The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-05-20
Continued.l

 wishes. You must. ignore yourself, and lay your wholesheart bare to me, for the sake of your mother, and. for the sake of the woman you love.
 Schuyler Carleton started as if he had been physically struck.
 x-What do you mean?Y he cried.
 You know what I mean," said Fessenden gently. You did not love the woman you were about to marry? You do love another. Can you deny it?
 ..No.'. said Carleton. settling back into his apathy. And since you know that, may as we'll tell you all. I admired and respected Madeleine Van Norman, and when asked her to marry me I thought I loved her. After met some one else. You know this?"
 'sYes; Miss Burt"
 .Yes. She came into this house as my mothers companion. and almost from the first time I saw her knew that she and not Madeleine was the one woman in the world for me. But, Fessenden, never by word or look did I betray this to Miss Burt while Madeleine lived. If she guessed 1t, it was only because of her woman's intuition I was always loyal to Madeleine in word and deed, if could not be in thought"
 was it not your duty to tell Made leine this?''
 s.I tried several times to do so, but, though I hate to sound egotistical. she loved me very deeply, and I felt that honor bound me to her."
 ~rm not here to preach to you, and that part of it is. of course, not my affair. I know your nature, and know that you were as loyal to Miss Van Norman as you would have been had you never seen Miss Burt, and I honor and respect you for it. But you were jealous of Willard?"
 My nature is insanely jealous, yes. And though he was her cousin. I knew Willard was desperately in love with her, and somehow it always made me frantic to see him showing affection toward the woman I meant to make my wife,"
 s.She was not in love with Will lard?"
 Not in the least. Madeleine's heart beat only for me, ungrateful wretch that am. Her little feints at flirting with Willard were only to pique me. knew this, and yet to see them together always reused that demon of jealousy which I can not control. Fessenden, aside from all else, how can people think kill ed the woman who loved me as she did?"
 -Of course that argument appeals to you, and of course it does to me. But you must see how others not ap- preciating all this, and even suspect ing or surmising that your heart was not entirely with your intended bride you must see that some appear ances, at least, are against you"
 sT do see; and I see it so plainly that even to me those appearances seem conclusive of my guilt
 Never mind what they seem to you, old man; they don't seem so to me, and now I'm going to get to work. First, as I told you. you are going to be frank with me. What were you doing in the Van Norman house before you went into the lib- rary?"
 Schuyler Carleton blushed. It was not the shame of guilty man, but the embarrassment of one detected in some betrayal of sentiment.
 "Of course will tell you," he said after moment. 'I went there or an errand which wished to keep en- tirely secret. There is foolish SUD- erstition in our family that has been observed for many generations. Ar old reliquary which was blessed by some ancient Pope has been handed down from father to son for many generations. The superstition is that unless this ancient trinket hangs over the head of bridegroom on his wed ding day. i'll fortune will follow him through life. It is part of the super etition that the refiquary must be put in place secretly, and especially with out the Knowledge of the bride, else it's charm is broken. The whole mo- ton is foolishness, but as my wed. ding was an ill-starred one, any way I hoped to gain happiness, if possible by this means. Of course. I don't think I really had any faith in the thing, but it is such an old tradition ir the family that it never occurred to me to follow it. My mother gave me the reliquary, after my fathers death, telling me the history of it. had it with me when I was at the house in the afternoon, and I hoped to find an opportunity to fasten it III in that floral bower, unobserved. Blu the workmen were busy when I came away, and I knew there would bt many people about the next morning so I decided to return late at nigh
 1 I~r H@v vrrrI.