MRS ELLIORT’S BURGLAR.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2400, 26 November 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

MRS ELLIORT’S BURGLAR.

MkKIUOHT had eaten his supper, and as it, was yet early in tho evening, he thought he would go out and get i cigar. “I wont, be away no more than an hour,” he said to his wife. “ I'll run in to the barber’s and have my hair cut a trifle, and ho hack before you can say, Jack Robinson.” Mrs. Mlliort did not want to say Jack Robinson ; she preferred Jack Klliort. “ Don’t go off somewhere with those horrid hoys,” she said, with a punt. “ I shall expect you home at eight o’CocU precisely ; no respectable and well-behaved married man—" But Mr, Klliort had snatched a kiss and the sentence never was finished The hour soon passed The girl had finished her work and gone out. Mrs Klliort was alone, but she did not mind it. as she now expected her husband every moment. The clock struck eight. Mrs Klliort was startled by a ring at the front door. Tlieh she remembered that Mr Klliort had said he would ring as his latch key was in his other place. So she hurried to the door expecting to see her handsome husband—Mr Klliort was a sort of Adonis with brown curling hair, hazel eyes, white teeth, and a I-o-v-e-l-y moustache, parted in the middle and curled at both ends, while a generous beard fell in luxuriant waves over his shirt front. Hoping to see that vision of manly beauty, Mrs Klliort opened the door, aud after one look saw that she had admitted a stranger. For the man—it was a man—stepped into the hall, and only that she barred the door would have gone into the parlour. “Sir!” she demanded, in tones that she tried to make stern and steady, “what means thisintrusion ? ” “ I came to beg of you—” “ I have nothing to give you.” “ That diamond ring ! ” Oh, heavens! it was her engagement solitaire. She.looked at the wretch while all the thoughts of a lifetime crowded into tint brief moment, with this idea the most prominent: “ How shall I identify him if he does not murder me ? ” Then she began taking notes as she temporised with him. “ I shall not part with this ring while I have life. One word—(the wretch has a dimpled chin) would bring my husband, who has a six-shooter cocked (shaved skull, looks like a convict) and yon would at once be given over to the authorities (tho wretch has recently shaved traces of a moustache). If you will go at once I will make no outcry (what a fiendish expression) and I do not want my husband’s hand imbrued in your blood (the wretch actually grinned) and you will never, never, never possess yourself of my diamond ring. (Oil, heavens! why doesn’t Jack come,” “ Madam,” said the wretch, “ I must not loiter. My pals arc waiting for me round the corner. Give up the ring without more ado !” “Never, base wretch, take that, and that, and that," and she laid on blows fast and furious, with an umbrella which she had secured by a backward motion of the hand. “Jenny,” said a calm voice as the umbrella was coolly taken out of her hand by the turn of an athletic wrist, “ arc you going to give me that ring ?” “Jack —arc you that wretch?” and Mrs Klliort dropped on the lowest stair, as limp as a rag doll. “ What on earth have you been doing to yourself?” “Getting my hair cut and my spring shave on. Perhaps you don’t like it?” “ W-w-h-erc’s your moustache ?” “At the barber’s.’ “ You look just like a murderer, crop—a burglar!” cried Jenny, who discriminated in the profession. “ I took you for a ” “Lawyer, doctor, heggarman, thief, as wo used to say when we were children. Weil, they said my best friend wouldn’t know me,” laughed her husband. “Come in,” said Mrs Klliort, reluctantly. “ I suppose 1 must give you house-room, hut if ever there was a barefaced swindler vou are one, Jack.”