The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-06-11
CHAPTER IL.

A PHYSICIAN IN LOVE WITH THE
DAUGHTER--A FIENDISH PLOT.
There was residing in the same village
with Mrs. Blake and her daughter physi-
clan, twenty-eght or thirty years of age
DIR. Macon-who for two years had been
ardently in love with the daughter. She
had toyed and trit1ed with him during all
that time but he had finally insisted upon a
decided answer to his suit, and on that very
evening he was coming to learn his fate.
As he approached the house he overheard
the voices of mother and daughter engaged
in close conversation, and drawing near to
the window and nleanly listening, he had
obtained full possession of the terrible Sc
.cret of Mrs. Blake's life. Madly in love
and utterly Inscriptions, he at once de-
termined to make any use which might be
necessary of his newly acquired advantage
to secure the hand of Hester.
On. that very evening DR.. Macon was en-
gagged to take tea with Mrs. Blake and her
daughter but their old housekeeper re-
turned from the village with the intelligence
CURED in the vicinity, and the doctor had
FASTENED off to the assistance of the
wounded.
i OU tllo ItluIn VI DTs NldCOll lie Cdlleu
upon Mrs. Blake and surprised her with
the information that among the hurt was
Armand Landry, mortally injured! He
was accompanied by his daughter, the half
sister of Hester, and she had been stunned
! by blow on the head. They were both
| lying at farmhouse near by, and Mr..
Landry, knowing that he must die, had re-
quested that Hester should visit him the
next morning, that he might inform her of
the pecnniary provision which he had made
for her support.
And now was conceded one Of the most
fiendish plots ever devised by the human
mind. 1t was suggested by Mrs. Blake,
and acquiesced in by DR.. Macon and Hes
ter, that the half-sister, who was still I'M
conscious, should be kept in a state of inn
becilty by drugs which the doctor should
skillfully administer to her for that pur-
pose, and Hester--whose resemblance to
her was so close as to defy detection
should usurp her place as heiress Of the
immense estates entailed upon the half
sister through her mother.
The inducement to DR.. Macon was Hes
ter's promise, on the accomplishment of
the scheme, to become his wife.
But when Hester came to read over the
letters which lay concealed in the bottom of
her hall-sister's trunk, she found among
them several from Raymond De Lorlne, a
handsome young man whom she remem-
bered as her own first lover at the South,
when she was little more than mere child.
These letters were written in most impas-
stoned strain, and showed that between him
and his fair correspondent Landry,
Hester's now stricken half-sister-a mar
rage engagement existed.
No sooner had Hester discovered this
fact than her old love for De Lorme was re-
kindled, and she resolved at once to have
him also, as well as Estelle's fortune let
whatever obstacles might be in the way.
He was now absent in Europe, to remain q
year or two, and her purpose must be most
carefully concealed from Or. Macon; but,
come what would, the young man should
yet be hers!
Mrs. Blake's housekeeper, Mrs. Muller,
German woman with an American edu-
cation, was a great gossip and a cunning,
selfish, eyil-minded woman. Hester, at her
mothers suggestion, had turned the key on
the outside of Mrs. Muller's sleepingroom
while theirinfernal plot had been planned; but
the suspicious woman happened to be awake
and she had risen, and emerging through a
window, crept around where she could
listen to all they said. She, too, now, meant
to have her profit out of the scheme, the
secret of which she had obtained unknown
to them.
On the following day Mr.. Landry felt his
end rapidly approaching. He had forbid
den peremptoriiIy that Mrs. Blake should be
admitted to his presence; but Mrs. Blake
ho1 loto,. nod To- lofe l.