Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-02-25
Countess uarOla.
By wILKTE COLLINS.

In an hour more the courier's wife ap- peared in state of agitation which it was not easy to control. Her narrative, when she was at last able to speak commercially, en- tirely confirmed the nurses report of it.
 After hearing from her husband with tol- erable regularity from Paris, Rome and Ven ice Emily had twice written him afterward- and had received no reply. Feeling uneasy, she had gone to the office in Golden square to inquire if he had been heard of there. The post of the morning had brought a letter to the secretary from the courier then at Ven ice. It contained startling news of Ferrari. His wife had been allowed to take copy of it, which she now handed to Agnes to read.
 The writer stated that he had recently arrived in Venice He had previously heard that Ferrari was with Lord and Lady Mont barry at one of the old Venetian palaces, which they had hired for term. Being friend of Ferrari, he had gone to pay him visit. Ringing at the door that opened on the canal, and failing to make any one hear him, he had gone round to a side entrance opening on one of the narrow lanes of Ven ice. Here, standing st tho door as if she was waiting for somebody-perhaps for the courier himself-he found pale woman with magnificent dark eyes, who proved to be no other than Lady Montbarry herself.
 She asked, in Italian, what he wanted. He answered that he wanted to see the courier Ferrari if it was quite convenient. She at once informed him that Fesrari had left tue palace, without assigning any reason, and without even leaving an address at which his monthly salary Chen due him) could be paid. Amazed at this reply, the courier inquired if any person had offended Ferrari, or quar- reled with him. The lady answered, "To my knowledge, certainly not l am Lady Mont barry, and l can positively assure you that Ferrari was treated with the greatest kind ness in this house. We are as much aston ished as you are at his extraordinary disap- pearance. If you should hear of him, pray let us know, so that we may at least pay him the money which is due."
 After one or two more questions (quite readily answered. relating to the date and the time of day at which Ferrari had left the palace the courier took his leave.
 He at once entered on the necessary in vestigations- without the slightest result so far as Ferrari was concerned. Nobody had seen him. Nobody appeared to have been taken into his confidence Nobody knew any thing that is to say, anything of the slightest importance) even about persons so distin- guished as Lord and Lady Montbarry. It was reported that her ladyship's English maid had left her, before the disappearance of Ferrari, to return to her relatives in her own country, and that Lady Montbarry had taken no steps to supply her place. His lord ship was described as being in delicate health He lived in the strictest retirement nobody was admitted to him, not even his own countrymen. A stupid old woman was discovered who did the homework at the palace, arriving ill the morning and going away again at night. She had never seen the lost courier-she had never even seen Lord Montbarry, who was then confined to his room. Her ladyship, "a most gracious and adorable mistress" was in constant at tendance on her noble husband. There was no other servant then in the house (so far as the old woman knew, but herself. The meals were sent in from res taurant. My lord, it was said, dis liked strangers. My lords brother-in- law, the baron, was generally shut up in a remote part of the palace, occupied the gracious mistress said) with experiments in chemistry. The experiments sometimes made a nasty smell. A doctor had latterly been called in to his lordship-an Italian doctor, long resident in Venice. Inquiries being ad- dressed to this gentleman Ca physician of un- doubted capacity and respectability), it turned out that he also had never seen Ferrari, having been summoned to the palace las his memorandum book showed) at date subsequent to the courier's disappearance. The doctor described Lord Montbarry's malady as bronchitis So far, there was no reason to feel any anxiety, though the attack was a sharp one. If alarming symptoms should appear, he had arranged with her ladyship to call in another physician. For the resi- it was impossible to speak too highly of my lady; night and day she was at her lords bedside.
 With these particulars began and ended the discoveries made by Ferrari's courier friend. The police were on the lookout for the lost mall-and that the only hope which could be held forth, for the present, to Ferralis wife.
 ssWhat do you think of it, misss" the poor woman asked, eagerly. "What do you ad- ! wise me to do?' Agnes was at loss how to answer her; it l was an effort even to listen to what Emily was saying. The reference in the couriers letter to Montbarry-the report of his illness, the melancholy picture of his secluded life had reopened the old wound She was not even thinking of the lost Ferrari her mind was at Venice, by the sick mans bedside. II hardly know what to say," she answered. "I have had no experience in serious matters of this knd."
 "Do you think it would help you, miss, if you read my husbands letters to me? There l are only three of them-they won't take long | to read.''
 | Agnes compassionately read the letters.
 They were not written in very tender tone. "Dear Emily" and 'Yours affection ately"-these conventional phrases were the only phrases of endearment which they con- tained. In the first letter, Lord Montbarry was not very favorably spoken of-"We leave Paris tomorrow. I don't much like my lord. He is proud and cold, and, between ourselves, stingy in money matters have had to dispute such trides as few centimes in the hotel bill; and twice already, some sharp remarks have passed between the newly married couple, in consequence of her lady ships freedom ill purchasing pretty tempting things at the shops in Paris. I can't afford it; you must keep to your allowance' She has had to hear these words already For my part i like her. She has the nice, easy foreign manners-she talks to me as if was a human being like herself"
 The second letter was dated from Rome
 My lords caprices," Ferrari wrote, ''have kept us perpetually on the move. He is be- coming incurably restless. suspect he is uneasy in his mind. Painful recollections, should say-I find him constantly reading old letters, when her ladyship is not present. We