The daily Alaskan., 1909-10-08
MISS LlV!N!AI LOVER
The Result of the Search For the
 Man Who Went Away.
By VIRGINIA BLAIR.
[Copyrlght. 1909. by Associated Literary
 Presa.I

LANUlNAh AaHaH ny sAs'aNNishhAhA AalANAts
 "weu, of course" Miss Laylnia con- hded, q am glad to have It, but it's unsettling"
 Mrs. Briggs snired. Tt wouldn't unsettle me if any one left me S1O0OO. I would know what to do with lt."
 Miss Laymia leaned forward eagerly 'What would you do, Jane" she de manded.
 "Oh, well" Mrs. Briggs hesItated. I'd get some new clothes right away and Gx up tho house. and entertain my friends, and take a trip and have an automobie'-
 q have thought of those things, but they don't seem to be just what want, after all. Maybe I'll just put it out at interest"
 'Now, look here, Lavinla Latmer," Mrs. Briggs said solemnly, don't you do any such thing You've got enough to live on. such as 1t is. and my advice Is to take some of the money and have n good time. Goodness only knows you haven't had many good times."
 No, l haven't,' Miss Lavlnla admit ted somewhat wistfully. "Well, I'll think 1t over, Jane"
 And after Mrs. Briggs had gone Miss Lavlnio picked up her biz yellow cat and told him her nncrmost wish. "Pm going to use some of that money to find out where John Forbes is," she whispered. but I wouldn't tell Jane"
 But to look for the man who had left town ten years ago was not an easy matter. And Lavlnia Latlmer was not wise in methods. But she wanted to know the fate of her old lover, and SO 1t happened that ten days after her talk with Jane Briggs, Miss Lavinia went to town.
 "Pm going to buy clothes" was the reason she gave, but when she came to the biz town 1t was not to the stores that she made her way, but to dusty, musty little office in a squalid street.
 "NIcDermott, private detective" said the sign.
 Miss Lavluia was all pink and white and pretty as she stated her case. But Mir. McDermott set her at once at her ease. He was brisk little man with curly white hair and rcd cheeks.
 "So you want to fud John Forbes" be said. "Is he a reIotiye|
 "Oh, no" And Miss Layinio blush ed.
 "Owe you any moneyT' McDermOtt demanded.
 "Oh. no, now Mss LatImer cried dis tressfully. We were engaged fifteen years ago, aud couldn't marry him, because had to stay with my old father and mother-aud he-he went away-and l promised that when l was free l would let him know.
 "OhP' McDermott calculated, and after a pause, "Were you expecting to find him still single"
 "I-I'm not sure
 McDermott tugged at his mustache. 'aThe chances are that he'll be mar ried."
 "Of course" Miss Lavlnia agreed, but should like to be sure."
 Surely" said McDermott. You just let me have the case, and I'll bring you news of John Forbes before you know it."
 McDermott reported regularly once a week by letter to Miss Lavinia and as regularly received her answers.
 Miss Laylnia wrote on pale violet paper that gave forth a perfume of fresh flowers in the stuffy little office. McDermott found himself laying those letters in a little drawer by themselves, and one day in early spring, when he had travelled out into the country on case, be spied some viOlets by the way side He picked them and brought them home and laid them with the let ters in the drawer.
 McDermott had money of his own, so that Miss Lavinio's little fortune had DO charms for him, but the thought of her delicate presence in bis home often came to him with sense of irresistible attraction.
 But if she finds John Forbes single she will marry him." he would say with a sigh, and the temptation to overlook clews was great.
 In June he called on her and found her in her garden with a little low table in front of her on which was set forth a lemonade service Miss La vmia was in pale mauve with a hat wreathed with violets. "When you wrote you were coming" she said to McDermott, q thought you would en- Joy 1t better here in the garden-its cooler"
 "weu, if you knew what a nice change 1t was from that office in town" sighed the little man.
 After that he came often, and grad ually 1t began to be rumored in the town that Miss Laylnia was keeping company" with man from the city.
 Well. l must say that like bis looks" Mrs. Briggs told Miss Layinia when she came over one morning after McDermott had called.
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