The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-01-21

II ~l lieve that his henchman R had not been mistaken. k1sss-S - Droom's description of | the lady certainly did not correspond to what his memory recalled. Investi- gation, however, assured him that the Cables in the mansion near the lake were the people he had known in New York. Bansemer took no one into his confidence, not even broom. Once con- vinced that the erstwhile fireman was now the rich and powerful magnate, ne set to work upon the machinery which was to extract personal gain from the secret in his possession. He soon learned that the child was a young wo- man of considerable standing in socie- ty, but there was no way for him to ascertain whether Frances Gable had told the truth to her husband in those dreary far west days.
 Bansemer was rich enough but avarice had become a habit The flight from New York had deprived him of but little in worldly goods. His ill got ten gains came with him, and invest ments were just as easy and just as safe in Chicago as in New York. Now ne saw chance to wiring handsome possession had been love when he first knew her. If the secret of lanes origin still remained locked up in her heart the effort would be an easy one. He learned enough of David Cable, however, to know that if he shared the secret the plan would be proftless and dangerous.
 It was this uncertainty that kept him from calling at the Cable home; like wise from writing a note which might prove most disastrous folly. Time and circumstance could be his only friends, and he was accustomed to the whims of both. He read'of the dinners and entertainments given by the Ca bles and smiled grimly. Time had worked wonders for them. Scandal, he knew, could. undo all that ambition and pride had wrought. He could well afford to wait.
 However, he did not have long to wait, for his opportunity came one night in Hooley's theater. Graydon and he occupied seats in the orchestra near the stage and not far from the lower right hand boxes. It was during the busy Christmas holidays, but the ''star" was of sufficient consequence to pack the house. The audience was no end of a fashionable one. Time and again some strange influence drew his gaze to the gay party in one of the lower boxes. The face of the woman nearest to him was not visible, but the two girls who sat forward turned oc- and he saw that they were pretty, one exceptionally so. One of the men was gray haired and strong featured; the others were quite too insignificant to be of interest to him. The woman whose back he could see did not look out over the audience. Her indiffer- ence was so marked that it seemed de liberate.
 At last he felt that her eyes were upon him. He turned quickly. True enough, for with lips slightly parted, tense restraint, Mrs. Cable was staring helplessly into the eyes of the man who could destroy her with word.
 The one thing that flashed through Bansemer's brain was the realization that she was far more beautiful than he had expected her to be. There was truly aristocratic loveliness in the rather piquant face, and she undenia- bly, possessed manner" Maturity had improved her vastly, he confessed, with strange exultation; age had been kinder than youth. He forgot the play, seldom taking his eyes from the back which again had been turned to him. Calculating, h& reached the conclusion that she was not more than forty years of age. More than once he made some remark to his son, only to surprise that young man glancing surreptitiously at the face of the more beautiful of the two girls. Even in this early stage James Bansemer began to gloat over the beauty of this new found old ac- quaintance.
 In the lobby of the theater as they were leaving he deliberately doffed his hat and extended a pleasant hand to the wife of David Cable. She turned deathly pale, and there was a startled. piteous look in her eyes that convinced him beyond all shadow of a doubt There was nothing for her to do but introduce him to her husband. Two minutes later Graydon Bansemer and Jane Cable, strangers until then, were asking each other how they liked the play, and Fate was at work.
 A few weeks after this scene at the theater young MT. Bansemer dashed