The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-10-15
PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
COPYRIGHTED. 1897 BY WILLIAM LIE oUEUx.

WILLIAM LIE lUEUA.
many clandestine walks and rides with
Lame Brooker. and he declared that such
a woman was no fitting wife for you"
"Did he give any further reasonf' the
| other demanded.
| "None. He merely said that if you de-
clined to abandon all thought of her you
| should not have penny
"And he has kept his word observed
| George, gloomiiy.
Unfortunately it appears 500
"He was unjust-cruelly unjustl"
George protested. " stroye hard at the
Bar and had already obtained q few briefs
when he recalled me here, to be his COM
panion. He would not allow me to fol-
! low my profession, yet he has now cast
me adrift without resources. "
"You certainly have my entire sympa-
thy - the old lawyer declared, kindly.
'tBut don't take the matter too much to
heart The woman may be already mar
ried. In that case you will receive fifty
| thousand
Georges face relaxed into faint smile.
II have no desire to hear of or see the
woman at ALL he answered. "Act as
you think fit. but remember that l shall
never offer her marriage-neyer "
"She may be pretty GIRL" suggested
| the elder man.
"And she may be some blear-eyed old
| hag," snapped the dead mans son. 1T
| is evident from the wording of the clause
that my father has heard nothing of eth
er mother or daughter for some years.
| That's all the more in your favour;
| because If she is thirty or SO, the chances
are that she is married At all costs we
| must discover her"
1.-The whole thing is COMPOUNDED mys-
| terry" George observed. who these
people are is an enigma"
Entirely so,' the solicitor 'acquiesced
"There is something exceedingly mys-
| terious about the affair. The confined
| circumstances are bewlldering in the .ex-
treme First, the lady you admire bears
| a French name, next your father mates
| her because of some fact of which he is
aware regarding her family, and thirdly,
| in order to prevent your marrying her, ne
endeavors by an ingenious and apparently
carefully planned device, to induce you TO
wed a woman whose existence is unknown
to us all. He was not man who acteo
without strong motives, therefore l can
not help suspecting that behind all this
lies some deep mystery
'Mystery'' Of what character. ~
have no idea. We must first find Mariette
Lepage.'
'sMy future wife," laughed George bit
terly, rising YEARLY from his chair.
Eyes, the woman who is to receive
twenty thousand pounds for marrying
"No, Harrison, decline the young man
as he moved slowly across the room with
head slightly lent. 'J'll never marry
her, however fascinating she may be.
Lame is pure and good; shall marry
| only her.
And opening the door impatiently he
snatched up his cap, strobe along the
hall, and out to where his man held
the bay mare in readiness.
| "Ah, Welli' Harrison muttered aloud
| when he was alone. "We shall see, young
man. We shall see. / thought myself a s
shrewd as most men, but If I'm not mis-
taken there's some mystery. strange and
inex plicable, somewhere; mystery which
seems likely to lead to some amazing de-
velopments. It's hard upon poor George
very hard; but if my client was SO foolish
as to desire the family skeleton to be
dragged from its chest his kith and kin
must, Of necessity, bear the consequen-
ces. -
| With a word to Morton, most exemplary
of servants, George sprang into the sad
| die, and a moment later was galloplng
down the long straight avenue. The
brilliant aftergIow had now faded, dusk
had fallen, and he feared that Liane, nav
ing kept her appointment, would have
! left disappointed and returned home.
Therefore he spurred the mara onward,
and was soon riding hard towards the I'M
frequented by-road known as Cross Lane
With heavy heart he told himself that
he must say good bye to love, good. bye
to hope, goodbye to ambition, goodbye
to all of life except the dull monotonous
routine of empty days and restless
empty heart
81 can't tell her I'm pauper,''s b 9
murmured aloud, after galloping long
way in logged silence. "She'n know
alasi soon enough. Then, when the truth
is out she'll perhaps discard me-; while
| l suppose l shall go to the bad as SO many
fellows have done before me. OF what
use am I without the means to marry?
! go love her now is only 10 befool her.
Henceforth I'm sailing under false colors.
Yet I love her better than life, better
than anything on earth. I'm indeed a
beggar on horseback %
| And he laughed hollow bitter laugh
as he rode along beneath the oaks where
the leafy unfreQuented lane dipped sud-
denly to pass below the railway, the quiet
| lonely spot where, unobserved, he so
| often met his well-beloyed. So engrossed
had he been in his own sad thoughts that
the stumbling of the mare alone brought
him back, to a consciousness of things
around. The light had paled suddenly
out Of the evening atmosphere; the gloom
was complete. Eagerly he looked ahead,
half-expecting to catch a glimpse of her
well-known neat figure, but in disap-
pointment he saw her not 1t was too
late. he knew. She had evidently waited
in vain, and afterwards returned to the
village when the dusk had deepened.
Still he rode forward, the mares hoofs
sounding loudly as they clattered beneath
the archway, until suddenly, as he
emerged on the other side, sight met his
gaze which caused him to pull up quickly
with loud cry of dismay.
In the centre of the road, hidden from
view until that instant, by reason of the
sudden bend, girl was lying flat with
arnis outstretched, her face in the thick
white DUST while beside her was her
cycle, left where it had fallen.
Instantly he swung himself from the
saddle, dashed towards her, lifted her up.
Her straw nat had fallen off. her fair hair
was disheyelled, and her dark skirt GOV.
cred with dust. But there was yet an
other thing which held him transfxed
with horror. In the dim fast-fading light