The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-04-04


selves. 1t looks very pretty. but it is
not gold"
With that he replaced the necklace in
| its case and pushed it back across the
| counter. AS a mar in a dream. Fair
| clough put it in his pocket and as a
| man still i'm dream. he made his way
back TO Pendragon square
Two hours later he telegraphed to his
/ Wife to return at once. BY this time
J her sister was SO far recovered that she
could be left without danger.
| He met Clara at the terminus. but
| scarcely were their greetings over before
| Mrs. Fairclough. laying a hand on her
| husbands arm, said i'm a tone of alarm:
| There's something the matter Ted
! can read it in your face. You have had
some bad news, perhaps, or else
! She stopped abruptly, a sort OF ques-
| tioning terror in her eyes.
She is afraid that j have found out
! about the necklace" he said TO himself.
| Then aloud: Whatever my news is, |
| suppose it will keep till we get home"
| he spoke coldly, and not more than a
| dozen words passed between them till
they reached Pendragon square
Since the discovery at the pawn
brokers', Fairclough had been as one
| held in the grip of hideous nightmare.
/ AS regarded his difficulty with Yer
| schoyle. he was in precisely the same
position as before; but, as If that were
| not burden enough for a man TO bear.
there was now superadded this intoler-
able mystery of his wife's necklace,
which. the more he strOve TO unravel II,
the darker became the possibilities which
were thereby conjured up in his mind.
a hundred times his heart had grown
faint within him when he thought Of
what he might be fated TO listen to when
he and his wife met.
1T is about your necklace that I want
TO speak to you he began. having
waited till she had taken off her outdoor
things and rejoined him in the drawing
room.
"Ahr', she exclaimed with a little
my heart told me what it was you had
to say. You have discovered" She
caught her breath and pressed her hand
TO her side. Her lips had turned blue.
Fairclough half rose from his chair but
restrained himself
Il have discovered he said. that
your so-called diamond necklace is a
sham and an imposition, that its stones
are paste. and that even it's setting is
not the gold It processes to be. But
what L have not discovered is the pro-
cess by which the necklace. for which,
four years ago, I was offered &, 200, has,
in the interim. been transformed into the
worthless thing now locked up in the
safe
II. and 1 alone. am to blame" ex-
claimed the young wife as she cast her
81 did ii to save my brOtherv
ITO save Frank What has he done
that necessitated his being saved by any
one?'
The story Mrs Fairclough thereupon
told may be summarized in a few SEN
fences.
Frank DenisOn was a clerk of several
years standing in a London bank. Some
rash speculation on the stock exchange
had resulted in saddling him with losses
amounting i'm the aggregate to between
f400 and $500. which he had no means
whatever of meeting 1t was a state of
affairs which. had it come to the ears of
his employers, would have involved his
instant dismissal. In this predicament
he had appealed to his sister to allow
him TO raise a sufficient sum on her
necklace to cover his losses. II was an
appeal she found it impossible to resist
and the necklace was handed over to
him.
1T was your own to do as you liked
with" said Fairclough. when his wife
had reached this point of her confession.
But / still fail to understand why, when
the genuine article was gone. il was
thought requisite to put a sham one in
its place"
Have you forgotten, dear, that my
godfather. in his last letter. said that
he should be i'm London some time in
October. and that ne would not fail TO
look up2"
Il certainly had forgotten. So you had
the sham necklace made IN order to de-
ceive the dear old boy2"
You did not let me finish.'' said Clara.
with a shade of reproach in her voice
1T was Frank who had the sham neck
lace made without saying a word to me
about it; and although he persuaded me
to put II in the empty case and lock it
up. and assured me my godfather would
never detect the difference. | should
never have attempted TO palm it off on
him as the real article. | had. i'm fact
long ago, made up my mind to tell him
everything. should ne ask. as he most
likely would. to see the necklace"
You did not, however, think ii worth
while TO take your husband into your
confidence"
1T is the first secret have ever kept
from you, and you will never know how
many unhappy hours it has cost me-
Many and many a time l was tempted
to tell you, but at the last moment my
heart always failed me. You nave al
ways set your face so sternly against
gambling OF every kind / have so often
heard you denOunce it in the strongest
possible terms, that ] was afraid you
would never forgive Frank for what he
had done, and that you might even GO
ST. far as to forbid him the house, and
insist upon my never speaking TO him
again."
Edgar Fairclough got up suddenly and
crossed 10 the window He had his own
confession still to make, and what a
shameful one il wasi He who-with the
recollection of his fathers fate burned
intellectually into his memory had. fol-
lowing his uncle's example, time and
again inveighed against gambling as
against a Juggling fiend whose one aim
was the ruin of his victim. had himself
fallen at the first touch of the tempter's
fingers. How the thought made him
loathe himself Frank Denison's act Of
folly looked almost blameless by the side
of his. And he must confess everything
to his wife; there was no getting out Of
that. Never could he be again in her
believed him to be. He had lost caste
The idol of gold had betrayed its feet
Of clay.
Fairclough got through his confession
somehow. There are episodes in the lives
of most of us which we do not willingly
dwell upon afterward, even in the pri-
vacy of our own thoughts, and Of such
was this with him. He spared himself
in nothing seeming, indeed To take a
sort of cynical pleasure in deepening the
shadows of the picture more than was
absolutely needful, and wound up by
saying that the only course left
them was to sell their home and go
into some cheap lodging, where they
would be unknown to every enc.
Clara had uttered no word while he
was speaking; but when it became ap-
parent that he had nothing more to say,
she rose and. cOrssing to where he
stood by the window, put her arms about
his neck and drew his face down TO hers.
Let us thank Heaven. dearest, that il
is no worse. 1t is only that our means