The daily morning oasis., 1918-02-17

leaSC ii Jne letter alluded TO mad been
in my wife's handwriting. But it was
not. The writing was quite strange to
me; it was like-like what you see on
the picture lying there" and he p ,inted
to the one l have mentioned as having a
sign lture on its margin. "Her own
hand was round, not flowing. But the
letter began in the usual way with
dearest and ended, as all her letters
ended, with the dutiful expression,
from your afectionate wJe,' and,
expl lining to myself that the unac-
customed l'ok of the writing was due
to her sickness and the excitement of
telling me about her child, l never gave
never have ascribed it to Hildegarde,
or believed it to have been written to t,
Melville. That word Dearest hardly
suited their relations, nor was she the
woman to forget herself in Joy over the
birth of a child, which could only serve
to seal an unfortunate union"
"And this letter written in his wife's
handwriting, but received by you in an
envelope manifestly directed by Mrs.
Cassetty, is all the proof which Mr..
Melville advances in support of his
present claim?"
"That and the undeniable fact,
always recognized in the family, but
seldom mentioned there or elsewhere,
that Coraie has all of Hildegarde
Melville's traits and none. of my
wife's."
(Which is not conclusive" l re-
marked. "Still, it weighs. And what
excuse does he give for approaching her
now, after leaving her to be brought up
by your" -.
Miss Ladd, l cannot reply to this
but by opening old wounds md speaking
the truth out very plainly. My
brother-in-law, for all his social attrac-
tions, is spendthrift and a gambler
He is probably at a crisis in his career,
wants money and wants it badly. That
he felt lonely and longed for family ties
is all bosh. Didn't he exact from her at
the first opportunity everything OF value
that she owned? Those are the kind
of ties he longed for. May God forgive
him for what he has done l never
shall, even if it is his blood and not mine
which flows in her innocent veins He
is q scoundrel, this handsome and
enticing brother-in-law of mine, and
selfish to the core. For some end of his
own he has shaken her hold on me and
robbed her of the man who would have
made her the best of husbands. George
Beauchamp will never marry her now.
The mere doubt that she has this
adventurer's blood in her veins will be
enough for him. A Beauchamp will
marry poverty, and has done SO often,
but never mean or polluted blood.
And, by Heaven! l honor them for it,
l can never feel the same myself to-
wards Coralie, now that this doubt has
come to poison our relations Not so
much because never can be sure again
that she is really bone Of my bone and
flesh of my flesh, as because the very
idea of her owing her life to this man is
abhorrent to me. Why, he not only
has never been known to earn an honest
penny, but he has never been able to
stay two months in one place, owing to
the persistent enmity of woman, who
hounds him and has bounded him for
years with the declared intention of
killing him on sight"
"The woman!" faltered.
eyes, the woman! l don't know
what her grievance is; some say that it is
not personal, but none the less insistent
on that account. l only know that he
fears a woman he calls Arabella, and
declares that he expects yet to die by
boc bonJ fbo Lnouat tho oowardi