A Mistletoe Bough Story.

Hastings Standard, Issue 205, 24 December 1896, Page 4

A Mistletoe Bough Story.

In Liverpool souu' years .1,50, an actor and actress —»nl am! M'ifc who had grown tired of hotel life, and who had arrived for a stay of several weeks in that city, resolved to lake a suite of furnished rooms, and get their meals when and where their inclinations might direct. They arrived in Liverpool 011 a .Sunday, and, after some tiresome searching, found in a street that was for the most part let out in oflices, exactly what they soutrht. Their suite of rooms consisted of a silting-room, lied room, and bath-room. Evidently the building had been intended originally for office uses, as in the bedroom was a large safe or vault of the most massive construction. Instead of being used to hold securities of priceless value, it was devoted to the humbler duty of receiving clothing The heavy steel door, some five inches thick, was supplied with a combination lock. This was a novelty to the wife, who, as soon as she had bestowed some of her wtv.ps in the safe, began a superficial study of the mechanism. She could not, of course, make out much about it, and her lord anil master ottered, in his superior wisdom, to explain it. '■ All yon have to do," he said, " is to think of a word, shut the door, then spell the word on this dial, turn the handle, and then 1:0 one can open it who doesn't know tlx- combination. Now seep in for a moment ; 1 will lock you in 011 the word 'open,'ami let you out again in an instant." The wife who had not been married long enough to discover that her husband was not as clever as he thought, gaily stepped into the safe. '•Don't be afraid, dear, I'll let you out again before you have time to think. - ' lie turned the handle, worked the combination to " open," worked it back again, pulled at the door, but there was no sign of its yielding. Frantically he again ran the indicator over the letters making the word, but still the door would not budge. He shouted encouragingly to his wife, but it was evident that she could not hear him. fo;- t'vre came no reply, though he thought there was a faint sound of rapping. "W; s s'u' alrei.ly dead for want of air?" was the first awful thought, but he reme'iilu'tvil that the safe was at least Oft. square, and even if perfectly air-tight must contain enmigh air to support life for some little time. l>ut for how long? It was Sunday. It might be hours before he could find a locksmith, and even then it might take more hours to open that dreadful door. His darling might be dead ! These thoughts Hashed through his mind in less time than it takes to read them. After shouting some reassuring words he rushed up to the landlady's room on the floor above, and breathlessly and almost unintelligibly told something of the trouble. '• You're the second fool who's got into a mess, meddling with that safe," was the old woman's comforting comment. " Never mind that !" he cried. •' Can you get her out before she dies ? " " Yes, I can. And I don't have 1 things about 1 don't understand ; and if 1 did tind them, I wouldn't meddle with them." " Never mind that, my good woman; only come and open the door." '• It's easy to see you ain't been long married," was her grumbling comment, as she waddled after him down the stairs. She gave a fewturns to the handle and throw the door open. The wife was discovered in a dead faint, but evidently still alive. A good many pounds spent in doctor's fees, and a present for the landlady, to some extent repaired the damages of the husband's experiment, but nothing could repair his externally damaged reputation for omniscience. A day or two after the occurrence he said to the landlady, " How is it the door wouldn't open on the combination I used?" " Because," she answered, "you must release the lock from one combination before you can set it on another. You men don't know everything. though you generally think you do."