Omaha daily bee., 1888-03-18

Once or twice while it progressed the
bride had been observed to raise her
handkerchief to her lips, as though in
faintness. When she turned away from
the altar with her husband she sank
~lifeless and had to be carried out in his
arms.
1t was a sensation.
"Poor woman! Such an ordeal to go
through"
1.-THE church was so warln!"
1.-THE service vas so long.
1.-THE shock she received this morning
had something to do with her nerves,
doubtless, too"
what shoclS?'
".Howl You don't know! Why, there
was a mana laborcr-found dead just
outside the garden of her villa-at the
gate, you may say. Her servants found
him. He had crawled under some
bushes. He had an empty brandy bot
tie beside him. He had died suddenly
during the night, apparently"
Shocking! shocking!"
shocking, indeedE' cried Moor
| house, who, with Castleton on the steps
of the church, had CLEANED these scraps
of information from the envirOning
chatter. "What a horrible occurrence
to have taken place at a woman's very
door on the morning of her wedding.
No wonder the poor creature was UNI
strung. Well, what are you staring at?"
to Castleton.
"Nothing.' Which was true. Never
theless, the elder man had been looking
intently straight before him over the
| heads of the surging throng.
Moorhouse saw nothing further OF his
| friend till the following day. Then he
met him sauntering slowly over one OF
| the bridges.
"Where have you been?" he asked.
"Talking with q detective. 1 know
about the Victim of the Avenu de
l'Imperatrice.' The papers had been
printing all the known details of the
affair under this heading.
"Well?" demanded Moorhouse.
'"Well, they've discovered nothing.
And they're not likely to. l saw the
VICTIM by the way"
"NO! How on earth"
"Oh, one can always manage those
things"
! Moorhouse expressed nc further sur
prise. CastletOn was an odd sort of
fellow who passed his time much in
ways of his1 own, and who,
as a potential lawyer who never had
practiced, however, might be supposed
/ TO nave a sort OF professional interest in
such cases. He liked Paris, and latterly
| ldu SpClU oCNSlul yCaio w "a
there. He knew it rom end to end.
she wa of the usual whisky-soaked
pattern of tramp. l suppose?" sug-
gested Moorhouse, referring to the VIC
tim, and without much interest in the
matter.
II fancy he'd been drinking pretty
freely lately" resumed CaStleton non
J committally.
The affair soon gave place to a fresh
excitement, and nothing having come
to light which could lead to the detec-
ton of the criminal-an autopsy had
proved the fact that the man had died
of poison. though how administered or
when, was doubtful-the case of the
''Vlctim of the Avenue de lImperatrice"
sank into the oblivion which closes over
manp other undetected Chimes.
! II K n 4 Il n n n
Two years later found Castleton still
in Paris. There he also one day ran
against Moorhouse who, according to
his w account, had been spending the
interim in studying human nature in
various parts of the continent before re-
turning home to go to work.
"If you go on much longer you'll find
that you will o have no taste for
J studying anything else" remarked
Castleton in his shyly characteristic
way, when he had invited the younger
man into his semi-artistic bachelor den
and pushed u cedar-wood box toward
him. ''Take warning of me-"
Moorhouse laughed.
81 find human nature studied socially
very absorbing, Tor my part. And this
refers directly to something | wanted to