Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-09-21

person who last pressed the fatal spring. But perhaps you know that 1 too?"
 | "I"- He paused; words were inn X
 possible to him, and in that pause his i eyes flashed helplessly in the direction of Miss Futile.
 But the major was quick on his feet
 and was already between him and that
 lady. This act forced from MT. Jef- a frey's lips the following broken sen tence:
 'I should - like you to o-t tell-me."
 Great gasps came with each heavily spoken word. Perhaps this morsel of lace will do
 it in a gentler manner than could, responded the district attorney, open ing his hand, in which lay the scrap of lace that an hour or so before had
 plucked' away from the boarding of that fatal closet.
 MT. Jeffrey eyed it and understood. His hands went up to his face, and he swayed to the point of falling. Miss
 Futile came quickly forward. "Ohy' she moaned as her eyes fell on the little white shred "The prov idence of God has found us out. We have suffered, labored and denied in yain.'
 "Yes,'' came in dreary echo from the
 man none of us had understood till now; ''so great a crime could not be hid. God will have vengeance. What are we that we should hope to avert it by any act or at. any cost?" The major, with his eyes fixed pierc- ingly on this miserable man, replied with one pregnant sentence: ''Then you forced your wife to sui-
 cider"
 s.No," he began. But before another word could follow Miss Futile, re
 splendent in beauty and beaming with new life, broke in with the fervid cry: .You wrong him and you wrong her by such suggestion. It was not her husband, but her conscience, that forced her to this retributive act. ] What MT. Jeffrey might have done had she proved obdurate and blind to the z | enormity of her own guilt do not $ know, but that he is innocent of so in- fuencing her is proved by the shock he suffered at finding she had taken her punishment into her own hands" t'Mr. Jeffrey will please answer the question:. insisted the major, where upon the latter, with great effort, but with the first appearance of real can- a dor yet seen in him, said earnestly: I sT did nothing to influence her. ! was in no condition to do so. was benumbed-dead. When first she told q melt was in some words muttered in her sleep-I thought she was laboring a under some fearful nightmare, but when she persisted and questioned S her and found the horror true was 2 like a man turned instantly into stone
 save for one intolerable throb within. . am still so. Everything passes by me like a dream. She was so young, seem
 ingly so innocent and light hearted. z 7 loved her! Gentlemen, you have
 thought me guilty of my wife's death,
 this young fairylike creature to whom ascribed all the virtues, and I was 2 willing, willing that you should think
 so willing even to face the 1istrust and opprobrium of the whole world, and so
 was her sister, the noble woman whom . you see before you, rather than that T the full horror of her crime should be
 known and a name so dear be given up U to execration We thought we could 'l keep the secret-we felt that we must keep the secret We took an oath-in K II QICICL--lu lAC CtlII1dEE, WILL LAC NuClGC- lives opposite us She kept it-God
 bless her. kept 1t. But 1t was all useless-a tiny bit of lace is found U hanging to lifeless splinter, and all ' our efforts all the hopes and agony of e weeks, are gone for naught TIe. worlc P will soon know of her awful deed-and
 I''- a He still loved her. That was appar  l. tered. We marveled in awkward si- T. fence and were glad when the major
 said:
 e ''The deed, as I take it, was an un ; premedirated one on her part. Is thai why her honor was dearer to you than 2 your own, and why you could risk the E reputation if not the life of the woman
 who you say sacrificed herself to il? ?"
 s'Yes, it was unpremeditated She hardly realized her act. If you must . know her heart through all this dread
 ful business we have her words to ' show you-Words which she spent the
 last miserable day of her life in writ ,, ing. The few lines which I showed Ii the captain and which have been pub Hshed to the world was an inclosure = meant for the public eye. The real let | ter, telling the whole terrible truth, I ' kept for myself and for the sister who
 already knew her sin. Oh, we did ev- s erything we couldY' And he again . moaned. "But it was in vain; quite in : ! vain.'
 :. There were no signs of subterfuge in s him now, andwe all, unless except Dur t bin, began to yield him credence. Dur q bin never gives credence to anybody : whose name he has once heard asso- cfated with crime.
 0 And this Pfeiffer was contracted to t her? A man she had secretly married :. while schoolgirl and who at this e very critical instant had found his way : to the house.
 :: You shall read her letter. It was u meant for me for me onlY-hnf vnl