Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-02-18

Story on LNe HOuS6lOpS- WHAT uOtS IL
amount to?-an old and useless will
is discovered by you, and is burnt
Useful or useless. there it is, or rather
there it isn't"
81 think you are right" said BERTHE
at stands to reason that old Arrow
field would have sent the will to his
lawyer if it really were the last one.
and-anyway, I'll say nothing about it
for the present; but if | meet Stuart
Villiars I'll mention it."
! Royce shrugged his shoulders.
You might do that" he said. non
chalantly; but, if you take my advice,
you won't mention it even to him.
must be going now, old fellow. Thanks
once more, Neither | nor she will
ever forget last night and all you did,
He shook hands and got out into
the street.
AS he did so his hand went to the
breast pocket of his coat where the
will lay; it seemed to burn him like a
sheet of red-hot iron. He had played
his part well but at cost which had
strained every nerve.
AS man who has been snatched
back from the precipice looks down
with a shudder at the awful depths
below, he looked back at the dreadful
moment of doubt and uncertainty
while he waited to hear If BERTHE had
read the will.
! But he had not, and the game was in
Mordaunt Royce's hands.
| He went to his rooms in Mount
Street, and locking the door, took out
/ the will and read and re-read it. Lord
Arrowhead had been something of a
lawyer, and it was drawn up clearly
distinctly and with care. Royce
knew enough about wills to feel sure
that this would stand in any court of
law, and that if Stuart Villiars fought
it he could not upset it.
| Joan Ormsby was entitled to the
estates and moneys of Lord Arrow
field and she was to be Mordaunt
Royce's wife.
His eyes glittered, his mouth water
ed. What could he not do with such
wealth? He was clever, young, poss-
essed of the kind of ability which
goes to make leader amongst men.
He would get a sea. IN the House of
Commons, would take office, gain a
peerage, Lord Deercombe, or perhaps
Earl OF Deercombe, for they would live
at the grand old mansion in Devon
shire and be the great people there!
AS for Joan, she should have every
! thing in the world that could make her
| happy. His love would surround her
! like a guardian and ministering aoee
| How proud he would be of her, How
proud she would be of him! He would
become the leading man in the country,
he who hid once been boy of the
gutter, the lad whom old Craddock
had picked out of the city mud! But
there was no time to be lost; he was
walking, so to speak, in the face of u
volcano, and there would be no surety
of success, no safety indeed, until
Joan was his wife.
That evening Joan was sitting with
a book in her hand beside the fire, but
not reading. Try as she would she
could not concentrate her thoughts
upon the printed page The strange
meeting last night with Lord BERTHE
had brought back the past so plainly,
i so painfully, that she could not dis
miss it from her mind.
Lord Bertie's confession of love had
recalled, in its manly tenderness, the
passionate avowal of Stuart VilIiars
Once more she seemed to be standing
on the Deercombe cliffs, listening TO
his musical voice pouring forth his
love for her Once more she seemed
to stand behind the folding doors in
Piccadilly. listening to BERTHE and Lord
Pontclerc while they made plain to
her the character of Stuart Villiars
and her own peril.
! And once again she asked herself
with an aching heart and perplexing
sense of bewilderment, Why had
yet become willing to marry Miss Ma
zurka?
She strove to put the thoughts from
! her; she had resolved to forget the
! past and, more than all else. Stuart
! Villiars. 1t was her duty to do so
indeed for was she not the promised
wife of Mordaunt Royce?
On the table beside her were the
morning papers containing an account
of the play and the unfortunate fire
which had destroyed the theater.
i The critics exhausted their adject
ives in their praise of her. She was
all that was talented and clever-a
positive genius, in fact: and her future
so the principal daily declared, must
} Ct necessity be brilliant one.
4 There was letter from Mr.. Giffard
! regretting the fire on his own account
but remarking that he deplored it as
j deeply on another, namely, the sudden
interruption to Miss Ida Trevelyan'S
, successful career. He was, however
he begged to state, already negotiat
ing for the use of another theatel
while the Coronet was rebuilding, ant
/ trusted soon to have the pleasure o.
announcing that Miss Trevelyan would
I coon r,aEA her onpearanpp in "a FALSE