The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1880-05-04
NO. 10.


change when that is impossible, and we
are all right.
"' see, Isee, said I, halfsickening
at the dreadful deception, and yet too far
committed TO draw back, las l shall gain
equally with yourself, promise to do
all you wish
'When l arrived at home, all was
quiet, 80 presently went into the sick
room. Nurse said, supper Is ready.
Ifyou would like to go down, will sit
here half an hour for you.'
"She gladly accepted my offer, and as
Mr.. Russell was DOING with the curtains
drawn and the lamp turned down, T.
silently and quickly replaced the old
gentleman's will.
Well, time went on. Mr.. Russel, as.
you know, got gradually worse, and
toward the end was more than half his
time unconscious. One day you gave 1t
as your opinion that he could not
possibly live till the next, and 1t. was
that last night that / stealthily made
the change. In the morning he was
dead and so far our plot had succeeded
completely. The result / need say
nothing about, as you are so well ac-
quainted with 1t.
" But now must tell you OF little
scheme of my own. loved Charles,
and would have done anything for him
and had no compunction In helping
him, as thought doing so was means
to love, marriage and fortune. Still, he
had taught me to be almost as willy as
himself, and to take every precaution
so determined to have hold on him
in case he should endeavor to play me
false. TO this end, when 1 got possess
sion Of the original will, / went into my
bed room, and with sharp pen-knife,
cut carefully the end Of the envelope,
drew out the contents, which carefully
transferred to my pocket, and then
replaced them with blank paper the
same size and thickness, cumming the
edges with pale gum. / daresay 1t was
not very skillfully done, but 1t answered
my purpose very we'll Afterwards,
when gave 1t to Charles, he glanced at
it and saw the seal was unbroken, and
suspecting nothing, committed 1t to the
flames. We both watched 1t until 1t
was consumed. Charles exclaiming
Now am really master Of the Will
lows
"And soon shall be mistress, L adj.
ded.'
"'Oh, that of course, he replied.
81 have told you how he kept his
promise, villain that he is !"
Thus finished this remarkable confess
sion-a confession which to me was as
acceptable as unexpected. or course
there was now no mystery, and 1 am
only surprised that something Of the
kind had not occurred to me before; but
1t must be remembered that / knew
very little about Charles, and no one
had even hinted-even IL they knew-Of
any connection between him and Miss
Leclerc. I read the confession all over
to Ellen, and we both rejoieed at the
turn events had taken. Miss Leclerc
came in for a certain amount of pity;
yet we could not but remember that had
it not been for her cosnivance and
assistance, Charles would have been
unable to carry out his nefarious scheme.
Still" said Ellen, am not sorry
that you promised to allow her to escape
punishment. If we get our own again,
we can well afford to let her CO."
In the morning called upon Mr..
Sparks, my legal friend, and somewhat
triumphantly laid the matter before
him. He was much pleased, and at once
offered to assist me all he could. We
both agreed that after my promise to
Miss Leclere, 1t would be better to try
to settle the matter amicably with
Charles too. We therefore decided to
wait upon him and tell him that all was
discovered; and if he confessed and gave
up the property, we would then arrange
without publicity, or exposure. IL,
however, he resisted, we determined at
once to proceed to law. 1t was Ellen's
wish that, for the sake Of the relation
ship between them we should be as
lenient as possible in case he yielded.
Miss Leclerc duly kept her appoint
ment, and brought the oft-mentioned
will with her. The conditions were
again insisted on, and again agreed to I;
In fact gave her fifty pounds on the
spot and promised another fifty pounds
when all was settled. She then gave