to be 

 treated as an eueniy of mankind. Since 

 I made that discovery I have found no 

 class of men more quick to respond or 

 willing to pay careful regard to the 

 courtesies aud the confidence of gentle- 

 manly intercourse. And whenever [ 

 have myself met newspaper men fairly 

 and frankly I have never known one of 

 them intentionally to misrepresent or to 

 abuse sucii confidence. My experience 

 leads me to conclude that if citizens gen- 

 erally would help newspaper men in all 

 legitimate inquiries the public would 

 have less reason to complain either of 

 inaccurate or improper news. — Hart- 

 ford Couraut. 



amuably settled. 



It was only after innumerable pieces of 

 )vidence, the meaning of which there was 

 ibsolutely no mistaking, that little Mrs. 

 Denison was at last reluctantly forced to 

 the conclusion that her husband had really 

 got tired of her. His days were given up 

 to the office, his evenings to the club, he 

 had ceased to care about his appearance, 

 and his clothes had become deplorably un- 

 tidy. For a v.'eek she couJd think of noth- 

 ing else. At the end of that time she be- 

 gan to look about for means of consolation. 

 For a woman she took a strangely philo- 

 sophical view. She knew that she could not 

 live without love, but instead of sitting 

 down and deploring her lot she just deter- 

 mined to make the best of things. 



There were plenty of men in love with 

 her already. She was far too pretty and 

 charming a woman not to have the chance 

 of numberless admirers, but hitherto she 

 had always proved entirely inaccessible. 

 Henceforth slie made up her mind things 

 should be different. 



Her choice fell on Algie Owen. He was 

 little more than a boy, only just down 

 from Oxford, and had long admired her in 

 silence. A word from her would, she 

 knew, be sufficient to bring him to her 

 feet. Within an hour from the time she 

 came to her decision Algie had received a 



note asking him to coniB rouua to tea tne 

 next day. Within a week he had become 

 her constant companion, and her hus- 

 band's indifference had lost half its sting. 

 And at the end of a month Mr. Denison, 

 coming home unexpectedly, had siu-prised 

 Algie in the act of pressing a kiss on her 

 lips. His fixst impulse was to kick the 

 boy out of the house, his second to leave it 

 himself. Neither impulse, however, pre- 

 vailed. He just stood there looking. And 

 as Mrs. Denison was far too frightened to 

 speak it was Algie who at last blurted out, 

 his face rosy red and his lips quivering — 

 he was really very boyish indeed, despite 

 his grown up airs: 



"Well, sir, what is to be done?" 



"That, sir," said Mr. Denison, almost 

 smiling — the pair before him looked more 

 like two naughty children than anything 

 else, "that, su-, lies with you. What" — 

 ironically — "is your suggestion?" 



"I — I will tell you, " stammered Algie, 

 "what I — what Mrs. Denison wants. She 

 — she" — it was really a very daring thing 

 to say — ' ' she wants to marry me, and she 

 wants you to go — go aud do something 

 that will get — get her — her a divorce." 



The suggestion was so cool that for a 

 moment it quite took Mr. Denison 's breath 

 away. 



"Well, I'm hanged!" he ejaculated at 

 last. 



He was silent for a moment, thinking. 



"Now," he said at last, "go. Oh, by the 

 way, " he added as Algie turned toward 

 the door, "can you come in to dinner this 

 day week? We shall be very pleased to see 

 you." 



Algie's blue eyes widened into a stare. 



But when the question was repeated and 

 he saw that Denison was in earnest he said 

 that he would bo very pleased. And then 

 he went out, wondering what extraordi- 

 nary thing would happen next, and trying 

 to remember if he had ever heard any re- 

 ports of madness in the Denison family, 

 and Tona Denison, after ringing for his 

 wife's maid and telling her to see after 

 her mistress, as she wasn't very well, 

 strode off to his club to think out a certain 

 little scheme. 



That day week, when Mr. Denison 

 walked into the little drawing room about 

 20 minutes before the dinner hour — his 

 usual practice was to get home, if at all, 

 about ten minutes after it had been an- 

 nounced — Mrs. Denison opened her ej'es 

 very wide indeed. Instead of the old shab- 

 by tail coat he had donned what was evi- 

 dently a brand new dress suit, cut in the 

 latest fashion. His hair had been freshly 

 cut and trinuned, the heavy mustache was 

 curled off his lips, and the yellow rose in 



his buttonhole became him to perfecil 



He looked at least a dozen years younger. 



