The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-03-13
Vernon passed the whole morning

Vernon passed the whole morning
in her own upstairs sitting-room. She
felt too bruised, too weary of life tc
wander out into the garden, or even
to go and help the gardener gloat
over their First and three Second
prizes at yesterdays show.
She had an insane fancy of existing
with her breath held-of waiting for
some decisive happening which should
pronounce her doom.
When they again met for lunch,
Aunt Emma's eyes We're almost eXtin-
guished with fresh weeping The
sight smote Vernon's conscience. She
put her own woes aside, and gently
took the dear woman to task. She
had no right to make herself i'll be.
cause of the death of that poor Mrs.
Trent, who had, very likely, nothing
particular to live for.
And then it turned out that this
was HOl lut itdopI VI NhN Hl'SthN
tress. 1t was that Jem was gone to
London, en- route for Scotland, to look
at Lord Bunbury's property there, of
which he had been offered the agency.
The news went through Vernon's
nerves like the hickering of a sharp
blade, making her vince. Her deci-
sion was being pressed upon her
Something must be decided before
Jem finally committed himself to de-
parture. Would her present suspense
never end? At the present moment
she felt as if, all her life, she had
been waiting to hear from Lionel
new reason to deplore Jem's alb
sence was upon them within an hour
after lunch. A subpoena arrived with
"A polite note from the County Cor
oner, asking Mrs. Bardsley If she
would kindly attend the inquest next
day, as she was the last person, with
the exception of the servants, who
saw Mrs. Trent alive.
The request threw the poor lady in
to state of tremor which' surprised
Vernon. She could not, would not. en-
ter a Court of Law without the pro
lection of Jem-without Jem to tell
her what to say; how did she know
what she might be entrapped into
saying?
Vernon gently suggested that the
big barn at Barrow End was not a
Court of Law-that' Mrs. Bardsley had
nothing to hide-that as long as she
told the truth, nobody could entrap
her; but Aunt Emma refused com
fort.
ITS all Sophia Tarlton's doing!'
she cried lamentably. and it will be
long time before / can forgive her
She must have gone and told them
what | said about this poor thing
speaking to me of drugs! Never II
my life have | been concerned in any
sort of judicial proceedings, and can
not get over the disgrace! The very
idea, That just because a woman
who calls upon you chooses to go and
die that night, you are dragged into
the affair-as If I poisoned her tea
or something! But for that matter, it
was much too early for tea when she
came, and she only stopped ten min
utes or so!"
"Auntie, you are not behaving like
your own wise SELF" said Vernon gent
". her own trials receding still more
into the background as she saw how
her aunt, in Jems absence, turned tt
her for guidance. She pointed ou
that no sort of stigma could possibly
attach to her appearance, and that the
reason it was desired was probably
that she might testify that the LADY
had. at the time Of her visit, no idef
of suicide. "Why, your evidence ma!
Just make the difference between he
being laid in consecrated ground o.
not" she urged.
The argument appealed to the kin'
heart of Mrs. Bardsley, but still She
plaintively asserted her own forlorl
state without a man in the house
What / shall do when he is gone TO
good, simply cannot picture!" sh
complained. with a fresh burst O
tears: and was so i'll as a result of he
crying that Vernon put her to be
soon after tea, thinking it very prof
able that she would be too i'll to a
tend the inquiry upon the morrow.
Such. however. was not the case