Hope Republican, Volume 2, Number 8, Hope, Bartholomew County, 15 June 1893 — Page 3

-‘‘iRLI.Off 1HSK nv 'WXIiKIE COLIilNS. Part Third. ■j, 1 CHAPTER VI.—Continued. "You may let go your hold sir.’’ j - said, dropping the ruler and j ■niug toward D’Arbino with a i ilfe on her white lips and a wicked I mness in her .steady eyes. l: I a wait for a better opportunity.” With those words she walked to 3 door and, turiug round there, garded 'Nanina flxedlj’. "I wish I had been a moment | ioker with the ruler,” she said, ■ ■d went out. "There!” exclaimed the doctor; j r told you I knew how to deal with j ■ >r as she deserved. One thing I | n certainly obliged to her fors—she j is saved us the trouble of going to ! er house and forcing her to give up | ic mask. And now. my child,” he j m tinned, addressing Nanina, “you I in go home, and one of the men- , ervants shall see you sate to your i wn door, in ease that woman should j till be lurking about the palace. \ ’top! you arc leaving the bag of ■cudi behind you.” ' “I can’t take it, sir.” “And why not?” “She, would have taken money!” •Saying those words, Nanina. red- | ciened aiid looked toward the door. The doctor glanced approvingly at D’Arbino. “Well, well, we won’t argue about that now,” he said. “I’ll Jock up the money with the mask today. Come hero to-morrow morning as usual, my dear. By that time I shall have made.up my mind on the right means for breaking your discovery to Count Fabio. Only let us proceed slowly and cautiously, and I answer for success.” CHAPTER VII. The next morning, among the first visitors at the Ascoli Palace was the master sculptor, Luca Lomi. He seemed, as the servants thought,agitated. and said he was especially desirous of seing Count Fabio. On \ Owing iufumu-d that this was impossible, he reflected a little, and then Inquired if the medical attendant of the Count was at the palace, and Sould bo spoken with. Both questions were answered in the affirmative, and he was ushered into the doctor’s presence. “I know not how to preface what 1 want to say,” Luca began, looking about him confusedly. “May I ask you. in the first place, if the workgirl named Nanina was here yesterday?” “She was,” said the doctor. “Did she speak in private with any one?” “Yes; with me.” “Then you know everything?” ; Absolutely everything. ” “lam glad at least to find that my object in wishing to see the ' Count can be equally well answered by seeing you. My' brother. I regret to say —” He stopped perplexedly, and drew from his pocket a roll of papers. “You may speak of your brother in the plainest terms,” said the doc- ! tor. “I know what share he has had ] In promoting the infamous con- ■ spiracy of the Yellow Mask.” “My petition to you, and through ! you to the Count, is that your knowl- j ■edge of what ray brother has done j may go no further. If this scandal becomes public it will ruin me in my profession. And 1 make little enough by it already.” said Luca, with his old sordid smile breaking out faintly on his face. “Pray, do you come from your ; brother with this petition?'' in- 1 quired the doctor. “No; I come solely on my own ac- | •count. My brother seems careless \ what happens. He has made a full statement of his share in the matter from the first; has forwarded it to his ecclesiastical superior (who will send it to the archbishop), and is now awaiting whatever sentence they choose to pass on him. I have a copy of the document, to prove ‘ that he has at least been candid, and that he does not shrink from consequences which he might have avoided by flight. The law cannot touch him, but the church can, and to the ■ -church he has confessed. All I ask is, that he may be spared a public exposure. Such an exposure would •do no good to the Count, and it would do dreadful injury to me. Look over the papers yourself, and ishow them, whenever you think proper, to the master of this house. I have every confidence in his honor and kindness, and in yours.” He laid the roll of papers on the table and then retired with great humility to the window'. The doctor looked over them with some curiosity. The statement or confession began by Jooldly avowing the writer’s conviction that part of the property which the Count Fabio d’Ascoli had inherited from his ancestors had been obtained by fraud and misrepresentation from the church. The various authorities on which this assertion was based were then produced in due order, along with some curious particles of evidence culled

from old manuscripts, w'hich it must have cost much trouble to collect and decipher. The second section was devoted, at great length, to the reasons which induced tiie writer to think it his absolute duty, as an affectionate son and faithful servant of the church, not to rest until he had restored to the successors of the apostles in his day the property fraudulently taken away from them in days gone by. The writer held himself justified, in the last resort, and in that only, in using any means for effecting this restoration, except such as might involve him in mortal sin. The third section described the priest’s share in promoting the marriage of Maddalena Lomi with Fabib, and the,hopes he entertained of securing the restitution of the church property through his niece, in the first place, and when she had died, through his influence over her child, in the second. The necessary fail ure of all his projects if Fabio married again w r as next glanced at, and the time at which the first suspicion of the possible occurrence of this catastrophe occurred to his mind was noted with scrupulous accuracy. □ The fourth section narrated the manner in which the conspiracy of the Yellow Mask had originated. The writer described himself as being in his brother’s studio on the night of his niece’s death - , harassed by forebodings of the likelihood of Fabio’s marrying again and filled with the resolution to prevent any such disastrous second union at all hazards. He asserted that the idea of taking the wax mask from his brother’s statue flashed upon him on af sudden, and that he knew' of nothing to lead to it, except, perhaps, that he had been thinking just before of the superstitious nature of the young man’s character, as he had himself observed it in the studio. He further declared that the idea of the wax mask terrified him at first; that he strove against it as against a temptation of the devil; that from fear of yielding to this temptation he abstained even from entering the studio during his brother’s absence at Naples, and that he first faltered in his good resolution when Fabio returned to Pisa, and when it was rumored, not only that the, young nobleman was going to the ball, but that he wmuld certainly marry for the second time. The fifth section related that the writer, upon this, yielded to temptation rather than to forego the cherished purpose of his life by allow'ing Fabio a chance of marrying again; that he made the wax mask in a plaster mold taken from the face of his brother’s statue, and that he had two separate interviews with a woman named Brigida (of whom he had some previous knowledge) who was readj' and anxious, from motives of private malice, to personate the deceased Countess at the masquerade. The woman had suggested that some anonymous letters to Fabio would pave the way in his mind for the approaching impersonation, and had written the letters herself. However, even when all the preparations' were made, the writer declared that he shrank from proceeding to extremities, and that lie would have abandoned the whole project but for the woman Brigida informing him one day that a work girl named Nanina was to be one of the attendants at the ball. He knew the Count to have been in love with this girl, even to the point of wishing to marry her; he suspected that her engagement to wait at the ball was preconcerted, and in consequence he authorized his female accomplice to perform her part in the conspiracy. The sixth section detailed the pro"ceedings at the masquerade, and contained the writer’s confession that, on the night before it, he had written to the Count proposing the reconciliation of a difference that had taken place between them, solely for the purpose of guarding himself against suspicion. He next acknowledged that he had borrowed the key of the Campo Santo gate, keeping the authority to whom it was intrusted in perfect ignorance of the purpose for which he wanted it. That pm’pose was to carry out the ghastly delusion of the wax mask (in the very probable event of the wearer being followed and inquired after) by having the woman Brigida taken up and set down at the gate of the cemetery in which Fabio’s wife had been buried. The seventh section solemnly averred that the sole object of the conspiracy was to prevent the young nobleman from marrying again, by working on his superstitious fears; the writer repeating after this avowal, that any such second marriage would necessarily destroy his project for promoting the ultimate restoration of the Church possessions, by diverting Count Fabio’s property, in great part, from his first wife’s child, over whom the priest would always have influence, to another wife and probably other children, over whom he could hope to have none. The eighth and last section expressed the writer’s contrition for having allowed his zeal for the

Church to mislead him into actions liable to bring scandal on his cloth; reiterated in the strongest language his conviction that, whatever might be thought of the means employed, the end he had proposed to himself was a most righteous one; and concluded by asserting his resolution to suffer with humility any penalties, however severe, which his ecclesiastical superiors might think fit to inflict on him. Having looked over this extraordinary statement, the doctor addressed himself again to Luca Lomi. “I agree with you,’’ ho said, “that no useful end is to bo gained now by mentioning your brother's conduct in public—always provided,however, that his ecclesiastical superiors do their duty. I shall show these papers to the Count as soon as be is fit to peruse them, and I have no doubt that he will be ready to take my view of the matter. ” This assurance relieved Luca Lomi of a great weight of anxiety. He bowed and withdrew. The doctor placed the papers in the same cabinet in which he had secured the wax mask. Before he had locked the doors again be took out the flat box, opened it. and looked thoughtfully for a few minutes at the mask inside; then sent for Nanina. “Now, my child,” he said, when she appeared, “I am going to try our first experiment with Count Fabio; and I think it of great importance that you should be present while I speak to him.”. He took up the box with the mask in it, and, beckoning to Nanina to follow him, led the Way to Fabio’s chamber. CHAPTER VIII. About six months after the events already related, Signor Andrea d’Arbino and the Cavaliere Finello happened to be staying with a friend in a seaside villa on the Castellamare shore of the bay of Naples. Most of their time was pleasantly occupied on the sea, in fishing and sailing. A boat was placed entirely at their disposal. Sometimes they loitered whole, days along the shore; sometimes made trips to the lovely . islands in the'bay. One eveningthey were sailing near Sorrento, with a light wind. The beauty of the coast tempted them to keep the boat close inshore, A short time before sunset they rounded the most picturesque headland they had yet passed; and a little ba\q with a white sand beach, opened on their viow. They noticed first a villa surrounded by orange and olive trees on the rocky heights inland; then a path in the cliff-side leading down to the sands; then a little family party on the beach enjoying the fragrant evening air. The elders of the group were a lady and gentleman, sitting together on the sand. The lady had a guitar in her lap, and was playing a simple dance melody. Close at her side a young child was rolling on the beach in high glee; in front of her a little girl was dancing to the music, with a very extraordinary partner in the shape of a dog. who was capering on his hind legs in the most grotesque, manner. The merry laughter of tfye girl and the lively notes of the guitar were heard distinctly across the still water. “Edge a little nearer inshore,” said D’Arbino to his friend, who was steering, “and keep as I do in the. shadow of the sail. I want to see the faces of those persons on the beach without being seen by them.” Finello obeyed. After approaching just near enough to see the countenances of the party on shore, and to be barked at lustily by the dog, they turned the boat's head again toward the offing.

‘‘A pleasant voyage, gentlemen.” cried the clear voice of the little girl. They waved their hats in return.and then saw her run to the dog and take him by the fore legs. “Play, Nanina,” they heard her say. “I am not half done, with my partner. The guitar sounded once more, and the grotesque dog was on his hind logs in a moment. ‘‘1 had heard that he was well again, that he had married her lately, and that he was away with her and her sister, and the child by the first wife,” said D'Arbino, “but I had no suspicion that their place of retirement was so near us. It is too soon to break in upon their happiness, or I should have-felt inclined to run the boat on shore.” “I never heard the end of that strange adventure of the Yellow Mask.” said Finello. ‘‘There was a priest mixed up in it. w r as there not?” “Yes; but nobody seems to know exactly what has become of him. He was sent for to Rome, and he has never been heard of since. One report is that he has been condemned to some mysterious penal seclusion by his ecclesiastical superiors; another, that he has volunteered, as a sort of forlorn hope, to accept a colonial curacy among a rough people and in a pestilential climate. I asked his brother, the sculptor, about him a little while ago. but he

only shook his head and said nothing.” “And the woman who wore the yellow mask?” “She, too, has ended mysteriously. At Pisa she was obliged to sell off everything she possessed to pay her debts. Some friends of hers at a milliner’s shop, to whom she applied for help, would have nothing to do with her. She left the city alone and penniless." The boat had approached the next headland on the coast while they were talking. They looked back for a last glance at the beach. Still the notes of the guitar came gently across the quiet’ water; but there mingled with them now the sound of the lady’s voice. She was singing. The little girl and the dog were at her feet, and the gentleman was still in his old place close at her side. In a few minutes more the boat rounded the next headland, the beach vanished from view, and the music died away softly in the distance. THE END.

TRAVEL IN RTJSSI.t. IT Vou Contemplate a Tour, “Leave Everything to God.” .Tunc Century. 1 left Stockholm on Febunry 24. In Rerlin I was informed that the Slavophil press in Russia had expressed its disapproval of assistance from Germany, and my friends doubted if I would be permitted to visit the famine stricken villages. Thus with rather gloomy prospects I left Berlin on the night- train for Warsaw. At the border station of Alexandrovo, next morning, Russian officials searched our luggage. I traveled second class. On boarding the Russian train 1 observed that the passports were returned to my fel-low-passengers but not to me, which caused me some anxiety. Finally a gendarme came in and handed me ray passport. After a few minutes the same gendarme came again, accompanied by the conductor, and said to me in a commanding tone, “Vash passport!”(“Your passport!”) I answered as politely as possible that my passport had already been examined and stamped, and asked he wanted it a second time. Stepping up to me, the gendarme roared out as if he were drilling a fresh recruit from the village; “Eto nashe dielo! Vash passport!” (“That’s bur business! Your passport!”) I produced it without further remark. My fellow-passengers looked at me, as it seemed, with suspicion, and my own feelings reminded me of the words of a Russian nobleman to me on a former visit, “Russia is a gigantic prison, where honest men must submit to bo treated as criminals.” Two years previously I had written a book on the religious movement in Russia, which had been forbidden by the Russian censor, but I diet not think my name could be on the list of suspicious or dangerous foreigners. After about an hour the conductor handed me my passport. On examining it I could not discover that j anything had been done to it beyond writing my name in Russian : on it. An old German gentleman, | who had observed my anxiety, said I to m«Mn a low and paternal tone, : “In Russia you must never ask questions nor make objections, nor worry j yourself, but quietly submit, and I leave everything to God.”

PEOPLE. Potara, a Maori cannibal, is eightyfive years old. and still has a good set of natural teeth. He has not eaten a white man since 1810. He speaks well of white folks, but for steady diet prefers a Maori. The King of Portugal receives a salary of 1405,000 a year, the quehu $53,000, the queen dowager §20,000, the prince royal $20,000, and 'the Duke of Oporto, the King’s brother,' $20,000. Isaac McLellan, the poet sports man of Green Point, L. I., was eighty-seven years old May 21. He, has published four volumes of .poetry, and with Dr. Holmes shares the honor of being one of the two oldest poets in this country. Bishop Butler, the eminent English divine, was what might be called a “natural born swearer.” He did not Swear, but always wanted to. and was restrained by his splendid will power. President Angell. of the Boston M. J. P. C. A., offers a valuable prize to the person who shall do the most toward preventing the proposed cowboy race from Chadron, Neb., to the World's Fair in June. Among the distinguished citizens of Philadelphia past ninety years of age, the Rev. Dr. Furness is one of the most remarkable of personages. He takes long walks like a boy without fatigue. He hears well and can read at nigh\ even in the cars, without glasses. About the only evidence of age he experiences is the loss of the sense of taste.

ON ANOTHER STAGE. America’s Greatest Actor Passes Away. The Death of Kdwln Booth After a Fro tracted lUnona at New York City. Edwin Booth, the tragedian, died at New York at 1:17 Wednesday morning. At the time of his death he was unconscious, in which condition lie remained since Sunday. When the end came Mrs. Edwina Grossman, the tragedian’s daughter, had her hand clasped in that of her father. Around the bed stood Mr. Booth’s brother-in-law, Superintendent Magonigle, of the Players’ Club, Mr. Grossman, William Bispham, Charles E. Carryl. The only other persons present in the chamber were Dr. St. Clfiir Smith and the nurse. Edwin Booth was born in Bdlairo, near Baltimore, Md., on Nov. 13, 1833, and was

EDWIN BOOTH.

the son of Junius Brutus Booth, the elder, in English actor who obtained his reputation, however, mainly in the United States; he was named Edwin Booth out if compliment of his father’s friend, Edwin Forrest, an d Thomas Flynn, both great actors. Although the elder Booth it first objected to his son going on the stage he did finally consent, and the young man’s first appearance in any part ocmrred in 1849 at the Boston museum, when he appeared as Tressel in “Richard ill.” He made a success in this small Dart, and from that time forward no quesJon was raised as to his continuing on the stage. In 1851 he.took the most important itep in his dramatic career up to that >eriod by playing “Richard III” in place )f his father who had been taken suddenly II. This performance gave him at once .ho reputation of being an actor of unisual promise. In the latter part of 1852 .he elder Booth died while on his way Tom New Orleans to Cincinnati, j Mr. Booth’s great career is well known ,o the country, and his wonderful powers lave been appreciated and generously rewarded by his trtiousandsof acjmirers, who I will regret and sincerely mourn his death. Mr. Booth’s first serious illness came on April 3, 1889, when ho was stricken with neipient paralysis while playing in j ‘Othello,” in the Lyceum theater in Rochester. The last four years of his life , lave been passed in comparative rotirenent in New York, and his friends have 1 loted with pain the steady and unchecked lecline in his health during that 'period: \t no time has there been any well-found-ed hope of his recovery. ROYALTY AT CHICAGO. Die Spanish Infanta Arrive? and Is Entlmsiastlcally Received. The World’s Fair city welcomed the Infanta of Spain just after noon, Tuesday. Thousands of cheering people lined the sidewalks, particularly in the neighborhood of the Board of Trade. As the carriages containing the royal party passed rapidly along, preceded by a cavalry es:ort, the Princess could be seen, attired in in unpretentious light gray traveling costume, seated beside her husband. She was smilingly bowing her acknowledgment of the continuous volley of applause that swept along the thoroughfare. The special train bearing the Princess made a good run through the night from Pittsburgh to Chicago. The Princess retired early and slept well. She had a cup of chocolate in her private room at 8 o’clock in the morning and did not rise until 10 o’clock. The Prince and the Duke and the were out of their state-rooms early, and all said that their first night’s experience on an American railway train was a surprise to them. The Princess was entirely recovered from the fatigue of yesterday. At 11 o’clock breakfast was served in the Princess’s car. The members of the suite breakfasted in the dining car. A delegation of Chicago citizens, headed by ex-Mayor Washburno and Hobart Chatfield-Taylor, Spanish consul at Chicago, met the train at Grand Crossing at 11:45 and entered the sleeping car Scotland. Commander Davis then presented them to the Duke and Secretary Aon Pedro Y T Jover. The train arrived at union station at 13;08. The party were driven direct to their hotel the Palmer House, where gaudy Spanish flags and brilliant stars and stripes decorated the rotunda in honor of the royal guest. All the riches of the floriculture department of the World’s Fair were drawn upon to adorn the suite to which the Infanta was assigned. It is said that Dr. McGlyun, instead of being on his way to Rome, as reported, is doing penance in the Trapnist monastery near Lexington. Ky. v