| Show AN M P S A DOMESTIC the general impression among jim aVs friends was that he might have done a good deal better for himself than lie did in hia matrimonial venture an M P with a safe seat and decided abilities young good looking well connected but having only a limited income he was just the man who should have married money and this is exactly what he had not done he met his wife in paris during a holiday trip she was a pretty vivacious irish woman ladylike lady like and attractive but she had no fortune and was of particular family the M P s friends shook their heads over tiie match and all felt convinced that before long he would find out what a mistake he had made there could be no doubt that under the circumstances his marriage was an imprudent one with hib eight hundred pounds a year percival had subsisted comfortably enough as a bachelor but as a married M P he found that his income went simply no way at all to cut himself off from society and to live with bis wife in economical seclusion was of course out of the question it have made him unpopular with his constituents as well as with certain influential friends in town to whose good offices he looked for securing some post in the government when his party came back to power and as he had no profession but had launched himself for good or ill upon a parliamentary career it would have been madness in him to prejudice his cha acea of political preferment the natural consequence followed percival got into debt lie consoled himself first of all for running outrunning out the constable by the consideration that his party must soon return to power and then he should be able to recoup his present expenditure but the radicals remained in session after session the looked for general election came no nearer and percival began to feel very lugubrious indeed he already owed nearly one thousand pounds a crushing liability to a man with a small income and no capital indeed he did not attempt to disguise from himself that unless something very unexpected turned up he must soon be hopelessly his wife had long been urging immediate and rigid retrenchment but each time she mentioned it percival shook his head the house was in committee on a bill which was being fought tooth and nail by the opposition and urgent whips had been issued to the members of both parties to be as frequently as possible in their places but there were many dreary intervals of debate when no big division was imminent and during those intervals percival did not always remain in the precincts of the house he might no doubt have spent them at home or in escorting his wife to one or other of the numerous social functions for bis cake ehe BO religiously attended but in hi vi dorried state of mind the dullness of a domestic evening or the yet deadlier boredom of a political conversazione conversa was uninviting he preferred to forget hia troubles in more enlivening scenes within a mile of the palace of west minister there is as all the world knows a famous of varieties it ia under unexceptionable management it puts forward tho strongest and most enterprising pro gramme of the kind in london one evening during a particularly drowsy debate a fellow M P had suggested to percival that they should run across to the X and see the rainbow danseuse percival had complied after that night he went to see her pretty regularly just before the dance the stage was darkened behind loomed a background of murky clouds gloomy as the sky before an impending thunderstorm then a brilliant blaze of sunlight burst upon the shadowed scene and whirling wildly in its dazzling rays appeared the famous rainbow danseuse what a sight that wasl how dexterously ahe managed her mass of gorgeous draperies which floated all about her and swiped and spun like a revolving wheel at nothing but the flushing anea of these robes was visible at other times a lovely face crowned with golden yellow locks stood out among them radiant spiritual superb and then while this entrancing apparition smiled and the audience chapped and shouted rum beings of thunder rolled upon the air clouds overcast the sunlight and amid their gathering gloom the rainbow goddess faded slowly from the scene if it bad ended with his merely admiring ills ravishing beauty from a distance all might have been well but such infatuation as percivall Perci vals waa not satisfied to confine itself within those modest limits A strong desire came over him to make her personal acquaintance lie ought of course to have withstood it it should have been perfectly obvious to him that in giving way to his desire he waa voluntarily thrusting himself into the path of danger hut he gave way nevertheless lie went farther he actually addressed addre sed one or two letters to the young lady to his great chagrin she sent him no reply at last in desperation he procured an introduction to the manager of the X and besought that gentle mans aid in his foolish and culpable project just ao said the manager rather coldly well sir percival 1 will communicate your wish to the young lady and will then let you know her reply I 1 cannot hold out hopes anat it will be favorable for a number of other gentlemen have desired introduce intro duc tion to her and have all been refused you see she is simple modest girl who is merely her talent tc support her family and has no desire for a circle of male admirers however as I 1 said I 1 will tell her that you wish to be introduced the follow ln wha he hobt to have been in his place in the house listening to the ministerial leaders statement he was hovering near the stage door of the X he had made up his mind to follow his goddess home and so and out her private address percival had a cab waiting for him at the corner he noticed another cab drawn up opposite the stage door he strolled up and accosted the driver youre a lucky man to have such a charming fare baid percival carelessly 00 oo said I 1 ad a charmin fare retorted the man suspiciously then he added if your bort young feller you may save yourself the trouble of doin the civil to me for ashes a thoroughly good young boman I 1 can tell yer and wont stand no followers boolin around not shel percival affected to laugh and strolled away in a few minutes he saw the girl harry out and get into her cab then he jumped into his own having instructed the driver to follow the other vehicle and keep it carefully in sight when they had driven about a mile his cab stopped the M P got out he saw the young lady alighting from her cab about a hundred yards ahead she turned and walked rapidly away with a beating libart and trembling steps he followed her keeping an interval of seventy or eighty yards between them she had not alighted at her own door but at the end of a street of private houses down which she was now walking percival realized with a certain thrill of uneasiness that it was P street the street in which his own house was situated but something worse was in store the young lady stopped appeared to be carefully scrutinizing tin izing the numbers then after some evident hesitation she walked straight up to the door of percivall Perci vals house and rang the bell A minute later she waa admitted all at once the truth flashed upon the unhappy M P there could of course be no doubt upon the subject this young lady annoyed and frightened by his persistent attentions and seeing that silent disdain had no effect in stopping them bad taken the ready and effective method of reporting him to his percival leaned against some iron failings railings rai lings near which he stood and wiped his clammy forehead with his handkerchief his dismay was altogether beyond words if he had been on bad terms with his wife it love on either side had ceased between them if she had not been perfectly fond and trusting toward him he could have stood the thing better but as it was he felt like a man who had suddenly received a knockdown knock down blow his knees were trembling violently a sense of sickness of faintness stole over him in the face of this fearful exposure his infatuation for the danseuse seemed to die for the first time he seemed to realize what an abject idiot he had been it was a long time before he could make up his mind how to act he patrolled the street for more than halt an hour before he had decided and a bad halt hour he found it then he took a sudden resolution he would go in and make a clean breast of the whole affair to his wife that after all was the moat honest and probably the most prudent course she might or she might not believe him but he would tell her all the truth express his sincere penitence and throw himself upon her mercy he nerved himself to the effort he went in he entered the drawing room Hia wife was now alone ahe looked up at him with a cold altered expression that made him wince but he persevered he spoke he told her all she averted her face and heard ills confession to the end in ominous silence and BO jim my makeup make up my golden wig and my wedding draperies to say nothing of the shifting lights and the thrown upon one baffled even your penetration eh sir jim was staring at hia pretty trite who had now risen and stood before him smiling archly in evident enjoyment of his obvious relief and astonishment and you fell in love with my makeup for that is what it come to it jim by joves he exclaimed with emphasis that explains it it was your ayea that did it little girl they drew me to the theater night after night to worship you I 1 could not resist then spell I 1 could bof explain it to myself yet I 1 felt there was something half familiar in their magnetic influence upon me to think I 1 never guessed by jove I 1 was a duffer I 1 ought to have known that no such other eyes were to be found in all Eng landl or in all america either j tinned the rainbow danseuse dan sense playfully jims explanation was unconsciously ly tho most diplomatic that he could have devised those incomparable eyes beamed upon him with tenderness and loving humor but I 1 say asked jim an idea striking him these docial functions which you have been attending so assiduously or the past fuw months have they been simple blinds to dupe your unsuspicious husband eh jennie not at all sir I 1 went to them all but aa my turn at the theater lasted only ten minutes or so I 1 was able to 0 o there as well besides she added with the slightest tine of playful re bronch in her tone you have not been it home enough lately to miss me very much have you jim by jovel be cried ill turnover new leaf in that respect tonight to night he went up placed his arm round his wife and kissed her fondly she leaned her head upon his shoulder ana held up a pink slip of paper to his eyes there I 1 dear old biml she exclaimed mr Y has paid me what do you think fifty pounds a week that is a check for ten weeks salary at this rate your rainbow goddess will soon dance you clear oufa of debt wont she jim andade soon cindon truth 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