Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-05-14

courag1ng to such an advance; abe
looked both grave and hurt and paused.
81 was going to say-if thou wouldst
like to see the diamonds, it would give
me great pleasure to show them to thee.
"Many thanks, honored sir; l would
rather not" And, with a formal cour-
tesy, the fair haired little maid opened
the door and disappeared, leaving me
feeling rather foolish.
"The pretty peasant has pride of her
own" said to myself as opened my
trunk and got out my writing materials.
''She's actually offended because I
wouldn't constitute her guardian Of
thirty thousand pounds worth of dia-
monds. Good graciousI why that father
Of hers, If know anything Of faces,
would cut all our threats for as many
groschen. But what an unmistakable
scamp my friend Slurk must be to have
aroused the suspicious Of such an innoE
as Christinchenl By Jove, though,
anybody might be suspicious of
leer and a SLOUGH like hist What If
there should be anything in it? Just
suppose such thing for moment, Ell?
It's impossible, to be sure; but the i'm
possible does sometimes happen. How
on earth did Brchmore ever happen to
have such a fellow about him? l tell
you I've always had a notion that he
may be at the bottom of all this mystery
that Birchmore and Kate are SO much
exercised by. Now, what if he-but
pshawl
There's one thing I'm resolved to do,
however" continued to myself, as l
settled down with the paper, pens and
ink at the table in the window. 'sPn
buttonhole Birchmore this very after
noon, and get out of him everything he
knows about his precious valet. 1t can
do no harm to have the matter cleared
up. This thing is absurd, of course, still
the situation out here is rather lonely.
and with two such lovely neighbors as
Papa Rudolph and Slurk-par Mobile
fratrum-it may be well to be on the
safe side. Yes, that shall be cleared up
todayr'
Having arrived at this sapient de-
termination, set to work writing my
letters, and scrubbed away diligently
for an hour or two. At length, as was
looking vacantly up from my paper, at
a loss for something interesting to set
down upon it, my eyes happened to rest
upon the pane of my open window.
Like nearly all German windows, it
opened inward on hinges, instead of
running up and down in grooves. The
pane on my left, therefore, having the
dark room as a background, acted as a
mirror of the sun1it landscape outside on
the right, showing me a portion thereof
which was directly invisible to me from
where sat, and to any person standing
in which must myself be invisible.
Now, my window was on the southern
Ede of the house, which fronted west
ward on the road. On the opposite side
of the road was narrow strip of land
planted with vegetables, and above this
rose the abrupt side of a hill, assembled
by a winding path partly hidden by the
trees. l could not see this hill and path
without leaning out of the window and
looking toward the right; but consider
able part of it was reflected in my win
dow pane mirror and could thus be
readily observed without rising from
my chair. Happening then, as said, to
cast my eyes upon this mirror, l saw two
persons standing together on the path
upon the hillside and conversing in a
very animated manner.
had no difficulty in recognizing
them; they were Mr. Birchmore and his
valet. So far there was nothing surpris-
ing in the spectacle. That which did
surprise and even astonish me, however.
was the mutual bearing of the two men
toward each other.
have already mentioned the per-
emptory tone in which Mr.. Birchmore
uniformly addressed the man Slurk and
the generally overbearing attitude he
assumed toward him; but in the CONVEX
sation now going forward all this was
changed. To judge by appearances,
should have said that Slurk was the
master and Mr.. Birchmore the valet.
The former was gesticulating forcibly
and evidently laying down the law in a
very decided and autocratic way. His
square, ungainly figure seemed to dilate
and take ON a masterful and almost
hectoring air; while Mr.. Birchmore
stood with his hands in his coat pockets,
undemonstrative and submissive, appar-
emily accepting with meekness all that
the other advanced, and only occasion
ally interpolating remark or sugges-
ton to which Slurk would pay but slight
or impatient attention. Both were evil
IDENTIFY talking in a low tone; for, though
they were not more than fifty or sixty
yards from where sat, could not catch
single word, or even SO much as an in
articulate murmur, unless by deliber-
ately straining my ears. But did not
need nor care to hear anything; what
saw was quite enough to startle and
mystify me.
After few minutes the two inter-
locutors moved slowly on up the path
and were soon beyond the field Of my
mirror. But the unexpected scene which
had witnessed did not so soon pass out
Of my mind.
got up from my table and began
walking about the room with the rest
lessness of one who cannot make his new
facts tally with his preconceived ideas
Who and what was Slurk, and how had