We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
FATHER'S FLIRTATION.
161
The girl was loyal. She declared that she had seen nobody, an assertion which sent the black cook into a fury.
Why," she screamed, " ah done seed it wid my own eyes ! It come a-seootin' through de kitchen right inter this yer room."
However, it was plain that, nobody else was in the room now. Mr. Bunny was by this time clear of the house, and running down the street as hard as he could pelt, with Marie's skirt held up clear of his ankles, and a crowd of men, boys, and women shouting and laughing at his heels. He ran like a hare, but he was caught at last in the outstretched arms of a burly policeman. His struggles were vain, and his subsequent explanations •confused and unsatisfactory.
He was taken into custody, and entered the office of the inspector at the moment the owner of the dress was reporting her loss to that functionary.
Mr. Bunny's entrance caused a sensation. The inspector and constable went into fits of laughter, and Marie cried out :
Why, there it is ! He's got my dress on. Well, of all the impudence ! "
By this time Mr. Bunny had unwound the shawl from his head and face, and had begun to take the dress off as well. As he handed to Marie her property she burst out laughing. Why, it's the gentleman we saw going into the boarding-house this afternoon."
Mr. Bunny explained that it was all a joke on his part, and any lingering doubt which Marie may have felt disappeared when he pressed upon her a generous monetary compensation. As she refused to charge him the police had no option but to let him go. The sound of their laughter followed him into the street.
He had only got a short distance from the station when he met his wife and Betty coming in search of him. They had been about to appeal to the police, and were so overjoyed to find him again safe and sound that even Mrs. Bunny forgot to ask awkward questions. They led him away in triumph, a chastened and penitent captive.
As they reached the p'ace where Betty had been staying, Mr. Bunny was about to
turn in there, but they informed him that they had found another boarding house. He Went on willingly enough, but when they reached the street in which Mrs. Sweet's house was situated he became restive and nervous. When he found that they were going to take him in there he flatly refused. He sat down on the steps in front of the house and declined to move.
" But why 1 " asked the astonished Mrs. Bunny. " What's the matter 1 "
" I don't like the look of the place," he said weakly. ' I'll go to a hotel."
"Oh, that's nonsense," snapped his wife. " You're coming in now."
And in he had to go. They pushed him into the drawing-room and ran away to fetch Mrs. Sweet. But that lady found him first. She came into the room by another door, and as soon as she saw him flung her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly.
"Don't do that — you mustn't," spluttered Mr. Bunny. " Look out — get away. I tell you — she's coming."
He pushed Mrs. Sweet away just in time. Mrs. Bunny and Betty, talking excitedly, burst into the room.
" This is my husband," said Mrs. Bunny. " I thought he'd got lost, or run over or something. I've been in such a way about him."
She embraced him affectionately. Mr. Bunny had not such a kissing in one afternoon for years. He threw a scared, beseeching look at Mrs. Sweet over his wife's shoulder. He could see that the landlady meant to make trouble. She shook her fist at him and looked furiously angry. He was in for it now. Stay ! There was one chance. Praying that his wife might not see, he thrust a hand into his pocket, took out a crumpled handful of dollar bills, and handed them over Mrs. Bunny's unconscious shoulder to Mrs. Sweet.
Mr. Bunny had never known this sort of thing fail with landladies, and it did not fail now. Mrs. feweet took the bills, glanced at them, and smiled knowingly. Mr. Bunny breathed again.
TTELEN HOLMES, whose work in railroad -^ -*■ dramas has won for her the title of "The Daughter of the Railroad," will shortly be seen in another railroad drama, " The Lost Mail Sack." As a result of the experience she has
gained in railroad stories, Miss Holmes can run a locomotive, operate a telegraph transmitter, or couple a cai' as good as any railroad man. "The Lost Mail Sack" shows the charming Kalem star in an unusually strong role.
D