The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-09-10
All was calm and peaceful; a bril-


 All was calm and peaceful; a bril- liant ver-to-be-forgotten evening. On landing we made our way up the narrow cobbled street of Scutari and climbed the green hill which over looked the broad Sea of Marmora. At its summit we sat down together to rest and to admire the glorious crim- son blaze of the oriental afterg1ow. Granny had scarcely uttered a word since we had stepped from the steamer half an hour before, except to remark upon the indomitable enterprise of the Germans in building the Anatolia rail- way. the head of whicA lay at our feet, and the end was destined to be some port far away in the Persian gulf.
 He took out one of his pet Bogda- noffs and lit tt slowly. His big, clean shaven face was pale and troubled. So unlike his usual self was he that bhad I passed him in a crowded street would scarcely have recognized him. He seemed to have aged twenty years since that evening in Bucharest when he had told me of Garshore's trickery.
 At last he broke the silence.
 You've told me. Phil. very little about Myra. How does she take my sudden absence? You say that she still believed in me?' he asked, with a sigh.
 "She does. notwithstanding the abom- inable accusations made by Garshore." |"
 "The curb he cried savagely. clench- ing his fist. 'I wonder what his name is? Why he has gone there purposely to expose me?''
 T can't discern his motive-un- 1ess-"
 T know what's at the back of your mind. Phil" he said quickly. You think, as I do. that he may have as- pirations to Myra's hand-eh?" . nodded. in the affirmative. Airf
 ''He shall never have herb cried the desperate man, between his teeth. 'I'd kill her much as love her. before I'd allow her to sacrifice herself to him.
 Calm uburself. my dear Granny" said. "She hates the fellow-she's told me so."
 1T suppose he's cold MT. Stapleton the truth-that I'm not a rich man. as I've pretended to be-that-that I make money by my wits. and all that?'
 "I take it that he has"
 ''Then Myra's father is now against me. He may turn her from me also"
 ''When a woman loves a man as dearly as Myra loves you. Cough. it takes more than a lying tongue to turn her from him." declared. in an endeavor to cheer him.
 But he only smiled bitterly and shook his head.
 Perhaps that would be so if it were not for the additional facts against me-"
 ."The Radcliffe Gardens affair."" I suggested.
 He nodded. Then. after a nomept's. silence. he raised his eyes to mine. and I saw tears yelling in them. I pitied him. for he had lost all that he valued in lifa~his well beloved.
 '1-I couldn't help it, Philr he calculated brokenly TT was led in- to it. IT confess to you-led into it by a woman"
 ''Then you are guilty" gasped staMng at him in dismay. ''The vic- tim was poisoned-at least, the doc- tors declare that to be so!''
 He smiled again. with strange curl of the lip. answering:
 'Poisoned? Bah! What fools doctors arei They so often make mistakes!
 I did not follow his meaning, yet somehow I was not at that moment puzzled by those words as I soon after ward became. The main point was that the man at my side. who had no friend in all the world beside myself and the sweet-faced girl wearing out her young heart far away in rural had admitted his guilt. 1
 Was it not a fateful circumstance! The person who knew the truth. and vet whose lips were perhaps fortu- | nately sealed. was the woman who had so suddenly come into my own