Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-07-05

| lew uluutcs, uutll utr pOug carriage wa
announced. when they rose together an
| went out.
Wilfred stood short time by the littl
carriage, while suggestion of his was car
ried out-that, as Maline was going /
| drive, one OF the ponies should be put o.
the curb instead OF the snafile. And the
he watched her as she drove away dow
the avenue.
The first thing that caught his eye whel
he went hack to the library was the purs
that the girl had left on the table. III
picked 1t up and ran out, thinking to cal
her back, but one of the maids, standing il
his way in the hall, rather clumsily hin
dered him, and the carriage was out O
sight when he reached the steps.
He carried the purse back into the Ii
brary and tossed it down ON the table in
hurry to get on with his work. The catcl
was faulty, and the purse opened as it fell
one or two of the coins rolling out. HI
picked them up to replace them, anG
glanced as he did so into the purse.
To his amazement he saw two French
one-hundred-franc notes, clumsily folded
lying in the purse The number of one O.
them was on top and he could not helr
reading it.
1t was the number of one of the stolen
notes. He knew this, because Mr.. Caring.
ham had given them to him to enter when
they had been received some weeks before
and after the theft he had referred to the
entry.
He closed the purse and placed it where
it had been left by the girl. Then he sat
down to think.
What could it mean? How came the
stolen notes in the girls possession?
He could do no work with that thought
in his mind. More than that, he could not
bear to be in the room when she returned
for the purse. He hurriedly put his pa
pers away and went out into the air.
Could she have taken the money?
He tried his best to put the thought
away from him, as he hurried on as fast
as he could walk along the roads, but it
kept recurring with every corroborative
circumstance that seemed to grow out of
the strange discovery.
He was so absorbed that he noticed
nothing; and, as he turned sharp twist
in the lane, he would have been knocked
down If he had not sprung quickly to
the side when some one called to him
out of a carriage which was being driven
swiftly toward him.
1t was Maine, and she pulled up
sharply. "Why, Mr.. Power, | thought
you were going to be at work."
He looked up quickly and saw, or
thought he saw, signs of anxiety in her
face as she continued:
Il have left my purse at home, some
where, and have to drive all the way
back to find it,"
"Why, would they not give you credit
in Marshley?' he asked, trying to make
his voice natural, but failing so much and
SC constrained that the girl
noticed it.
sit is not that; but there is something
in the purse l particularly want-some
patterns, and so on"
And again the man thought he could
see that she was very anxious.
"You left the purse in the library"
he said, looking at her. II saw it after
you had gone and tried to catch you with
it, but could not. You will find it there
now.n
This time he was certain that her
manner showed confusion, as she gathered
up the reins of her ponies and drove off,
saying;
"Then / must make haste and fetch it.
Goodbye"
A fierce struggle ragged in the mans
mind as he continued his walk for some
hours through the woods and lanes, and
when he reached the Grange Just before
the dinner hour he was disquieted and
agitated.
He saw Maline in the drawing-room
few minutes before. dinner. They were
waiting for Mr.. Caringham, who had come
in later than usal, and he said to her:
did you find your purse all right ?"
YES, thank you" she answered; but In
manner so completely different from her
usual tone that he looked at her in aston
ishment.
She returned the look steadily enough
but she seemed so serious and grave that
he was startled.
81 am glad of that" he said.
"But l am afraid disturbed your pa
pers," she said, not looking at him, but
staring out OF the window and speaking in
a voice that trembled. Il knocked your
blotting pad onto the floor and scattered
the contents; but | tried to put them back,
as far as l could, IN the same order"
at is not of the least consequence" he
answered. And then they said no more
until Mr.. Caringham came down, and they
all went to dinner
During the whole of that night Wilfred
Power did not sleep. All the facts of the
robbery-as he knew them, and as they
were colored by the light of the days dis
covery-were reviewed by him, time after
time.
The sight of the notes in the girls
purse; her evident anxiety TO get back
quickly from her drive to secure the purse.
and her manifest trouble and agitation
when he next saw her and asked her about
tia condition of mind that had lasted the
whole eyening-perplexed and confounded
him.
Try as he would, he could not get away
from the conviction which, though it at
first had seemed impossible, had afterward
gathered weight-the conviction that she
had, for some reason, taken the money.
Then he tried to think what must be the
consequences to her of discovery. What
would the father think of the child he
almost idolized if he had to know her as a
thief?
This thought panied him beyond meas
ure.
He loved the girl with all the force of
his nature, and the father had been to him
as father; had taken him when young
and friendless educated him, and treated
him just as a son.
Could he do anything to avert the blow
which he saw must fall upon Mr. Car
ingham If once the fearful truth were
known? .
Out of his thought grew resolve that
was Quixotic but quite characteristic OF
the man; he would endeavor to draw
upon himself Mr.. Caringhams suspicion,
and so shield the girl.
He thought long and anxiously of the
best means of doing this, without actu.
ally stating that he was the thief. And
he decided to tell Mr.. Caringham that
he must go away, and to tell him in
such a manner as 10 make him connect