, 1915-07-29

f. X Fy company.
comflture. as he deemed 1t. of his in
genious foe.
IT shall dismiss you now, Andrew
he said, rather supercillously.
The Master Mind, however, showed
no trace of the humility of defeat.
you are to learn, Mr.. Wainwright.
that 1 am not quite so easily dis
missed"
Wainwright frowned disdainfully.
"What do you mean?" he demanded.
what has passed." Andrew remark
ed, lis merely an incident. Now we
come at last to the real issue be-
tween u.s."
Wainwright was plainly perplexed.
1.-THE real issue?' he repeated.
Andrews eyes flashed ominously and
in his utterance had a new toxic quail
ity.
do you suppose that, after four
years of careful planning, l would
place the issue In the hands of a mere
child?''
yet IL would seem that you did
commit Just that folly"
Not soi'' Andrews denial was
spoken with angry vehemence. 81
have my chief esource against you
still in readiness. and 1 shall employ it.
Listen, sir! You aspire to high office,
Mr.. Wainwright. The opposition to
you is strong. and it is INSCRIPTIONS.
You have threatened the corporations.
They know what to expect from you.
Nnru if In fhn nc nary uynrn f0 M
pear the story of certain peculiar tai
ents of your wife's relatives. together
with a sketch of your wife's life
MY wife's relativesr' Wainwright
exclaimed.
1t was Lucene who seized the cppor-
tunity for explanation. Little by little,
now that the period of most frightful
stress was past. she had been gather
ing some idea of the truth as TO the
manner in which she had serve the
vindietive spirit of the man whom
hitherto she had regarded with II re-
v~ePential gratitude. Though the whole
matter was not yet clear to her by any
means, she nevertheless perceived be-
yond the shadow of doubt that Andrew
hated her husband and thai he had
Unanswered deliberately for revenge.
and that she had been entrapped by
his wiles into the playing of a part
against the man she loved. There was
to her a wonderful comfort now In the
fact that her husband had remained
convinced of her fa%ithfulness despite
all appearance of evil. That he still
loved her she knew, and the knowl-
edge revived her spirit to revolt against
the mOnstrous pr%etense induced by
Andrew. She felt that now, at last,
there was indeed an end to hypocrisies
between her and her husband. The
secrecy and deceit of the past had been
punished enough already, perhaps, in
the misery of the present. For the
future there should be only truth be-
tween them. The love of the man, she
had learned, was big enough to forgive
the wrong she had done him out Of
girlish weakness, -treacherously be-
guiled by the deft leadings of one
whom she esteemed as her kindly
guardian. So at Wainwright's bewil-
dered exclamation. she cried out Gag
erly:
"oh, let me be the n to tell you.
Cortland. Please~please!' She chung
to him In tender beseeching and felt a
new strength from the fond glance of
his eyes. YES" she went on. with a
catch of her breath, 'it's all true about
me. 1 did wrong-oh, horribly wrong!
l know now. My conscience told me
the truth always, but l fought against
it because he said l must. | let you
think my name was Lucene Blount
and that all these awful people were
my relatives. Mr.. Andrew said that
it was the only way. l let him guide
me. L honored him and loved him for
all he had done for me. and l was
sure that what he told me must be
right. even when it seemed wrong to
me-" OF a sudden her face whitened.
and the mouth dropped in fear. ooh,
I'm afraid l can't make you see. and,
IL l can't / shall die. You know, Cort-
land, l trusted him. Why, he has been
like fathef and mother to me. And
then he said he'd bring me the man |
loved II explained that all this fraud
about my life and relatives was the
only way. He said, If you knew l was
a poor girl with a bad record you new
er would care for me. And. because !
longed so for you | let myself be per
suaded and did everything as he badt