The Carlisle independent., 1906-12-27

lnlHk, bOD ndu uOlu her not to tire herself by rummaging while he was away. Rummaging! That meant hunt ing in the garret 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. 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 if he had cherished her letters and keepsakes, then he must have loved her. Adelaide was engaged to old MT. 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 fit of pique.
 She turned from the window with sudden determination. It 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 a few strange resolutions for the coming | year.
 It was dark on the garret stairs. She stopped at the door of Bob's dress ing-room and took candlestick from the mantel. It was wedding gift-a 1 Japanese bronze griffin, with outspread l 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. It was small, old-fashioned ordinary brass key. She looked at it hesitating- l ly. It had never been on Bob's ring, she knew. The space between the wings of the bronze griffin was clever l idea of concealment.
 She set her lips closely and went up | the garret stairs with candlestick in 1 one hand and the key in the other. l 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. It 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 1 for inspection, but she did not open it. | Thoughts whirled like the fiuttering | snowf1akes 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. It 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 a child. She had been 1 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- stant 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 a | coroner's right to hold a post-mortem over his dead past.
 There was the sound of a footstep on the stairs, and she relocked the drawer quickly.
 ''Ill be down in moment, Nora" | she called. You may serve dinner" The voice that answered was famil- | far and masculine. She nearly let the candle fall in her surprised recognition | of it.
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