The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1905-02-25

IL.
Kaye as it was possible to be. rat
nevertheless, there seemed to be not the
slightest doubt that she was his daugh-
ter Mr.. Guest. the solicitor, and cid
DIR. Grey had tried to find some flaw II
her story, but it seemed right enough.
twenty-five years ago Mr.. Hayes wife
had deserted him, taking with her her
two-year-o1d baby. They had been very
poor, and Mrs. Kaye hated poverty as
fiereely as foolish, empty-headed women
do sometimes hate it. It was Mrs
Hayes one strong emotion-hatred OF
the poverty which kept her from the
Injuries OF life. and she left it for what
she stupidity believed was far better.
When Mr.. Kaye get his divorce she
married again, only TO plunge some
years later, when her second husband
had run through his fortune, into pow
erty deeper still Apparently it broke
her heart, for she died leaving her child
to the care of her husband-an adyen-
turer, sWindler and thief.
How they had lived since her moth
er's death Claudia Kaye did not care to
say, but she had come upon Treherne
Court by accident $50 she informed
them). had probably tried to blackmall
Mr.. Kaye, and would no doubt Fave tried
again had he not met with the accident.
She had seen him and spoken to him,
she said, and he had owned her as his
daughter.
Now she claimed the estate; aLfa both
Mr.. Guest and DR.. Grey were disheart-
ened and troubled, for the last will Mr..
Kaye had made had upset everything
| and played straight into the handG OF
the woman before them, for he had tIs-
tinctly written his daughter" instead
of his adopted daughter, as he had
meant to do. His other wills each had
adopted" pref1ed but this last-that
strange fancy to reWrite his Will-had
undone everything.
| And it was absolutely unnecessary
unless, indeed, the memory Of the past
had affected him and made him wish to
reinstate his own daughter.
Yet they could not believe that, for he
| had not mentioned her-had not even
limited at her Observation-Disclosures he died.
| 1t was Mary's name which had been on
his lips.
| well, said Mr. Guest to the claimant,
IF you can prove that you are indeed
Mr.. Hayes daughter, | am afraid you
viii have a clear case. But you must
| prove it first
| A week later the news was spread in
| the town that Mary was an heiress no
longer-but a poor girl with her living
| to get. Hon. Arthur Tenby could not
realize it-could not believe that such
| misfortune would overtake him, for
Mary was the prettiest girl he knew, and
| it was so hard to give her up.
Still, he did it as gently as he could, in
/ DR.. @Grey's house. where she had gone
to live for awhile. It was such a pitiful
| thing, he thought, that people so well
/ suited to each other should have to part,
and at one moment he was almost
tempted to risk everything-to throw
| away his ambition to marry an helress
/ and fight poverty with Mary.
The feeling vanished in an instant
| when he remembered his embarrassed
/ affairs, and he told her outright that he
| could not afford to marry yet-that they
would have to wait for years, perhaps
/ forever, and Mary decided at once to
wait forever.
i The odd part of it was that Mary did
| not care.
After he had gone she sat listlessly
over the fire. What would become OF her
I she could not tell; it broke her heart
| to think. She had not a friend in the
world except DR.. Grey, and she could
not live forever upon him. She would
/ have to go out to earn her living in some
way, though how she did not know,
Life seemed horribly hopeless, and she
| almost wished she lay dead beside the
old man whom she had loved as her IA
| Their.
\ She was shaking with sobs when the
door opened suddenly and a young man
entered. He was tall and straight, with
a clean-eut, handsome face
Or. Grey said should find you here, y
he began, and then stopped.
i She got up hurriedly, trying to stop
her tears; and then an odd thing hap
u pened considering she was a penniless
girl whom nobody seemed to want.
II-Die1z- Marlnne= went m 10 her and held
| out his hands.
You know what I want to say" he
cried "You know love you and have
done SO for a long time. Now you are
poor End Capt Tenby has gone car
speak. You know-Mary, you know
love you. Will you be my Wife?"
! Mary looked up and gave a little quick
sob of happiness
"Oh, Dick. i believe the will has done
me some good after ALL she cried
The odd part Of it was that the woman
who called herself Claudia Kaye was moi
Claudia Kaye at all and that Mr.. Kaye
had known it and had handed full proofs
Of the death Of his child % years before
to Mr. Guest before he died. Then he
had said, if Ca.9g3s. Tenby was the fortune
hunter DR.. Grey said he was, it Woule
4 prove him and save Mary a lot OF unhap.
piness.
! And it did. 1t was a dying mans
fancy, and it was the wisest thing hi
could have done.
What became of Claudia Kaye no one
knew. She had come intending to levy
blackmail upon Mr. Kaye. She had
reckoned without her host, fer she die
not know that he held proofs Of tht
/ death Of his own child. After Mr., Guess
produced them she vanished, and Mar,