Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-11-15

AAAohPt6GO DOOh1 LOIIl tItOT0 lilAH
once given her blankbooks just like
his own-bound in red morocco, with
mottled edges, and stamped, DIARY,
Is" There was q whole row of
these books on one of the bottom
shelves of the bookcase and she had
been looking at them, one by one,
hurriedly, for she knew she needed
that rest upstairs before The COM
pany came. She pulled the books
out, impatiently. One or two were
her own notebooks; but the rest were
Toms memoranda-accoun notes,
etc, etc., back to--"Why, dear met"
said Amy to herself, they go back
to before we We're married."
There was one date that caught her
eye; she had heard 1t repeated and
repeated in the last few weeks; she
had heard it that very morning in
court, when Thomas Fleming had
said: I'm March, 1887. L. F. Smith
paid me in one check $17.400, s14, 400
for a piece of land belonging to the
Hammond estate, and $4,000 which he
owed my personal account"
The flexible, red covered diary
marked 1887 drew her hand with the
fascination which comes with remem-
bered pain. All! how she had suffered
every time that date fell like scald-
ing drop of fear upon her heart! She
shivered as she opened the book. 1t
occurred to her, with vague surprise,
that this book would probably have
settled the whole matter if Tom had
only remembered it, He had shown
in court that records of that year had
been among certain office books
burned in the great March fire, when
the building in which he had an Of
flee had been destroyed. Yes, this
book might have cleared the whole
matter up, easily and quickly, for, as
she saw at a glance, here were en-
tries about the Hammond Trust. She
forgot her fatigue, and the nap she
ought to have; she forgot the poem
altogether she sat down on the floor
running the pages over eagerly, It
occurred to her, as a climax of the
successful day, that she would bring
this book out at dinner (f she could
only find something about the $14, 400,
and show it as her final triumph.
Then her eyes fell on the figures
SIT 400.
Received from l.. III. Smith, today,
$17 400 for Hammond property, in
Linden Hill" Then the comment: "a
whacking good price. | hardly eX-
pected to get so much" The signifi-
canoe of this brief statement did not
penetrate her joy. She began eagerly
to look again for the other figures
and chen turned back, perplexed,
81. 400 for the Hammond property?
Suddenly her eye caught another
familiar sum-$3,000. All, now she
would find it, Yes. verify, 50 she did:
Borrowed $4,000 from Hammond es-
tate to pay back money borrowed
from Ropes estate
= 90. Ntns
woman. sitting on the floor. her
whole slender body tingling with fa-
tigue-it seemed as IL something fell,
shuddering, down and down, and
down. in her breast Strangely
enough this physical recognition In
formed her soul. She heard herself
sneak, as one falling into the uncon-
seriousness of an anesthetic, hears,
with vague establishment, words fall
tering unbidden from the lips. "No.
No. Mo-" came the body's fright
ened denial.
Out in the hall the half-hour
silence.
God. If he did it, l can't live
can't live"
Suddenly the happenings of the day
seemed to blur and run together, and
| there was moment, not of uncon-
seriousness, but of profound indiffer-
ence Her capacity for feeling
snapped. But when she tried to rise
| her whole being was sick. She
steadied herself by the bookshelves;
| and then, somehow, got upstairs. 1t
was the sight of the soft dress, with
Its pretty laces, that stung her
awake. That dress; was it hers
was she to put 1t on? Was she to
| go and sit at the head of that shining
! table down In the dining-room.
"But, you know, I-can't," she said
aloud.
| But she did.
| BY the time Fleming and his coun-
sci came tramping up from the gate
at a quarter past seven, and stopped
lhilariously, to kick the snow off their
boots before entering the hall, Amy
lFleming had arisen to meet the sum-
mons OF Life.
When Amy Fleming. CHASTITY, in
lher pretty dinner dress, sought
refuge in the kitchen (the one spot
where her husband would not be APT
to pursue herr, and stood listening to
the voices of the two men going up.
Istairs, Mary Ann, the waitress
needed no information that there was
something the matter"
"She looks like she was dead" she
told Jane.
Jane" her mistress said, 81 wish
you would open a bottle of cham.
payne, one of the pints, not one o.
the big bottles, and give-me-s
lglass." Her voice was faint. Jan,
obeyed hurriedly, and as the corl
popped one man upstairs called ou
I gayly to the other. "Hullo! has it be
4 gun already?'
Amy drank the wine and handed
the glass back to the anxious woman
II was feeling faint, Jane. / am al
fright now, thank you. Oh, there's tia
. door belt I'll 30 into the library.