Evening star., 1912-11-03

would be of immense value to a man in Wa
verton's place if called on to fight for the re-
tention of name and estate. She smiled
little at that conception of a new role Eve
nv adventures must occasionally be candid
with herself, whether she is consulting
mirror or her conscience, and Mrs. Delamar
frankly admitted that she had grown rather
afraid of Waverton since the day in Palm
Beach when he was able to leave his room
and calmly announce his intentions, s,-that
he meant to go forthwith to a hotel, and
that she must regard the sum of twenty
five thousand dollars won at SChwartz's
gambling house as his farewell token of es-
TEEN.
True, she had tried to persuade herself
that she would win him back as soon as his
health was restored, and she encouraged
Tearlc's ambitions with regard to Doris
Waverton as supplying final cause of es
arrangement between husband and wife. But
there ever had peeped up in her mind lr1rk-
ing fear lest her plans might miscarry be-
cause of some new and unforeseen develop
ment in Waverton himself. Now she had
learned the unsuspected genesis of her
doubt. Never again would she dlstrust her
intt1tioni It almost amused her to con lure
up the form and manner of the next meeting
between Waverton and herself; for she
meant to drive hard bargain nothing
less than marriage would satisfy her: the
price of her silence, or, if needful, of her sup
port, would be a wedding ring.
1t was, perhaps, the strangest feature in
strange case that two women, one a charm
ing and modest woman to her fngertips, the
other 4 true daughter of the horse leech,
who had willingly bartered her reputation
for the doubtful gifts of fashion, should per-
1>o 1,yf /,,,o1f;ac of
heart and brain displayed by the present
holder of the name of Waverton as compared
with his predecessor.
If Mrs. Delamar's suspicious were well
founded, she hardly knew the man at all,
and had not spoken to him on more than
three occasions in her life; yet now she was
weighing the chances that would make her
legally his wife, insure for her the recognized
position she coveted, and confirm for all
time an audacious and almost unprece
dented fraud.
A S a commencement, she tried to throw
over that largely built person, John
Stratton Tearle.
"The game is up, Jack" she said when
the door of a private sitting room had closed
on them in the hotel; for Tearle had trav-
eled to Atlantic City by the night mail, but
naQ JuQSeu IL prudent 10 keep away lIOlH
the inquest when Mrs. Delamar told him of
the nlischance that led to couple of detec-
tives witnessing their leavetaking at New
York.
"Whose game, or what game?' he de-
manded Grossly; for he too had been weigh
ing possibilities during some care-laden
hours.
"Yours, of course-and mine as well,
Mrs. Delamar added hurriedly, since there
was no sense in converting friend into an
enemy by limiting that their interests were
not jointly endangered.
"What has happened, Feenao Come to
the point in plain English. You and can
afford to talk to each other in that way, you
know"
There was an ugly CLINT in her ally's eyes
which warned her that some display of tact
was advisable.
"I cannot fight against the Detective Bu-
reau," she said sadly, and with due pretense
of calm despair. "Those wretched men have
ferreted out everything. We thought this
morning that Our mistake lay in being seen
together in New York; but that IS a mere
trife compared with the reality. They put
me on the witness stand, and made me tell
everything. Luckily, | was wise enough to
see that the position was desperate, and
called for transparent honesty and truth
fulness. Oh, Jack, if had tried to hurnbug
the hOrrid LAWYER who was sent here bv the