Evening star., 1911-08-20

net and began, 'My own darling Val
| how can you ever forgive me for not an
| swering your poor. dear cablegram, but
of course, I thought it was from that
horrible wretch Foxham. 1t seems now
he sold your ticket for the Baltic and
sailed for Australia. All sorts of reports
came in about him directly after you
must have sailed, and l learn now tina,
even before you left James Marlborough
suspected him. because of some forged
check he'd heard of--Im really too con-
fused and upset to remember how or
when or what. But in any case y was
| most remiss of James not to have instant
ly warned you against the man, even on
the slightest suspicion"
This was only the beginning of the coro-
| neted letter. which had no paragra phs
and very few punctuations. Jealous still
Miss Moon was relieved to see that the
signature was your adOring mother,
but she was at a loss to understand allu-
Sions to duchesseS and other persons OF
i title. Indeed, it would have appeared to
her like property letter to be read
on the stage by an aristocratic hero OF
| melodrama, had it not been for the pos,
Office order for three hundred dollars
which 1t contained. 1t was a genuine
order. as Miss Moon might have been in
clined to prove for herself, If she had had
any hope Of obtaining the money, which
she had not: therefore the next best thing
was to throw the document into the fire
| that Gordon might not benefit by II.
The other letter inclosed had no coro-
net. not even a crest: but the paper was
very nice, Smelled family of spring flow
ers. ara- had for an address a number in
Park lane, which Miss Moon had read OF
In English novels as a street mostly in
habited by elderly millionaire villains who
prosecuted poor but beauteOus heroines
The writing was pretty and the letter was
signed Your affectionate cousin, Betty.
At the end was postscript in differen,
hand, which seemed somehow to suit the
| rather dashing signature-"Jim."
This second letter was even more diff
| cult than the first for an uninitfated per
| son to understand and it irritated Mis-:
| Moon to high pitch of nervousness.
| cousin Betty seemed to be explaining
/ and justifying thing that Jim haf
! done.
nest. but it had a good motive wrote
| Betty. II guessed the morning your
! really very conceited letter about the
| New York introductions came, that jim
| had something quaint up his sleeve tl
spring upon you when you'd arrived In
America, but I didn't know what. TIC
tell the truth. Val, | was even more dis
gusted than Jim by your cool way of as
suming that you had only to show your
self on the other side to pick and choose
among all the incest as we'll as riches,
girls. l should have loved to box your
ears. and said: OF course we won't give
him any letters and I'll tell him just
what We think Of him. Then. maybe. he
won't go But Jim said: Yes, we will
give him the letters and he shall go. We
| may find another way OF teaching him a
lesson. way that will do him good il
he's worth being done good to-
That was all. and as Jim didn't refer
to the subject again after we posted the
| letters OF introduction. the conversation
slipped my mind. l didn't think any more
about it until weird things began to be
copied into Lordon papers from New
| York ones. and your mother wired jim
to ask what, if anything. could be done
/, to punish FoXham. You see, she though,
! YOU were on the Baltic
Jim soothed all her worries, so yot
needn't be anxious about her, as. OF
course. you would if you thought she d
/, been alarmed. When | saw paragra phS
| in the papers talked to Jim, and 1t was
| only then that he told me what he'd
| done: how it was all his fault really and
| he was very sorry. because everything
had turned out a lot worse for you than
| he'd ever dreamed Of wanting 1t to be
| Fate took hand in the game and played
| II for all Il was worth Jim said.
1T seems that Foxham, your man
asked Jim to cash a check signed by you
| one night not loEg ago don't you remem-
ber when he and / were at Battlemead
and you came down for Saturday to Mon
day3 Jim suspected something wrong
but wouldn't speak TO you till he'd made
sure. because that wouldn't have beer
fair and Foxham was such an Invaluable
valet. \ few days later. when Jim was
! making inquiries about the man. he found
out that the horrid creature had actually
inpersonated you at two or three hotels
and run up bills in your name. 1t was
the very evening before your letter about
America came that Jim got the first part
of this information. and day by day more
kept coming in, up to the time when We
heard FoXham had given you notice All
along Jim was thinking out the idea o:
that lesson for you-the joke that was tc
be half in earnest-and then, when Mr.
VarderPot couldn't sail in the Maure
tana the whole plan was mapped out
without word being said even to me
''Of course. | want to assure you again
| tand Jim will write a postscripD that he
meant nothing e.orse to happen to you
than a disappointment and blow to your
| concet. He telegraphcd to several of the
| people 20 whom YOU had letters, saying
that If a person turned up calling him
self by your name before the Baltic
| landed they d better wait and make sure
! before being nice to YOU that you weren't
Ito be continued tomorrow0