ANOTHER VERSION.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3019, 28 February 1881, Page 4

ANOTHER VERSION.

Everybody, writes a Transatlantic contemporary, has read of the brare woman who, when alone in her room one evening, caught a glimpse of a brawny hand of a desperado who was concealed under a table, and who, with magnificent courage, went calmly on sewing until, the servant girl entering the room, she sent the latter with a note to her absent husband, and then fainted in his arms when he came, after an hour of suspense, to the rescue. Everybody, we say, who takes a paper has read this remarkable anecdote a few thousand times, and has it by heart, even to the compliment paid by the villain on the scaffold to the bravery of the lady. Mrs Garrey, out in Western Addition, had just laid down a paper containing the same old anecdote the other .night, when, as she stooped to pick up her thimble from the floor, she beheld the huge band of a burglar underneath the bed. A3 she sat trembling in her chair, she recollected that the cook had gone out for the evening, and that the nurse was asleep with the children upstairs, while Mr Garrey was down at the office getting up the yearly balance-sheet. Her heart froze with horror as she contemplated the situation. If she attempted to leave the room or raise an alarm the murderer would be out upon her in a moment. Ha, there was the telephone, thank Heaven ! _ She crossed the room, with the cold perspiration trickling down her back, and clutched the mouthpiece eagerly. But how to apprise Mr G. of her peril without warning the listening burglar ? She turned the handle. ' Well, what now ? ' growled Garry from down in Front-street.

•Mr Dusengen has been here, my dear, and he wants you to call at 1446 Chowder street right away.' ' 1446 Ch why, that's (nir house ! What do you mean ? ' 'So it is—how stupid of me !' went on the agonised woman, trying to steady her voice. ' I understand that the whole of Suare No. 1462 is on fire j hadn't you better step round and see about it ? ' ' Square 1462 P Why that's the one we live on ! What on earth do you mean talking in that way ? Is anything the matter ?' ' No, no,' hurried on the wretched female; ' I just wanted to let you know that Amelia Ann Bogg—understand, Amelia Ann Boggs —was dying, and wanted to see you right away.' 4 Amelia Ann Bo Why, that was your name before we were married! What in the name of —are you going crazy anyway ?' But Mrs Garrey did not answer, and after confiding to the head clerk his conviction that hie wife had been out-, to supper at some place where they put whisky in the tea, and that he thought he had better go home and see that she didn't give baby laudanum for paregoric, Garrey got on a oar and repaired to his house. He found Mrs G. on the floor in a dead faintj and when she had come to and explained matters, and Garrey had fished out an old boxing-glove from under the bed, Mrs Garrey sat up and made some general remarks concerning the publishers of sensational papers which would have made even those unfeeling wretches blush with shame.