Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-06-26
THE SCENT OF
WHITE JASMINE

| Judge Marcellus cast aside professional
cares and entered with zest into the fes-
tivities incident to the marriage of Es-
| telle Landiss.
| The Landisses were old friends and
clients; their joys and sorrows, as their
interests, were his own. The house
itself was most attractive in its broad
and cultivated hospitality, which had
grown with the family fortunes. Estelle
had long been a favorite of his, drawing
his heart and binding it by her beauty
and wit. While he had never before
seen her intended, Lionel Devries, her
father. Alexander Landiss. assured him
/ that the connections, business and So
cal, OF this young Englishman whom
| they had met abroad We're unexception-
able.
No wonder, then, that the former jur-
list turned his back on thoughts of law
and practice and did all in his power to
make more merry the wedding bells.
IL was therefore with displeasure, the
evening before the great day, that the
Judge on being summoned by a caller
TO the little reception room found await
ing him his confidential man, Cronkite,
with bulging green bag.
1T won't do, Abe" he protested with
| ayerted palm. mot a folio, not a sylla-
bus, until after the rice has been thrown.
why, this is the night of nights.
| we are to have country dances. Hear
you not the loud bassoon? Tomorrow
afternoon! Well, that is matter to be
| reserved
Il have promised my friend Landiss
to stay down with him over Sunday;
perhaps his first grief will be so acute
that may have time to go over these
internal papers with you. Meanwhile
yon VIII be right and tight in the charge
| Of Mrs. Blifl.
No, not word; don't tempt me with
your necessities. Avauntr'
And the judge after a passing com.
incubation to Mrs. Bilfil, the housekeep-
| er, hurried into the parlor, there among
the cares of doing his old fashioned de-
Voirs well to forget the very presence iii
the house OF his faithful retainer
AT noon the next day the marriage was
solemnlzed under bower of white roses
less fair and charming, so the guests
agreed than the bride. Nor We're words
OF approval wanting for that most neg
ilgible quantity, the bridegroom While
ms manner was devoted aud tender, an
extreme solicitude now marked him in
contrast with the careless gayety which
had been his at the dance the night be-
fore.
Il never saw a finer exhibition of n
proper sense of duties not lightly as
sumed, reflected the clergyman as he
and the judge stood a little apart from
| the eXpectant rice throwers
"A tall and manly young fellow"
agreed the judge. 1T must be more than
time for them to start Hank! what's
that?"
1t was a sharp report from the room
above, causing a frightened scurry of
white skirts and a determined rush Of
| hlgrS Eu5tG Tho cftrbt 4bat
so plain that those who ran could read.
On the floor of the guest room in front
| of the bureau lay the BODY of Deyries
shot through the heart. He had evident
" turned toward the center table Just
| before he fell.
On this center table was his satchel
open toward him. To the mouth of this
satched the smoke still chung. And in
| side the satched underneath a pair of
silver backed hair brushes lay a re-
volver with one chamber discharged
The unfortunate young man must have
| thrown the brushes one after the other
into the satchel, and their impact in
some way must have discharged the
| weapon with fatal effect. SO the pby-
slclans and county officials hastily sum
moned, agreed. and so family and friends
| concurred
IAN inscrutable act of Providence, 70
which we must all humby bow" said the
clergyman, as parting word in sea-
son.
I'm the midst of life we are in death ]"
responded the Judge. "Ah. my dear, is
there anything you wish of me?'
Miss Estelle. sir; l mean Mrs. Dew
| ries-oh, lard, ! don't know what |
mean" answered the weeping Abigail
wants to know as would you be so good
as to come to her room for a moment,
sir"
And the judge, shaking his white head
l a.. Il
were a more fit monitor, followed up the
stairs now deserted by those who had
| waited so blithely.
Half clothed. her face CHASTITY with
arid grief, the young bride, already aged
in her widowhood drew the judge aside
Don't tell what | say to any one
any one" she whispered. There are
reasons-I will tell later, when alone
Meanwhile. watch for the slightest In
dication different from what they think
That accident was no accident Murder
has been DONE"
And then Mrs, Blifl and the minister,
ing women crowded around, entreatine
the judge to so and not heed whatever
the poor thing might have said, since
she was so distraught.
ii.
A bluff and hearty man, Alexander
| Landiss; one who had always taken n
pardonahle pride IN himself his family
and his fortune. 1t was pitiable that everi-
ing, to the judge, as they sat together in
gloomy silence in the library, TO note
how his friends dingy fioridiIy revealed
the extent and effect of the shock he had
| received. Not mere sorrow it seemed. but
| rather the stupefaction which preeedes
despair.
But was such an effect natural to
come from the tragedy, however deplor-
able? There had always been an opti-
mstic selhshness about Landiss cans
ing him TO turn intuitively from the dark
side to the light. Not thus had he looked
two years before. when the wife of his
bosom. the mother of his child, had died.
Genuine grief there had been, but in
| the very midst of it he was planning
that trip abroad which should give him
| and Estelle diversion and relief What
| had the girl said-wateh out for the
| slightest Inconsistencies? Might there