The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-05-29

FL; THE CAN0N'S WARD ;;:;
(slel OR 4 TALE OF MONEY MADNESS. e1eecl
V.!s 5z54MEs7A1N pawn: 49,
90 o
BY JAMES PAWN.
OR 4 TALE OF MONEY MADNESS.
CHAPTER x.
Farewell Hope.

ASSo4S oS SNoS - SO PSSSAoAS WIZ
ers. The Investigation he was about
to make was as delicate as it was
momentous. First he made sure that
there vas nothing more in the blot
ting pad that he had purchased save
the mere leaves, and also that on
them there was no impress Of writ
ten words which could throw any
ltght upon the matter in hand. Then
he compared most carefully the
memorandum he had taken from the
dead mans mirror with the hand
writing of the letter found in the
book. Making allowance for the
fact that one was executed with the
haste and inattention to caligraphy
peculiar to a trough copy" and the
other was a list of references prob
ably written with some care, he felt
confident that they were by the same
hand. AS for the contents of the
letter they were Of such Importance
to a certain young lady as to account
for her taking any steps to prevent
them reaching the eye of the person
for whom it was intended, and OF
the step that had been taken he
could make a shrewd guess. AL
though deficient in imagination
Adair had a logical mind; he could
follow a chain of reasoning, and
therefore much more n of facts,
link by link, and the conclusion he
arrived at was that the letter of
which Mrs. Aylett had spoken, the
original of which he now held in his
hand, had been stolen by Jeanette
at the instance of her young mis-
tress. He did not believe that it
was Miss Aldred who had sent those
flowers; it had been n far nearer
to the dead man than she, though
they were sent, for anything but SEN
timental reasons. It had been all a
ruse to get possession of that COM
promising letter, and 1t had succeed
ed. So far Sophy's whole proceed
ings were as plain to him as if he
had been a witness Of them.
And those of the dead man were
equally clear. Composition had been
a difficult matter with him, and it
was probable that he had written
more than one copy of so momentous
a communication before he had got
it to his mind. The rest he had no
doubt destroyed, but this n had
escaped his attention and the search
of others. How thankful Miss So
ply ought to be that it had fallen
into such safe hands as his. This
was the letter..
"As to your proposition" "a word
poor Perry had spelt right, probably
from his acquaintance with Euclid)
"of my going to Australia, that is put
out of the question, father, by a cir
cumstance which I am about. to tell
you, and which will astonish you
very much. I am a married man.
You will at once exclaim, some bar
maid but it is not q barmaid at all,
I do assure you. 1t is a young lady
of good position, and an Hairless.
She has twenty thousand golden sovs
of her own, or will have when she
comes of age, which will be in less
than twelve months. This is pretty
well, 1 think, for the disgrace of the
family The whole matter is at
present a secret; you will perhaps
say, that means a lie,' but you will
only have to look in the register Of
st. Anne's Church when you are next
in the city, and you will find that it
Is all right. She is very anxious to
keep it quiet till she attains her ma
jority. I should not have told you
Of all this but for your last letter,
which has compelled me to make a
clean breast of it, and it is quite con-
trary to my wife's wishes-think of
my having a wife! how funny it
sounds!-that I do tell you. She
has an uncle on whom she is in some
degree dependent, and of course, he
will be awfully riled. 1t is for you
to consider what is best to be done;
for my part, 1 shall be glad when the
murders out. Under present cir
c~umstances, as you may imagine, it
isn't much Of a honeymoon for me.
Besides this uncle, by the bye, So
ply CHATS her name) has an aunt,
but she is very fond of her, and,
moreover, has given us such oppor-
tunities for meeting that for her own
sake there is little doubt that she
will take u side. I think you will
own that I have done pretty we'll for
myself, and if you could manage to
send me fifty pounds, OF even five
and twenty, which under present cir
cumstances will, of course, be repaid
all right, it would be a great conve-
nience. AS to taking my degree,
that, of course, don't matter now one
haypenny, and l don't think you'll
say any more about Australia, since
I've found the gold diggings a,
home"
$50 they had been married, had
they?" unused Adair, with a cynical
smile, those two young people" II
was nc wonder, then, that dull
Adonis had shown so much jeal.
ousy on Miss Sophy's account, an6
had also been on so very familiar &
footing with her; that little excur'
sion in the roundabout was also ex,
planned, and the young lady's com
partnership at such an hour fully jus
titled, for why should not a welded
pair walk when and where they
pleased? His own suspicious as t.
Miss Sophy's tendency to Irritation
were now shown to be as baseless a.
they were Injurious, and everythin:
was satisfactorily cleared up. Yes