The Comrade. (Winnfield, La.) 1890-1914, 1910-11-25
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CHAPTER |.
The Vanishing Mystery.

her back on It, She swayed forward.
Her bare arms were lifted. Her hands
lightly caught the molding on either
side of the door. She was looking in
tently into the mirror at the other
end Of the hall. All the lights in the
dining room were lit, and she saw
herself rather keenly set against this
brilliance. The straight-held head,
the lifted arms, the short, slender
waist, the long, long sweep of her
tkirts made her seem taller than she
nctually was; and the strong, bright
growth of her hair and the vivacity
Of her face made her seem more deep.
iy colored.
She had poised there for the mere
survey of new gown, but after a mo-
ment Of dwelling on her own reflec'
ton she found Asrself considering it
only as an object IN the foreground OF
picture. That picture, seen through
the open door, reflected in the glass
was ALI of a bright, hard glitter, all a
high, harsh tone of neWness. In its
paneled oak, in its glare Of cut-glass
and silver, in the shining vacant faces
of its floors and walls, there was not
a color that filled the eye, not a shad
dow where imagination could fine
play. AS a background for herself il
struck her as incongruous. Like
child looking at the landscape up
side down, she felt herself in a for
eign country. Yet 1t was hers.
She glanced over the table. It was
set for three. 1t lacked nothing bu
the serving of dinner. She looked a
the clock. It wanted few minute:
to the hour. Shima, the Japanese but
. Ter, came in softly with the evening
papers. She took them from him
Nothing bored her so much as pa
per, but tonight she knew it con
tanned something she really wanted t
see. She opened one of the DAM
sheets at the page of sales.
There it was at the head Of tn
column in thick black type:
AT AUCTION, FEBRUARY IS
Personal ESTATE OF
ELIZABETH HUNTER CHATWORTF
CONSISTING or -
She read the details with interes
down to the end, where the name o
the famous Chatworth ring" FINISHED
the announcement with flourish
Why famous? it was very provok
ing to advertise with that vague ad
jective and not explain it.
She turned .indi(ferently to the frs
page. She read sentence, re.read il
read 1t again. Then, as if she coul
not read fast enough, her eyes ga
loped down the column. It was tn
most extraordinary thing! She wa
bewildered with the feeling that wha
was blazing at her from the column
of the paper was at once the wildes
thing that could possibly have hal
pened, and yet the one most to hav
been expected.
For, from the first the business ha
been sinister, from as far back as tn
tragedy-the end of poor young Cha
worth and his wife-the Bessie, VIII
before her English marriage, they ha
all known so we'll. Her death, thu
had befallen in far Italian Alps, ha
made a sensation in their little cit.
and the large announcements of au
ton that had followed hard upon
had bred among the women who ha
known her a morbid excitement,
feVerish desire to buy, as If the1
might be some special luck in then
the Jewels Of woman who had s
tragically died. They had been read
to make a social affair of the privat
view held in the maple ROOM b
fore the acution. And now the who
spectacular business was capped by
sensation so dramatic as to strai
credulity to its limit. She could NJ
believe it; yet here it was glaring
/ her from the first page. Still
might be an exaggeration, a mistak
She must go back to the beginnir
and read it over slowly.
The. striking Of the hour hurrie
her. Shima's announcement OF di
ner only sent her eyes faster dow
the page. But when, with a fair
& smooth rustic, Mrs. Britton came ]
she let the paper fall. She alwa.
faced her chaperon with a little ne
vousness, and with the same sense
% strangeness with which she SO fr
auently regarded her house.
TITS Is minutes after eight MI
Britton observed. "We would bett
not wait any longer
She took the place opposite Flora
at the round table. Flora sat dow
still holding the paper, flushed al
bolt upright with her news.
cts the most extraordinary thing
she burst forth.
Mrs. Britton paused mildly with
radish in her fingers. She took
the presence Of the paper and t
suppressed excitement Of her col
panion's face seemed to; absorb the
through the large pupils of her liz
eyes. through all her smooth, pref
person, before she reached for an {
PLANTATION.