The Democratic advocate., 1892-07-30

afraid he was about to1alnt, so made haste
to pour out little spirit and offer it to him.
He drank it eagerly, and in a little while
faint color came back into his cheeks.
Then 1 made him draw up an easy chair
in front of the fire and little later, when
my sister and the servants had retired-for
the night, went to the larder and brought
him thence something to eat.
He was indeed changed since had lasl
set eyes on him. In the first place, he
looked at least dozen years oder His
cheeks were sunken, his eyes seemed to
have receded further into their orbits, and
his brown hair was now plentifully streaked
with gray. As he sat there, with his chest
bent in and his shoulder halfway up to
bis ears, he looked like man bowed down
by the weight of some irremediabe calams
ity.
Hour after hour we sat, until the pale
daylight surprised us. How much or how
little of his strange story he had in the first
instance, intended to tel me had no meanl
of knowing. As circumstances fell out he
ended by telling ME everything. Space
will not allow of my setting it down here
at any length and in his own words. Al.
can do is to sketch its more salient feat
ures in outline.
When Philip Redmayne married Mimi
Ducios he believed that in her he had Sc
cured an angel of innocence and candor
Only by degrees did his eyes become open
ed to the fact that she was not merely
consummate actress, but one Of those beau
tiful enigmas who seem sent into the world
on purpose to shake ones faith in the evil
terly devoid of moral principle, who, at 19
years of age, was already an accomplished
hypocrite; who cared for no one in the
world but herself who loved lies for their
own sake, and would often tell them in pre-
ference to the truth, even when the latter
would have served her purpose equally as
well. Pills awakening if slow, was none
the less inevitable; but even after he had
realized to the full the sort Of being to
whom he had tied himself for life, such
was his infatuation for her, so strong was
the spell which her beauty still held him,
that, to to all intents, he remained as COM
pletely her slave as on the day he married
her. Not even when the qualification of
her caprices and extravagances was urging
him fast and still faster on the road to ruin,
had he either the power or the will to draw
back, or to snap single link in the chain
by which he was being dragged to destruc-
ton.
The end was drawing very near, and
Phil's resources in the way of raising
money were all but exhausted, when his
wife proposed to him certain nefarious
scheme for defrauding the insurance COM
pany, which he came after time to listen
to and ultimately to fall in with. 1t was
arranged that he should disappear and go
into hiding for time; and after little while
such conclusive proofs of his death should
be forthcoming as would satisfy not merely
the public at large, but the insurance COM
pany, that he was really defunct Then
when Mimi should have obtained the 95,-
900 she was to join him and together they
were to try their fortunes in the New
World. The human remains found in the
kiln had been put there by Redmayne him
self on the night of his disappearance.
They had formed portions of a skeleton
which had been left in his charge few
years before by friend of his, a naval sur
geon, who had never reclaimed them.
The extraction Of the three teeth to cor
respond with Pills missing teeth had been
a device of Minis, to towhom, indeed, both
the inception and the working out of nearly
all the details of the plot were due. To
what extent the precious scheme prospeTed,
we have already seen.
"And the inheritance which she is sup
posed to have gone to France for the pnr-
pose of realizing" / said; ''has that any
foupdationin fact p
"None whatever, although even l did
not discover it to be myth. till nearly a
year after my marriage"
"And her brother Pierre p
"She has no brother, He is a scoundrel
whom she loved before she met me, only
at that time he was desperately poor.
They have gone off together, taking the
ca, 600, and she has befooled me as she
has so many others.
did not tell him that though he had
been rightly served, although it was strong
ly in my miud to do so,
Presently l said
Although you tell me your wife was
such consummate actress, yet it seems
almost too incredible for belief that the
grief she professed to feel at my illness, and
the tears she shed, were other than the ex-
preston of genuine feeling"
"All put on, assure you. Mimi could
cause her tears to flow at will She made
no attempt to conceal from me her hope that
you would not recover, because, as she said,
she felt nearly sure that either my name
or hers, or both of them, would be found
mentioned in your will
After that l was so shocked and panied
that had to mix myself an extra jorum
of grog before 1 could find another word
to say.
But little more remainsso be told. By
La ,.r..- oat;o., ph; had .,aada oR h;rasaIH