Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1905-08-12

60. - go. ..ss-.-
'Please, ma'am, Miss Smiths room is
simply ransaeked, and she's nowhere to
be found" cried a terrified maid at Mrs,
Rochester's door on the following morn
ing. Looks for all the world as if the
forty thieves had been there and carried
everything off, her included"
One thief had been there, and that was
"Alice Smith" or the impostor posing as
such, herself
She had fled at the first hint of the
detection of her imposture, and had taken
with her everything of value on which
she could lay her hands, and pack in
sufficiently small space to be carried by
herself.
How she must have regretted leaving
all her lovely wardrobe behind to become
the spoil of the very maid she had de-
I tested, but the trnkets, jewelry and
money (of which she always had con
siderable amount in hand in case of any
sudden emergency, though never for a
moment had she dreamt of such a de-
nouement as really occuTed) had all
gone and SO she made her exit, unloyed,
unlamented and despsed by all.
Yes, by all for her one friend and
flatterer from the first hour of her ar
rival until her hasty flight was the one
who turned most bitterly against her
when Mr.. Silver opened his lips and told
the secret of her hasty flight.
Briefly, then, Just before Sir Hilary
died he received a pathetic letter from
his onet time partner, John Smith, saying
he was dying in great poverty, having
lost all his money through the breaking
of the Australian banks at the time of
the panic some months before. leaving
behind him one child-a girl--dying of
consumption, who would be totally UNI
provided for. Would his dear old friend
see that her last DAYS were not those
embttered by desperate need, even of
comforts or food?
The answer was large sum of money
cabled over within twelve hours of the
receipt of the news with an urgent re
quest to John Smith to bring his daugh-
ter over if possible, and both make their
home with him.
The money arrived in time for Mr.
Smith to die in peace and surety that his
daughter would want for nothing, and
that after his death she would still have
father living. Alas! only too soon Sir
Hilary died also. and it was found that
for her life, which at most he had been
told, could only be prolonged year or so
more, he had willed her all his money
to go afterwards to Violet Surrey
meaning it as a test of unselfsh love for
his nephew. Sir Halco, in whom the elder
man had, to his ~eep regret, detected
certain lazy love of pleasure springing
up, which bid fair to choke the good that
was in him.
Mr.. Silver, who alone was in possession
of all the detaus of the affair. together
with the motive thereof, had instructions
to keep it to himself, which he did, only
saying a word in season, when he had
serious doubts that the well-meant plot
had miscarried.
instead of Miss Smith being a hopeless
invalid she was to all appearance in 70
bust health-and that was why Mr. Sill
yer needed confidential agent to 90 to
Australia and make inquiries
Long before Sir Halco found out the
truth Miss Smith" had disappeared. be
ing, in fact. only girl the real invalid
had engaged to wait on her during the
voyage across. and whose name also by
chance was Smith-Rose Smith.
Alice Smith-the true one-got the
maid TO book the passages, which she did
as the two Miss Smiths and when the
mistress died and was buried at sea. tho
daring plot came into the maids head to
masquerade in the others place, and hay-
ing heard all about the strange legacy,
and how no one had ever seen the real
heiress. she bent her mind on the sub
ject, opened all letters in the boxes and
boldly determined to carry out the role,
which she did-almost--to hy a fugitive
in the end, to know she was detected
despised, yet mercifully spared a prison
cell.
Even Mrs. Rochester pleaded humblv
for her to be forgiven, and pleaded in
the right spirit.
when I remember how that gold dag
zled me-brought up as. l was by good