Troy weekly news. (Troy, Idaho) 1897-1933, 1906-02-23

ed the eyes of the villagers IN church
that morning, and replaced it by a light
cashmere gown.
"The last Sunday that l shall be
known to the world as Miss Mailing"
she unused. Before this time next week
Jack and | will be away from here,
happy in each others society, and in
the certainty that nothing on earth can
ever separate us. Most young women
would have numberless love tokens to
destroy before their marriage; have alb
solutely nothing that l fear my hus-
bands seeing. Circumstances have been
against my cultivating lovers as an
amusement, and l am spared the farce of
destroying the evidences of my past
folly"
When she had taken two or three
turns up and down the room, she stopped
in front of her desk and looked at it
thoughtfully.
Il suppose l may as well destroy it,"
she said, absently. at can do me no
good to keep it, and it might possibly
do me harm in the future. That must
have been in my mind all the time"
She unlocked the small bronze box on
the toilet table with a key that hung
from a gold chaiu round her neck, and
took from it a bunch of keys. Then
drawing up a chair to the desk she I'M
locked that also, and went slowly
through the contents.
She came upon one or two letters that
interested her slightly and drew her
thoughts away from her original purpose
to search the desk, and it was not until
both sides were quite empty that she
discovered with sudden heart-quaking
fear the absence of that for which she
was searching.
look of wild despair flashed from
her eyes and her breath came in short,
sharp gasps, as she turned to the heaps
OF odds and ends which she had already
gone through, with a hope that in her
absence of mind she might have passed
what she sought without noticing it.
her quick, nervous fingers turned over
the papers until the pile had once more
been thoroughly searched; and then Pau
line Mailing sank back in her chair with
her hand to her head and a look of de-
SPAR In her eyes Horrible thoughts
chased each other through her aching
brain; and. when o'clock at last struck,
she had arrived at only one definite CON
clusion, that the person who had possess
sion of the missing article and the one
who had advertised for the address Of
Sir Godfrey Mailing were one and the
same.
When she rose and relocked the desk
she was haggard and pale, and she look
ed at herself wistfully in the glass; and
n So
heart that her beauty might not leave
her until she was Jack Dornton's wife,
In the midst of all that threatened her
loss of name, wealth, position-it was
almost touching to note how this worldly
woman counted everything as nothing
compared with her love for Jack.
Lord Summers was one of the guests
at Mallingford. He was staying lover
the seventeenth" and the fussy kindly
old man was slightly concerned at the
existing state of affairs. He arrived only
on the Saturday evening. and he was
surprised to find Jack still at the Park
And when are my pictures to be
completed, Mr.. Dornton?' he asked.
This very question had been point
of disagreement between Jack and Pau
line. He had wished TO carry out the
commission for those six pictures. and
she had urged the unftness of his earn
ing another penny by his painting after
their marriage. So he hestated a little
before he answered
Are you anxious to have them soon?
| am anticipating a winter in Rome this
year. and l should like, if possible. to
devote myself while there to a close
study of the old masters. But, if you
are particular as to time, | will finish
your commission before touch any other
work. of course"
mo, | don't think l am exactly in a
hurry, if you are not" and as his lord
ship spoke he thought of the avidity
with which Jack had accepted the offer
when it was originally made, and his
voluntary promise to complete the series
by the end of the year. 80 you mean
to winter in Romer he said, pleasant
ly. And how does Miss Ethel Mallett
Ike the prospect of so long a separa-
ton %
Jack Redeemed suddenly, and he hated
himself for il.
Il did not know you took enough IN
terest in my private affairs to be led
into investigating them" he answered.
Nor do |. You are mistaken; it is
Miss Mallett's affairs l am interested
in. / beg you will not credit me with
prying into your personal affairs at all.
As l have spoken on the matter, and
as you seem TO resent the liberty-which.
believe me. was not intended az such
must explain how things are met
an old friend of mine, with his daurh-
ter, at the Exhibition of the Roval Acsd-