People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1893 — ALITTLE COMEDY OF ERRORS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ALITTLE COMEDY OF ERRORS

By SSMORTON.

(Copyrighted 1891, by S. S. Morton, and published by special arrangement] CHAPTER XVL— CONTINUED. As North entered he perceived a gentleman in a richly embroidered dress-ing-gown, lying at full length in a reclining chair. In his first glance North recognized in this person the irascible invalid whom he had within the past hour encountered on the street. This speedy identification of his assailant affected North somewhat as an earthquake shock might have done; but, concealing his feelings as well as possible, he advanced with the greeting; “Good morning, Maj. Maynard. I believe this is the second time to-day that I have had thig honor.” A silent, sneering scrutiny was at first his only answer, and North was beginning to feel seriously annoyed, when at last the major, motioning toward a chair which North declined, began in a mocking way: “Oh, you’re not ‘preoccupied’ now, eh? You recognize me, do you, Mr. North? Heavens and earth, sir! It’s a wonder that you didn’t come in pretending that you had never seen me before. Do you often get drunk, North?” “Never, sir!” returned North indignantly. “Never! Oh, very likely—very likely, indeed! Then I have no explanation of your extraordinary behavior this morning; none .whatever. Now, North, lam going to ask you a few plain questions, and I expect you to answer them. Do you hear me, North?”

“Certainly, Maj. Maynard,” returned North, with a delicate sarcasm in his emphasis, “I hear you.” For the major’s voice had been anything but “soft and low.” “Well,” pursued that gentleman, imperiously, “are you going to answer me?” “That will depend altogether upon the nature of your questions,” said North, looking him steadily in the eye. “It is perhaps unnecessary for me to say thlt I shall use my own discretion in the matter.” “Oh, you will, eh? Use yourown discretion, sir? Heavens and earth, I’ll not stand this!” roared the major, perfectly furious at North’s hauteur. “You’ll find, sir, that your best discretion will be to treat me with proper respect. Now, t*ve kept myself posted about this case. Oh, you needn’t ask me what case! You know perfectly well that I allude to that forged will. It’s a very mysterious affair, North, very mysterious, and I have my own suspicions about it. Now I want to know in plain terms, without any cowardly evasions, what share you and Mrs. Maynard have had in this business. It looks bad for you, North; don’t deny it, now. Are you mixed up in that forgery?” Even eyes less shrewd and unfriendly might have seen the gradual whitening of North’s face, though he held every

muscle in such iron control that its expression did not materially alter. It might have been anger alone that sent the color from the lips that were compressed like marble for a moment beneath the sweeping dark mustache. “You don’t answer me, North!”, cried the major.exultingly,after a brief interval of silence. "You stand convicted without one word to say for yourself. Oh, I told you so! Heaveus and earth, sir, you don’t fool me!” “Did you expect me to answer such an accusation as that?’ ’demanded North, haughtily. “No, I didn’t expect it, North. I thought you would try to evade the charge, and so you did. But it will all come out yet, North, depend upon it; your iniquities will be exposed, sir. And now it appears that you and Mrs. Maynard are putting your heads together and trying to find that girl— that Annie Dupont. Isn’t this so, North?"

“Pardon me, this is Mrs. Maynard’s own affair. Whatever she is pleased to communicate to you, Maj. Maynard, you are at liberty to know. You are not at liberty to question me on the •abject.” “Answer my question, North!” roared the major, in great wrath. “Are you doing this, or not?” “I distinctly decline to answer.” “And I insist that you shall answer! I have a right to know.” “Then why do you not ask Mrs. Maynard?” “Because I choose to ask you. Don’t Interrupt me, North, with your impertinent questions! I disapprove of this whole business, sir—totally disapprove of it, and Mrs. Maynard is well aware of the fact. Yet she disregards my advice and goes directly counter to my express wishes, simply because, forsooth, you counsel such a course! Your conduct is reprehensible, North, reprehensible to the last degree, and I have a right to complain of it. I tell you, North, you •and Mrs. Maynard are bent upon robberv—downright, deliberate robbery, sir—and it’s time there was a check put upon your proceedings.” “Robbery?” North repeated the word with calm surprise, while he stood with folded arms, looking steadily and haughtily at the major. “Of whom, may I ask, sir?” “Of whom?” retorted the major, angrily. “Of that orphan whose fortune you are trying to steak Dupont, sir—that’s whom!” “I am happy to assure you, Maj. Maynard, that nothing could be further from our intentions than what you suggest. If it should ever be my good fortune to discover that young lady I should do everything in my power to place her in possession of her legal rights.” “Oh, you would, eh? Place her in possession of her legal rights, would you?” sneered the major. “That’s a likely story! Why are you trying so hard to find her, then, and keeping so very quiet about it, if you intend any good to her? Fair words don’t cheat me, North. I know very well that you’ve a scheme in your heads to steal every dollar of that fortune from her. But I’ll thwart you yet, North—Heavens and earth, I’ll thwart you, if I have to bring disgrace upon the family name to do it!” “Are you insane, Maj. Maynard?” cried North, white with the indignation that he could no longer control. “Your malice explains your bringing this preposterous accusation against me; but one would think that the very commonest instinct of chivalry would forbid you speaking thus of your wife!” For one moment the major was silenced; catching hfs breath quickly he looked up at North, with a dazed wonder that presently gave place to boisterous and contemptuous merriment. “My wife?” he repeated, almost choking over the words. “Heavens and earth, sir, do you intend this for a ghastly attempt at a joke? My wife? Hang me if I don’t believe that you are drunk, after all! How dare you refer in this way to my brother’s widow?” If a man who has been pushing forward into an unknown country, believing himself to be on firm ground, should suddenly find that he was sinking in quicksand, we might perhaps imagine his sensations on making this discovery K yet find it difficult to describe them. To those whose imaginations are equal to picturing the details of such an experience we leave the task of divining Allan North’s state of mind when he found the solid ground of his own conjectures thus suddenly giving way beneath his feet. Amid all the chaos of his thoughts these three words: “My brother’s widow,” stood out distinctly, pointing the events of the past few days with a significance that he had never before suspected: Before he could collect himself sufficiently to realize either the startling fact that he had just learned or the magnitude of his own blunder, the major returned to the attack. “Now I want to know, North, if you intend to keep on with your search for that girl, or if you’ll agree to give it up —eh?” The tone and words acted upon North as a sudden restorative. He spoke decisively and sharply in reply; “1 must refer you once more to Mrs. Maynard. As her lawyer I can have no discussion whatever with you on these points. It is dishonorable for you to question me with a view to eliciting information which she sees fit to withhold from you.” “Oh, dishonorable, eh? Heavens and earth, do you tell me that I am dishonorable?” roared the major, while his eyes sparkled with delight at having at last so tangible a grievance to seize upon. “Did you come up here to insult me, sir?” “Neither to insult you nor to be insulted by you,” returned North, coolly. “If your language has been courteous to me mine has certainly been respectful to you.” “You may leave the room, North!’ exclaimed the major, ringing furiously for his valet; and North waited for no further dismissal. Bowing with ironical deference he withdrew from the room, hastened downstairs and left the house. As he closed the gate behind him he i cast a glance of mingled relief and yearning at the stately brown-stone mansion. In a flash the recollection of his first speculative survey of the place, scaacefy one short week ago, returned to him. “How little I dreamed then of what would result from this visit to X !” he exclaimed, mentally, as he turned and walked rapidly down the street. “Before i cross that threshold again I shall have all the proofs of Annie Dui pont’s identity in my possession; and I then —then, Myra darling, you shall I listen while I plead my own cause before you!”

CHAPTER XVIL Player King—* * • ’Tls not strange that e'en our love should With our fortune change, ’-f For 'tls a question left us yet to prove, Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love. —Hamlet,

Jin Mrs. Maynard’s drawitg-room a soft glow from the sea-coal fire in the grate was filling the early twilight with sparkling ruddy tints. Seated in a low easy chair just within the glow, during the leisure hour before dinner, Mrs. Maynard was musing bitterly, with no interruption save the tinkling melodies that Miss Hilary’s idle fingers were sweeping from the glistening white keys of the piano-forte. But soon the player rose from the instrument, and, coming toward the fireplace, she stood revealed in the fitful red light, a slender, queenly figure in her softlyclinging black gown. Mrs. Maynard quickly roused herself •from her reverie on Miss Hilary’s approach an<j addressed her with a slight nervous tremor in the voice that she vainly strove to keep in its usual sweet, low, even tone: “My dear Miss Hilary, if you will permit me, I should like to speak to you about Mr. North. Is it quite true that he is an old friend of yours? You know, my dear child, you are in a certain sense under my social guardianship, and I feel responsible for your—for anything affecting your happiness.” The proud girlish face changed color slightly during this address, and the red lips were firmly compressed for an instant as if to control a sudden quiver of pain; but the eyes remained dreamily fixed upon the glowing fire and there was no indication of emotion in the low voice that presently answered: “Pray, do not include Mr. North among any of the possibilities affecting my happiness, Mrs. Maynard. His existence even is a matter of indifference to me.” Mrs. Maynard was too thoroughly a woman not to understand the exaggeration in this statement. She immediately decided that she would be justified in renewing the attack upon the same line. “I wish, for his sake, that I could say as much for him,” she said, slowly, affecting to be absorbed in her idle twirling of the dainty hand-screen that she held before her eyes, but in reality watching anxiously the play of expression in Miss Hilary’s changeful face.

“But he betrayed to-day, when off his guard for a moment, a degree of ipterest in you which, under all the circumstances of your recent meeting here, seemed to me very singular, to say the least; and when I commented upon this fact he attempted to explain it by saying that you were old friends. It seems strange, does it not, that he should have resorted to a declaration that is so easily proven to be mistaken?’ Miss Hilary was now pale as ashes, and in the soft shining of her eyes, as they were still fixed upon the coals, there was a suggestion of repressed tears. But she spoke in a firm, calm manner, after a little silence, and with scarcely a perceptible unsteadiness in her voice.

“It is quite true, Mrs. Maynard, that we were once friends—and more than friends. If I had dreamed that it would result in my meeting Mr. North, I should never have come to you at all. No, I mean if I could have foreseen that our meeting would be what it was, for I confess that I had expected something very different if Fate should once more throw us together! But it is far better to have all illusions swept away than to waste one’s time in useless dreaming; is it not, ma chere?” “My dear Myra!” It Was the sweetest and most delicate sympathy that was mingled with the surprise in this lowbreathed exclamation. “Oh, I am forcing a disagreeable confidence upon you!” cried Miss Hilary, with a sudden little laugh of self-dis-dain. “I forgot how uninteresting such things arq,to a third person. Pray forgive me, Mrs. Maynard.” “Not forcing, my dear Miss Hilary,” protested Mrs. Maynard, reaching up quickly and clasping the fair hand that hung listlessly at Myra’s side. “Did not I invite your confidence? But indeed, I have no wish to intrude upon any experience that is sorrowful or sacred; do not misunderstand the feeling that prompted me to introduce this subject.”

Withdrawing her hand quietly after a moment, Miss Hilary drew a low hassock forward into the .glowing firelight and seated herself near the chair in which Mrs. Maynard was reclining. For a moment she remained silent, with her gaze once more dreamily intent upon the fire, where a fairy castle, glowing from the very heart of the white coals, reared its fantastic towers; then she began slowly, in a voice in which a little effort was betrayed: "It seems strange for me to speak so freely of this affair, and yet. after all, there are sufficient reasons why I should confide the story to you. Since we have been thrown together under your roof, and especially since Mr. North has chosen suddenly to depart from the cold formality of a perfect stranger, with which he’ first met me here two weeks ago, and assume the attitude of an old friend—to which privilege he has forfeited every claim!—it is only right that you should know the little that there is to tell concemipg my past acqaintance with him.” “I shall be glad to know all, my dear Myra,” interpolated Mrs. Maynard,

softly. “It may serve as a guide to my own future course.” “1 met Mr. North," continued Miss Hilary, musingly, “in the White mountains, rbur years ago. We were guests at the same hotel, and through the introduction of a common friend we were made acquainted. From the hour of his introduction he became one of our select party, and wherever we went, whatever we did, he w» sure to be with us—with me,” she added, in a lower tone, while the fire-light flashed more redly for an instant over her pale cheeks, “for he devoted himself to me from the first. He charmed mamma by his constant and delicate attentions to her, and when, after a six weeks’ acquaintance, he asked for my hand in marriage, he readily won her consent. He had told us little about himself or his family, but mamma understood from some New York friends that his antecedents were irreproachable, and she never thought of questioning the worth of his personal character. [to bb continued.]

AS NORTH ENTERED.

WITH NO INTERRUPTION SAVE THE TINKLING MELODIES.