THE WIDOW'S VENFEANCE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10974, 13 June 1903, Page 6

THE WIDOW'S VENFEANCE.

Saith a correspondent of tlir- Bulletin: — Saw a pretty little incident in a fashionable Sydney tea-room the other afternoon. Seated at the next table to ours was a widow and a small boy. Latter had taken possession of a vacant chair by placing on it a pet china doll, upon which he gazed tenderly at intervals. . Then in sidled a fat woman, wondrous to gaze upon, of

great dimensions) with a ransom's worth

of lace draped about her 'ample proportions, and seated, herself at the same table. She treated the' others to a fat, insolent look', shaking her wide expanse of chest, which 'would not have disgraced an elephant, and snorted something. Then her haughty eye fell upon the doll. Glaring contemptuously at the kiddie, she motioned to him to remove it. He v gazed back in awe, munching his cake.' Again she motioned, and ho munched on. Before 'Eiß"mo'ther'coul<i'see what was 'happening! the newcomer, with her fan, swept the doll flying against one of the pillars, and used the chair thus vacated to put her properties on. Tlie child cried at once, and flew, to recover his broken treasureignoring the comforts of his mother, and sat with the remains huddled in his arms, the big tears streaming down his cheeks. The fat one calmly consumed cakes a.nd coffee. I felt wrathful, and wondered at ] the calmness of the mother. I notified she had long received her ticket, and ha,d J taken quite five min,utes to put on her gloves. Presently, with a large sigh of repletion, and without attempting to ' replace her" gloves (which would have required a maid ahd two bootjacks), the fat one arose, .spread her magnificent train ■ behind her, and waddled off. Then the widow got up absently, bowing to. an, acquaintance, stepped off briskly, and stood on the tail ..of the departing vision. The.re was a fiendish bearing and ripping of lace —a shrill shriek— a beaming smile, and

"I beg your pardon, really !" Then a happy widow with a- tearful little boy went -out „int».-<*hft-vßtrGat;- -and< a fat. -woman*, mouthing bad words, gathered up the wreck of her once splendid tail, and, weep r ing with rage, fled to the waiting room, and from there despatched a man witli a ihand-trucic for a few cwt. of pins.