The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-12-19

q wish to speak to Mrs. Lonsdale, please"
 ''I am Mrs. Lonsdale," she said in a smooth, low voice. Her voice was perfectly smooth because her will had deserted her again. Only her brain worked, clearly. Independently.
 "Ah. Mrs. Lonsdale; this is MT. Burke speaking, MT. Franklin Burke of the Cosmos Club. I am making an effort to get into touch with friends of Mir. Richard Ayling. and I am told by a man named Chedsey, who I believe was at one time in your employ. that Mir. Ayling is an old friend of your family"
 Yes" she said, we are old friends"
 You knew, then, I presumre, that MT. Ayling had gone away-to the country some days ago"
 Yes" she said, again, "I knew that he had not been well and that he had gone out Of town for a week. =. Is there-anything % Her heart was beating very loudly in her ears.
 ''I dislike to be the bearer of bad news. Mrs. Lonsdale, but I must tell you that we have received a tele- phone message here at the club that-I hope it will not shock you too much-that Mir. Ayling died sometime today, at an inn where he was staying, at Homebury St. Mary, I believe"
 His voice was very gentle and concerned. She hesitated percepti- bly, and his voice came over the wire, I'm sorry-very sorry, to tell you in this way"
 She heard herself speaking: Naturally, Tits something of a shock
 Indeed I understand"
 Again she caught the sound of her voice, as if it belonged to some one else. q suppose it was his heart
 He was known to have a bad heart?''
 Yes; it has been weak for years" "
 q wonder, Mrs. LonsdaIe, if I may ask a favor of you. You know, of course, that MT. Ay1ing had very few close friends in London; you are, in fact, the only one we have been able, on this short notice, to find. For that reason am going to ask that you let me come to see you this afternoon; you will understand AOA facts which it will be necessary for us to have, which only an old friend of MT. Ayling could give-that we could get in no other way. :"
 'I understand, perfectly"
 ''Then I may come"
 Certainly" . There was noth- ing else she could say.
 CHE did not know she got rid of
 her guest, what explanation she made, nor how she happened to be saying gOod-by to her at the very moment when the dignified. elderly MT. Burke arrived, so that they had to be introduced. Though she must have made some adequate explana- ton, since Mrs. Downey's last words were, in the presence of MT. Burke, Its always so hard, I think, to lose ones really old friends"
 Mir. Burke came in. He was very correct, very kind. He begged Mrs. Lonsdale to believe that it was with the greatest regret that he called upon so sad an errand; that he came only because it was necessary and she was the only person to whom they could turn. He added that he had known her husband, Major LOnsdale, in his life time, and hoped that she would consider him, there fore, not so entirely a stranger to her.
 She heard him as one hears music far away, only the accents and the climaXes coming clear. He asked her questions, and she was conscious Of answering them: How long had '
 husband had been boyhood friends; she had met him first at the time of her marriage to Major LonsdaIe. Had they kept up the friendship during all these yearse-No, she had heard nothing of MT. Ayling since her husbands death; she knew that he was in India; they had renewed the friendship when he returned to England a short time ago.-Ah, it was probable, then, that she knew MT. Aylina might have had ?-Here MT. Burke shifted his position. coughed slightly. and said:
 T ask you these questions. Mrs. Lonsdale, because of a very-may I say-a very unfortunate element in connection with the case. It ap-
 
 Mrs. Ayling at the Homebury St. Mary inn"
 Bessie Lonsdale waited. she did not know for what. Whole minutes seemed to go by with the elderly NIr. Burke sitting there in his attitude of formal sympathy before his voice began again.
 T have only been free to mention this to you, Mrs. Lonsdale, because of the fact that you will hear of it in any case, since it must come out in the formalities-"
 ''F'ormaitics? Her voice cut sharply into his.
 There will, of course, be an in quest-an investiga tion-the usual thing. I have been in communica- ton with the coroner's office by telephone, and I have promised to drive down to Honepury St. Mary myself this afternoon. He was away on another case, and will not reach there himself until six. Meantime we must do what we can. They will necessarily make an effort to dis cover the woman"
 Bessie LonsdaIe must have given some sort of involuntary cry, the Implication of which MT. Burke Interpreted in his own way, for he changed his tone to say:
 Inf afraid, my dear Mrs Lons- dale, that she was a bit of a rotter,