The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1912-06-04

ment but after they had been out to-
gether considerably at functions re-
curing full dress he noticed that she
never appeared in such costume with
out 1t. One evening when she was thus
attired he said to her:
why do you invariably wear that
ornament with full dressT
The expression he had noted when he
had first called her Zenobia passed
again over her face, and-she made no
reply.
He looked at her, surprised. She was
keeping a secret from him.
During an engagement certain SEN
sitiveness or oversensitiyeness is apt
to permit unimportant matters to re-
main unexplained that had better be
brought out into the open. Percy did
not repeat the question. but began to
speak Of something else. No one had
better control of himself than he, and
he acted outwardly as though he had
ventured upon ground on which he had
no right to tread. Inwardly there was
great change in him toward his
6ancee.
When he went home that night the
warning he had received against the
American beauty, the hints as to her
plebeian origin, the mystery attending
her inheritance, all came up before
him to throw him into fever that no
other cause could have effected. Sup
pose this circlet should have some con-
nection with either of these matters.
Absurd! There was much more rea-
son to suppose that it concealed a
blemish, birthmark, or perhaps one
of those scars of unusual size and ugli-
ness that are left by vaccination.
And yet would this woman, about
whom there was an impressiveness
that affected every one who came near
| her, refuse to tell the man she was to
marry that on her arm was a trihing
blemish? If the first supposition was
| absurd the second was more so. No;
there was some mystery connected
| with the circlet-a blot, q weakness
There was weakness in this strong
woman, a very strange weakness, a
weakness that no one could conceive
as existing side by side with a being
Of such mental and spiritual caliber,
| but what it was or what was the mys
terry it shielded Percy was not destin-
ed to find out from Miss Denton He
was to learn it by accident
The secret grew and festered and
throbbed and panied till the lover
could stand it no longer. He was a
masterful man In self control and sue
ceeded in concealing what he felt from
the woman he loved-not that she
failed to discover that something had
come between them or that she did
not realize that the secret she had re-
fused to tell him was on his mind
| What she did not know was that he
/ was trying to make up his mind to re-
sign her. All the traditions of his fam
| lily were against his marrying a wo-
man who had no pretense to an arts
tocratic birth and about whom, despite
her evident fine character, he feared
there might be something wrong. He
| determined TO absent himself from her
for awhile to determine If he could
not forget her.
He was tempted to go to America
and investigate her past on the ground
where she lived, but he banished the
idea in moment. Investigate the past
of the woman he was to marry! he
would wed no one who would not
! make a clean breast of her whole life
| No; he would go Gown to Italy. The
beautiful lakes, Maggiori, Como, would
/: inspire him with other thoughts, and
| the American-he shuddered at the
thought that she might be an adven-
turess- gradually be effaced
| from his mind
| So he bid Miss Denton adieu, telling
her that he would run over to the con-
tinent for brief season of recreation.
intending to advise her Of the pro
Iongatlon of his absence later by let
ter. The morning after his arrival in
Paris, taking up newspaper-the con-
tinental newspapers are mostly socie
| ty journals-his eye met the following
Item, copied from an American paper:
Miss Helen Denton an American girl
| whose name some years ago was In every
| ones mouth, is creating a sensation in
J London society. Miss Denton ia the
daughter Of lighthouse keeper on the
I New Jersey coast and when sixteen years
! old during storm carried q line in q boat
| to yacht that was going to pieces on a
| bar near the lighthouse where she lived
| thus saving the lives Of the yachtsman
/ and his family. He left an enormous for
! tune part Of which went to the heroine
| who had succored him and his wife and
| children.
Percy started from his seat, took the
paper to the window and read the
item again and again.
And this was the woman he was
trying to get away FRONT But the cir
clet! What could that have to do with
the matter? He would return to Lon
don and find out.
The next evening he called upon his
fancee and without mentioning his
unexpected return handed her the item
he had cut from the Paris paper. She
heaved a sigh.
"It's all out that am a plebeian. 1
release you"
"Will you now tell me why you wear
! The circlet?"
Raising her sleeve. she showed him
tattooed picture In blue ink Of girl
rowing a boat.
What does it meanY" be asked.
"The men at the life saving station
put it there"
"And the letter H'?"
"Oh, they thought l had done some
thing remarkable. 1t was not so. 1
only pulled out to a wrecked yacht
with a line In tow"
"The letter stands for heroine, does
It notT
81 suppose 1t does"
| He stared at her in wonder. Great
| heavens! Have you been concealing
from me that you are heroine to fur
Their conceal that your father was a
lighthouse keeperT
Eyes"
He had no words for such a woman.
He took her in his arms and covered
ler face with kisses.