Iron County register., 1893-07-13

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THE FooTMAN ENTERED.
! ready to declare the fact, had deter
mined to make you her heir, on the one
condition that her niece were never dis
covered. Hear her own words: While
live / must retain the control of my
property; after am gone, what matter
to me who has it,? She would
as lief it should be you as anyone
| else, you see; yes, she would prefer you
as the lines further on indicate: There
is no one that has n greater claim upon
| me than yourself. This claim l feel al
present'-the emphasis is my own, but
mark the words, if you please: do they
not clearly indicate the writer's char.
| acter?-'at present inclined to recOg-
nize.' Delightfully."- neutral. charming
ly non-committal; giving you to under
stand, you see, that, after all. she might
change her mind. 1t gave her sense
of power to keep you in suspense as to
her real intentions; at the same time
her purpose remained unchanged, !
have no doubt. Charitable bcquests l
do not favor Why? Il have given
freely to public and private charities
during my lifetime, and have received
but meager thanks She was weary of
the ingratitude of the public. She
reasoned. and indeed she reasoned we'll,
that if they gave but meager thanks
while the beneticent donor was living,
and there was possibility of still
further gifts when she was gone. and
there would be nothing to look for be-
yond the testamentary bequcsts, she
would receive no thanks at all. No,
no, She wished her fortune to go to
some one who would be grateful for it;
some one who could properly value it.;
some one who had n reasonable claim
upon her generosity; and that person,
of all others in the world. was clearly
and indisputably yourself, Mrs. May
nard.'
North had folded Mrs. Dunl1irk's let
ter, replaced it in the envelope, and
tossed it down on the table again while
he was speaking these last words. He
now rose and stood idly gathering up
his notebook, pencil and papers, as if
preparing to leave.
While he was thus engaged the foot
man entered, bearing to Mrs. Maynard
a small scrap of paper. which he pre-
sent,ed with an air of dignitied disdain.
The lady glanced at the paper for an
instant with n rather blank expression;
then with a sudden CLEAN of compre-
hension she held it out toward North.
''This has as much interest for you,
perhaps, as for myself, Mr.. North" she
said.
The inquiry was for Mrs. Maynard"
vcntured Williams.
Very well, Williams said Mrs.
Maynard, dismissing him.
BY this time North had with n little
curiosity scanned the paper that she
had given him, and his expression was
even more blanlzly amazed than hers
had been. 1t was only a name that was
scrawled on the bit of paper that his
fingers held; but that name was Dennis
O'Reilly.
dennis O'Reilly? What does this
mean?" he asked himself in puzzled
speculation. lin this mere coinci-
deuce, or am I on the verge of an i'm
portant discovery"
Mrs. Maynard interrupted his medi-
tations.
''It is the man who claimed to have a
knowledge Of Annie Dupont's history.
is it not, Mr.. North? The name GER
tainly seems familiar to me, as if had
heard it recently"
s'Why, yes," answered North. too
much bewildered by this unexpected
turn of events to consider his words
very carefully, ''he is certainly the man;
but why does he come here? And why
should he inquire for you?"'
"These are questions that I might
more naturally ask of you" said Mrs.
Maynard, little coldly, as she regarded
North with glance Of surprise. ''Is
he not acting upon your instructions?
I understood you TO say, a few days
ago, that you had seen this man and
had taken measures to gain possession
of his pretended evidence. Have you
decided to abandon that investigation,
in view of our recent disaster in New
YorlS?"
There was almost the suggestion of
refined sneer in these last words. Had
North been attending to them he would
have detected the subtle sarcasm and
also the desperate pain that forced it
from her; but his mind was at that mo-
ment otherwise absorbed. Mrs. May
nard's words had let in a flood of light
upon the mystery that had been per-
picking him. Dennis O'Reilly's ap-
pearance there was fully accounted for.
Another singular throw of the dice"
he said to himself, with grim satisfac-
ton, land, as usual, it is in my favor.
/ had actually almost forgotten this
man who was the real cause of my COM
ing to ", and I had no very san
puine expectations of being able to ind
him, nv efforts in that direction thus
far having totally failed; and behold,
he turns up without an Intervention or
purpose of mine, all ready to play Nolrs
game right into my hands! Well. /!