Omaha daily bee., 1890-01-02

ouds. This was twelve years after his
marriage TO Gertrude Somers. Her
father had been dead nine years.
Factoryville was ruined. a blight
fell upon the place. Somcrstown.on-
the-Hill gradually recovered its COM
posure; for all the Somers wealth was
intact, except poor, d~efrauded, widowed
Gertrudc's portion Of IL. that had been
scattered by n Wall street blizzard.
When Harold Jermyn gave his last
feeble bleat the other lambs stood hud-
died together, mortified, helpless and
shivering. 1t vas decidedly a raw and
Indictment day.
His twin brothers-in-law, Alfred and
Edgar Somers, buried Harold Jermyn
deccntly, but not at Meadow Brook.
Then, with deep tenderness, compass
sion and love, they jointly wrote to their
sister, who. accompanied by her only
child, II younger Gertrude, was travel
ing in Europe with some butterfly So
ciety friends. Her brothers told her
there was always a home for daughter
and granddaughter in the house that
John Somers had built. She was asked
to hasten to them aud resume her old,
quiet life. They said in conclusion that
both would help her TO forget her be-
reavcment, and would try as hard as
they ever had to make her happy and
Contcntet.
This letter was dispatched to her
bankers at London, with directions for
prompt for warding. Alfred Somers aud
Edgar, who was eighty minutes his jul
Nor, united in q sigh of relief, then ex-
changed ideas which we're as similara as
themselves, walked arm-in-arm to their
lawyers gloomy den and calmly trans
ferrcd 800 900 worth of highly eligible
rcal.cstate every foot OF it on the hill
to their sister. The venerable, bald
headed lawyer who had done consider
able con veyancc for their father, most
of which was embraced with n the last
will and earthly testament of that
dead gentleman, watched his twin
clients walking back 20 Somers house
as placidly as they had left it two hours
before. When the pair were beyond
| his keen sight he turned from the Of
flee window, where he had been imita-
tia ! woodpccker with his finger nails,
and said to his clerk:
BLESS my soul, what q family Those
boys have decided TO Mrs. Jermyn more
than an even third of the River View
Reserve, the finest property IN this
county. Why, Blake, it's better than
a temptation to fortune hunters! Ger
trude will marry again mark what
| tell you! She has tasted Of the world
| anu VI Wnub uTe 81 SllDlN
called of its pleasures. Why
shouldn't she do what thousands
of women have done before her, and as
other thousands Of their weak ~andiuss-
| ceptible sex will keep OF doing so long
as there are men to beguile them?
Don't / know? My mother was Il m
She married three times, and so far as
money went each husband protited by
her gullibllity. Yes, my W father,
who was her latest and LATEST, got all
that the other two left her. and he spent
it on fast horses and a yacht which was
never fast, except when tied to II sta Ike
or anchored. Thaddeus Blake, she will
marry again. mark my wordsl"
AS the law clerk got somewhat con-
fused between the slow sailing yacht
and the beautiful Widow Jermyn, whom
he had for many years w~orshipped at
society distance, he simply nodded. 1t
was to him n blissful compensation that
he had been subscribing witness to the
document which made her rich again.
So he looked as satisfied rs any desk
chained mortal ever can on $40 a week,
and went ahead with the copying of u
brief of title. There was no present or
after-necessity of his employers words.
After several mail steamers had
crossed and recrossed the uncertain
4 JAW vi tAo t"tul VI bbASi
brought a reply from the London bank
ers. They wrote that Mrs. Jermyn had
not drawn upon them for some time; in
fact 1t was four or five months since they
had heard from her direct. Her pres
emit address they did not know. OF
course, they retained her letters from
America, until they had advices from
her. They knew of her sudden and
terrible widowing before apprized of it
by her brothers, but thought it proba-
BILE that the news might not have
reached her. Answering a business
inquiry OF Alfred and Edgar, the bank
ers of their sister SAID there remained
a balance in their hands to her credit
Of a trifie less than GOO. They would
write again as soon us definite knowl-
edge of Mrs. Jcrmyn or her movements
was in their possession, and in the in
term. begged to remain the o%bedient,
humble servants of the Messrs. Somers.
The London bankers did write again
and again, and thereafter about once a
quarter for a continuous period of five
years. They were always courteous, as
well as obedicnt and humble, but they
sent no tidings Of the sister and niece
Of the bachelor twin-millionaires. That
snug cash balance of Il ''triile less than
200" grew no smaller. The Americans
with whom the missing mi and her
child had been travelling returned dur.
ing the first year of suspense singly
and in lotteries TO their homes. All that
any of them knew about Mrs. JermyG
and little Gertrude was that she had
left their party at Vienna and Joined
some German eXcursionists on the Dan
ube, intending to return in the latter's
company to the Rhine cities, and from
thence proceed to England. BY com
parison of dates this was about the time
Of Harold Jermyn's suicide. None O.
these people knew OF that event unit
they got back to New York. They
therefore said hat Mrs. Jermyn'
strange disappearance could not be
sequal to her husbands death.
So the mystery d%eepehed. The tai,
became t~hreadbare. In the now lionel,
house on the hill Alfred and EdgaI
Somers greatly sorrowed for those VIII
were lost and could not be traced.
One morning the third class postmas
ter had IA first class surprise. 1t wa
caused by a foreign letter, with thi
puzzling superscription:
#. ,