Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1869-01-15

KICK hlm, Il regret TO say that 1t is true I:
Arthur Bernard is nc more dead than l
am. Like Norvars father, he at the pres
ent moment feeds his fiocks, not, however,
upon the Grampian Hills, but in the
neighborhood of the good city of Otago."
But they told me he was dead" al
most shrieked Mrs. Forester; "the people
who were with him when he died wrote to
me-"
"Wrote to you!" interrupted Murray,
with suspicious eagerness. Have you
got the ]etter?'
"No, dared not keep it," she replied,
"lest it should fall into my husbands
hands, LISTEN" she continued, hurriedly |;
" he knows nothing Of the past,-not even
IF my first marriage-I have kept it all,
everything from him for PHYS sakeleave
this place, where, save for the thought of
that, have been so happy, and let him
remain in ignorance STILL"
'"Gently. Violet, gently" responded the
man, unmoved in the least degree by
her appeal; "Firstly, let me observe
that, having promised myself short stay
in the country, I can hardly terminate it
so abruptly as you desire me; in the next,
as in addition to the agreeable change OF
air, / have met, quite Unexpectedly, with
an old companion for whom have been
searching ever SO many years, and to
whom have good deal to say, it would
be quite impossible to do as you wish.
She made no response, only kept her
face still buried in her hands as he went
on: cat last, Violet Bernard, the game
is in my hands. You laughed at my love,
jeered at my protestations of devotion for
you, curled up your proud lip at me and
dismissed me from your presence with
contempt when ] asked you to be my wife.
have not forgotten that, and never shall
never, never! But sooner or later you
must hear me-mark, you must! Else"
He paused an instant, and continued, II
won't threaten, but remember Arthur
Bernard ives!"
At this juncture Charlie entered the
room, but not before Mrs. Forester had
had time to collect herself: while Murray,
without appearing in the least discon-
certed, went on making some common
place remarks about the weather. As for
myself, this interview, of which | had
been an unseen spectator, had naturally
enough aroused varied emotions, and be-
fore putting in an appearance at the
breakfast table l thought it best to take
walk round the garden to indulge in a few
moments reflection. The confession is
somewhat humiliating, but have always
been rather fond of interfering in other
peoples affairs, and in the present instance,
having seen and heard all had, felt ex
ceedingly reluctant to let the matter drop.
The mystery attaching to Mrs Forester
was not very difficult to unravel-at least
in its main feature. AS for this Murray,
and the influence he appeared to possess
over her, had long since made up my
mind that he was a william who would
stoop to any device, however contempti-
BILE, to insure the success of any evil en-
terprise in which he might be engaged. l
determined to use every endeavor to de-
feat him in his present scheme, though let
it not be for moment supposed that any
heroics were mixed up in this resolve. /
looked upon the hole matter rather as
a game of chess, in which by hook OF by
crook | must checkmate my adversary.
When / reached the breakfast-room, the
trio seemed on the best possible terms
one with another-Cha cheerful and
unsuspicious as ever, Mrs. Forester play
ing nervously with tiny piece of toast,
which she made pretense to eat, but never
touched, and Murray eating and talking
with equal earnestness.
"Oh yes" he said, as I came in, "your
wife and l, Charlie, have discovered that
we are old acquaintance. Curious, isn't
1t? Wheels within wheels What fools
we are to fancy Cur world to be such q
huge place"
l looked at mis- face as I sat down at the
table more closely than ever had before,
and again the old thought of last night
came back to me. Then my eyes involun-
tarily settled on his hands, they were still
encased in light gloves. / do not know
what it was that prompted me, but joining
in the conversation, said, You are quite
right; often tumble across people never
expected to see again-mere passing ac-
quaintances. Do you know" continued,
"last night when you arrived fancied we
had met before, though then you had no
beard and mustache."
I could have sworn, and did to myself at
the moment, that his hand tremblcd as he
raised his cup to his lips; but moment
after, as he set it down again, ne was per-
fectly calm and cool, while in nonchalant
tone he replied, must say you have the
advantage of me, as am not aware that
we ever met before indeed am quite sure
that we never did. Besides, have worn
a beard and mustache ever since either one
or the other would grow" ,la
"Why, when you were in Paris, you
were as clean-shaved as priest on feast.
day." burst in Charlie, quite innocently I;
but Murray, without taking any notice of
the observation, turned to Mrs. Forester,
and commenced talking to her about some
thing quite different.
Slowly, but surely, conviction was
growing upon me that made me pay con-
siderable respect to my impressions of the
night before, and determined me to be
ore watchful than ever My only fear
was that Mrs. Forester, in the weakness
of her terror, would take some deperate
step, when, after all, as firmly believed
there was not the slightest ground for
alarm. @ie1 @
n In the course of the next twenty four
hours, by dint of pertinacious listening
and watching, found that Murray's pro-
testations of affection cooled in proper
ton as he ingeniously limited that his
silence might be purchased for reasona-
BILE sum- suggestion that his victim
caught eagerly at, only to be more
crushed by the revulsion of feeling that
followed when she reflected how utterly
impossible it was for her to obtain the
two hundred pounds he modestly asked.
He was treading on dangerous ground, this
same Murray: even as he stood there
might have handed him into the custody
of the nearest constable on a charge OF
endeayoring to extort money by threats
and menaces Looking at it from legal
point of view, this would have been an
excellent course to adopt, but it was the
exposure that was to be avoided, and