Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-04-01

Possibly I may have to go to Frayne and
shall need you with me, but meantime
this thing must be explained. Every
thing indicates that this Captain New
hall, who was one of his chums in New
Orleans, has some heavy hold on him
a gambling debt, perhaps, or knowledge
of cotton transactions during the war.
l cannot but feel that you know some
thing of the man. Tell me, did you
meet that fellow when he was here?''
Loring stood looking gravely. straight
into the face of his superior. Swiftly
his thoughts sped back to that soft,
warm evening when he and the rector
slowly assembled the gentle grade toward
Mrs. Burton's homestead, and there was
unfolded before his eyes that picture he
was destined never to forget-the lovely
tints of the clear northern sky, the broad
valley of the river, with it's bluffs and
hillocks, the dark forms, slender and
graceful both, coming nearer and nearer
until in startled recognition of one at
least he halted in dumb amaze and
therefore caught but fitting glimpse of
the other as it whisked jauntily-aWaY.
He had his suspicious, strong and acute,
yet with nothing tangible as yet on
which to base them, and if he breathed
them what would be the result?
The girl whose identity he had prom
ised not to betray "uGtil Sister Naomi
could be heard FROM would beyond all
question be called to account To his
very door had she come within 48 hours
Of that strange evening which the
rector's prattle had made public prop
erty, begged a minutes interview with
out giving any name, and, stepping
down into the plainly furnished little
western parlor, there in the dim light
of a single kerosene burner, Walter
Loring had come face to face with his
old love-GeraIdine
Mindful of all the harm she had done
him in San Francisco, rather than of
what had passed before, he met her in
stern silence. On his generosity, his
magnanimity, she threw herself. She
had deceived and wronged him in ever
engaging herself to him, she said, and
would have gone on to say more.
''That is all past and done with, ;" he
coldly interposed. "What is it now?"
And then it transpired that good Mr..
Lambert had been the means of secur-
ing for Naomi an excellent position;
that Naomi had gone to enter on her
duties and had sent for her sister to
come and live at Mrs Burleigh's until
she could better provide for her; that
Naomi was living under an assumed
name, and that she prayed that no one
might know their unhappy past. The
interview was cut short by the curiosity
of some member of the household who
came in ostensibly to trim the lamp.
''It shall be as you wish until you
hear from your sister, said Loring
bowling her out with punctilious civility
and praying in secret that there it
might end, but end it did not. Within
another 48 hours she was there with
another quest. The servant who an
nounced her presence in the parlor be-
low did SO with a confidential and i'm
pertinent grin.
1.-The same lady wants to see Lieu
tenant Loring," and this time he was
colder and sterner than before.
Her evident purpose was to revert to
the relations that once existed, though
her plea was only for news from Cali
fornia. Had nothing ever been heard of
the missing Jewels? she asked. Their
need was SO great! She had most excel
lent prospects of an engagement IN Bos-
ton If she could only have six months
instruction under Signor Calabresi, but
his terms were so high, and she would
have TO live in New York, and people
kept writing her that she and Naomi
really ought to make some effort to re-