Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-22

uONH d street III 69tn MISS ' lithS u
by in a carriage. A gust of wind took
/ off her hat Lidderdale chased it and re-
stored it to the lady She promptly in
vited him to dinner, and for the fun OF
the thing and because it was an adVen-
ture Iidderdale accepted. He often saw
| Miss Vining after that. In fact. he de-
cared she fell in love with him and asked
him to marry her. He had no love. how
ever. for her and tried to avoid her. But
she was passionate and jealous and kept
on his track. When he went away for
his holidays to the seaside resort OF
Margate she followed She had her yacht
| there and her carriage. They spent some
| weeks together. One day. while out driv-
| ing, Miss Vining took the road that ran
along the top of the cliffs. She again
asked Lidderdale to marry her, and said
If he refused she would drive over the
precipice. He tried to reason with her
but she whipped up the horses and it was
only at the cost of a broken collarbone
that Lidderdale managed to avert a ca
tastrophe.
fell in love with Miss Chapman and be-
came engaged.
Miss Vining was not known at minister
or, in fact, in Bath or any of the towns
| in the west. Yet many of Undertakes
| friends had heard the same stories about
| her from the bank manager. The only
| Winnings are a laborer's family who lived
| in a hamlet near minister. One of the
| girs--Julia-was so beautiful that she
was called ''the belle of Shepton" and
Jewel Vining. 1t is known that Lid
derdale and Jewel were acquainted
! They had been seen together, but not
often Strange to say. Jewel Nining
disappeared from Somersetshire at about
the same date as did Lidderdale, and all
| subsequent trace of her has been lost.
| Six days before his wedding lay to
Miss Chapman Lidderda1e journeyed up
| to London. He took with him a small
| handbag only in the way of baggage
But he drew $4,000 odd from his bank
Several friends talked to him on the
journey. He was coming to London to look
| over some property in Tooley street for
| an Australian client. He arrived at the
Great Western Hotel, at Paddington, and
there found message from the surveyor
| that the property could not be looked at
| that day.
On the same day Lidderdale wrote a
| letter to Miss Chapman which. in part,
reads:
IT promised you if 1 ever saw Miss
So dear at once. She has found out her
| old lover is dead, and those old buffers of
lawyers must have told her that they eX-
pected me up. SO the first person l ran
against in getting out of the train was
her. 1 soon told her what she wanted
and got rid of her. She knows we are to
be married. but does not seem to know the
date of the wedding. Now, my sweet
darling, just be happy about this; 1t Will
be all right. Excuse haste, as L want 10
start off,
From that date Lidderdale vanished.
February 8 there was slipped into mail
ing box at the office of the London Times
an obituary notice, with the money nee
essary to pay for its insertion. On the
back of the notice was written in wom-
ans hand Miss B. A. H. Winning and
the address of a fashionable fiat build
ing IN Westminster. The Times published
| the notice as follows:
LIDDERDALE. On January 80 1892. on Miss
ROBERTSON LIDDERDALE of minister.
result Of accident on January g. aishtng
Soon after this Miss Chapman received
the mysterious registered package from
London. 1t was addressed in an unknown
| handwriting and contained, besides the
| s2,5UO and Miss Winnings visiting card
| with the message on the back. a jubilee
coin given by Miss Chapman to her lover
| and Christmas card.
Every attempt was made to discover
| further details Personal advertisements
were inserted in the agony columns
of all the London papers. and rewards
| were offered for information about Miss
| Vining, her yacht and the certificate OF
death of Lidderdale. Exhaustive search
was made among he registers of the
| British Isles, but no death certificate
was in existence and no Foresight was
| found in the yacht registers of England
| or the United States. Lloyds searched
| all its records the world over without re-
| suit.
| However, it was discovered that sma
dandy-rigged yacht named Foresight had
| been seen off the coast at Westgate and
Margate, and it was fact that Lidder-
| dale had broken his collarbone while out
driving with a lady on the Margate cliffs.
But there Is trace OF any wealthy
! American creole named Vining, and at
| the fashionable address given on the obit-
uary notice no such person was ever
known.
| 1t is somewhat peculiar that Fore
| sight Is the motto of the Lidderdale
| family.
The $500 received by Miss Chapman is
| still intact. The. money is in notes drawn
| by Lidderdale from the bank sixteen
| years ago. His accounts at the bank
were perfectly straight and he left much
property behind which has increased in
value It is the trustee of the estate who
| asks the court to declare Lidderdale dead,
| in order to collect the insurance policies.
! Miss Chapman will not touch any of the
| money She has plenty OF her own. She
does not believe her lover dead but that
| he has been kidnapped by the rich and
| mysterious Miss Vining.
She has waited patiently sixteen years
| for his return. She will wait until the
| end.
The solution of the mystery. it is be-
| ,ieved by many. lies in the United States.
| But will il be solved? Who can answer?