The Warwickshire Herald. — 1899-09-21 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

MISS M. E. BRADDON,  Aotlior_of "Lady, Andlev's Secret," "The Fetid Three," "The 'Air Will Come," "Lost for Love," "The Doctor's Wife," "Whose Was the Hand?" "One Life. One Love," "Thou Art the Man," "Sons of Fire," &c. - SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS"UHAPTERS, Arnold tVentworth, who has taken the assumed name of Alfred Wildover, a man thirty years of age, is returning to lEngland from South Africa. Aboard the steamship be meets Mary Freeland. whom he had known as a child in the days before he ran away from his home in England. Ile has .made money at the diamond fields, and is rfifilriiing to lind on a visit. She, too, has left home agalr..ll.' the wish Of Mr iumit, with whoiA she hiid and gone upon the stage. Her emit has Ml= tiled, and bequeathed to Mary Frecland her fortune. Wildover has received a letter in South Africa from a woman for whom, before leaving England, be had formed a sincere attachment. She had heard of his good fortune in the new country, sing beseeches I to return to her. The story of thew relationship is a sad one. When' quite a girl Lisa Rayner had been led astray and deserted by a man many Tears her senior. This man it now supposed Ii be living in Vienna. Ile is a man of great wealth and position. Lisa Rayner had lived through the period which followed her duet ion without falling into a life of vice, and had managed to support herself in a poor quarter of London. Whilst living thus, she had made the. acquaintance of Arnold Wentworth. He himself, having run away from home, had been reduced to great poverty, and it was only the intervention of Lisa Rayner which had saved him from a suicide's grave. Front this there had sprung up a sincere affection between them. and they had lived together as man and wife. A life of poverty, however, had soon worn out Arnold's affection, and at length lie had given Lisa what money he could obtain, and bade her goodbye,. and gone out to seek his fortune in South Africa. This he had achieved, and be was now ',turning to England with anything but pleasant anticipations of meeting the woman with whom he bad at one time imagined himself to be in love. Aboard the ship, he falls in love with Mary Freeland, but, being conscious of the stain upon his past life, he refrains from telling her of his love. On reaching England, Mary Freeland at once nturns their native village of Mervynhall. A day later Arnold follows her, and has a secret int- -view with his mother. Ile cannot meet her (Ape aji because .4 the enmity of his father, who ILA or or forgiven him the boyish extravagance which had been the cause of their early quarrel. Next moniing Arnold visits Mary FreelmaL and whilst in her company he is greatly shocked by reading in the paper an account of a murder in Loudon. The victim is no other than Lisa Rayner, the woman with whom he had at one time lived on terms of intimacy. She had !Veil found dead in her London garret, having been shot through the heart by some poison who must have followed her up the 'public stairway to her room ant escaped before an alarm was given 'the detective officer (John Fanner) who has charge a the case, is led to believe that Wildover is the lean who has committed the murder. Ile finds strong circumstantial evidence against him, and on his return to London arrests him on a charge of murder.