Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1909-08-28
THE LAST GUEST
81 N. GkEAcH Henry

party who did not play bridge,
she, perforce, must aibhse hei
self while the Others gambled for
shilling points, obYious Of moon
light and Hilda.
The sound Of an occasional
laugh or a burst Of conversation
1T the end Of . game came to tbe
woman across the silence, bu. did
not disturb her enjoyment Of the
exquisite beauty cfsthe night,
Hilda Cuchrane was q widow,
though she had only just reached
her twenty eighth Year. She
Lad married bee.pse she was
forced into it by her family, al
LAs age Of eighteen, q man Of
sixty, whom she liked well epuugh
hecau,e be had been kind,
Now she had awakened 10 love,
the love thatcomes only once in a
VIC mans life, and the man who
had in spired this passion was
Dennis Ramsay,
1t wRs he whom Hilda was OK
pecring. They bad arranged tc
meet in the villa garden thateven-
ing, and with delightful thrill
Ut anticipation she awaited his
coming. 1t seemed to her i'm.
aginatiYe mind that Fate bad
tlken her by the hand and was
even now leading her to the
browning moment Of her life,
when she should take her part in
the comedy of Love, with as much
Joy and wonder as though Dennis
Ramsay and she were the tlrst
man and woman who had spoken
the hackneyed words and played
The scene that is old as creation.
SO she waited with a smile Oh
her lips and a great joy in her
heart.
Presently across the stiffness a
sound reached her. She listened
intently. Was it a groan? Hilda
strained her ears, but the sound
was not repeated. Instinctiyely
she turned and faced the villa
just above her on the right.
A burst Of singing rose from
The village. It was a feast day,
and the folk of Belleville were
IL erry making. AS tile music
died away she listened intently,
and heard hasty footsteps, and
the rustic of bushes being parted
in the garden of the villa above.
AS she watched the moon came
from behind a cloud and shone
clearly on mans figure as be
scaled the wall and scram bled
downthe other side. Could she be
mistaken? The man was surely
Dennis Ramsay.
The villa belonged to the old
French Count de Cernay, a miser
enormously wealthy, rumor had
ID who kept large sums of money
secreted in his house. That Den
Dis knew the Count appeared to
be no reasonable explanation for
climbing his garden wall like d
thief in the night. OF course, it was
possible that he had been dining
With The count, and as this idea
suggested itself to Hilda's mind
She saw the man look round ap-
prehensively, then turn and run
swiftly up into the hills.
At the foot of the wall lay a
small white object. which he had
evidently dropped. For a mo.
ment Mrs. Cochrane hesitated,
then, with u feeling of horror
she could not comprehend, she
crept out OF the garden, crossed
the road and climbe the steep
incline up to the wall of the
garden. She hastily snaiched
up the white object from the
ground, To find it was q mans
handkerchief. Thursting it in
her pocket, she fed back to the
villa, up to her own room and
locked the door.
Hilda experienced an unac
countabls sense Of fear, feeling she
held the key to some mystery.
As she took 1.-The handkerchief
r.
70 examine it more closely, two
plainly embroidered initials met
her eye. 1t was marked D. r.
Next day the little town of
belleville was horritied by the
news of murder. The old
Count de Cernay. it appeared,
had given his two servants per.
mission to attend the local festiv-
tiles in the evening. from which
they returned to find their mas
ter lying dead on the veranda.
He had evidently been struck
down by a tremendous blow on
the temple, and the weapon used
was the old mans own life pre-
server. which lay beside him.