The times., 1901-03-10

at Oxford carefully and painfully pat
back. 1t was at oxford - Harvey-my
husband-formed his fri@YTship for wv
vern Maunder. Wyvern is a nice boy.
a dear fellow and a good chap" ac-
cording to peoples age and point of view.
If he is a trihe better looking than the
average, he has neither any sort OF pose.
nor any views" nor, indeed. anything
likely To irritate his feIlow-meu. He is
consequently popular. particularly with
women; and they probably know how
enormously popular they are with him II
Is not the sort oS thing a man ike wy
vern would conceal from them In fact.
he is strangely susceptible. and ! have
never met him yet when he was not more
or less desperately in love Theoretically.
! he is what ! believe used TO be called a
pessimist, and never sees the slightest
giimmer of a silver lining without prompt
TIy calling attention to the lowering cloud
But TINS does not in the least interfere
with his spirits, which are quite abnor>
maHy nigh. Our friendship has always
consisted chiefly in our confiding in each
other enthusiastically on matters of no
importance whatsoever, and giving to
each other simultaneously excellent ad-
vice, to which neither even pretended To
under the sun. His own subject never
varied
However, after a time I listened less
eagerly TO the comfortable sorrows of the
sentimentalist. But he stiH continued to
write TO me with some frequency. assum-
ing his condolences to be no less inter
esting than before. 1t would, however.
be most unfair to accuse him in this mat
ter of indiscretiOn. Wyvern Maunder's 5
epistolary communications were liable to
remain as profound a secret from his
correspondent as from the rest of the
world. Clear and ineligible In conversa-
tion, on paper he became a dark. un-
fathomable mystery. As matter OF fact.
no one had as yet been discovered who
could read a single word Of his hand
writing
One day I received letter from him.
written apparently, as usual in bad
Arabic, with the handle rather han the
point Of the pen From the shape of the
letter / thought it did not seem to require
an answer, and [ had grown accustomed
TO judging by appearances in these mat
ters ], therefore, took no notice OF IT,
although it looked little blacker. the
words were larger. ard yet closer togeth-
er. and altogether 1t seemed more inter
esting than usual But our friendship
was growing fainter Besides, I was go
ing to Tunbridge Wells for Easter by an
early train with little Gladys Harvey
was to join me the next day.. and also
| mad something on my mind that made
me rather absent at the time.
Harvey had risen late, and I went to
say good-by TO him, not at all liking to
leave him even for day Then. as /
went down and saw his breakfast ready
IN the diningroom, 1 found the letter in
my pocket; so l nut 1t on his plate, think
ing it might amuse him to try To deciph-
er ''old "yvern's scrawl," and went off
with Gladys and her governess to Tun-
bridge Wells. 1 was thoughtful
In the autumn / had seen a palmist
known as the Wonderful Mrs Hopkinson.
who assured me with absolute certainty
of the mistake that a man with the ini-
tials a. II. would come into my life" and
in the early spring would save me
from a terrible danger" For a time I
was skepticaL Yet, as ! met In steady
succession Anthony Hope, Arthur Hum
freys, Andre HelionaIovich. Lord Alfred
Haverley and Algy Hazler, and when
neither Of them appeared to show any de-
sire to come into my life. 1 felt disap-
pointed The only one who certainly did
take little trouble at one time was AIgy
Hazler, and / am bound to say that IL
one had TO be saved from danger AIgy
Hdzler would have been the person L
should have chosen to do it.
But after meeting him and discovering
ms good qualities-and his initials-at a
dinner party, after seeing him accidental
~ at the theatre and on purpose in the
park. he confided in me that he was ''pri-
yateiy engaged to u dear girl down in
HertfOrdShire.
Privately engaged, indeed People with
the appearance of MIR. AlgeT'uon Hazler
ought to have the deceuCy to be publicly
engaged, and they ought to wear notice
to that effect Not that il mattered: what
in heavens name had it to do with me.
However, it was spring; there apparel to
be no dangers about and that absurd Al
gy q never liked him. really) had gone TO
spend Easter down in Hertfordshire %
Gladys. Miss Mills and l wandered about
the common, bought for each other paper
knives of curious Tunbridge ware. and
Gladys presented us each with a shell pin
cushion, demanding first the money TO pay
for these useful gifts.
The next morning received telegram.
of which this is an accurate copy:
ITO Mrs. Wentworth, Tiles Hotel.
Mount Sebastian, Tunbridge Wells-All
discovered. Never return to my roof. Am
communicating solely through solicitor
HARVEY BASSETT WENTWORTH"
Naturally l felt horribly upset and be
wildered, and, of course l simply hadn't
a notion of what it could mean. The more
[ read ii aloud to Miss Mills. and the
more she read it aloud to me, the less We
both understood it. In the shadow of
the Toad Rock | took the resolution to
ask Harvey what was the matter. L
went indoors, when another telegram
was given to me at the hotel. 1t ran
thus:
Come at once to Chiltern Court. WIN
meet you station. Bring Gladys and
Mills. Hope arrange all right. but must
u h5sner II
CHARLEY
This was. if possible, a greater puzzle
than the last. The only obvious thing
was that we must leave the Tiles Hotel
at once.
Our journey from Tunbridge Wells to
my cousins country house remains a
zhastly blank In my memory | believe
that even Miss Mills-and certainly
GLADYS, who is hVe-would, if she had
been Informed OF it all. have doubted nv
utter ignorance of the trouble
Charley and Violet, my greatest friends
are a delightful young married connis'
-hdrIey-weli. | think that ought to be
enough. Everyone knows what a Char
ey Is Ike. He was exceptional only in
BENG stun tonder of sport Of all kinds /.
-han most Charleys (particularIv for /
shooting with an airgun at cats).
At the little station at Chiltern we saw /
charley. '"
-, ,,,BH;eatrice. get up here. Miss Mills and !
Iiadys can go in the carriage" and i'm .
,wo minutes | was being whirled along .
IN high dogcart, side by side with .
harley, who at once began
We'll, youv been making n nice mess
# it, -'''79
Charley I implored, what Is 1t all |
ibout?"
"Oh. Beatrice. hang it, he answered IN
! tone of despair. do shut up that sort
# thing, or l can't be the least use. Vio-
ct and u stick to you, if yOu'n tell us
.verything."
But / don't know anything"
~ on re enough to irritate a saint Lis