Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-01-10

pretty good size in town, but goodness
knows I didn't intend to carry off
small fortune"
Talley laughed unsnspiciously.
Some pickpocket would have been
in clover" he remarked.
"The fright gave this dear man."
and Mrs. Goddard laid her gloved hand
on the arm of her statuelike husband,
twas a good thing in one way, for
when told him that Or. Sloan, who
was at the Palace yesterday, had adj
vised me to take a sea voyage he was
SO relieved over finding that had not
been abducted that he really con-
sented to my running over to London
for week or So"
1--WE are sorry you are going" said
Blanche, with start of surprise,
But surely not alone?" remarked
Talley.
"No; have applied to bureau for
companion. They know exactly the
kind of woman l want, and 1 shall
have no one else, assure you"
81 have been looking over my af-
fairs, and l think l can get away"
said Goddard. "You will at least al
low me to go over with YOU"
''And be obliged to nurse you
through your seasickness," laughed
his wife. mo, this voyage is for my
own health, thank you. From the mo-
ment the gangplanks are up till they
are down he is too i'll to eat bite"
she said to Blanche and Talley. 81
shall be provided with good compan-
| ionable maid. New York is full of
gentlewomen who are dying for such
opportunities"
''After all, it may do her lot of
| good" Blanche said, consolngly, to
| her guardian, when Mrs. Goddard had
| left the room. "She seems to antici-
| pate so much pleasure from it. She
seems to treat me so much more gen
tally than she has been doing"
| The major frowned. There was a
| trustful glance in the girls eyes
which recalled her school days to him.
| She looked almost as childlike as she
had the day she had come into her
fathers sickroom. her long golden
hair plated and hanging down her
back. How wildly he recalled John
Briscoe's words:
MY darling child, this is the best
and truest friend / ever had; he has
shown me his friendship in thou
sand ways; if anything should happen
1 to take me from you he will care for
YOU as tenderly as your own father
+ could"
Goddard shuddered over this mem
DRY, and the thought that, although
4 she was marked as such an early prey
of death, he had been induced to plot
against such frailty. but he felt the
futility of struggle. Ever since he
had fallen under the spell of Jeanne's
eyes he had looked upon her as the
! ruler of his destiny, be it for good or
evil.
you ought not to suffer so because
she is going, dear guardian" said
Blanche, with tender. concern. you
! ought to look forward to her return,
and not give yourself up to morbid
brooding over it."
she doesn't want me to go with
her, you see," answered the, major,
coming back to closer view of his
own woes. His lip was quivering, and
his tone was almost petulant.
Sometimes am afraid 1 am in the
way" said Blanche. Perhaps l ought
to go away myself"
NO, you must stay" said the ma
| jor; ''but you must invite some one
to be with you"
"Lottie Dean will come" said
Blanche; 81 shall write to her." and
suspecting that Goddard wanted to be
alone with his trouble, she left him.
One morning three days later they
We're all seated in the library. Mrs.
Goddard sat i'm the bow window, her
eyes on the road which led past Lynd-
I hurst to the station. Blanche was
looking over some music at the piano,
and Talley was taking down in short
hand from Goddard's hating dictation
some business correspondence. Now
/ and then Mrs. Goddard would furtive-
ly scan the faces in the room and
then peer toward the road again.
1 Suddenly she saw cab containing a
single occupant driving in at one of
| the gates at the bottom of the lawn,
and she at once rose and went to the
fire and sat down. When the door
bell rang a few minutes later, she was
/ the only one in the room who did not
appear to notice it. She seemed SO
much absorbed in thought as not to
1 see james when he entered with a
4 card on tray
"a lady to see you, madam" he an
4 nouneed.
Mrs. Goddard had four pairs of eyes
on her as she scanned the card.
Mrs. Lucy Nolan" she read,
from the metropolitan employment
bureau All, it is the woman they
were to send me! Tell her, James
tell her l shall be in at once. Where
is she?"
sIn the little parlor, madam"
"What is she like?-but never mind
shall see for myself. If they have
sent me anybody without the best Of
references she shall go back without
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