NEW MOTHER-IN-LAW JOKE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 67, 21 March 1898, Page 2

NEW MOTHER-IN-LAW JOKE.

For a week the guilty wretch had possessed the secret in silence, starting- at every sound and catching his breath at every shadow. Yet he told himself that he was quite safe, that no one knew of his guilt but himself. They might guess, but they could prove nothing. He would do it again if he bad a chance. It was nature's first law to protect oneself. He had thought it all out—how be would act, and what he would say. Yet when the first breath of suspicion was directed toward him he started and turned pale, and all the defence which he had so elaborately constructed fell to the ground when his wife turned her questioning eyes upon him and said :

'John, did you post that letter to mother I gave you last week ?' %Yes.' 'Are you sure?' 'Yes.' 'She never received it.' 'Yes—l mean—Dash it, I —' 'John, don't swear.' 'Yes —cr —I mean I won't, my dear.' 'It is very strange.' 'Yes—cr —perhaps it was lost in the post.' 'Yes; that must be it,' mused his wife. 'I wrote mother to postpone her visit for a few months, and I have just received a letter saying that we might expect her to-day.' Once alone the wretched man prayed that a nine-storey house might fall upon him and crush him.