The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-06-16
THIS BEGINS THE STORY


 estate of Jonathan K. Mcclure.
 McGuire is being bIackmaiIed by
 one Hawk Kennedy. Kennedy
 tells Peter that Mcclure killed
 Ben Cameron, father of Beth
 Cameron, a girl who has prom
 ised to marry Peter. Mcclure
 says Kennedy did the lkiIIinS
 Potter believes Mcclure and re-
 solves to circumvenu Kennedy
 and at the same time force Nc
 GIlire to pay Beth a million dol
 lars,a modest share of the wealth
 Cameron had won immediately
 before his death. Peter receives
 word from Princess Galitzin in
 London that the BoIshevil<i know
 his whereabouts and may kill
 him at any time. Beth finds the
 letter.
 AND HERE TT CONTINUES
 Beth slipped the note about a quar- ter of an inch out of it's envelope until she could just see a line of the writing and then quickly thrust it in again, put the envelope on the man tel above the "par1or heater and res Clutely went on which her sweeping. From time to time she stopped her work and looked at it just to be sure that it was still there, and at last to a more lively curiosity than any she had ever known. She put the envelope down again and turning her back to it went Into the kitchen. Of course Peter would tell her who this lady was if she asked him. And there was doubt at all that it was 8 lady who had written the letter, some one familiar with a delicate mode of existence and given to re- finements which had been denied to Beth. It was this delicacy and re- finem ent,this flowing inscription writ ten with such careless ease and grace, which challenged Beth's rusticity- She would have liked to ask Peter about the lady at once. But Peter would not be at the cabin at this early hour of the morning, nor would Beth be able to see him until late this after noon-perhaps not until tonight. Meanwhile, the note upon the man tel was burning it's way into her con- sciousness.
 It was endowed with a personality feminine, insidious and persuasive. No ladies of London affecting helio- trope envelopes had any business writing scented notes to Peter now. He was Beth's particular property.
 When she went up to the second floor of the cottage a few minutes later she took the helitrope letter with her and put 1t on her bureau,
 
 she went on with her work. And then, all her duties for the morning fin ished, she sat down in her rock1ng chair by the window, the envelope in her idle fingers, a victim of tempta- tion She looked out at the pine woods, her gaze afar, her guilty fin gers slipping the letter out of its cov- ering an inch, two inches. And then Beth opened Peters heliotrope note and read it. At least, she read as much of it as she could understand the parts tha& were written dn Eng fish with growing aInaZement and tncertttude. A good deal of the Eng fish part even was Greek to her, but she could understand enough to know that a mystery of some sort hung about the letter and about Peter. that he was apparently a person of some importance to the hedotrope lady who addressed htrn in affectionate terms and with the utmost freedom. Beth had learned in the French ballads which Peter had taught her that ami meant friend and that bel meant beautiful. And as the whole of the s,aragrapn containing those words He difficulty in understanding it. What had Peter to do with the cause of Holy Russia? And what was this Hanger to him from hidden enemies, which could make necessary this dis cretton and watchfulness in Black Rockr And the last sentence of all danced before Beth's eyes as though 4t had been written in letters of fire s~There is at least one heart in Lon don that ever beats fondIy in mem orv of the dear dead days at Galitzin and Eukovo-
 What right had the heHotrope ,,aady's heart to beat fond1y in mem pry of dear dead days with Peter Nichols at Gartzin or Zukovo or any where else? Who was she? Was she young? Was she beautiful? And what right had Peter given her to ad dress him in terms of such affection ! .Anastasfef
 And now for the first time in her ENffe. though to all outward appear lance calm, Beth felt the pangs of jeal- Lousy This letter, most of it in the l.queer-Iooking script (probably Rus leian that she could mot even read. i4n it's strange references in English (so things beyond her knowledge, teeen,ed suddenly to erect barrier be- Aveen her and Peter that could never f,e passed , or even to indicate a bar ,-fer between them that had always existed without her knowledge. And if all of the parts of the letter that she could not understand contained . i she could understand, 1t was a very terrible letter indeed and indicated that this henotrope woman (she was po longer lady now) had claims up on Peters heart which came long be- fore Beth'S- And if this Anastasie- other women too.
 Beth read the letter again and then sfipped 1t back into its envelope, while she gazed out of the window et the pines, a frown at her brows and two tiny lines curving downward at the corners of her lips, She was very ,phapny But she was angry too 1nery at the heliotrope woman, angry st Peter and angrier still at herself. In that moment she forgot that she Aed taken Peter Nichols without ref erence to what he was or had been. She had told him that only the future ruattered and now she knew that the mast was beginning to matter very j much. indeed.
 After a while sne got up, and took the heliotrope letter to the bureau