The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1909-05-21
CHAPTER X.
Farewell Hone.

itorS, but as soon as he reached his
rooms he shut out all possible COM
ers. The investigation he was about
80 make was as delicate as it was
momentous. First he made sure that
there was nothing more in the blot,
ting pad that he had purchased save
the mere leaves, and also that on
them there was no impress of writ
ten words which could throw any:
light upon the matter in hand. Them
he compared most carefully the;
memorandum he had taken from the,
dead mans mirror with the hand
writing of the letter found in the
book. Making allowance for the,
fact that one was executed with the
haste and inattention to caligraphyi
peculiar to a rough copy" and the
other was a list of references prob
ably written with some care, he felt
confident that they were by the same
hand. AS for the contents of the,
letter they were of such Importance
to certain young lady as to account
for her taking any steps to prevent
them reaching the eye of the person
for whom it was intended, and Of
the step that had been taken he
could make a shrewd guess. AL
though deficient in Imagination
Adair had a logical mind; he could
follow a chain of reasoning, and
therefore much more one of facts,
link by link, and the conclusion he
arrived at was that the letter of
which Mrs. Aylett had spoken, the
original of which he now held in his.
hand, had been stolen by Jeanette,
at the instance of her young mis-:
tress. He did not believe that it
was Miss Aldred who had sent those
flowers; it had been one far nearer
to the dead man than she, though!
they were sent for anything but sem
timental reasons. 1t had been all a.
ruse to get possession of that COM.
promising letter, and 1t had succeed
ed. So far Sophy's whole proceed
ings were as plain to him as if he
had been witness of them. !;
And those of the dead man were
equally clear. Composition had been
a difficult matter with him, and it
was probable that he had written
more than one copy of so momentous
a communication before he had got
it to his mind. The rest he had no
doubt destroyed, but this one had
escaped his attention and the search
of others. How thankful Miss So
ply ought to be that it had fallen
into such safe hands as his. This
was the letter:
GAS to your proposition" "a word
poor Perry had spelt right, probably
from his acquaintance with Euclid)
''of my going to Australia, that is put
out of the question, father, by cir
cumstance which 1 am about to tell
you, and which will astonish you
very much. 1 am a married man.
You will at once ezclaim, some bar
maid but it is not barmaid at all,
. do assure you. 1t is a young lady
of good position, and an Hairless.
She has twenty thousand golden sovs
: of her own, or will have when she
comes of age, which will be in less
than twelve months. This is pretty
well, 1 think, for the disgrace of the
family The whole matter is at
present a secret; you will perhaps
say, that means lie,' but you will
only have to look in the register of
st. Anne's Church when you are next
in the city, and you will find that it
is all right. She is very anxious to
keep it quiet till she attains her ma
tority. l should not have told you
of all this but for your last letter,
which has compelled me to make a
clean breast of it, and it is quite con-
trary to my wife's wishes-think of
my having a wife! how funny it
sounds,-that l do tell you. She
has an uncle on whom she is in some
degree dependent, and of course, he
will be awfully riled. 1t is for you
to consider what is best to be done;
for my part,:I shall be glad when the
murders. out. Under present Cir
cumstanees, as you may imagine, it
Z isn't .11ueh of a honeymoon for me.
Besides this uncle, by the bye, So
ply CHATS her name) has an aunt,
but she is very fond of her, and,
moreover, has given US such oppOr-
tunities for meeting that for her own
sake there is little doubt that she
will take our side. l think you will
own that l have done pretty we'll for
myself, and if you could manage to
send me fifty pounds, or even five
and twenty, which under present Cir
cumstances will, of course, be repaid
all right, it would be a great conve-
nience. AS to taking my degree,
that, of course, don't matter now one
haypenny, and 1 don't think you'll
say any more about Australia, since
I've found the gold diggings at
home
$50 they had been married, had
they?" unused Adair, with a cynical
smile, chose two young people" 1t
was no wonder, then, that dull
Adonis had shown so much jeal-
ousy on Miss Sophy's account, and
had also been on so very familiar a
footing with her; that little eXcur-
sion in the roundabout was also eX-
planned, and the young lady's COM
Tanionship at such an hour fully JUS
tilted, for why should not a welded
pair walk when and where they
pleased? His own suspicious as to
.
were now shown to be as baseless as
they were injurious, and everything
was satisfactorily cleared up. Yes,
: upon the whole, as it seemed to Mr..
John Adair, most satisfactorily.
For the first time since her hus-
bands death Sophy wished that he
could be recalled to life.
In her distress and agony of mind
it seemed amazing 10 her, as it did
to the convict in his cell, that hui
man beings should worry themselves
and be troubled about ordinary mis-
fortunes. She envied the kitchen
maid she nei upon the stairs, the
very charwoman that came to help
in the scullery-nav, the very beg
gar woman that called for broken