The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1906-12-04

! turned, and in the midst Of the means
which broke unconsciously from hel
lips said with a pitiabie effort at her
old manner:
Go away, Loretta; 1 am ill; have
been i'll for two days. / don't like peo
pie to look at me like thatm Then, as the
girl shrank back. she added in a break.
ing voice, When Mr.. Jeffrey comes
home and said no more for several
minutes, during which she clutched
her throat with both hands and strug-
gled with herself till she got her voice
back and found herself able to repeat:
when Mr.. Jeffrey comes, if he does
come, tell him that 1 was right about
the way that novel ended. Remember
that you are to say to him the moment
you see him that / was right about the
novel and that he Is to look and see if
it did not end as 1 said it would. And.
Loretta here she rose and approach
ed the speaker with a sweet, appeal
ing look which brought tears to the
impressionable girls eyes-"dont go
gossiping about me downstairs.
shan't be sick long. ] am going to be
better soon, very soon. BY the time
you see me here again / shall be quite
like my old self. Forget how-how"-
and Loretta said she seemed to have
difficulty In finding the right word here
-'how childish / have been"
OF course Loretta promised, but she
is not sure that she would have had
the courage to keep all this to herself
if she had not heard Mrs. Jeffrey stop
in Miss Tuttle's room on her way out.
That relieved her and enabled her TO
go downstairs to her own supper with
more appetite than she had thought
ever to have again. Alas, It was the
last good meal she was able to eat for
days, In three hours afterward
man came from the station house with
the news Of Mrs. Jeffrey's suicide in
the horrible old house in which she
had been married only two weeks be-
fore.
AS this had been a continuous mar
rative and concisely told, the coroner
had not interrupted her. When at this
point little gasp escaped Miss Tuttle
and a groan broke from Francis JEFF
frey's hitherto sealed lips the feelings
Of the whole assemblage seemed to
find utterance. A young wife's misery
eliminating in death on the very spot
where she had been so lately married!
What could be more thrilling or ap-
peal more closely to the general heart
of humanity? But the cause Of that
misery, This was what every one pres
ent was eager to have explained. This
is what we now expected the coroner
TO bring out. But instead of continu-
ing on the line he had opened up he
proceeded to ask:
where were you when this officer
brought the news you MENTION
I'm the hall, sir. 1 opened the door
for him."
'And to whom did he first mention
his errand?"
ITO Miss Tuttle. She had come in
just before him and was standing at
the foot Of the stairs
What, Was Miss futile out that
evening"
YES; she went out very soon after
Mrs. jeffrey left. When she came in
she said that she had been around the
block, but she must have gone around
it more than once, for she was absent
two hours"
Ibid you let her in?"
Eyes, sir"
the block?"
Eyes sir"
Ibid she say anything else?
"She asked if Mr.. jeffrey had come
In
Anything else?'
"Then if Mrs jeffrey had returned
ITO both OF which questions you an
swered"-
"A plain No."
"Now tell us about the officer
"He rang the bell almost imm ediate-
~ after she did. Thinking she would
want to slip upstairs before 1 admitted
any one, waited a minute for her to
go, but she did not do SO, ana - the
oficer stepped in She
"Well:'
"She shrieked."
What. Before he spoke?~
"Yes, sir"
Just at sight of him."
'Yes, sir"
did he wear his badge in plain /
view:'
Yes; on his breast
$50 that you knew him to be police I
,fficer?'
Yes
And Miss futile shrieked at seeing
| police officer?''
Yes. and sprang forward" 81
did she say anything?"
Not then
What did she do?''
Waited for him to speak.
(which he did"
AT once and very brutality. He ask
ID IL she was Mrs. Jeffrey's sister, and
when she nodded and gasped Yes he
,lurted out that Mrs. jeffrey was dead:
hat he had just come from the old
iouse in Waverley avenue, where she
lad just been found"
And Miss Tuttle?"
Didn't know what to say; just hid
Ter face. She was leaning against the
newell post. SO it was easy for her TO
10 so. / remember that the man stared
It her for taking it so quietly and ask
ng no questions.
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