Connecticut western news., 1921-07-21

tDe IamOuS Mrs. Merdle'S ScnemeS.
 And then the bubble broke. Merdle committed suicide. The DorritS money was gone. Arthur's firm was ruined and Arthur himself was thrown into prison-the same poor debtors prison that had, for so long been the home of Little Dorrit.
 The days dragged wearily on.
 At last Arthur, Respondent and crushed, haggard from breeding and stricken with fever, one day saw, as In a vision, kneeling before him the figure of dear Little Dorrit She had hastened to make happier the lot of the man who had helped her family Tn the same gloomy surroundings and whom she loved. She nursed him in his sickness. She offered him all her money to help him overcome his dis tress. And then, as he refused the money, he realized, for the first time that she loved him-and that he, too, loved her.
 A feeling of peace comes over his mind.
 The clouds begin to break.
 And strange to say 1t is a rascally adVenturer, Rigaud, murderous jail bird with dropping nose and ascending 1nustache, who opens the rift still fur ther for the sunshine. He has discov- cred Mrs. CIennam's secret, having stolen the strong box that Flintwinch had smuggled into Holland and in which lay page of the will of Ar thurs uncle, a page which Mrs. CleD- nam had concealed for years.
 Rigaud visited the strange old lady. Leaning over the sofa, poised on two legs of his chair and his left elbow, coarse, insolent, rapacious, cruel, he reveals to her his knowledge.
 Then, torn by the explosion of her passion, the old lady vehemently tells her own story.
 She had learned, after MT. Clen- nam's marriage to her Ca marriage commanded by his overbearing uncle), that her husband had loved and gone through a sort of ceremony with a beautiful young singer whom Fred eric Dorrit, a kind-hearted musician !(the uncle of Little Dorrit), was be- friending and giving an education. She had obtained the first clue from those initials in her husbands watch which she found years ago, signifying Do Not Forget" She accused both her husband and the woman, who put the initials there.
 Instantly Rigaud, seeking to black mail the old lady, declared he had de posted with the niece, Little Amy Dorrit, then at the prison with Ar thur, a packet containing the sup pressed section of the will with in- structions to open 1t at certain hour unless reclaimed by him. What would Mrs. Clennafn pay him to reclaim 1t?
 To the astonishment of all, the par nlytic old lady rises to her feet and rushes from the house to the prison; seeks Little Dorrit; calls for the pack ct, and then bids Amy read it, at the same time begging her to forgive the past.
 T forgive you freely" cried the gen. erous girl.
 God bless you!" was the fervent and broken response.
 And then came the good news that Arthur's firm had re-established itself and that he would be able now to leave the debtors prison.
 So they were married-but not be- fore Little Dorrit had handed to Ar thur a folded bit of legal paper ask ing him not to open 1t but to burn 1t in her presence.
 'Ts it a charm?" he asked, smil- ingly. "And does the charm want any words to be said?" he added as he held the paper over the flames.
 "You can say eff you don't mind) q love your" answered Little Dorrit.
 So he said it and the paper burned away.
 With it died the secret of Arthur's birth, never to be known to him; with it, also, Little Dorrit had volun- tarily destroyed the evidence of her own legacy.
 And they were married with the sun shining on them through the painted figure of Our Savior on the window.
 Then they went quietly down into the roaring streets, inseparable and blessed; and, as they passed along in the sunshine and shade, the noisy and the eager and the arrogant and the froward and the vain fretted. and chafed, and made their usual up- roar.
 Copyright 1919, by the Post Publishing
 Co. (The Boston PosD. Copyright in the
 United Kingdom the Dominions, its Col
 onies and dependencies, under the copy
 right act. by the Post Publishing Co.,,
 Boston. Mass, U. s. A. All rights re-