Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-02-22

took yOura
II believe that the sentiment in them is real"
said Clara, land want to know what became
Of this poor girl after the last letter was writ
ten. want to know whether she ID living or
dead. Remember, il was her name that was
used to lure my husband to his death. There
must have been some link between the muir
"Ah, I remember. There was . woman's
name mentioned"
"Yes, Colonel Macdonald heard the name. II
WAS Antoinette. He had heard my husband
speak OF a grisette with whom he had once
'Do you think the girl was concerned in the
suredly not"
There are women whose sighted love turns
to remorseless hate" said Florestan.
mot such a woman as the writer of those let
tiers. She is 80 humble, SO unselfish; she
accepts her fate IN advance. No, am sure she
was good woman. l want to find her if can,
to help her if she is poor and friendless. I
want to ind her for her own sake; but still
more tor mine. She may be able to give the
clue to the murderer. Her name was used as
a lure, and very few people can have known
that Robert ever cared for that girl. The man
who made that vile use of her name must have
known of that old love affair. He may have
been the brother of whom she writes"
MY dear Mrs. Arden, would it not be wiser
In your circumstances, with new ties-a hus-
band who worships you, daughter who adores
you--would it not be wiser to draw a curtain
over that one dreadful scene in your ife-that
one terrible shock which you suffered nearly
eight years ago2''
Il cannot. l cannot forget the man loved
with all my heart and strength" exclaimed
Clara, passionately. do you think because I
am married again that he is forgotten? Do YOU
think that 1 have forgotten his life. which was
SO bright and happy, SO full Of gladness for him
self and Others or his miserable death? No,
have not forgotten! I have married good
man whom honor and esteem. ! am as
me, but do not forget Ever since 1 found
those letters have been brooding over the
possibility of the murderer being discovered
by that woman's agency"
do you think that if her brother was the
murderer she would betray him?'
II think she would no more have forgiven
his murderer than l have-even If he il her
brother"
But she would hardly put rope round his
neck"
Perhaps not. Only find her for me, if you
can, Mr.. Florestan, and shall be deeply CRATE
full. You who know Paris SO well, and who are
living here. may have opportunities"
eff she is to be found / will find her. But
these letters were written more than twelve
years ago, and the cleverest police agent in
Paris might fail in tracing her after such an
interval. Remember, we do not even know her
surname. The letters have only one signature
-Toinette."
"Thare is the address Of the house in which
she lived"
That is the only clue. We must begin upon
that
You are very good. You can understand,
perhaps, why appeal to you instead Of to my
husband In the first place he is a dreamer
and thinker rather than a man of action He
knows very little of Partisan life, and he would
not know how to set to work. And in the Sec
m iph 70 kpo xLax
mind has been dwelling upon the past"
Il understand perfectly. / conclude that
you have told him nothing about these letters?"
''Not a word"
"There is one circumstance connected with
your husbands death which has always mysti-
fed me-" said Florestan, after q thoughtful
pause. How came the murderer, foreigner
and altogether un;Onnected with your hus-
bands life at Lamford, to be SO we'll informed
about his plans-to know that on such day
Lincoln's inn with large sum of money upon
his person? The mans plans had evidently
been made some days in advance-the lodging
was taken with one deadly intent. The woman
who acted as an accomplice must have been
taught her part in advance; the flight to the
Riviera with the money must have been delib-
erately thought out, for there was not an hour
lost In the disposal OF the notes. A little hest
tatlon, few hours delay, and the police would
have been able to track the plumber. Every
bollcal precision which argues foreknowledge."
II have puzzled over the same question till
my brain has reeled, ," answered Clara. '.Some
one must have given the information-ope of
our servants lawyers clerk, perhaps dis
missed every servant We had at that time "A
soon as l recovered from my illness. would
not have anybody about me who might even
unconsciously have helped to bring about nv
husbands death. All our servants knew what
was going to happen. We talked Of the pur-
chase very often. and at dinner on the evening
before Robert went to London we discussed his
visit to the bank and to the lawyers, and his
appointment to lunch with Col. Macdonald at
the club"
1T is just possible that the murderer was in
your house that evening, and that he got every
detail from one of your maid servants. Women
are such fools, and women Of thai class will be-
neve everything that smooth tongue tells
them. 1t was the year after the war time
when London swarmed with exiled communists
1t was possible that this girls brother was
among them, that he harbored an old grudge
against her lover-that he took pains to find
out all he could about your husbands circum-
stances, and, hearing of the purchase money
which was to be carried from the bank to the
lawyers Office, conceived the desperate idea of
a murder and robbery in broad daylight, in a
house full Of people. take it that the police
would make some Investigations in your house.
hold, although the murder occurred in Lon
DOM"
81 know very little Of what happened at that
time. was too i'll to be told anything that
was being done, and after recovered I had
too great horror Of the past. / dared not
speak about my husbands death. Years have
brought calmness / can think of it now, and
reason about it, though l shall never under
stand why God cut short that happy life in so
cruel a manner. shall never understand the
wisdom of my heavy chastisement."
Fiorestan was silent, plying her with all his
heart, both for the husband she had lost and
for the husband to whom she had given her
self in loveless union. He had seen enough
of Ambrose Arden and his wife to divine that
there was profound affection on the husbands
side, and on his wife's only the pensive SUBJ
mission Of woman who has given away her
life IN self-abnegation, plying the passion
which she cannot recprocgte.
Daisy and her betrOthed came into the room
at this moment, she laden with punches of
white lilac and Marechal Mel roses as tribute
to her mother. 1t seemed to Florestan as if
spring itself had come dancing into the room
incarnate in that graceful figure in a cream
colOred frock and sailor hat, shining upon him
out of those sunny hazel eyes, giving warmth
and brightness to the atmosphere.
She shook hands with Florestan in the friend
hest way-too friendly to be tiattering to a man
who was accustomed to exercise a somewhat
disturbing influence upon the other sex. But
girl who is engaged to be married has some-
times no eyes for any man except her lover.