The Coeur D'alene Press

MATRIMONIAL

"Oh, Mildred, I'm so glad you have called! I'm in great trouble. That dreadful husband of mine! Oh, my heart will break! I know it will!"

Mrs. Mosely's young spinster friend closed the sitting room door of the pretty Kensington flat and prepared for a revelation of connubial tyranny and iniquity.

"Read that!" cried Mrs. Mosely, holding out at arm's length a newspaper with her thumbnail pressed viciously into one corner of an advertisement column and then bursting into fresh tears.

Mildred Clarke read as follows:

"Matrimony.-Bachelor, thirty-six, going to the colonies, tall, dark, educated and well connected, with fair income, desires the acquaintance of a healthy, domesticated and refined young lady with a view to marriage. Address Carlo, Guilford Chambers, Leadenhall Street, E. C."

"Why, your husband's offices are at Guilford chambers!"

"Yes, the monster! And he is thirty-six years of age and tall and dark, and he has had the brutality to use the pet name Carlo, by which I have always called him. Oh, the wretched bigamist!"

"But it is impossible that he can contemplate committing such a crime."

"I am sure he is bad enough for anything. Only the day before yesterday, just because I said I wished I had never seen his face he was so provoking in consequence of the eggs being boiled hard-he said that if I really meant it he would go abroad and start life again in one of the colonies. It shows that his mind was running on deserting me. Oh, Mildred, what can I do?"

"I hardly know, dear. It looks serious."

"Have you any scheme in your mind Mildred?"

"Yes. First of all, we will answer the advertisement in person."

"In person?"

"Fortunately I have never yet succeeded in meeting your husband, so he doesn't know me. You shall accompany me as a friend, for propriety's sake, in disguise, you know."

An hour later two ladies were shown into the private office of Mr. Mosely.

"Are you the gentleman who has advertised under the name Carlo?" asked Mildred.

"Eryes, but replies should be made by letter."

"I thought a personal interview might be more satisfactory than a letter in a case of this kind. I hope I"-

"Oh, not at all! I'm sure I am only too delighted to have the opportunity of-I suppose I may take it that you are yourself an applicant-ahem!-that you are interested in the matter on your own account?"

"Quite so. It occurred to me that"-

"You find the position embarrassing?

It certainly is rather comical, but let us treat the matter in a businesslike way. I presume this lady is"-

"My friend. You may speak as if we were alone."

"Well, then, you will have learned from the advertisement that I am thirty-six years of age and a bachelor.

"I am going to Australia next month, and it is my desire, if I am lucky enough to find a suitable lady who is willing to marry me, to take out an English wife with me. I shall be able to produce satisfactory proofs, I think, of my position, good character and income.

"May I at least hope," he went on, "that you will give me some encouragement and that- Good heavens, my wife has fainted!"

He ran forward and caught her in his arms. The words "my wife" told Mildred in a flash that Mr. Mosely had known Ethel all the time in her disguise.

"Ethel, darling," he cried as his wife opened her eyes, "it's all a joke. I knew you all the time. The advertisement is for a friend of mine. How can you doubt my faithfulness, little wife?"

"Oh, Carlo! It isn't true, is it? You are not going to desert me? But how did you recognize me, Carlo?" Mrs. Mosely asked.

"Principally by that uncommon bang which you forgot to take off. I had been thinking what you would be likely to do if you happened to see the advertisement. Then the general public would not know that Carlo was likely to be found at Mr. Mosely's office rather than at one of the fifty other offices in this building. Finally you seem to have forgotten that, though I had never before met Miss Mildred Clarke, her photograph is in your album!"

"But I must ask you," said Mrs. Mosely severely, "to give me an explanation as to the name Carlo."

"He is an old schoolfellow of mine. We drew up the advertisement together and I let him use this address. I adopted the word Carlo for the simple reason that one word would seem as well as another, and Carlo occurred to me first. The bachelor's name is Herbert Carter. You shall see him."

Mr. Mosely rang his bell.

A tall and handsome man entered and was presented to the two ladies.

"Miss Clarke, I may tell you," said Mr. Mosely, "has called in reply to your advertisement."

Mildred blushed and attempted an indignant denial, but the curious fact remains that in the following month she went out to Australia as Mrs. Herbert Carter.-Philadelphia Item.

There are no "professional jurors" in Mexico. Nine of a man's peers try him, and a majority is a verdict. If the nine are unanimous there is no appeal. To serve on a jury one must have a diploma in law, medicine or some other profession or an income of $100 a month or he must be a member of a family whose head has an income of $2,000 a year.