The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-10-29
CHAPTER XIV,


 l SIDNEY CTEMER's CHAUFFEUR.
 R TO letter was forwarded to the | N Hill Farm from the theater at 1 ! VI Bonnerstown for the very A good reason that Miss Moon, 1 having found one for Mir. F. Gordon, i opened, read and out of sheer spite de- 1 stroyed it, with it's several inc1osures. | The envelope was addressed in Bill 1 wnling's inappropriately beautiful l handwriting, and there was 8 short note from him saying that he had great pleasure in inclosing two letters 1 just arrived from England; also that l he sent his ''undying love to Lillie de Lisle."
 One of the English letters blazed to l the actress dazzled eyes with gilded 1 coronet and began: My Own Darling Val-How can you ever forgive me for 1 not answering your poor, dear cable gram2 But of course I thought it was from that horrible wretch Foxham. It seems now he sold your ticket for the Baltic and sailed for Australia. All sorts of reports came in about him di- rectly after you must have sailed, and I learn now that even before you left James Marlborough suspected him be- cause of some forged check he'd heard of-Tm really too confused and upset to remember how or when or what. But in any case it was most remiss of James not to have instantly warned you against the man, even on the slightest suspicion
 This was only the beginning of the coroneted letter, which had no para graphs and very few punctuations. Jealous still, Miss Moon was relieved to see that the signature was Your Adoring Mother" but she was at loss to understand allusions to duch- esses and other persons of title. h. deed, it would have appeared to her like a property letter to be read on the stage by an aristocratic hero of melodra1na had it not been for the post office order for $500. which it contain ed. This she threw into the fire that Gordon might not benefit by it. The other letter inclosed had no cor onet and was signed Your affection ate cousin, Betty" At the end was postscript in a different hand, which seemed somehow to suit the rather dashing signature-"Jim."
 This second letter was even more difficult than the first for an uninitiat- ed person to understand, and it 1fri-
 
 nervousness.
 Ut was partly a joke and partly ear nest. but it had a good motive,'' wrote Betty. "I guessed the morning your really very conceited letter about the New York 1ntroductions came that Jim had something auaint up his sleeve to spring upon you when you d arrived fin America. but I didn't know what. To tell the truth, Val, was even more disgusted than Jim by your cool way of assuming that you had only to show yourself to pick and choose among all the incest as well as richest girls. 1 should have loved to box your ears. and I said, Of course we won't give him any letters, and I'll tell him just what we think of him; then maybe he won't go.' But Jim said: Yes. we will give him the letters, and he shall go We may find another way of teaching him a lesson, . way that will do him good if he's worth being done good to-
 "That was all, and as Jim didn't re fer to the subject again after we post ed the letters Of introduction the con versation slipped my mind. didn't think any more about it until weird tAings began to be copied into London papers from New York ones and your mother wired Jim to ask what. if any thing, could be done to punish Fox haIn. You see, she thought you were OH the Baltic
 Jim soothed all her worries, so you needn't be anxious about her, as of course you would if you thought she'd been alarmed. When I saw para graphs in the papers talked to Jim. nd "a what he'd done, how it was. all his fault really, and he was very sorry. because everything had turned out n lot worse for you than he'd ever dreamed Of wanting it to be. Fate took hand in the game and played ii for all1t was worth Jim said. It seems that Foxhan, your man, asked Jim to cash a check signed by you one night not long ago Don't you remember when he and were at Bat tlemead and you came down for Sat day to Monday? Jim suspected some thing wrong, but wouldn't speak to you till he'd made sure. because that wouldn't have been fair, and Foxham was such an invaluable valet. A few days later, when Jim was making in quiries about the man, he found out that the horrid creature had actually impersonated you at two or three ho- teis and run up bills in your name. It was the very evening before your let ter about America came that Jim got the first part of this information. and day by day more kept coming in up to the time when we heard FOxham had given you notice. All along Jim was thinking out the idea of that lesson for you-the joke that was to be half in earnest-and than when Mir. Wander pol couldn't sail in the Mauretania tho whole plan was mapped out without a word being said, even to me-
 "Of course 1 want to assure you again, and Jim will write a postscript, that he meant nothing worse to hap