Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-12-03
Z PHOENIX. BRATTLEBORO. FRIDAY. DECEMBER B. 1897.
CHAPTER ".

Three days later Leslie came home
from the city with tidings on his face,
and he told them to his wife when they
were alone that night
"Marsden's lawyer made an appoint.
ment after the funeral, and 1 had an
hour with him. He has asked me to be
trustee with himself in Mrs. Mars
denis settlement.
"I'm so glad You must accept, for
it will be such a comfort to poor Bea-
trice. But thought Godfrey was her
sole trustee. "
$50 he was" said Leslie grimly,
"more's the pity, and he embezzled
every penny of the funds-gambled them
away in card playing and-other ways. -"
Godfrey Harrison, Beatrice's broth
er?''
Eyes, her much admired, accomplish
ed, i'll used brother, the victim of her
husbands stinginess.
'1f that be true, then Godfrey is sim
ply az
You mean an unmitigated scoun-
drel. Quite SO, Florence, and a number
of other words we won't go over. tell
you," and Leslie sprang to his feet,
There is some use in swearing. If it
had not been for one or two expressions
that came to my memory suddenly to-
day, should have been i'll. Curious to
say, the lawyer seemed to enjoy them
as much as myself, so it must be bad
case. "
but don't understandable Godfrey
spent Trixy's money, how is there any
thing to manage? Did he pay it back?''
mo, he did not, and could not. He
has not enough brains to earn 10 pence
except by cheating, and if by chance he
came into fortune would grudge his
sister a pound. "
| Then
Don't you begin to catch glimpse
of the facts? Why, Marsden toiled and
scraped and in the end, so the doctors
say killed himself to replace the mon
ey, and he had just succeeded before
his death.
How good of him. But don't see
the necessity of all this secrecy ON his
part and all those stories about low in
terest that he told Trixy."
"There was no necessity. If it had
been some of us, we would have let
Mrs. Marsden know what kind of broth
er she had and ordered him out Of the
country on threat Of the Jail. "
1T was Marsden's foolishness, let us
call it, to spare his wife the disgrace of
her idol and the loss of his company.
SO her husband was despised beside this
precious rascal every day. "
"Trixy will get terrible shock
when she is told. 1t would almost have
been kinder to let her know the truth
before he died.
Mrs. Marsden is never to know, "
said Leslie THAT was his wish. She s
just to be informed that new trustees
have been appointed, and we are to take
care that she does not waste her income
ON the fellow"
People will send letters of condo.
lence to Mrs. Marsden, but they will
say at afternoon teas that it must be a
great relief to her, and that it's quite
beautiful to see her sorrow. In two
years she will marry some well dressed
fool, and they will live ON Marsden'i
money" And Leslies voice had an un
usual bitterness
Did you ever hear of another case
like this, ,John?'
Never. When old Parchment de
scribed Marsden giving him the instruc
tions, he stopped suddenly.
'Marsden, he said, was the big
gest fool 1 ever came across in tn,
course of Az years practice, and hi
went over to the window.
And you?"
II went to the fireplace. We wer,
both so disguised with the man that W.
could not speak for five minutes "
After a short while Mrs Leslie said
1T appears to me that this slow, unin
teresting man, whom every one counted
bore, was-almost hero.
"Or altogether, " replied John Leslie