The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-03
The EVENING STORY
Northport's Mystery.
(RY Alexandra Dagmar.)

Il
unannounced, an entire stranger to
everybody. She boarded at Mrs.
Polk's, and it was thought that when
fall came she would go away as did
| the few other city dwellers who were
| able to get summer accommodations
in the conservative old town. But
| when fall came she bought a pretty
| cottage on quiet street.
| The first thing Mrs. Wrest did after
| going into the house was to nlre COR
nelia Bangs, partly as servant, part
| ly as companion. Cornelia was
| peculiar old soul, but respectable and
good worker, and the position Mrs;
Wrest offered must have been a real
godSend.
| OF course, all the ladies in the
neighborhood went to call upon the
new resident. She received them
graciously and served them with tea
style. But she told them nothing that
they had come to hear and they went
away with their curiosity completely
baff1ed. Who was Mrs. Wrest? Whence
divorcee? They were at liberty to
conjecture what they chose, but they
could find out nothing positively.
Cornelia Bangs. being proverbially
close-mouthed, was as impenetrable as
her mistress. She didn't know. That
was the answer she made to all
queries.
1t was evident that Mrs. Wrest
little for social doings. Most of her
time she passed in reading or playing
upon her violin, or doing little kind
nesses for the sick and needy.
Mrs. Wrest attended all the services
of the church, although she had pre-
sented no letter for membership. Sne
dressed always very beautifully In
black, but she wore no jewelry save a
large pearl brooch, which Mrs. Hay,
the jewelers. wife, said was the finest
of the kind she had ever seen.
No other woman in Northport mad
such a way of wearing her clothes,
of carrying herself, of fitting her
chin.
And no other woman was as beau
tiful. If she had not been beautiful
there would not have been so much
said or thought about her.
She had calm, pale face, sur
rounded with dark hair as with
frame. Her eyes also were dark, in
scrutahle in their depth and stiffness.
Her mouth dropped a little, but, then,
some mouths are not shaped for con-
slant smiling. 1t was not a sad mouth
and 1t was not a happy one. 1t was
just still, nke the rest of her face.
If she had had a great sorrow she
hid it skillfully, or else she had no
heart. There We're a great many wo-
That is often the first accusation
brought against beautiful woman by
others who are not so beautiful
She had lived in Northport two
Meredith fell in love with her. or
course there might have been other
men than Peter in love with her, and
probably were, but Peter was the only
one that advertised his regard boldly.
All the young unmarried women
were simply dying for Peter. In the
first place he was rich, and in the next |
his good looks would have made him !
eligible without the addition of money. |
His married sister took him to task |
as soon as she suspected his infatua- |
ton. She had kept him from marry |
ing good many years, because she !
her son, and she did not intend to be |
outwitted now by a woman who had |
nothing but her handsome face to rec
ommend her.
"You don't know anything about |
her." she urged.
II don't ask to know anything that
she does not choose to tell me. love
her well enough to trust her. Peter
answered valiantly.
Good heavens! She may be an ad-
venturess!" cried his sister, losing her
temper.
Then Peter lost his, and declared
that he was going straight to Mrs.
Wrest to ask her to marry him. He
went. Mrs. Rowland, who lived op-
posite, saw him go to the door, saw
Cornelia Bangs admit him and take
him into the parlor. Then she flew for
the spyglass which had belonged to
her father, an old sea captain. But the
spyglasses was, after all, very made
quate to the occasion. She could not
hear what was said, though she drew
her own conclusions when Peter came
forth, detected.
Mrs. Wrest had indeed refused him
1t was incredible. Peter took it very
hard. 1t was his first experience in not
getting what he wanted L
Instead of being grateful to Mrs +
Wrest for not accepting him, every un-
married woman was angry with her.
1t was not long before scarcely a wo-
man save Mrs. Rowland visited Mrs.
Wrest- She was at liberty now to
read and play the violin as much as
she chose, and to sew for all the poor r.
that needed new garments. All be-
cause she had refused Peter Meredith,
whom nobody wanted her to havei
Why had she done it? There could
De only one reason. She had no busf-
ness to marry! She had a husband
lvrhg rhg from Nv whom she had no divorce!
conscious of the increasing feeling
against her, she made no sign She
still attended church regularly wearing
black and sitting alone in her pew, ap- t
unconscious of all who were so |
hercely conscious of her. She was sit T
ting thus one morning perfectly still c
with her small hands folded and her
face lifted to the minister +
The church was unusually well filled | r
and Mrs. Wrests pew was the only one
where there were vacant sittings. The =
1shers understood that when there +
ceased to be room elsewhere strangers
might be shown to places beside her
and so now, when man entered the ;,
vestibule very late. he was taken at =
0nce to Mrs. Wrest's pew
He was a tall man. with a pointed [
blond beard and blond hair Just slight
y gray, distinguished looking and ?
handsome. Mrs. Wrest moved a little a
and lifted her eyes. Then her face Il
vent suddenly white and she crumpled a
forward in a dead faint.
The stranger lifted her up and with n