SHE OUTWITTED HIM.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 48, 29 November 1890, Page 18

SHE OUTWITTED HIM.

Here is an adventure that befell a young lady when travelling in England. Her husband had been compelled to remain for a day or two in York, and she had gone on to meet her sister, who was passing the summer in an out-of-the-way country village. At about four o’clock in the afternoon she reached the station where she was to take the train on the little branch road which ran to her destination.

Herethe sleepy-looking ‘ station-master ’ informed her that the afternoon train had just gone, but that another would start at some time in the evening. She sat for a while in the dreary little waiting room ; but the day was pleasant, and the track, running as it did through a pretty stretch of woods, seemed to invite her steps. It was but three or four miles to the village—why shouldn’t she walk ? Her husband had especially cautioned her against doing this, but really there seemed to be no good reason for his timidity. She was so used to walking, and in short she determined to set out, first giving the agent full instructions as to the forwarding of her baggage. ‘ What an idot I should have been,’ she thought, when she had gone about a mile, ‘to stay all this glorious afternoon in that miserable stuffy station !’ But just when she was thus congratulating herself, a man came suddenly out of the brush about fifty feet in advance of her. In an instant her heart was in her mouth. The fellow was ragged and dirty, a brutish-looking tramp. What could she do ?

She remembered the splendid solitaire diamonds in her ears. The rascal could not help noticing them : she could see his greedy eyes fastened upon them at this moment. There was no house in sight, and every instant the man wa< coming nearer. Desperate, but outwardly calm, she resolved upon her course.

* Good -evening,’ she began, in the gentlest and most ladylike manner. ‘lf you please, will you be so good as to tell me how far it is to N ; I am entirely alone, and seem to have lost my way. Won’t you be good enough to help me ? The man’s eyes were still upon the diamonds. How easy it would be to get them I But this being appealed to as a gentleman was too much for him. He was not used to it. * I am very sorry,' he answered, ‘ but I am a traveller like yourself, and am rather a stranger in these parts. Is there no other way in which I could assist yon ? * Thank you, no '. Good-evening ; I wish you a pleasant journey. ’ The tramp went one way, and perhaps was ready in an hour to laugh at himself for a fool, thus to be imposed upon by a woman’s voice ; and the lady went the other way, and in due time arrived at the end of her journey.