The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-12-08
CHAPTER I.
A Foredoomed Marriage.

@HE marriage of M. Robert Dar- zac and Mile Mathilde Stan
 gerson took place in Paris at
 the Church of St. Nicholas du Chardonnet on April 6. 1895. every thing connected with the occasion be- ing conducted In the quierest fashion possible. A little more than two years had rolled by since the events which have recorded in a previous volume events so sensational that it is not speaking too strongly to say that an even longer lapse of time would not have sufiiced 10 blot out the memory of the famous Mystery of the Yellow Room"
 In this almost unknown parish It was easy enough to maintain the ut most privacy. Only few friends or NJ. Darzac and Professor Stangerson. on whose discretion they felt assured that they might rely, hao been invited I had the honor to be one of the num- Der.
 I reached the church early. and nat urally my first thought was to look for Joseph Rouietabille- l was some what surprised at not seeing him. but. having no doubt that he would arrive shortly, I entered the pew already oc- cupied by Nj. Henri-Robert and M- An dre Hesse. who in the quiet shades of the little chapel exchanged in under tones "reminiscences of the strange af- fair at Versailles. which the approach ing ceremony brought to their memo ries.
 -I never felt quite easy about Rob- ert and Mathilde." he said. mot even after the happy termination of the af- fair at Versailles" said Henri-Robert. until I knew that the information of the death of Frederic Larsan had been officially confirmed That man was pitiless enetny."
 It will be remembered perhaps by readers of ''rhe Mystery of the Yel- low Room" that a few months after the acQuittal of the professor in Sor- bonne there occurred the terrible ca tastrophe of La Dordogne, a transat- lantic steamer running between Havre and New York. In the broiiing heat of a summer night upon the coast of the new world La Dordogne had caught fire from an overloaded boiler. Before help could reach her the steam CT was utterly destroyed Scarcely thirty passengers were able to leap into the life boats. and these were picked up the next day by a merchant vessel. which conveyed them to the nearest port. For days thereafter the ocean cast up on the beach hundreds of corpses. and among these they found Larsan.
 The papers which were found care fully hidden in the clothing worn by the dead man proved beyond doubt his identity. Mathilde Stangerson was at last delivered from this mon- ster of a husband to whom. through the facility of the American laws. she had given her hand In secret in the minimizing ardor of girlish romance This wretch. whose real name. accord ing to court records. was Ballmeyer and who had married her under the name of Jean Roussel. could no longer rise like Q dark shadow between Ma tbilde and the man whom she had loved so long and so we'll without dar- ing to become his bride. In 'The Mystery or the Yellow Room" I have related all the details of this remarka- ble affair, one of the strangest which has ever been known in the annals of the court of assizes and which with out doubt would have had a most tragic denoument had 1t not been for the extraordinary part played by a boy reporter, scarcely eighteen years old. Joseph Rouletabille. who was the only one to discover that Frederic Larsan. the celebrated secret service agent. was none other than Ballmeyer himself.
 You see. my dear fellow" said NJ. Henri Robert to NJ, Andre Hesse. you see. in this world one can always find the bright side See how beauti- fully everything has turned out. even the troubles of Mile. Stangerson- But