The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-12-15

| haunting that it's fragrance has re- mained with me ever since-the per fume of the Lady in Black. I under stood now how Rouletabille had re- hembered it all these years.
 Yes.sit was a fragrance full of sad ness-something like the perfume of an isolated flower which has been con- demned to be seen by no one. but to blossom for itself all alone. A strange ! perfumei Surely it was that, for had seen the Lady in Black hundreds of times without noticing it, and now that had done so 1t was everywhere and above all things, and I knew that the memory of it would abide with me while life should last.
 There in the night and the tempest the Lady in Black called aloud to Rouletabille, and he fled from us and rushed farther into the night. shriek- ing aloud, 'The perfume of the Lady in Black-the perfume of the Lady in Blackr'
 The unhappy woman sobbed. She struck with desperate hands at the door which Bernier opened to us.
 She motioned me to enter the little parlor at the right, which was just
 
 She took both my hands in hers and said in a voice which shall never for get: You are my boys friend TeIl him that he is not the only one who has suffered" And she added with a sob which shook her whole frame:
 S'Why will he insist on not telling Ine the truth?"
 I had not a word to say. What could have answered.? I had breathed the perfume of the Lady in Black.
 Yes; she treated me as an old friend. She told me everything that I already knew in a few sentences as piteous and as simple as a mothers love it. self, and she told me other things which Rouletabille had kept a secret from me. The relationship between them had been guessed by the one as surely as by the other. Led by a sure instinct, Mime. Darzac had resolved to take means to learn who was this Rou- letabille who had saved her from death and who was of the age of her own son and who resembled the lad whom she had mourned as dead. And since her arrival at Mentone a letter had reached her containing the proof that Rouletabille had lied to her in regard to his early life and had never set foot in any school at Bordeaux. Immedi- ataly she had sought the youth and had asked for an explanation, but be had hurried away without replying.
 ''Why did he not throw himself into my arms when opened them to him?" she moaned. "Ah, my Godl If he re- f.l l.n T. -x-fl1 f,. consent to be mine?"
 I was almost beside myself. kissed her hands and gentreated pardon for Rouletabille. Here was the result of my friends schemes to save her pain. Under the pretext of saving her from Larsan he had plunged knife into her heart. I felt as though had no wish to know any more. of the story. went out of the square tower cursing Rouletabille roundly. I went to the court to look for him, but found it de- serted.
 At the postern gate Mattoni had come to take the 10 o'clock watch. saw light in RouletabiIle's room, and I hastened uA the rickety stairway of the new castle and quickly found my self outside his door. I opened it with out knocking. Rouletabille looked up.
 told him all that had heard and my opinion of him for his actions.
 ''She didn't tell you everything, my friend" he replied coldly. "She did not tell you that she forbade me to o touch that man. Do you know what she said to me yesterday? She order ed me to go away. She would rather die than see me take issue against my father"
 And he laughed, laughedl Such laughter hope not to hear again.
 His face was not pleasant sight to see as he uttered the words. but sud denly it seemed to be transformed.
 "She is afraid for me-" he said soft ly. And I-I am afraid for her-only for her. And I do not know my fa- ther. An, God help mer' At that moment the sound of a shot rang out on the night, followed by a cry of mortal agony. An, 1t was again the cry that l had heard two years ago in the 'Inexplicable gallery" Rou- letabille tottered; then he bounded to the open window with a despairing burst of anguish:
 Mother, mother, motherY'
 l leaped after him and threw my arms around his body. dreading what he might attempt. Quickly he turned on me, threw me off and precipitated him. self wildly through corridors, apart ments, stairways and courts toward the accursed tower from which had come that same death cry that we both had heard a moment ago and also two years before, when it had re- sounded through the ''inexplicable gal Iery."
 I was still there when the door of the square tower opened, and in it's frame of light there appeared the form of the Lady in Black. She was stand ing upright, living and unharmed in spite of that cry of death. but her pale and ghastly visage reflected a terror like that of death itself. She out her arms toward the night. and the darkness cast Rouleta- hflla fnfO fham and fba rrna af fha