The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1881-07-29
Select Story.
A FAMILY SECRET.

Lady Eastchamp was the WIDOW OF
gentleman who had owned one OF the
finest estates in the English county of
Yorkshire. She was the sole eZecutriX
of her husbands property, which she
held in trust for their only son. The
age at which it should be handed over
to him was not the usual age of twenty
one however, but twenty-five.
At this age he was also to receive
another fortune. bequeathed by an ecccn-
trio relative in Scotland,a and which, prln-
cipal and accumulated interest, amount
ed to more than million sterling
The one peculiar condition about this
last bcquest was that if the young man
did not take possession precisely at y
o'clock upon his twenty-fifth birthday it
was to revert to the next heir named in
the will, and between whom and the late
Sir Charles Eastchamp had existed n
life long dislike amounting almost to
positive hatred.
The young man, now Sir Henry, had
always rad - te,a,most amounting to
passion, for travelling,apd when he had
reached the age of twenty three had &C
companied an exploring expedition into
the interior of Africa. Nearly two years
passed without any word from him
reached home until, within a week of his
twenty fifth birthday, he returned, and
claiming his property according to the
condition of both wills, took up his resid'
ence at the hall.
A month afterward Lady Eastchamp
was taken suddenly i'll, and for several
weeks was confined to her bed with q
malignant fever.
During the whole time she was most
tenderly nursed by young girl, hei
adopted daughter, ,and thanks to her care
the crisis of the fever was safely passed.
and the lady was on the fair way to re
| cover.
For nearly week these favorable
| symptoms continued, and she was fast
approaching convalescence, when one
morning the nurse, awakening from hel
doze in her chair, found the lady lying
dead and cold in her bed
The alarm was given at once, and the
physicians, ,hurriedly summoned, declared
that she had died by poison.
Laudanum was the drug that had been
used, and when the fact was learned that
the previous afternoon the lady's adopted
daughter had purchased it in the adjoin
| ing village, though not at once brought
into custody, she was placed under strict
surveillance.
This adopted daughter whose name
was Clara Lowell, was very beautiful
girl of not more than eighteen. The
child of one of her former schoolmatcs
who had died in giving her birth, Lady
Eastchamp had always treated her as il
she had really been her own daughter
and now the girl could not have appear
ed more inconsolable had she in reality
lost mother.
Notwithstanding her display of grief
however, the circumstances appeared
so strong against her that she was ar
| rested
She admitted having purchased thu
laudanumin compliance with Lady East
champs request, who had given the via
to her son. This however, the young
man positively denied.
When asked why she had not sat W
with the sick lady as she had done Oh
previous nights, she replied she ha'
done so until II o'clock, when it was a
Lady Eastchamp's own request that sh
had retired.
"As for any further questions you ma.
ask" she said firmly, 81 will not answe
them. Though l may have suspicious
! do not know anything except that an
innocent.
| She adhered firmly to herresolution O
silence, and the strictest examinatio
could not extort an answer from hel
Her obstinacy, however, Rad bat tn
effect of confirming the magistrates i
their belief in her guilt, and she wa
consigned to prison to await her trial.
Il Though such was the effect upon I'll
! magistrates, there was one person VIII
thought differently. This was youn
detective who had been sent from SEQ
land Yard to work up the case, and h
g belief in the girls innocence was firm.
"She is hiding some family secret, N,
!, her own guilt" he said to himself; an
proceeding to the prison he tried 10 Q
gage her in conversation, in the hol