The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1913-08-13 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

CHAPTER XIX. "You smote with discretion first of all. No one suspeoted you of crime. It was only when you grew thoroughly reckless that  the truth cam- e out. Your -colossal impru _ dence, madame, cost you your life—you poisoned too freely." Pleydell muttered the words in low, husky tones—thinking aloud—and then he drew a deep, painful breath. He was sitting in the room that he had filled with the portraits of so many fair and famous women of past years. Mona Lisa smiled at him from her position over the mantelpiece; the Cenci eyed him wistfully from the wall—the pale Cenci. But Pleydell kept gazing at the proud and somewhat defiant countenance of Madame la Marquise de Brinvilliers. Ho could not turn his eyes away from the poisoness, he studied her thoughtfully—critically—and Madame in Marquise stared back at the tall, lean man.  "Are you trying to warn me?" Pleydell smiled somewhat scornfully. "Are you telling me that murder will out? You are wrong there, madame—you are quite wrong. A number of crimes are never dis, covered—the murderer is never found. It is all a question of the murderer's ability —the victim's stupidity."  _ He laughed softly and removed his eyes from the portrait, gazing down on the green velvet carpet. "Rosa Latimer is a very_etupid woman,"  he reflected, "the sort Of silly fly who would be quite ready to walk cheerfully into a spider's web." lie leaned back in his chair—the great armchair that had aroused the interest and admiration of Professor Landroma a few weeks back, the heavy chair covered with mulberry velvet and edged with gold fringe, the chair that looked as if it hailed from some Italian palace. "Why should I spare her? Why should I even think of sparing her? She is better out of the world than in it—a vulgar woman with a diseased brain, a more hypochondriac, a senseless liar—let her perish and her lies with her." He ground his teeth together sharply. His nerves were all on edge, and he wondered how he had been able to smile and flatter Rosa Latimer at lunch that day— play up to her colossal vanity—for his fingers had itched all the time to be at Rosa's plump throat. He would have killed her with all the pleasure in life—wrung her neck cheerfully—set his heel on her large painted face. For this woman had deceived him, fooled him, lied to him. Ile ought to have known from the very first that she was telling him an absurd story. No -woman suffering from a secret growth could have appeared as healthy as Rosa did, as plump and well set-up. There was no hint of suffering in her face—of malaise—she looked just what she was—a big, strong, healthy animal. But he had swallowed all her false statementsgreedily, he had been only too anxious to believe that her days were numbered. "I hate her—oh, how I hate her !" Pley. dell murmured the words savagely to him. self. "I knew that type of woman existed, that there are absurd women who like to fancy themselves hopelessly ill, women who haunt doctors' consulting-rooms and are never happy unless they think themselves in mortal jeopardy. But I had no idea—not the slightest suspicion—that Mrs. Latimer was an hysterical hypochrondriao —that it amused her to tell absurd lies." He rose from his chair and began to walk up and down the room, his hands were clasped loosely behind his back, his lips kept up a curious nervous twitching. "And now she fancies herself in love,does she—this bundle of amatory foolishness? She's got to the time of life when -women take strange absurd fancies for men and play the deuce with themeelves, and I am the chosen one." He laughed savagely and plucked with fierce fingers at his beard. "She thinks she can buy me with her money-bags, I suppose, this soled bona robs. She believes in her *amp beauty— her ample charms. I have kept myself from ircspen all these years to lose my heart to a fleshy widow of forty, and with Felicity standing cdose to her elbow—with Fety wn sight and touch. He laughed, axial laughter. modal* laughter. easome Orange impales Pk.ydell to turn out the two big ClFTrildit lit his room, he had a fancy to sit in the dark for a while, to sit and frehlrildithined.l