The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-05-13
(ContinIed.)

tSOnlluCeu.l
 She came to breakfast with dark purple underlinings to those shining eyes. But Mrs. Eardsley herself had passed a most disturbed Light, as a result of the terrible news from Bar TOW End; and thought that such a dreadful occurrence in their quiet neighborhood was a full excuse for restlessness.
 Vernon passed the whole morning in her own upstairs sitting-room. She felt too bruised, too weary of life, to wander out into the garden, pr even to go and help the gardener gIoat over their two First and three Second prizes at yesterdays show.
 She had an insane fancy of exist ing with her breath held-of waiting for some decisive happening which should pronounce her doom.
 When they again met for lunch, Aunt Emmas eyes were almost ex- tinguished with fresh weeping. The sight smote Vernon's conscience. She put her own woes aside, and gently took the dear women to task. She had no right to make herself i'll be- Trent, who had very likely, nothing particular to live for.
 And then it turned out that this was not the reason of the present
 
 to London zen route for Scotland, to look at Lord Bunbury's property there, of which he had been offered the agency.
 nerves like the flickering 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.
 A new reason to deplore Jem's ab- sence was upon them within an hour after lunch. A subpoena arrived with a polite note from the County Coroner, 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 into a state of tremor which surpris- ed Vernon. She could not, would not, enter a Court of Law without the protection 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 en- trap her; but Aunt Emma refused comfort.
 Its all Sophia Tarlton's doing." she cried lamentably, "and it will be a long time before I can forgive her. She must have gone and told them what I said about this poor thing speaking to me of drugs. Never in my life have I been concerned in any sort of judicial proceedings, and l cannot get over the disgraee! The very idea! That just because a wo- man who calls upon you chooses to go and die that night. you are drag ged 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 minutes or sol"
 'Auntie. you are not behaving like your own wise self.'' said Vernon gently, her own trials receding still more into the background as she saw how her aunt, in Jem's ab- sence, turned to her for guidance. She pointed out that no sort of stigma could possibly attach to her appear ance, and that the reason it was de- sired was probably that she might t--tify that the lady had, at the time of her visit, no idea of suicide. "Why, your evidence may just make the difference between her being laid in consecrated ground or not,'' she urged.
 The argument appealed to the kind ! heart of Mrs Beardsley, but still she plaintively asserted her own forlorn state without a man in the house. What I shall do when he is gone for good, I simply cannot picture!" she complained, with a fresh burst of tears; and was so ill as a result of her crying that Vernon put her to bed soon after tea, thinking it very probable that she would be too i'll sfo attend the inquiry upon the mor- TOW.
 .-p Such, however, was not the case. Having made up her mind to it, Mrs. ,Bardsley heroicaIly prepared to face the music; and, dressed in black and Accompanied by Vernon in white. t-1tn a black hat, she drove to ths ecen7 or the tragedy.
 z For the third time Vernon passed through that drive gate.
 ag The new plants which poor Laura had had put in last autumn to form