Pittston Gazette

              f IfctalilirthtMl 1M50, I \ OL. \l-\ III N«». JO Oldest Newspaper in the Wyoming Valley. PITTSTON, LUZERNE COUNTY, PA., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1897. A Weekly Local and Family Journal. \ #1 .DO per Year i In Advauce* "My faith, but 1 navo nart an experience, (ir rather have heard of one, which iH, if yon like, uncommon!" "About fiddle strings?" asked Mrs. DtD Witt mischievously. "No, madame; about human lives aud about something which 1 am nuro you could not comprehend—woman's faithlessness." "I have beard of it," said the little woman innocently, "but if it is any- never reveuien wih uuui. iw is waning until she has taken some step which will make his reappearance her rniu, and then be will strike, choosing his own time." "I should strike at any cost," thought Lola, "but wo are very different. She may have that power of self sacrifice w hich I have not, and it may be that if I could control other things," and she glanced iu disgust at Pierre Turrian, "she would even do nothing. I wonder what she thinks." *. which you can help mo. Can you spare me five minutes?" she said. "Will you j come to the conservatory?" "Or any one," she added, passing by the interruption, "to help mo to take care of myself. If things are as that paper says, the motives of those who discover the truth are of no concern. I am not here to discuss motives, but facts. Is that true or not?" pointing to the paper. even to nis wile—aua wueu nuv i«ioned I tried force, and then when she repented it I started back, and, like a fool, fell over the edge of the cliff. How I was saved from instant death I cannot. even guess, but I didn't die, as you can see for yourself, and when I found myself alivo I had wit enough to hide the fact of my escape, seeing that in course of tine 1 could probably make excellent use of it should she ever again marry. I wasn't altogether a bad judge, as you will now admit. Was I?" J^^AY RV I A T AUTHOR OF « «» «» - 1 } '"'IB. J VH3CR HOADLtY3 3£CR£T' wfflARCMnONT.5At f "j\ Jr $ THt online** 51^1 b / / By HAND'O «• o © co»yffCCHT sv rue. author  "I have heard about that," saio M. Turrian significantly. "She is a very curious girl, I should think very close and secretive. Umph!" "I will give you five hours, Miss Leycester," he said, with his exagger- I ated gesture. " What is it?" And the air of surface indifference which he as- "Wbat a pity he didn't die!" ex claimed Mrs. De Witt. "She is as good as sterling gold," said Mrs. Do Witt in a burst of enthusiasm, but, hedging her verdict instantly, "and, like all good people, some-; times very objectionable. As for close-' neen, she might be an iron safe." " He's rat her a cold blooded brute, professor. Shouldn't care for many such sumed diu not blind Beryl to the quick, questioning glance which he shot at her. "Certainly and emphatically it is not true in tho senso in which you seem to imply it—that I C ver married Lola Crawshay at the Church of St. Sulpice iu Montreux. Tho thing is ridiculous." "You seem very qaiet, Lola," said Sir Jaffray, coming to 4ier side at this moment. He had glancted several times at his wife and had uotlred bow unusually preoccupied and silent she was. " Yes, I was listening for once," she answered, smiling. friends," said the baronet "Does be come from Montreux?" inked Beryl, and tbe Frenchman, turn- Beryl said nothing until they were in the conservatory and it was certain that no one could hear them. ] thing too dreadful don't spoil it by tellj ing us too hurriedly—keep it for by and "I thought so," murmured the' Frenchman, and as he turned the con-, versatiou with a light compliment the; thought was running in his head that Beryl alone knew the secret and that ifj by mischance she were to die it would; die with her. iug hastily round, met the calm, searching gaze of the girl fixed keenly 011 liim, and in un instant recognized what a clumsy blonder he had made, aud while he was muttering in some confusion a vigorous denial Lola, who had turned pale despite her fignt for self control, rose froui the table, and at the signal the ladies hjffc the room. "I want to make sure that we are not overheard, M. Turrian," she 6aid calmly, "because what I want to ask you is very private and very important."And he shrugged his shoulders again with his usual gesture. by, in the drawing room." "Have you anything else to tell me?" asked Beryl, with angry contempt. "Out with it, man," exclaimed the "You make my part much more difficult, "said the girl, and then she turned aside a moment in thought. "Do yon understand that?" she asked after a moment of consideration. baronet "Where is Beryl? Turrian is going to sing, and I know she would like to hear him." "Anything else?" And he laughed lightly and rolled the cigarette between his fingers nnd looked at it as ho repeated the words with the air of one who repeats a good joke. "Anything else? I should think so. Why, I could fill up any number of your spare hours with the talo of any number of good things, but let me stick to this one while I am about it,. I didn't get off scot free, of course. I sprained and bruised and strained aud crushed myself in a goodly number of places, and as soon as I could do so without that devoted wife of mine knowing anything about it I laid up and passed a mouth or two dismally in bed, maturing my plans, but when I got jjbout again my lauy hasd flown, and, what was worse, her father was as dead as the tombstone they put over him in Neufchatel ceuetery. Well, I let her go. I let her feel her freedom. I am kind and gentle as the morning when no one gets in my way. I let her go. I knew I could find her, and being always an honest and industrious soul I set to work whereby to live, but in a year I began to pine, to droop, to fail, and I set out on my travels in search of her who had deserted me. In the course of time I tracked her to England, and—well, you know the rest." "It in tiie story of a friend of lifiuo," , ., „. . | said the Frenchman, pausing t« moment, can prrfewor! said Sir J affray. * j to emphasize his next remark. "Do you Bh«.nld be sorry ,f you d.dn't I m glad : know rock ,n  you two weren't at loggerheads. I want ul0uutainH, Do Lm]y WaIcote?.. he ftt " I f"0,lds' *"? knoW- • , asked when the others said nothing. ... "I trust we shall never nnsnnder- Something iu tbe tom, Mlado Beryl ;*mm - *;;and one another more thau we do at T . , , , ., . , Leycester look up, aucl she saw that Sir «H 'rTf- And tho Frenchman bowed JajD wifo w£ ou tho defeusim ad shot a swift, ounning look at LCda : Devir8 rockD tho Dt)vira rockD What say yon madame?" he asked replied Lola« »P«atinK tbe words as if ' J '. r ,' , . , I waiting for the name to strike some softly and courteously. And Lola hated ■ recolJ^tion aud aklllg very herself and her accomplice at being, uatnrall "i seem to have heard of it, driven into tins course of loathsome de- t kllow how ouo-8 meniory oeption of the man she loved. , will Rlay tricks-I really can't say." The moment after she turned pud C^,AndX 8imled very aww.tlv. them. She was sick of the part she had CCft ig W1 a(. any rateD „ said J?'ay" . , , , , .. . . M: Turrian. "Imagine a semicircular She began to feel already that in at- back d of hj cra with tempting to guide events to suit her ther(. thickD dark flrs and pines own purposes she had undertaken a task ou th(Dn aud iu the ujiddle # fibar/ iu. which might lead to infinitely greater 8tlwdi Hh(jer aud gri£aud trouble than that she was striving to .. , . . . °lt ., , , . . . . solitary, joined to the background by a avoid, and this fear led her to associate jr .. . * , ■ . • " , • . ... ... narrow path, each side of which is a the idea of coming disaster with this . . . . ,. , u j 1 * . ... tv « . . ■ precipice stretching down hundreds of visit of Pierre to the manor. ; • JK .. ... * .. # While she and Sir Jaffrav were in foet to tb° bottom of the S01*0- That 18 r , , .. „ , ■ , the Devil's rock, aud tbe precipice London and the Frenchman was absent cal]ed trutfa tho of the feeling wore away, but as the time . ,? ,, for the return to Waloote approached it e, / what ha8 th(, devil to do with came back agam and conld1 she have womM1.B faithll!88ne88?" asked Mrs. De had her choice she wonld have taken , Sir Jaffraynght away out of Europe | . U(iUal," returned the for another long tour, such as that „ , , .. , , ..m. ... . , « .« • ■ Frenchman, laughing drvly. "There which had made their honeymoon so , , . . J i was murder done on that very spot— p uis*m ; niurder, so far as intent was concerned, But Sir JafTrav would not hear of it. , * - i r I „ j .. . . : and my friend was the victim. I went He was anxious to speud the late sum- . . x. •*, ,• ». , . . (T, , . „ i i to the place last month with mm. mer and autumn at \Va 1 cote. He longed Ctr, * ... . .. . , - „ ,, T1 . . § . , ... ij-i "I'm getting a bit mixed, professor, to »ee Lola at the head of his splendid . , .. . 1 ,, , , . . , . . i said the baronet. old home, and he was keenly anticipat- ; 4t%, - . , •» , .. / .• m. . : , v.. ' My friend was married to a woman ing the shooting. Thus he left London x ?. - , ., ... ; who seems to have got the idea of freefull of the most pleasurable anticipa-r • r . , . . . u * : mg herself from him. bhe took him to t rc j » 1 , • that place oue day, told him she had Sir Jaffray and Lola were alone in i j . , . . J . , . ' ceased to love him and that she meant the house for two or threo days before . ,, any of the guests came, and during that ™ couventiona, creatnre!.. time Lola strnggledI against the pre- J eiclaim(,d Do Witt ..gKe wa9D of sentiment of evil which depressed her. ... .,, ,, D „ . ,j »ui . « i course, a woman of the middle classes. But she could not shake it olf, and as ,,,, ' , , . ,, , i ■ u rD "Soarcely conventional, madame,' tbe day approached on which Pierre Turrian was to arrive she grew dull said M. Turrian. "Shegoaded him with and moody and even irritable. some hot, bitter words—that was con- She had done all that she dared to ventional, of course—and when ho prevent his coming to stay in the house, caught bold of her to take her away and th& idea of it both angered and dis- from the place she struck him in the gusted her. She had entered on the de- face with the parasol she was carrying, oeption without at all realizing the and be stumbled back and fell over." constant association with lies which it "Ob, that's not murder! Much more necessitated. like suicide," said Mrs. De Witt. "If Sbe shrank from having the two mou he knew what sort of a woman she was, under the same roof. She had expected he might have known what to expect if that Pierre would have taken her he tried force on such a spot." money, and, after staying perhaps a "Wait," resumed tbe Frenchman, short timo at Walcote, wonld have gone "In falling ho caught bold of a point of away to the continent, back to that dis- the rock with oue hand and would have reputable, roaming life.which he had saved himself, hut she, seeing what had always lived. She could have borno happened, stamped ou his fingers with that," but this constant association with all her strength, bruising and crushing him, bis presence in the house aud the them and causing him to lose his hold, life of continuous deceit and lying That was murder." which it forced upon her made her sin "But you say ho didn't die," said the against the man she loved so patent, so baronet. flagrant, so ever present aud pressing! "I say it was murder in intent. What that she begun to repent that she had think yon, Lady Walcote?" And ho over chosen tbe path of deceit. stopped and looked boldly into Lola's Sir Jaffray caught her in one of ber eyes. fits of moodiness ou the day when Pierre 1 "I should think your friend was ro- Turrian arrived. Mrs. De Witt and maucing, M. Turrian, though I can Beryl were also iu the house. Sir Jaffray had surprised Lola with her mask off just before dinner. He crept up to her quietly, and, running his arm round her waist, kissed She took a folded paper from her pocket as she spoke, and her fingers did not tremble in tbe least as she unfolded it. Contiunud iroui the Issue of Oct. 1st. ; "She went away with the mother. I'll go and tell her." And Lola, glad to be alone for a moment, went out of the room. CHAPTER XIII. IN DEADLY PEHIU CHAPTER X. "Miss Leycester, I understand nothing whatever of all of this," he answered.THE Pierre BEGINNING OF TV Turn an amply . "• to his clever; to Sir Jaf* :}'r I - •: |H fe !ues' Beryl went away from her interview) with the Frenchman sorely perplexed as) to what was best for her to do. opinion as expressed CHAPTER XI. 11KKYL 81'KAKS. She did not go directly to Lady Walcote's rooms, but when she reached the long, broad corriuor which led to them she staid and walked two or three times the full length of it, pursuing tbe train of thought which had been interrupted. "I was in Montrenx this summer," she continued, "and in the course of my stay I visited the Chapel of St. Sulpice and examined the register there. I found an entry which has been a most painful puzzle to me. It is that of the marriage of a certain Pierre Turrian with Lola Crawshay. Here is a copy. Can you tell me what it means?" "I have evidence which puts it beyond tho shadow of a doubt that what that paper says is true, that you are tbe Pierre Turrian named on the face of it, and that on the date given you married tho Lola Crawshay mentioned there, and that tho Lola Crawshay is the same woman who is now my Cousin Jaffray's wife. Is that plain enough? If you wish to know how I found it out, I may tell you that yonr own conduct at the last interview we had set me thinking, that the monstrous Story you told about your fiddle strings did not for a moment deceive me, that your confusion when I told you of the marriage made it as plain as day that your interest was infinitely greater than you pretended, while yonr own mention of Montreux and your subsequent obvious attempt to make me think there was nothing of importance in your connection with Montreux confirmed my opinion, and that a subsequent chain of circumstances, all save one unsought by me, forced the full discovery upon me. That evory fact is known to me please to recognize as absolutely certain." She did not doubt a word of what he, had said against himself, and his callous confession of his villainous conduct had made her shudder with hate of him. She bad never come into personal contact with any one who had a tithe of his rascality, and the experience was so Btrange and baffling that it confused aud dazed her. •weeks he Almost as soon as the fnnr ladies reached tho drawing room old Lady Walcote pleaded a headache for an excuse to go to her rooms and curried away Beryl with her. a welcome g' Sir Jaffray, who nau at first Deen iea to think of him as a sort of musical crank and bad tolerated him as a comparatively harmless individual who could sing with exquisite taste and play brilliantly, discovered one by (me his other qualities, juwt as astute Frenchman thought it judicious to reveal them. He could be an excellent companion, having a rare capacity of adapting himself to bis surroundings. He bad a great knowledge of meu, picked up in the course of his wanderings over all Europe. He possessed an endless fund of anecdotes, with a clever knack of inventing them to suit any occasion and time and company, and as he speedily and accurately gauged tbe baronet's character he was able to make himself welcome in half a hundred ways. While she was thus occupied Beryl came out of one of the rooms and stood in astonishment watching Lola, who was so absorbed that she did not hear the door open. "Now, then, my dear, let us settle ourselves for a quiet chitchat in the As she said this Beryl looked him steadily in the face and held out the paper for him to read. j corner here," said Mrs. De Witt as soou as she and Lola were alone, "and let's j be comfortable. Tell me, who's yonr friend? I like him rather, but shouldn't jcaro to like him much." "Do you mean M. Turrian?" When she reached the end of the corridor and turned, Lola for the first time noticed Beryl and thought that tbe girl was watching her. He took it from her and read it, holding it with fingers which with all his efforts he could not keep from trembling violently, while his face turned to the ghastly ashen color which she had seen once before when she had told him in their first interview that Lola was married to Sir Jaffray. But the iuterview had changed her attitude towakd Lola. It was clear to her now that, whatever might be Lola's faults, she was more to be pitied than blamed in this matter, and Beryl thought with a shudder of loathing and disgust of the fate of any woman tied to such a scoundrel as Pierre Turrian and in his merciless power. "Well, I dou't mean Sir Jaffray, do I? And when I say friend I can't mean a woman, can I?" "Aren't you well, or is anything the matter, Lola?" asked Beryl. "What should be tho matter?" returned Lola a little irritably, for Beryl's cold manner always seemed to ruffle her, and she was annoyed now at having been found doing what was unosual. "I was coming to ask you if you would not like to hear M. Turrian sing. He is going to sing how." "He's no friend of mine," replied Lola indifferently. "Ho's here because Jaffray asks him." She recalled that incident as she stood watching him steadily with eyes that never left bis face and waiting for tbe answer, which he seemed absolutely unable to force from between his lips. What was to be done? Beryl asked herself the question over and over again as she paced up and down her room, and there seemed no answer to it save one that spelled sorrow and misery and perhaps disgrace for them all. She hated to think that she had to bring all this trouble on those who were so dear to her, and she dreaded all the exposure and scandal that must follow. "Well, my dear, of course ho is." And she laughed significantly. "I meau that I do not want him here," said Lola rather warmly, resenting her companion's tone. And with every moment of silence the strain increased. ' 'It is very good of you to think of it," said Beryl. "I'll come. I should like to hear him. He interests me." Gradually tbe "musical fad," as Sir Jaffray began to oall it laughingly, was allowed to fall more and more out of sight until it was rarely mentioned, and Sir Jaffray came to the conclusion that, as the Frenchman seemed to have plenty of money, it bad been taken up as a sort of hobby and was to be dropped as easily. "Oh, it's that way, is it? He is the snarer, is he? Has it been that wny with hint long? How long is it since you refused him?" He stopped and waved his hand as though he bad finished. CHAPTER XIL AN KVIL I'J.AN. "It was not I who thought of it, but Jaffray," auswered Lola. "I mustn't claim credit that belongs to him." As Pierre Turrian stood, like one spellbound, reading the slip of paper which Beryl had pnt. into his hand his first struggle was to fight with the sense of paralyzing astonishment which the girl's words had produced. He had listened to her statement almost breathlessly, yet showing outwardly no more than a sort of polite indifference, but he was revolving hastily in his thoughts a score of different courses of action. "The sud! Ma foi, the end is not yet! You gave we the news that my wife had doufe M hat I hoped she would, and you helped me to find her. I thank you. I found her, saw her, showed her what my power was and how she must do what I wished or be draggled in the dirt of scandal and calumny. Poor Lola! I am sorry for lier. She thought my bones were bleaching at the foot of the Devil's rock when they walked into her presence, covered with flesh and clothed in sprightly attire. Poor devil! But a man must live." And he laughed as if the thought tickled him. "Go on—to the end," said Beryl. Lola laughed iu her turn. "You think there must always be that kind of tie, eh?" When she had told the man that she had thought of a means of escape from all the trouble, it had been merely that in her almost morbid ejigerness to prevent scandal she meant that he must consent to go away at once and leave the future settlement of the difficulty with Lola, to be effected quietly in his absence. "Well, you came to fetch me at any rate," replied Beryl, with a smile that warmed her face and lighted it. Then in a different tone she said as they went down stairs together: "M. Turrian is a strange character. He seems to show a now side every timo I see him. I have not heard him before in the role of story teller." "Not always, but in this case yes. Else why is he hen*, my dear? But he's not clever when he drinks, ami if tht re had been 20 people at the table tonight, they could all have seen that there was some sort of relationship between you two other thau that of mere casual acquaintance or friendship." " 'The professor' seems to have developed under our influence, Lola," he said one day to his wife. They spoke of him as "tho professor" as a term of friendship. "Wonder what made him take up that fifth string rot. Glad he's died that rubbish." Then he ransacked every nook and cranny of his memory to recall what had passed between them at the time of their first interview, while mixed up curiously with the whole mental effort was a recollection of his blunder, for which he cursed himself, in mistaking this calm, unimpassioned, quiet girl for a fool. There was no use in further concealment.It was clear from the pitiless frankness of tho deliberate statement that this girl was speaking the truth, and it seemed as though all the pleasant plans of an easy life were to be shattered in a moment, and be hated the woman who bad douo it just as he bated everything that came iu the path nf his enjoyment. Her repugnance at his conduct made her even anxious to let the blow fall as lightly as possible on Lola, who by this time no doubt bitterly repented what she had done, and Beryl's pity for her grew every moment as she dwelt on the man's cruel baseness in trading on her act Her own high sense of honor and her deep religious feeling acoentuated in her thoughts the sense of bitter despair which she imagined must overwhelm Lola at being forced to admit her crime and lose the man she loved so deeply or to go on living in what was in truth a state of shame and sin. "It's just as easy fur 20 people to make a mistake as one," returned Lola again warmly. "Have you not?" answered Lola indifferently. "I am rather surprised at that. He prides himself on his powers a good deal, and Jaffray thinks much of hiiu on account of them." "'Hh seems a man of impulses," replied Lola, "and I wish an impulse would take bim back to Switzerland." She was very restless at the growing intimacy between the two men and had striven against it, but tbe Frenchman had beaten her. "I only speak for your guidance, Lola, " said her compauion, not noticing tbe interruption, "and you can be very angry with me if you like. Never have an affair with a man who wants to blurt it out right in the teeth of the world. That man was looking at you tonight when he was telling that cock and bull story with an expression in his eyes which said as plainly as possible, 'You and I understand one another.' And you are so inexperienced—don't bo angry, my dear; you'll grow out of it in time—that yon even turned a shade pale and bit your lip hard when be did look at you. Of course I don't doubt you a bit about having no understanding with him, but in that case I wouldn't bave bim iu tbe house an hour if I were you, for he acta just as if you both did understand one another very thoroughly. And one has to be very innocent nowadays before oue can afford to be suspected for nothing. It's bad enough when it's for something." And Mrs. De Witt laughed again and shrugged her plump white shoulders. His first sign of a recovery from bis surprise was a laugh, forced, short, unnatural and sneering, but still an advance from his silence of blank dismay. Beryl looked at him with the deepest loathing and could scarce restrain the words of scorn that rose to her lips. He read her looks. But though Lola had answered lightly she had an instinct that there was something behind tbe remark which menaced mischief. He glanced at her vindictively as she was saying the last words, and he felt that he would give half his life if he could bave seen that cold, hard, merciless face lying dead before him at that instant. "How do you say you got this, Miss Leycester?" he asked, waving the paper toward her and speaking with a sneer on his lip. "1 see what you would say," he exclaimed, with his usual movemept C5f the shoulders as if to deprecate her opiuiou. "For the moment it is an ugly looking part that I play, but Lola can well spare the little allowance which I require for my few wants. She made the mistake, not I, and man can't live without money. I am no Enoch Arden, "I can't say that," replied Sir Jaffray, laughing. "I like him. He's one of the jolliest beggars I ever met— one of the few men I've ever knowu wbo can lose his coin without getting raggy."" The Frenchman had been shrewd enough to let the baronet Always have fbst the best of matters in every game and sport in which they met "When tfe come back from town, we must bavo bim here. He'd be the life and soul of a house party, those deadly plagues of the country." As the two entered tbe drawing room together Lola glanced round her rapidly, with a curious sense that in some way a crisis was at hand; but, meeting her husband's eyes, which rested upon her with an expression of warm love, she smiled him back a signal and went and stood close to him, as though safe in the strength of his protection. That tkought started another and a grimmer one, so grim that involuntarily he glanced about him, as if the mere harboring of it might be dangerous, while his lips felt suddenly so parched that he moistened them with'his tongue. "Tbe question is not how I got it, but what it means," returned Beryl coldly. Gradually a single resolve cleared itself in her thoughts. "Chi the contrary, it has everything to do with it. It is tbe most extraordinary coincidence I bave ever heard of." She would make the man go away at once—that very day, indeed—under pain of Sir Jaffray being told of everything, and then she would determine how to act in regard to Lola. Tbe idea grew on him like the germ of a noisome plague, and instinctively his cunning prompted him to shape his oourse by it. What be had to find out was whether any one else knew of this secret. Beryl crossed to Mrs. De Witt and sat by her, looking chilled and half restrained, taking tbe cbair which M. Turrian offered her with exaggerated gesture and politeness. "Is that your answer?" And Beryl looked more stern than before, every feature speaking her disbelief. -"We can hardly have him here, then, can we?" With this resolve she left her room to seek M. Turrian and tell him what she bad decided. As she was going down stairs the luncheon gong sounded,- and thus she had to pass through the ordeal of seeing the man whom she knew on his own confession to be a treacherous scoundrel eating and drinking and laughing and talking with the chivalrous friend whom he was betraying every moment that he staid in the house. The mere sight of him sickened her, and when he turned and spoke to her and with his consummate audacity rallied her upon her looks and hoped that all he had said about his scheme had not troubled her she conld scarcely remain at the table. ' 'There is nothing to answer in such a thing as thiH. If you want an answer, all I can say is that either those who gave you this have imposed upon you in tbe most monstrous fashion in the world, or for some purjwse which I don't pretend to know you are trying to impose on me. That is what I mean when I want to know where you got this extraordinary document.'' He laughed again now, as if the charge were beneath serious notice. "Why not? The women'11 go mad after him. I'd give a lot to see the little De Witt settiug those wicked little wits of hers to work to cateb bim for her snuggery." And he laughed again. Then tbe Frenchman went to the piano, where Lola and her husband stood together, and sang to Lola's accompanimentNow that his eyes bad been so rudely opened to tbe real cleverness of the girl who had thus faced him his wits nan been quickened to read her, so as to know how best to deal with her. When he sang, it was difficult to think of him as connected with anything evil. Ho had a marvelously rich aud sweet tenor voice, which he used with consummate skill as tbe vehicle of every phase of emotion. The idea of that sharp little woman watching the incidents of tbe drama that was being played at the manor was tho reverse of pleasant to Lola, but she said nothing, lest sbe should arouse some sort of suspicion. For that new plan of his he must have time. "You fiud it hard. I dare say, to look through smoked glasses and see what yon take for smoke and not cry 'Fire!' directly." "I accept your conditions, Miss Leycester," he said when she finished. "I admit—for now it is useless to deny— that what you have found out is true in every detail." Beryl sat listening half in a dream, leaning back in her chair and drinking in the intoxicating sweetness of tbe man's voice as it swept at will tbe underlying chords of her nature. Tbe baronet wan an good as his word, and in a flush of good feeling one day he gave the Frenchman a general invitation to stay at tho manor as Boon as Lola and himself should return from Loudon. "You are recovering from your first surprise, aiid in your effort to find time in which to invent some sort of explanation you make it a kind of imRjied charge against me that I have beeu prying into your secrets. I understand you perfectly and have seen through your pretenses from the first. Please to appreciate that fact in whatever you say." "That may bo as yon like," replied the other curtly, "but in any ease I'm not such a fool as to let a man cry 'Fire 1 Fire!' very loudly and plainly in order that other people may amuse themselves by speculating whether there's . smoke or not." And Mrs. Do Witt coughed a little aggravatingly. "But tell me who is he? Where did Magog pick him up?" Lola told her shortly. The suddenness of his change of manner and of the confession startled the girl more than anything that had yet passed, and she shrank back and clinched her hands tightly. ~V~~1' v } "Satan certainly had a voice like that when he sang to Eve about that He perceived this, and with his daring effrontery dropped little hints and innuendoes as if challenging her to speak. When Lola heard of it, she was angry and took an opportunity of speaking to M. Turrian about it "What's the matter, Lola?" he asked gently. "Yon look sad and ill, and both are strange for you, though I've seen you so two or three times lately. Is anything up?" "Then what business have you here?" she cried in a voice filled with indignation and angyr. He looked at her viciously as she spoke, but he was almost frightened at the cold, implacable, resolute frankness of her gray eyes, lie shrugged his shoulders and lifted his white hands and smiled till he showed his teeth as he replied in a tone of assumed carelessness: "I will tell you all, everything, he said. As soon as the lunch was over, however, she followed him and said she must speak to him alone. "You must not accept that invitation," she said peremptorily. "No?" And he stopped and looked at her with his eyebrows raised. They were walking on the terrace before dinner, and he was smoking a cigarette. To his consternation, she burst into tears. He had never seen her do such a thing before, and he did not know what to do. "An old pupil. Obi" And she coughed again. "You know, Lola, yon are very pretty and—well, I have heard of such a thing as a music master falling iu love—you know what I invan. Of course you know best, and it's not for mo to say a word. But if I were you I shouldn't enoourage Magog iu that intimacy. " He paused a moment in indecision. He was doubtful even at the last moment whether for his purposes he would be wiser to put the blame on himself or on Lola, nor did he settle the point until he had begun to speak again. He turned willingly and instantly, with his false, mocking, ever ready smile on his face. Like everything with her, her grief was violent, stormy and passionate, but it soon passed. "Go on—to the end," said Beryl. "Shall we go to the conservatory again?" he asked. "It is an excellent place for these touching little confidences. I declare I am almost glad of them. They let me see so much of yon." "No. I aay no," said Lola energetically."You are a delightful antagonist, Miss Leyeester, so fair, so true, so straight. But tell me, if you have made op your mind beforehand that I have all sorts of pretenses to be seen through and that I am the villain your looks imply, what is the use of this conversation?"and so long as no one knew there was no risk. But now yon have probably told half a dozen people, and the thing must end, and that's all about it. I'm not sure that I'm sorry." "And why not?" "You have learned much of the truth," he said, "because you have learned the foundation fact of this most sad and terrible matter. Sir Jaffray Walcote and I are both married to the woman who is known as his wife, but by law and right she is my wife." "Because I don't choose to allow it." "That is not a tactful reason," he said, with a shrug and a laugh. "I am a fool," she cried, "a child, frightened by a shadow. If I were to tell you, you would laugh or be angry." "Anywhere will do for the few words I have to say," returned Beryl angrily. ' 'It is this: Unless you leave Walcote manor within an hour Sir Jaffray will know all." "See if I should," he said kindly. "Tell me." Lola laughed this time and quite unrestrainedly. Mrs. Do Witt had gone so far off the track that there was no danger of her guessing anything of the truth. "I have told no one as yet," said Beryl, and cnnld she have seen the lightthat leaped into his eyes at the statement she would have been on her guard, but her head was turned from him for the moment. "I care nothing about tact. Yon must not do it. If yoa do, I shall stop yonr allowance." Her husband looked at her thoughtfully."That is coarse. We may be—criminals, bnt at least we should be polite." And he bowed with affected courtesy. "Give me your real reasons," he continued, after a pause. "If it is only your piqne, I shall not pay the slightest heed to it. You chose this life, not I. I did not like it at first. I have grown accustomed to it, and I find it pleasant enough—for a time, while my plans develop and," bowing again, "I shall live it in my own way." "A shadow that seems to be ahead often looms up out of tho past," he said. "But u hat ha* the devil to do uith woman's fuUliUxHiiai believe that some women might be goaded to act in such a way to men by whom they had been ill treated." "As there was no one about to see her, I can quite believe she did it, and ";o no doubt the man deserved it," Mrs. De Witt viciously. "And you. Miss Leyoestor?" "I am not skilled in the casuistry of murder defenses," replied Beryl coldly. "But if this was such a ghastly place how did the man escape?" asked the baronet "1 have said nothing about your being a villain, M. Turrian. I have asked you ouly what that entry in the St Sulpice book means. That is all." The expression on Beryl's face deepened to one of acute pain. "Yes?" he answered, raising his eyebrows. "Well, I am sorry for my poor friend, then. It will be a blow to him, and he will feel it. For I shall not go, Miss Leycester. I can't make any plausible excuse. But this I will do, if you like—I will go tomorrow morning." "I tell yon what I'll do," she said, after a moment's pause. "I'll lend him to you. Jaffray was saying the other day he'd like to see you 'setting your wicked littlo wits at him,' and I'll give you unconditional leave to flirt with him as much as you can." Then the Frenchman went to the piano and. miuj "It is terrible!" she exclaimed, almost under her breath. She had been confident of it before, but this plain statement of it by the Freuchman shocked her. "I don't mean told people outright, but you Filly women do a hundred things which leave the trail of your movements such that a blind fool can see what yca've been doing. It's the same tiling.'" The remark put her on her guard in a moment. apple," said Mrs. Do Witt, leaning across to whisper to Beryl and ending with a raspy, jerky laugh of shallow cynicism, which she much affected. "And in what capacity do you do me the honor to catechise me? On whose behalf do you act? In what interest?" "Partly the past, partly the present and partly tbe future," she replied. "I have never played the hostess on such a scale as I shall have to here in a few days, and I think the prospect of it unnerves me." The words broke up a reverie in which Beryl was castle building. There was no mistaking the palpable sneer in the question. "You do not know all." "I will give you till 12 o'clock tomorrow," said the girl, "and not one hour longer." Mrs. De Witt looked a little puzzled at this. "There is 110 necessity to answer that question. You are not compelled to answer what I have asked you unless you please." He was cunning enough of fence to see his advantage and to press it instantly. "More than you seem to think," she interposed. "I recognized that awful story which you told last night at dinner. " "No one bus even a suspicion of this horriblo secret except myself," said the girl. "There's but one paper which under any conceivable circumstances could suggest a clew to any one. I have been most scrupulous because I have bad to think of the honor of the family. I have a plan"— "Ho sings magnificently," she assented, with a slight frown at the interruption."No, thank you. I have a graver mission than that. I mean to bring back Magog himself to his lost allegiance," she said audaciously. "You've monopolized him quito long enough. But I'll give your Frenchman any time I can spare from the more seriouH business of my visit." "It shall be as you will!" he exclaimed, and when Beryl turned on her heel and left him without another word he looked after her and muttered between his teeth: "Twelve o'clock tomorrow. Between now and then there is a night, young lady, and for you a long one, or I am a fool and a coward.'' "There are people coming here who may remember a certain notorious gambler and cheat who was at one time known in half tbe hells in Europe." "Is that all?" Tbrro was something in his tone which made her feel he did uot quite accept tho answer, and ho took bis arm away from round her waist "You are a creature of moods, Lola,"he continued thoughtfully, "and I sometimes think that some of the things iu your past life which yon have never told me depress you." He looked very keenly at her for an instant, and something which he read in her face decided him so to tell the story as to make Lola appear the un willing victim of bis own villainy. "Who is he, my dear? Doyou know?" asked Mrs. De Witt, who was very tired cf listening in silence even to the singing and was, moreover, very curious to know more about the Frenchman. "His clothes were caught on a tree in some miraculous way, and after a time of suspense, in which his wits nearly left him, he was rescued." "On the continent, Miss Leyeester, we are not accustomed to meet with lady knights errant who take up the cause of men of the world whom they imagine to have been ill used. It may be quite usual in England, of course, but that is my reason for asking in whoso interest you undertake this energetic detective work." "Ah, that is most interesting and most enticing. If there iaone thing that I do not like about this existence, it is what you call its humdrum, dead alive sameness and respectability. A man rusts in snch a place. There is no risk, no danger, where people's wits are so stupid as bens. Why, even a murderess might live here all her life unsuspected, while as for bigamists they would find it a perfect haven of rustic rest." He pansed and glanced at her, but Lola took no notice of his words, and be resumed: "But what you promise mo now is just the one touch that is wanted to make life life and worth living. You at any rate must see that such a place is most admirably adapted for that form of your English virtue of self denial which consists in denying yonr own identity. If others can do this, why not I?" And he laughed with malicious glee. •'Ma foi, I told it well!" he exclaimed, with a boastful laugh. "And it was a devilish bit of revenge, and on my soul I was sorry for the poor girl. You know, Miss Leyeester, T am not cast in the mold of common men. I can be as stanch and true and good as the rarest of men, but I can also be just as rough and hard—aye, and as merciless. Man that is born of woman is born sometimes with all a woman's qualities. My mother was a tigress. Let me smoke. It is long since I was in the confessional box, and I need tobacco to make the words come glibly." But at that moment the door of the conservatory was opened with a needless amount of noise, and some one came in coughing loudly and shuffling the feet on the tiled floor. Lola had schooled herself to reveal no sign of tho painful and absorbing interest with which she listened to tho story, bnt at this sho could not avoid a quick, sudden exclamation: "Very well," said Lola, smiling. "I'll give you all of Sir Jaffray that— you can take." "Sir Jaffray will probably be able to tell you much more about him than I can," replied Beryl, who did not want to talk and certainly had no intention of speaking to Mrs. De Witt on the subject.Then he sauntered on to the conservatory by himself and smoked thoughtfully for some minutes. Afterward he went out and walked round the house, looking at the position and height from the ground of the bedroom windows in the wing where he knew Beryl's room was, ana he was pleased with what he saw. "Whydo yon think there is anything I have not told you?" "You're very prodigal with yonr gifts," said Mrs. DuWitt in a rather waspish tone. She was irritated at not quite understanding Lola. The two turned and found Mrs. De Witt coming toward them. "You have told mo very little." "There is only little to tell," she replied, surprised at bis words, for he had never pressed her as to any incident of hor life with her father, "and certainly nothing not to tell." Her quickness to read in his words a suggestion of doubt roused her into au attitude of defense. "Ah!" "This part of the story interests you. Lady Walcote?" said the Frenchman, turning and looking fixedly at her. "Quite a conspiracy of silence," was the sharply spoken reply, and a moment afterward she added: "I ouly wanted to know whether he'd do to have at one's house in town. What do you think, Beryl?" His last words stung her, but she showed no irritation. "I hope I don't intrude, but upon my word I couldn't restrain myself any longer. I'm only a woman, you know, and when I'd seen you two here in such serious consultation for over an hour— positively, Beryl, over an hour, and nearly two—and as I was dying to know what it was all aboat 1 couldn't resist the temptation to make a noise and come in. M. Turrian, you interest me so much I can't bear to see you monopolized in this way, and by Beryl, too, of all people." And she looked from one to the other with curiosity in every eyelash. At that moment the two men were beard laughing, and directly afterward they entered the room together. "The one question is what that paper means," she said firmly. "There is no other question of any importance." "Itwill do,"hemuttered. "And now there must be a word or two with Sir Jaffray's wife. She must take her part in this scene, and she will want very careful handling. Let me think it out a bit" "No more than the rest," she replied, keeping her voice under control with au effort the strain of which was beginning to tell upon her, and she gripped her hands tightly together on her lap as she saw tbe calm, clear, gray eyes of Beryl Leicester scrutinizing first herself and then the Frenchman, as if she understood that u duel was going on between them. Lola, mindful of Mrs. Do Witt's words, was especially guarded in her manner toward the Frenchman. " Well, that is quite luy view." He had now recovered his customary impudent audacity aud was beginning to enjoy the incident. "And in that view this paper means that a young lady of excellent family, unblemished character, great mental capacity and many persuual charms," and he bowed and paused a moment, "who is not married to Sir Jaffray Walcote, much to the regret of that distinguished baronet's more distinguished mother, has been prying iutcy matters which do not concern her at all, except, of course, in so far as they relate to that period of her life when—it was generally understood she would make that marriage." ' 'A voice like his would cover any other faults for that sort of thing. Let us listen to him, dear." Aud Mrs. De Witt, shrugging her shoulders impatiently at this fresh failure to find out anything about the singer, sank back in her chair and was not contented until 8ho caught Sir Jaffray's eye and beckoned him to her side. » He noticed tbe change, and ho stooped and kissed her. The two men sat down close to Mrs. De Witt, who held theni in conversation, and. Lola, sitting a little apart, grow thoughtful. He spoke with easy, fluent impudence, infinitely disgusting to Beryl, but chosen by him designedly to throw back the girl's pity ou Lola, painting himself intentionally in the blackest colors. He turned jnto a side path in the grounds and walked for some time, plunged in close, concentrated thought. "When I doubt you, child, I will tell yon so openly. I am with you and for yon against the world." Sho was beginning to realize more and more clearly how the load that she was taring would gall and wound with its weight and howdiflicult it might be to carry it at all without its crushing her. When he returned to tbe house, he had his plan completed, and he went to find Lola. In the hall he met Mrs. Do Witt, who assumed an air of disconsolate trouble. She answered bin caress impulsively and threw her arms round him and, kissing him passionately, exclaimed: The scene was photographing itself on Lola's memory. The soft yellow of the lamplight, the lovely flowers on the table, those at the tattle turning to listen to the. Frenchman's words, his attitude as he bent forward and leered, half threateningly, half jeeringly and all audaciously, at her, and through the flowers and ferns Sir Jaffray, upright and handsome, listening with the rest, as unconcernedly as if it were a tale which iu nowise touched the fringe of his life. "I married Lola Crawshay," he resumed after lighting a fresh cigarette, "from no silly, sentimental notions, but because 1 had a hold over her on account of a trip of her long headed but somewhat irresponsible old father. To do the girl justice, she never did anything but hate me, but she was exceedingly useful, and—well, she was afraid to carry her hatred of me too far because I had a knack of using with excellent effect my knowledge of her father's mistake. Yon understand?" "I tell you you must not come to stay in this house. You shall not!" said Lola vehemently. Meanwhile Beryl sat and listened and picked up again the broken thread of her thoughts, watching the two at the piano and turning now and then to glance at the handsomo figure of the baronet, who sat listening to the chatter of the lively little woman at his side, but looking at his lovely wife with his heart in his eyes. "Madame, if the interest that yon feel were only such as I could dare to hope I should feel that I had lived indeed." And ho Lowed with his exaggerated courtesy, while a mocking smile drew down the corners of his mouth. "Ah, Jaffray, I think sometimes I should be a happier woman if I did not love you as I do." "Pardon me, madame," and his shoulders went up and his hands spread out as he bowed again, "but I most assuredly shall." She had noticed Beryl's tone and look when the girl had asked that question about Montreux, and she saw instantly that from that side there might develop a really serious suspicion fraught with much danger. "Where is everybody?" she asked. "I am all alone. Won't yon take pity on me, M. Turrian?" "Happier if yon did not love me?" he questioned and smiled. ' 'That is a puzile I can't read. Would you rather that I did not love you, then?" "Where is Sir Jaffrav?" he asked. "Yon Frenchmen are all eqnally insincere," she said. "13nt what on earth have yon two been talking about, you two of all others?" Continued on imtr.' four. "You shall not, at any hazard,"said Lola very firmly, when she was interrupted by Sir Jaffray, who said, with a good natured laugh: "You will do no good by wading the question I have asked you in the attempt—a useless one, I assure you—to irritate me by insults into a forgetfulness of it," replied Beryl, seeing that he paused to notico what effect his words would have upon her. "Ah, no, no! I would rather you killed me by the crudest of deaths." And she clung to him. over of tN) Globe for  f RHEUMATISM,! I NEURALGIA and similar Complaints, I and prepared under the stringent fl MEDICAL IhViZ.M prescribed by eminent phrsiciansj^S^S BN) DR. RICHTER'S i fPAIN EXPELLERl I World renowned! Kemarkahly succegsful! ■ HOnly gennlne with Trade Mark " Anchor.'*■ ■ P. Ad. Richter&Co., 2I.D lVarlSt, New York. ■ 3( HIGHEST AWARDS. ■ 13 Branch Houses. Own Glassworks. ■ Endorsed & recommende*I byAB Fi rreir & Peok, 1*1 Lnzerne Avenue. Jfl| U. C. Gliek. .VI North Main 8t. H Houck. 5 North  Pitttston, Pa. I «*ANCHOR" STOMACHAL beat fori Lola had never understood Beryl. She could not gauge the strength aud possibilities of a nature that seemed to her so indifferent, so cold and so hard to wound. She knew that BCiryl had loved Sir Jaffray, probably loved him now and possibly might never again feel a spark of love for any other man. Such, she thought, was sometimes the persistence of these self restrained women. It was a strange position, aud as Beryl thought of it all it dazed aud confused her, aud she wondered if what she thought or rather what she believed she knew could possibly be true, and as often as her eyes rested on Sir Jaffray, knowing his honest, sterling honor aud mindful of her old unshakable love for him, she was filled with a deep pity for him on account of the blow which might fall at any moment, glooming his life. "You may not know, madame," replied Turriau gravely, "that; Miss Leycestcr was the first person in England to whom I spoke on the great object of my presence here in England, that she then was able to throw most valuable light upon it, and now I have been ex plaining to her at great length a:i that is meant by the fifth string on a violin and all the part I have cast for myself. Is not that so, Miss Leycester? ' He turned to her with unabashed impudence and smiled as he waited for her "Hello, you two! I hope you're not quarreling there because the violin mission isn't getting forward." "Then you are a problem I can't solve," he answered, laughing, "but a problem that is very dear to me, solved or unsolved." He leered at her with repulsive assurance as he paused to take a couple of whiffs of the cigarette, which be did with great apparent enjoyment. How would ho look if he knew who tlie murderess was? „ Pierre Turrian turned and laughed gayly. The thought flashed across Lola's brain just as she forced herself to speak in a tone of polite but casual interest. Her own voice sounded to her like that of another. While they were thus lovemaking the first of the dinner gongs sounded, an'! they had to hasten away to dress. "It looks—I do not say it is, bnt it looks—as if any such action were impelled by a desire to injure the woman who had taken tlie place of that young lady of excellent character as the wife of Sir Jaffray. The world is m harsh censor, Miss Leyceatcr," he said, with an indescribable air of pa trounce mid worldly wisdom, "and reads the mi fives which lie on the smfaoe, especially when somebody's character is dirtied in "No, no; Lady Walcotewnd I are, I trust, too old frienos to quarrel over that. Her energy is all friendliness. I was telling her that you had asked me to come here after your return from town, and I was explaining to her that I am going on the continent for awhile to perfect a plan which is often in my thoughts, and she was insisting that I should not break off my arrangements there in order to return here, because iu some slight respects the two things might ratner clash. But I assured her that I could not think of letting any other considerations interfere with the pleasure of » visit here. Of that I am determined, but Lady Waloote is too ■olicitoas ob my behalf." -Ob. of comae vou'll o— if too "You will make this as short as pos sible if you please," said Beryl, beginning to take the impression of the case which be intended. Then at dinner an incident happened which disturbed Lola profoundly and marked the beginning of the end. "Ah, that was not conventional," replied M. Turrian, turning to smile on Mrs. De Witt, but looking back almost directly to Lola, with the expression which to Beryl hud seemed like a challenge and a defiance. "He went his way. Ho said to himself, 'This is no common act, and the vengeance shall be like it." " "And what did he do next?" Yet there hud never been a sign o' hostility or resentment on Beryl's par at the breaking of that old tacit engage nient and the wrecking of her life. "Certainly. Well, I will pass over our matrimonial life and hurry 011 to the end. There came the day when we had the scene ou the Devil's rock. 1 colored the incident a little in my telling it last night, and the little episode of the stamping on my fingers was an effort of my own inveutiou." He did not wish Beryl to think that Lola had done anything of the kind. "In the plain aud uncolored version I had nothing but my own clumsy stupidity to blame for the whole affair. I had said things which did not please her ladyship—a man cannot always guard his tongue, you know, Miss Leycester, They had only three guests—Airs. De Witt, Beryl Leycester and Pierre Turrian—and at dinner Lola sawN that the Frenchman was taking a good deal of wine. The conversation turned on what each of those present had been doing during the past few weeks, and presently Lola saw him set down his glass with an expression which she knew well boded mischief to some one and look in her direction furtively out of the corner of his eyes. Then bo broko into the conversation in a tone which drew the attention of all to him: But her face hardened and her heart steeled when she looked toward the woman who had come between her and her consiii, filling her life with the blight of iovelessness. Why was this answer. Lola had puzzled over that problem more than once, and the episode of the dinner table showed her now that the answer to it might be the hinge on which the whole future of her life at Walcote manor might turn. (iivcu that Beryl harbored any sus- Beryl passed over the question and spoke to Mrs. De Witt. the process. Had yon not better be curefnl'"One step she resolved to take, and that at once. She would speak to the Frenchman, and this resolve she put in force the next day. "That is nonsense," replied Beryl curtly, "aud you know it as well as I. What my motive may be is my own concern, and I am not likely to ask you or"— She checked herself, aud in a flash he filled up the gap. "We had nearly finished. You did not interrupt. I want to think over what M. Turrian has said." And she left them. theatrical," murmured Mrs. De Witt. "But what was the end, please?'' After breakfast on the following morning she waited for an opportunity of finding the Frenchman aloue and I then joined him. MM Tnr*n'i»n thurft *» • pnhjftCt Oil "She takes the interruption badly," raid Mrs. De. Witt when the two were alone. "I think she is a good deal changed—since this marriage," she udded a little maliciously. "Ho let her remain, madame, under picion and that l»y any freak of fortunr j the impression that she had killed him. i lie hid himself, and to this hour he has she could get at the truth, how would I her old love for Sir Jaffray prompt her ' to act? "Say Sir Jaffray's wife," ho said, with a miii.