Daily camera., 1901-08-02
darling! But this Is a dreadful shock

UaCliHR! but Wis is u uISdulul sHoch'
Will you mind my getting a 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
fast, and the breakfast grew cold while
he read on through paper after paper,
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
meekly 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 a 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 it would mean If McLane
should die now-and l cannot tell you"
And all she said was: "Hush! Randy,
dear, l 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 wasa wonder that
under the circumstances he rallied su.fi-
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-in-law. but
was not allowed to see the patient;
neither was she except at rare inter
walls, an atliiction 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.. McLanc was declared we'll
enough TO move they carried him
aboard a steamer and sent him 10 Pana-
ma. Fanny. his wife, in attendance, as
in duty bound. But even the best and
biggest staterOom was close and stuiTy,
as she said, and her hours were mainly
spent on deck. Ii was the nurse who
had to bear with Macs cease.ess plants.
He had grown suddenly old, childish,
decrepit, fearful. They had to stay
some days at Panama, and had a
wretched time, at least he did. being
transferred thence 10 Havana, where
he was enjOiued 10 remain at least six
weeks. But some morbid longing
drew him irresist;bly back to New
York. Go he would, and in April they
exchanged the summer seas, the soft,
perfume-aden air, the warm sunshine
of the tropics for the fogs and bluster
OF the North Atlantic seaboard. pueu-
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
decorously in widows weeds and listen
ing 10 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 4 beneficiary? Why
should he be placed in chtcge of her
RADBt4NN " % s44N -ON'f4Al OHbAEu "
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 suddennsss the tears had van
ished, dried of, presumably, by the hot
flush on her lovely cheek. Some one
had obtaiped undue influence over her
husband in his last moments, she de-
clared. Some one had swindled her.
Some one should be given to understand
she was a child-a puppet-no longer,
and two some ones. rnc,s and Aunt
Mellen, hao tremendous scene with
the widow before the funeral baked
meats were fairly cold-before the flow
ers began to droop about the new
filled grave. One row led to another,
and then TO litigation, and then Sister
Charlotte had relented, sister love and
tenderness triumphing over the sense
of indignation which followed Fans
repeated neglects of sisterly letters
and sisterly advice, and she came east
with her imperturbable Ned, and found
al ioohIuS w me anu III anu lIOuDltu,
and while Ned remained for legal bat.
tie royal with the girls rutative
guardian, Charlotte took Frances to 4
charming resort in the west for a
placid summer, and that fall the lovely
widow was domiciled in an apartment
of her own within view of the flashing
waves of Lake Michigan, within sound
OF the ceaseless roar of Chicago.
Meantime the junior member of the
great firm of Graeme, Rayburn & Parry
had been doing yeoman service in
"pinching" Uncle Mellen, and many
valuable concession had been made,
and, thanks to her gifted brother-in-
law, the fair and now fully restored
widow found herself in apparently un-
disputed possession of the revenues of
certain houses, lots and lands, stocks
and bonds that would have been beyond
her claim; and now had come the long
ing to spread her wings and fly, for
with independence came the intoler-
ance of Charlotte's well-meant, yet i'll
advised monitions. She would have no
elder sister preaching: Don't do this
and don't do that" day after day to
bo 4