The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-01-07
HIDDEN FOR YEARS
DEATH OF new YORK LAWYER
REVEAL HIS LIES SECRET
LIVED A DOUBLE LIFE

AO - ~ ~ - ~A~ >~eH -
No One, Not Even His Wife, Knew
That His Affinity Lived in the Sc
cluded Room in the Rear Of His
Place of Business, Willing Pris-
Oner of His.
The Esther Gobseck of Balzac's fc-
ton, transplanted from the romantic
Partisan setting of the early Nine
teenth century, came to life in Mon
ticello, N. Y, this week when Melvin
H. Couch was found dead in the law
Offices he had long occupied in the
Masonic building, in that city. Mem
bers of his family, entering for the
first time the inner room of his ottlce,
which he had always guarded so care
fully from intrusion, found hidden
there frightened, fearful woman
a stranger to them all. Yet this wo-
Adelaide NJ. Brance-had lived
in that inner room for three years,
and not a soul but her and Couch
knew of it.
If the woman went out at all it was
late in the night, when all the vii
lage was asleep, and if any might
hawk" ever chanced upon strange
woman slipping out Of the Masonic
building the story never reached the
village gossips. For three years she
had endured her voluntary imprison-
ment for the sake Of being the secret
companion Of this man, and so sue
cessfully was her presence there con-
cealed by the man himself that the
members of his own family never
even guessed it.
Dread of discovery grew with the
passing Of every month, and in the
last year she had ventured out of the
office only once until one day this
week when she ran from the building
to the office Of the nearest doctor as
her lover lay dying of heart disease
on cot in the Office. Couch was
dead when the doctor arrived and
when the latter looked around for
the woman she had disappeared.
The wife and daughter of the dead
man were summoned to his office.
Mrs. Couch, after giving directions
for the disposition of the corpse, at
tempted to enter the mysterious
inner room of the Office, but found
the door locked. She asked one OF
the men to climb over the partition
but as he tried it he was halted by a
| woman's voice that came from the
darkness beyond.
"I'll come out if you don't harm,
me-"
There came the sound Of the key
in the lock and the woman stepped
out into the Office, stood for an in
slant at the foot of the cot where the
body lay, glanced at the dead man
then looked up and saw his wife and
! daughter. She made as if to speak
but suddenly sank to the floor in a
swoon.
Those present looked long and
hard at the woman's face as they
lifted her and one or two recognized
her as one whom they had in years
past seen frequently in Monticello
and so frequently visiting Couch's
office that there had been some gossip
for tire-gossip that stopped, OF
course, when the woman had appar-
emily disappeared from the town
Miss Brance was revived, and the
unique story was told.
| She gave her name as Adelaide
| Brance, and her home as Goshen, N
| Y. She said that she had known Mr
Couch for / 5 years. One day she had
! gone to Monticello canvassing for
subscriptions to a book. She had gone
to the office of Mr.. Couch and had
tried to sell him the book. That was
their meeting and the relation which
they formed began then. For years
it was matter of an occasional visit.
Business would seem to bring her to
Monticello and she would manage to
spend some time with the lawyer.
The visits became more and more
frequent, and more and more they
tended to stretch from night at
time to a week at time. It was
three years ago that the two decided
there was no reason why the secrecy
they had been able to maintain for a
week could not be maintained for a
year or for lifetime.
The woman told Couch she would
come to Monticello, take up her quar-
ters in the inner Office, and never
step out in the daylight again.
An oil stove, table, some chairs
and iron bed we're put into the inner
room. Miss Brance came there under
cover of darkness. Couch announced
at his home that he had become so
crippled with rheumatism-trouble
returning to foot from an injury he
received while running as a boy
that it would be out Of the question
for him to mount every day the long
hill leading to his home. Hereafter,
he said, he would live at the Office
sleep at the Office. eat at the office.
Once a week, with the coming Of
Sunday noon. he had walked labor
iously up the hill t. the Couch home
and dined in state with Mrs. Couch.
SO that made it possible for him to
live at his Office, and to take things
from the grocer's and butchers to
his Office without arousing the gos-
sips of the town to any suspicion Of
the truth
With all the precautions 1t is re-
sarded as little short of marvellous
that this secret could have been pre-
served with almost every moment Of
ferjnr the risk of discovery. For the