Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1906-12-28


herself by rumnaging while he was
away. Rummaging. That meant hunt
ing in the garnet and running the risk
of discovering the desk
And Bess had spoken of Adelaide
Clifford. There had been talk of a
summer engagement, she remembered.
1 Adelaide was older than Bob. Some
way she had always blamed her for
! the romance, and had looked upon Bob
as an impressionable youngster. But
4 if he had cherished her letters and
keepsakes, then he must have loved
her. Adelaide was engaged to old Mr..
Thurston now-Copper Thurston, the
boys called him. Perhaps, after all.
Bob had been jealous of the copper
made millions, and had married her in
a fit of pique.
She turned from the window with
sudden determination. 1t lacked half
an hour of dinner time. A lonely din
ner for a bride, she thought, as she
went upstairs, her first New Years
eve. Perhaps by the time the midnight
bells rang out she might be making
few strange resolutions for the coming
year.
1t was dark on the garnet stairs.
She stopped at the door of Bob's dress
ing-room and took a candlestick from
the mantel. 1t was a wedding gift-a
Japanese bronze griffin. with outspread
wings and SPIRAL sinuous tail.
AS she held it to the gas jet to light
the candle something fell on the rug
at her feet and she picked it up. 1t
was a small, old-fashioned ordinary
brass key. She looked at it hesitating-
ly 1t had never been on Bob's ring,
she knew. The space between the
wings of the bronze griffin was a clever
idea of concealment.
She set her lips closely and went up
the garnet stairs with candlestick in
one hand and the key in the other.
Half way there was a turn at small
landing, and it was at the angle made
by this that she had found the little
low door leading to the catch ALL
She opened it now and entered, half
closing the door after her.
The desk was pushed to one side
with some trunks and boxes. 1t was
a quaint, antique affair of mahogany,
severely colonial in style. The main
body was crescent-shaped. supported
on hand-carved legs. There were four
drawers, two on each side, and small,
low cabinet of pigeon-holes on top.
Suzanne stood motionless before it
for several minutes, trying to make up
her mind to insert the key. When she
did so, in the lock of the nearest top
drawer, her hand trembled slightly
and she held her breath The key
turned easily and the draw was ready
for inspection. but she did not open it.
Thoughts whirled like the futtering
snowflakes through her mind, and she
stood again irresolute.
She had told Bess that she believed
absolutely in Bob. Higher than her
love for him had been her unfaltering
belief and confidence in him. 1t was
the very keystone of her marriage
faith, and yet, at the first blow of sus-
picion, it gave way.
Bess was a child, with the impulsive
judgment OF cnllu. Que udu ucSu
wrong to even tell her of the desk,
wrong to discuss Bob or his motives
with her at all, or to listen for an in
slant to any doubt of him, even in
Jest. She must have faith, and wait.
He had probably locked the desk
against the curiosity of the servants
and had forgotten it in the hurry and
excitement of the wedding. She must
believe in him. The mere fact that
they were married did not give her
coroners right to hold post-mortem
over his dead past.
There was the sound of footstep |
on the stairs, and she relocked the |
drawer quickly.
'Tll be down in a moment, Nora,
she called. You may serve dinner
The voice that answered was famil- |
lar and masculine. She nearly let the
candle fall in her surprised recognition
of it.
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