Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1896-08-26

good care that YOU don Z, ne OnreW
at me over his shoulder.
Alas! there could be little doubt OF
ii. And the letter? I had no doubt
that it was note to her lover. 1t
seemed just little hard that, anxious
as was to serve her, this should be
the particular service required OF me.
At the first pillar box 1 came to 1
took out the missive she had given mo.
1t was her programme for the even
ing, dainty card, folded bookwise,
ana secured at the edges by number
of postage stamps stuck oil around it.
1t was stamped with a penn5 stamp,
and addressed in pencil. or" course,
I had no business to read the address.
/ knew that well enough. 1t was, per-
haps, an ungentlemanly thing to do;
but then my curiosity was greatly ex-
cited. I hoped that the namo pen
cilled on the back of the pro ;ramme
might be that OF woman. But l was
disappointed. By the light OF a gas
lamp read:
.Immediate. Arthur Bellingham,
ESQ. q.,-Furnival' Inn, Holborn, E. @.
Bellingham? Bellingham? Iseemcd
to know the name. For minute or
two I stood trying to Remember whom
it was / had once met that owned it,
but in vain. What did it matter? The
affair was Mt On end. I droppel the
queer letter into the letter box and
went home to my lodgings.
A few months later I was strolling
along Oxford street, / heard my name
called out, and looking up I saw Ar
thur Bellingham standing before me.
1 recognized him at once-a young en-
gineer whom had met once in coun-
try inn on wet day in the Lake dis
trict. We had been capital friends for
week, and I could not understand
how had forgotten him when l had
tried to remember what Bellingham l
had known.
We greeted each other warmly, and
he would have me 60 with him to his
chambers in Furnival's Inn and smoke
a cigar with him.
"Bellinghaln," l said, as ! stood on
his hearth rug, "did it ever happen
that you received letter written on
ball programmed"
His eyes aud mouth opened in pure
astonishment
"What do you know about that?"
he calculated.
"I ought not to have known any
thing about 1t, but plead guilty to
having read the address. Iposted the
programme to you one night on my
way home from bail"
My friend sprang up and wruug my
hand as if he would wiring it off.
.tMy dear felloN,," he cried, 81 am
infinitely obliged to Jon for your tact
/ and kindness on that occasion. II You
had not posted that note it would
/ have meant ruin to me. Maud told
me how awfully good you were about
it.
"Maud? Do you mean"
s'Maud, my sister--the girl who
slipped the note into your hand"
'Is she your sister,"
s'Certainly she is. It's rather nm
uncommon story. Shall tell it to
you?"
eff you don't mind. I confess I am
burning with curiosity"
"rhe fact is, then, that some three
years ago my poor mother, who was
widow, did what turned out to be
very foolish thing--she married again,
and married without making proper
inquiries. My stepfather, Mr.. Mad
dock, turned out to be very bad egg.
Ny mother lost the greater part of her
fortune when she married him, and
we were for time practically de-
| pendent on my mothers uncle, an &C.
centric old gentleman, rather fond of
money, called Hodgkinson.
"Maddock is neither more nor less
than an adventurer, and for long
time it was the main business of his
life to exploit my great uncle. At last
be nearly succeeded. Maddox and
some friends OF his got hold of q bit of
land in South Africa, which they
wanted to sell rs gold mine. I don't
believe there was all ounce of gold on
the promises. But my great uncle
said that he would buy it at the high
figure they asked for it if I would go
out and see it, and send him private
telegram advising him that tho gold
was there in paying quantities.
"Of course, ] was ready to so, and
I was TO have sailed the very morning
after the night of the ball that you and
Maud attended.
swell, Maud happened to be in the
conservatory attached to the ballroom,
when she heard two men talking
rather indiscreetly. She was stand
ing behind some towering shrubs and
heard every word they said:
'Ihe two men were Mr. Maddox
and one of HE associates, and she heard
enough to make her understand that
the thing was fraud, and that I was
to be made tho means OF their swind-
ling Uncle Jonas on n large scale. I
believe the plan was that they should
send false telegram to the old man
in my name, days before ] could even
see the pretended mine. One thing I
know-lf the thing had come of, Uncle
Jonas would never have forgiven me.
He wonld have believed to his dying
day that I had been squared. You
may imagine what state Maud Was in.
She"
The door opened, una Maud herself
walked into the room.
1t seemed that her stepfather had
treated her so harsbly on account OF
her having spoiled his schemes that
she had been forced to leave his house
and take refuge with her brother.
For some time the old man refused
to believe that the reason Arthur gave
for not going to South Africa was the
true reason, but in time he came
round, and both brother and sister
are now good deal at his house. 1
go there occasionally myself, which is
! not e,rprisin1 no Maud and I have