Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-04-09


Beatrice'S letter, after having boon ne
ru,cd ana commented urm by tuo Talbcrts.
was sent on to Frank Carruthcrs a note
from Herbert was inclnSud with IT, 'You
viii see'--he wrnte-"tha, thi, lottor is a.
unsatisfactory as its pre- iece.oors. II gives
us absolutely no information as to where she
is or why she left Us. Now that we are
surai Of her being well, and we suppose.
safe, our feeling about her prolonged and
uncyp aimed absence is more than regret-it
Is, in fact serious annoyance. We find il
quite strain to answer inquiries about her
without contradicting one another
Naturally the envelope which bore Her
belt's handwriting was the first opened bv
CarrutherS, and Of course he read Beatrico's
letter before he read Herbert's lie searched
the former III vain for his own name. little
thinking how the writer had sat for a long
time before She could bring herself to seal
hnr letter without sending him a crumb OF
comfort. He then read Herbert's commen-
tary and smiled family as he drew a udicrouS
picture of Horace and Herbert making
counter statements to their friends He
unused a while holding Beatrice'S ter in
his hand. Her fingers had touched that
sheet of paper; so he actually pressed it to
his lips, and in doing so caught u faint lin
gcrng odor Of what he remembered was her
favorte perfume, 1t was clear that Mr..
CarulherS' disease was rs rampant as ever.
BY and by ne turned to see what else Fate
had brought him. Nowadays Fate shoots
many of her arrows from the general post-
office CarTuthers found among other let
terS one addressed in woman's haudwrit-
ing 1t had been sent to Oxford and at
Oxford relirectcl TO London He opened it
carelessly and found it contained half
sheet of note paper, on witch was written:
"Remember your promise. Wait, oh, he
patient and wait!'
Carruthers threw it aside with a bitter
SMILE He well knew who was the writer
Wait! What was there to wait forl How
ever, the sight Of those words brought back
the memory of that strange nocturnal visit:
OF tho womans earnest, even impaSsioned
appeal TO him, to wait five, ten, twenty
years for the one he loved Why should
she write now and repeat the appeal SHE
who knew everything; she no had accom-
panied beatrice and who was probably with
her now.
He could not get the memory of thai
strange creature with her dreary belief vet
unswerving faith as TO his own future, from
his mind. AT the time the woman's earnest
II ess had impressed him more than he cared
possession of which no man OF our time is
willing TO own, not even TO himself. Yet
nine men out of ten are supeIsttious.
Carruther, told himself that such hope ms
he had gathered from Mrs. Miller's words
was simply gathered because hc believed her
to b. in Eca rice, confidence. Here he WINS
wrong. 1t was tho woman's bread but alb
solute assertion, uttered with the pass onate
Inspiration OF a prophecies # old that happi-
nc,s il this worl awaited Him aud Beatrice.
which hal been of aid 10 him in his trouble.
If faith ca1 move stubborn mountains, why
not heart which is willing enough to move
in IA particular direct oni
And now tiis woman repeated her mes
sag, ana, rs Carruthers read the letter, told
HIM his case was no more hopeless than it
was months ago.
lie 10. k the note which he had crunped
up and tossed away; he spread it out and
read 1t again, lie found, moreover, that ii
was Wntteu on paper similar to that used by
beatric" and upon turning ii over he saw
on the back few words in pencil They
were written so family that he had TO carry
the note to strong light in order to dc
cipher them
The words were Madonna di Tempin
and to the best OF hi, belief. as cxpert, say
when giving evidence, the handwriting was
Beatr,Ce's
WhaI dad the words mean, and how far
would they aid him in finding Beatrcei
lie soon settled in his mind that madonna
di Temp must be the name of n picture
But what picturci There was il to be
fOundi
OF course, it did not follow that supposina
he could ascertain all about this picture
which might or might not be a world.
famed one, that he would find Beatrice near
it. Nevertheless, the clew was worth fol-
lowing. Ha woul1 hava folIouol n a.