Waterbury Democrat., 1901-03-22

whatever the man hlmself may DrlnS to the marriage altar he demands that he shall meet there only immaculate purity. The realization by Holbin that fortune could be secured only by linking himself for life to Frances, who was thus provep to have com promised herself. was alone sufficient to fill him with bitterness and hatred, though it did not for moment deter him; but by not unnatural operation of the processes which were molding his future he had found himself strangely influenced from the hour of their first meeting by this young girl whose future was to be linked to his. Fresh from school, her mind un- formed, and with but vague ideas of real life, Frances Brookin presented that charming combination of knowl- edge and ingenuousness which makes the girl-woman forever irresistible to men of experience. Himself accom- plished and versatile, he set about the pleasant task of winning her confi- dence, and he might perhaps have succeeded but for over-assiduousness and the wonderful intuition of the feminine mind. The unwelcome re- suits of his efforts were that within two weeks he had fatally alarmed her and as fatally involved himself. For the first time in his life he was gcnu- finely in love.
 It was at this time that Dr. Bred- mar, lowering around his aged patient, discovered the drift of affairs, and, be- coming aware of the infamy planned through the will, privately took com trol of Frances and revealed to her the plot of which she was to be the victim. From that moment Frances turned from Holbin as from a cFinl- inal, and Holbin was piqusd to court 7 her with a fiercer jealousy.
 It was to this heart, consumed Dy hopeless passion, that the revelation made by Louise had winged it's flight like shaft of flame. Try as he might, he could not in the face of corroborat- ing facts convince himself that she spoke altogether falsely or labored uH- der a complete Authorization. Net, looking with the eyes of memory into the open, pallid face of Frances, he could not, he would not, accept the inevitable conclusion forced upon him by Louise. Such was his frame of mind on the day of the funeral, when he remained at the Brookin residence, perhaps his only opportunity to make an examination of Frances apart ments. Before the ca1iages had reached the cemetery he turned the latch and entered her deserted bed- room.
 The appointments of this room were few but tasteful. It abounded in the little belongings of a young girl. To- day there were many evidences of a scene which had defeated good order. A jaunty hat and bright ribbons were hastily thrown aside, and the open bu- reau drawers revealed dainty laces and lingerie. But the eyes of the in quisitive intruder took notice of none of these things; they were riveted in- stantly to an object that lay beside book upon the comfortable, near which stood an armchair. That ob- ject was slender cigar. He took it up-answered. He knew that in the Brookin household he was the only smoker-and he did not smoke slender cigars. To the mind of this man, ever open to suspicious and suggestions of evil, that strange cigar was testimony unimpeachable. It was the knife in the heart of a jealous love. With in expressible rage and with a fierce hatred of every living thing, he placed the weed in his own case. Here, then, he reasoned had the man described by Louise been sitting before the : dawn of that fatal day; here had the little saint kneeled to place her arms about him and say farewell! Wonder was the window, straight ahead from which Louise had fired. Brave, faith full Louise! His heart warmed towards | her, despite the fact that she had fired to kill him. Somewhere in that crim- son carpet was the blood of her vic tim if her aim had been true. Was it true? He glanced back over his shoulder; the ball would have struck the wall behind him had she missed her aim. And there in the wall,. a little out of line, it is true. was a small hole. Amazed, he hurriedly ex- amined it. The shot, after all, had missed.
 Then this doubt came to the active mind: Why had the man been car- ried away if the shot failed?
 Holbin went quickly to his own room, where he secured a candle and powerful sun glass. Holding the latter over the perforation in the plas. tering, he discovered a slight red stain.
 "Blood!" he whispered: "she did not miss!" Opening his penknife, he care. fully cut a section from the broken plaster. Whoever the man was, he was struck in the head. Here is the hair"
 For a few moments Holbin was deeI in thought. Then he drew from his pocket the pistol which he had taker from Louise and examined it with the eye of an army expert. Apparently puzzled, he tried the depth of the hole in the plasteEing with pencil ano found that the perforation was com
 plete. He seated himself in the arm chair facing the window. If Frances had been. kneeling with her back te the window, the face of the unknown man must have been fully exposed T1<a