The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-01-21
stretched forth her hand. Randy,
dear!" she whispered.

bNoi ShS
Merriam reused himself with sud-
den start. Forgive me, Floy, Floy
darling! But this is dreadful shock.
viii you mind my getting paper?"
and he looked appealingly about him.
A waiter sprang forward. Did the cap
tain wish anything? The morning pa
per? Certainly. Which one? Oh, any
one-all Of them in fact; and present
ly they were brought, as was the break
he read on through paper after paper,
fast, and the breakfast grew cold while
grewsome details in one and all, yet not
the details he sought.
And Florence had lost all appetite and
was intent only on him, waiting almost
meelly for him to speak. Some of the
papers declared the injuries mortal.
Randy passed the papers one after an
other without comment to her, as he
read them. She took each as it came,
obediently, helpfully, but folded and
laid it by her side, then returned to her
wordless study of his troubled face. AT
last the fourth sheet was finished, and
with long sigh he turned and saw
her. "My darling! my darling" he
whispered, great shame and sorrow
overpowering him as he noted the in
tensity of her sympathy mingling with
the mournful sense of her utter moth
ingness to him at the moment. ''Oh,
Florence, how could / be so forgetful
of you? But l have had a dreadful
shock. You do not know what this
means, what ii would mean if McLane
should die now-and cannot tell you"
And all she said was: FLUSH! Randy,
dear, I don't wish you to tell me now"
But McLane did not die-at once, at
least. Three weeks the police worked
at that clew and the doctors at him,
and neither with much success-cer-
tainly with little help from the victim,
who was in woeful state of collapse
much of the time, protesting ignorance
of any excuse for shooting on the part
of anybody, and consumed with dread
full fear of death. 1t was wonder that
under the circumstances he rallied suffi-
GENTLY to be up and able to be moved.
The March winds of Frisco were
leagued against him. The doctors
wished to take him back to Coronado,
but he declared that any part of Cali
fornia would be death to him. He
wished to go home at once. Within
the week of the shooting Ned Parry ar
rived from Chicago, and had some long
interviews with his sister-n-law. but
was not allowed to see the patient;
neither was she except at rare inter-
walls, an affection which she bore with
Christian resignation. Then Parry had
to go back, but not before he had re-
ceived a note from Merriam, had visited
him, and had shown every attention to
and deep interest in his gentle bride,
and had had one long conference with
the husband, alone.
When Mr.. McLane was declared well
enough to move they carried him
aboard steamer and sent him to Pana-
ma, Fanny, his wife. in attendance, as
in duty bound. But even the best and
biggest stateroom was close and stuffy,
as she said, and her hours were mainly
had to bear with Macs ceaseless plants.
He had grown suddenly old, childish,
decrepit, fearful. They had to stay
some days at Panama, and had a
tnh aI ~ 1ooSt ha 1sI hotnr
transferred thence to Havana, where
he was enjoined to remain at least six
weeks. But some morbid longing
drew him irresistibly back to New
York. Go he would, and in April they
exchanged the summer seas, the soft,
perfume-laden air, the warm sunshine
of the tropics for the fogs and bluster
of the North Atlantic seaboard. Pneu-
monia set in and claimed the feeble
wreck for its own. Several weeks be-
fore the anniversary of that brilliant
wedding and still more brilliant re-
ception, Fanny McLane was weeping
deoorous.y in Widows weeds and listen
ing to the details of the last will and
testament
Much, but not all, had been left to his
beloved wife, Frances Hayward Nc
Lane, but even that much was curiously
bestowed. Why should Uncle Mellen
be so largely a beneficiary? Why
should he be placed in charge Of he1
property? Was she not cd enough tC
| look after what was her own? Why
should Uncle Mellen here and Uncle
Mellen there appear on page after page
of that formidable document? With
| alarming suddenness the tears had van
ished, dried off, presumably, by the hot
flush on her lovely cheek. Some one
had obtained undue influence over hel
husband in his last moments, she de-
clared. Some one had swlndled her
Some one shouldbe given to understand
she was child--a puppet-no longer
and two some ones, Uncle and Aunt
Mellen, had a tremendous scene with
the widow before the funeral baked
meats were fairly cold--before the flow
ers began to droop about the new
filed grave. One row led to another
and then to litigation, and then Sister
Charlotte had relented, sister love ant
tenderness triumphing over the sens.
| OF indignation which followed Fans
repeated neglects Of sisterly letter!
and sisterly advice, and she came cas-
with her imperturbable Ned, and fount
Fan looking white and i'll and troubled