Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-05-10

Some one at Lamford must have given the
information that enabled the murderer to plan
his crime. Who could that some one be unless
| it were the familiar friend, the confdant Of
every enterprise and every idea Of my father
and mother? My mother has told me in an
| swer to my questions that no servant in the
house knew where my father was going or what
he was going to do on that day. The CONVEX
sation at dinner on the previous evening had
not touched on the business part Of the trans
action. My father had been full Of the land
| scape gardeners plans, and the talk had been
wholly OF the terraces and the arboretum, Of
| leveling and planting, and laying on water for
| fountains and greenhouses. All that was known
| in the household on that evening on the fol-
! lowing morning was that my father was going
| to London and was to return before dinner.
Yet some one had furnished such precise in
! formation that nv fathers murderer was able
| to meet him midway between the bank and the
| lawyers office. Who was the acconpllce, or
| worse than accompiice Of the murderer, since
| the idea of murder might never have entered
| Claude Morels mind If some one, knowing my
| fathers affairs, had not told him how large a
sum of money might be gained by that crime?
Who could that secret assassin, that worse
than murderer, be but the man whose footsteps
were now logged by the shedder of blood2-
| who but that man whose face bore In every
| line the marks of an unextinguishable remorse,
| the man whom had seen shrinking away with
| horror-strickeu countenance from the room
| conscience may have conjured up the shadow
of the dead?
His friend, his generous, confiding friend;
| oh, God! what depth of iniquity. To have
deliberately planned that cruel murder, to have
plotted the crime which vulgar assassin was
| to execute, to have waited and watched the
opportunity. perhaps to have tempted and per-
| suaded the assassin against some remnant of
better feeling, some instructive shrinking from
bloodshed, some scruple Of conscience. And
| to have been with US, day by day, after that
devlish act, our friend, our consider; till at
last, trading on woman's gratitude for fancied
benefits, he put forward his claim to the wife
OF his victim and possessed himself of the OBJ
ject OF his wicked love.
Possessed himself Yes, thank God, know
that my mother never loved him, that she gave
her life up to him as if in the payment of a
debt sacrificing herself to reward the fidelity
OF a lifelong friendship.
God keep her from tie horror of knowing
what / know.
Ny long silence made Gilbert uneasy about
me, and he was full of tender sympathy. think
ing that our conversation about my father had
renewed an old grief. Mother came in while
he was consoling me, and the lamps were
brought and had to put on a cheerful coun-
| tenance somehow for her dear sake; and by
| and by had to sit down to dinner with that
Judas, and still to play the hypocrite. could
| hear the sound of my own voice as talked,
| and it had such a false tone that it Jared upon
| my ear.
Oh, the horror of that hour in the drawing
room when mother asked me to play those
numbers of Chopin which her husband prefers,
| and when / sat before the piano and played
| like machine, while Ambrose Arden walked
up and down with soft, cat-like step. and now
and again paused and stood behind me for a
few minutes and once even laid his hand upon
| my shuddering shoulder. My whole being was
| one sense of horror and revulsion. l could
| scarcely breathe while he was so near me; yet
went on playing somehow, always like ma
| chine