The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-05-20
The House of the
By ANNA KATHARINE GREEN
Continued.)
Copyright. 1910. By Anna Katharine Rohlfs

'
 Il will give you an account of my self." said I. '1 did love Adelaide once or thought so, but my feelings chang ed. A great temptation came into my life Carmel returned from school and you know her beauty. her fascina tion- A week in her presence and mar rfage with Adelaide became impossible But how evade 1t? I knew only the towards way-to lure this ineXperi enced young girl. fresh from school, into a runaway match. This evening l had set as the limit of my endurance of the intolerable situation. During a minute of solitude preceding the din- ner at Miss Cumberland's house on the hill I wrote a few lines to her sister. urging her to trust me with her fate and meet me at the station in time for the 10:30 train. l meant to carry her at once to F., where l had friend in the ministry who would at once unite us in marriage. I was very peremp tory, for my nerves were giving way under the secret strain to which they had been subjected for so long. and she herself was looking worn with her own silent and uncommunicated conflict.
 ITO write this note was easy. but to deliver it involved difficulties. Miss Cumberland's eyes seemed to be more upon me than usual. Mine were oblig ed to respond, and Carmel. seeing this, kept hers on her plate or on the one other person seated at the table. her brother Arthur. But the opportunity came as we all rose and passed togeth CT into the drawing room Carmel fell into place at my side. and slipped the note into her hand. She had not ex pected it. and 1 fear that the action was observed. for when l took my leave of Miss Cumberland shortly aft CT l was struck by her expression. ! had never seen such a look on her face before. nor can l conceive of one pre- eenting more extraordinary contrast to the few and commonplace words with which she bade me good evening
 ''I neither knew Adelaide nor did know the girl whose love l had so overestimated She failed me. Dr Perry. l was met at the station noi by herself. but by a letter-a few hur- ried lines given me by an unknown man-fn which she stated that 1 had asked too much of her-that she could not so wrong her sister who hao brought her up and done everything for her since her mother died. l have not that letter now or l would show 1t to you Tn my raging disappoint ment tore it up on the place where received it ard threw the pieces away l had staked my whole future on on. desperate throw. and I had lost. If had had a pistor'- l stopped. warned by an easy movement on the part O; the man l addressed that I had better not dilate too much upon my feelings l pulled myself together and proceed ed to finish my story with greater di rectness.
 'I did not leave the station till the 10:30 train had gone. 1t was from sheer preoccupation of mind that Il drove this way instead of straight ouI by Marshall avenue. As I reached the bend in the road where you get your first sight of the buildings l saw a ! thin streak of smoke rising from one of its chimneys. and. anxious as to its meaning 1 drove in"-
 Wait. Mr. Ranelagh, I am sorry tc interrupt you. but by which gate did you enter?
 By the lower one" Was it showing at this time?''
 Not yet It was just before the 1 clouds rushed upon the moon. could | see everything quite plainly"
 My companion nodded. and I wen, breathlessly on. Any question of his 1 staggered me. was ignorant of tn. facts at his command I was not abl. 1 to conjecture by what chance or a, whose suggestion the police had raid | ed the place and discovered the trag l edy which had given point to thai | raid l continued. but I omitted all | mention of the most serious part of | my adventure-said nothing of my vi | sion of Carmel or the terrible conclu | sions which her presence there had | awakened.
 There is TO more to say," conclud- | eI- T know nothing. 1t is all a | phantasmagoria to me-with no more | meaning than a nightmare. She is dead-I know that-but beyond that | all is doubt-confusion l can neither understand nor explain"