The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1890-10-05

bers, sir
Through ar. Burnett's chambersr' !
repeated in a,nazement. How did you
manage thatg'
Why, sir, through the door
What door" / interrupted impa
tiently.
1.-The door that leads from your bed
room into his sitting room, sir"
There was door by my bedside
which was always locked, and for the
key Of which had always been going
to ask, thinking it was another cup
board Through this door Mary had
escaped. How thankful was, now, that
it had not been cupboard. It turned
out that Mrs Swat1nan occasionally
used the door when Burnett was away
and / was engaged, and that in this
instance. the laundress having called,
Mrs. Swatman had gone in that way,
and had happily been in time to release
the terrified Mary from her embarrassing
predicament.
blessed Mrs. Swatman, ana u1u .sDs,
as had fully intended, give her a good
blowing up for admitting Mr.. Bruce
when she knew that I was engaged.
She did not know, by the way, that
was engaged" in the common accept
ance Of that term. I blessed her there
fore, and furthermore presented her
with sovereign, which made her happy
for the rest Of the week honest old
descendant of Cinderella that she wasl
Next morning by the first post I had
letter from Mary. She had been 'tter-
ribly frightened, . poor darling; she had
not fully realized the improperly Of
coming to my chambers until her father
had come upon the scene and she had
felt the dread OF discovery. / must
ssnever again ask her to be so foolish and
wicked she said. In my answer prom
ised not to be selfish any more, acquaint-
ed her with her fathers plans and pointed
out that if I were successful we might
perhaps hope to approach Mr.. Bruce.
In about fortnight / received my in
structions and proceeded to hunt up the
Berkshire registers; and more weari-
some task I never undertook In some
cases the registers were well enough
kept and were easy of access; in some
they had been sold as waste paper or
were altogether imperfect; while in a
few instances they were so Ill cared fol
that they had become well nigh value
less, and one found in a decayed
old box in a loft over the wears
COW shed. At Abingdon and more espe-
cially at st. Nicholas the registers had
been admirably preserved, and it was
here that spent the longest time; but ]
failed to find the least trace of what /
wanted, and not a word either of Dali
rynple Bruce OF of Tryphena Madda1ns.
Once at Bray and again at Walhngford
thought / was upon the track, while at
Cookham whole colony of Maddams
appeared to have been born, married and
buried, but not Tryphena among them
all. At st. Lawrence, Realing, there
was record of the marriage in 1898 Of
a certain Theodosia Maddams to David
Bruce. and this bothered me a good deal
until / discovered that Theodosia was
the widow of one Hezekiah Maddams,
butcher Of this towne." After la
borious and painstaking search / came
to the conclusion that I was on the
wrong scent, and returned to London
in gloomy and detected mood.
But Mr.. Bruce was very kind, and not
only thanked me heartily for the trouble
I had been at but marked the genuine
ness of his satisfaction by presenting me
with check considerably larger than
was entitled to or expected Mary, who
had taken the deepest interest in the
investigation, told me one evening when
/ was dining at their house that she felt
certain she could not tell why-that
should yet, somehow she could not tell
how-unravel this Gordon knot; nay,
that it was to be the means whereby we
should attain the fulfillment OF our hopes.
I hoped with all my heart she might be
right, but confessed to some skepticism
on the point; for which unbelief / receiv-
ed the most delightful scolding from
Mary; and s.You are not to laugh at me,
sir! will not be laughed atr' ooh, the
way she emphasized that s.notrO st is
very rude Of you to laugh at me, and
you shall do penancel"
Seeing that Mr.. Bruce was nodding
over his book did penance, though per
haps not just in the way that Mary had
anticipated. It was very rash act on
my part, but the temptation was ire
sistible. You have never seen Mary or
you would understand. Mary blushed
horribly and was both scared and in
dignaht; but I pleaded eloquently for
absolution and finally sppeased her. At
parting she said:
ssYou win see, Charlie, you viii find
the thing out. Depend upon it. Women
know things, you know, that men don't
know. Well. KNOW don't know how
know, but l do know that you viii
discover this Dalrymple Bruce's mar
rage. Tn as certain of it as I am that
we-well, as of anything. So good
night, and be good boy and don't con-
tradict. No! not one, declared (Alar-
uns, excursions.
The first news that greeted me on my
return to my city chambers was that
Mrs. Swatmans mummifed assistant,
Mrs. Crump, was seriously i'll. Of
course lost no time in seeing that she
had proper attendance, and any little
comfort that the doctor might think good
for her. The doctor gave poor account