The Washington times., 1920-08-08
pntlrued from Preceding pogel

ONtUthcd JfOm ffeSe""S N~SN|
9od reasons for what ask. Your
story has interested me very deep
~" He took up his hat and held
out his hand. "Goodjby, Mrs. Ben
am"
But you will stay and take
lnch2 Stella will be-
II think not, Mrs. Benham; !
nave a busy day before me. The
dowers are for Stella and there is
a letter with them. In the light OF
what you have just told me l want
you to remember that that letter
was already written before you
showed me the ring
Eyes, Robert; but what's all the
mystery"
Because, Mrs. Benham, the let
ter is my capitulation, my uncon-
ditional surrender to Stella. In II
have ignored our years contract,
which Is not quite up. and have
asked her to marry me. Had not
written 1t before hearing your
story / could never have done so
without laying myself open to a
grave misconstrhction. | have told
her that will meet her at the
theatre tonight. Please do as l
wish and tell her nothing OF the
story you have told me-"
And Mrs ,Benham promised, and
after Robert had left she locked
the ltrinket away again In the
dressing-table drawer. Stella's
roses she placed in water in the
centre of the table, daintily set out
for luncheon, and the letter she put
by her daughters plate.
Robert walked most OF the way
back to his Office. He felt that ex-
ercise was what he needed II he
were to unravel the romantic tangle
of the Dartignys. Stella, evidently.
was the legitimate heiress to what,
was In the chest left by her great
neutrality-suspicious.. Marie Bris-
sac de Dartigny, more than cen.
tury ago.
But Dartin had come upon the
scene in the nick of time, and hisS
present possession gave him the
nine proverbial legal points. It
would be no easy matter now to
dis!odge the owner Of Adderbury
Towers. That the inheritance had
turned out better than Dartin had
limited was apparent from the style
kept up at Barchester. He won
dered why the man had been SO
reticent as to what the chest had
contained
Robert had seen little of Dartjn
during the last year. He was not
one to whom he was attracted, and
although the owner Of the Towers
had tried to be friendly, the solici-
tor had not unduly encouraged him.
At that moment there was an in
vitation on the desk at his cham
bers asking him down for few
days to Barchester, an invitation
which Robert had made up his
mind to decline.
In the light, however, Of what he
had just heard, he changed his
mind and decided to accept. There
might perhaps be an opportunity OF
finding out how the land lay, and in
Stella's interest he felt he was
justified, if not in spying, at. all
events in keeping his eyes open.
There was no shadow Of suspicion
in his mind against the claimant to
whom. he had surrendered the
chest. He accepted as fact that
Dartin was in truth a descendant
of the Dartlgnys, more distant than
Stella, certainly, but the solicitor
told himself that he had'fulfilled to
the letter the condition of the
trust He felt "a bitterness against
the man, or, rather, against the
luck that had given him a fortune
to which he had no moral right,
but that was all Doubt as to the
honesty Of the man at Adderbury
Towers had, as yet, not crossed his
mind-that was to come later.