The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-02-11

fstcnfather would have objected. they sdid not see each other but wrote to each other. TODAY'S INSTAIMENT -Were you engaged to the gentle ~ man at this timer" asked MT. Holmes. af "Oh yes MT. Holmes. We were st engaged after the first walk that we N cook Hosme mer-Mr. Angel-Was
 cashier in an office in Leadenhali l lstreet-and-"
 'swhat officer" H That's the worst of it, MT. Holmes. M don't know"
 'sWhere did he live. them"
 He slept on the premises.
 And you don't know his address!
 ''No-except that it was Leaden- fhan Street." , "Where did you address your let iters, then?" ,i ITO the Ladenhall Street post of .,fice. to be left till called for. He said that if they were sent to the office he twould be chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a l1ady, so l. offered to typewrite them, like he did his. but he wouldn't nave Ithat, for he said that when I wrote
 them they seemed to come rom me- always felt that the machine had come between us. That will just |. show you how fond he was of me- { IMr. Holmes, and the little things that +Ihc would Tn1nk OIL II ~It was most suggestive said Holmes "It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are in Infinitely the most important. Can lyou remember any other little things
 about MT. Hosmer Angel?"
 FTIolmes He would rather walk with l ;me in the evening than in the day X slfght, for he said that he hated to be
 conspicuous. Vehy retiring and was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and \ ,swollen glands when he was young, The told me, and it had left him with
 aweak throat, and hesitating, whis- always well dressed, very neat and W plain, but his eyes were weak, just as
 mine are. and he wore tinted glasses
 Nagainst the glare"
 Well, and what happened when
 MT. Windibank. your stepfather. re- turned to France?"
 jF MT. Hosmer Angel came to the M house again, and proposed that we N lshould marry before father came | back. was in dreadful earnest, and I lunade me swear. with my hands on \ ithe Testament, that whatever hap
 pened would always be true to him.
 make me swear. and that it was a fsign of his passion. Mother was all An his favor from the first, and was even fonder of him than I was. Then,
 
 .the week. began 70 ask about
 father; but they both said never to
 mind about father. and mother said she would make it all right with him. Fl1 I didn't quite like that, MT. Holmes. Int seemed funny that should ask his il1eave, as he was only a few years
 older than me; but didn't want to
 do anything the sly, so wrote to
 father at Bordeaux. where the con- E.pany has its French offices, but the
 letter came back to me on the very " morning of the wedding"
 'It missed him, then?"
 'Yes, sir. for he had started to England just before it arrived. M 'iHa! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for the { Friday. Was it to be in church?'' ilb "Yes. sir, btu very quietly. It was N It, to be at St. Saviour's, near Kings N ilHCross, and we were to have breakfas A afterwards at the St. Pancras Hotel Hosmer came for us in a hanson III but as there were two of us, he put us 1l both into it, and stepped himself into W4 a fourwheeler, which happened to be w the only other cab in the street. We Es. got eo the church first, and when the drove up we waited fol M him to step out, but he never did, ant when the cabman got down from tn, AH box and looked, there was no ont there! The cabman said that h, :. could not imagine what had becom, 1b of him, for he had seen him get il ll with his own eyes. That was las M Friday, MT. Holmes, and I hav N never, seen or heard anything sine then to throw any light upon wha W became of him."
 IVH Tt seems to me that you had bee very sl1amefully treated,'' sai NY Holmes.
 "Oh no, sir! He was too good an 1 kind to leave me so. w hy. all tn
 ] morning he was saying to me tha
 f whatever happened, I was to be true N and that even if something quite. un E occurred was always to remember that I wa f pledged to him, and that he woul claim his pledge sooner or later. le seemed strange talk for a weddin morning. but what has happened sine NE gives a meaning to it-''
 "Most certainly it does.- Your ow M sopinion is. then, that some unforesee NV catastrophe has occurred to him?' H '-Yes, sir. I believe that he fore g saw some danger. or else he woul H not have talked so. And then I thin that what he foresaw happened.'' fif lse "But you have no notion as 1 iwhat it could have been?'' RI "None."
 "One more question How did yor fK mother take the matter?"
 tt "She was angry, and said that I lE was never to speak of the matte \ lk again." And your father? Did you te la him?"
 Al "Yes, and he seemed to think, wit M me that something had happened, ar Al that I should hear of Hosmer agai E SE As he said. what interest could ar W one have in bringing me to the doc la Of the church, and then leaving ms
 lMNow. if he had borrowed my none
 MOT if he had married me and got n Emoney settled on him, there might
 svE nome reason; but Hosmer was we
 W1ndependent about money, and nev
 EWould look at a shilling of mine. Al
 Eyct, what could have happenet
 NAnd why could he not write? Oh,
 Udrives me half mad to Esirk of! al
 VT can't sleep a wink at night.'' S
 U&uTed a little handkerchief out