ROMANCES OF UNEXPECTED FORTUNES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 216, 5 September 1908, Page 4

ROMANCES OF UNEXPECTED FORTUNES.

THE EORTUNE OF A SHEFFIELD SERVANT. In the autumn of ISTS there appeared in one of the Yorkshire newspapers an advertisement for one Mary Silver. .Mary Silver had, the announcement stated, been in service some years previously witli a lady in Bridlington, and was supposed to have afterwards obtained a situation with a family in Sheffield.

THE SEARCH FOB A SERVANT. If Mary Silver would communicate with a firm ot solicitors mentioned, she "would hear of something greatly (o her advantage.' The seeker of' Unwanted woman was evidently in serious earnest. The advertisement went on t<> oiler a reward to anyone who might know of the whereabouts of Mary Silver, and -who would communicate her address. No answer to that appeal came from Mary Silver. One dnv, however, L'v-ve came a'letter to the'linn of solicit,.... from a stranger, who stated that there was a woman oi the name of .Mary Silver residing with a certain family 'n Shellield. Sho was a woman of middle age; possibly she might be the person wauled. A clerk was dispatched to interview her.

SUB IS DISCOVERED. She opened the door to him herself. From the description he had received he recognised, her as the person he ■sought. He addressed her in his politest style, ond, informing her that ne hail some very good news to lell her provided she .turned out to be really the woman he wanted, he requested her to allow him to speak to her in private. .Mary Silver looked at him in astonishment for a moment. '' There can be no good news for me," she exclaimed, shaking her head. '-Jlowever, walk in, please, and 1 will listen to what you have to say." ■She led the way from the door and showed him into a little room. " The people of the house are out," she told him, "but 1 am sure they won't mind my seeing you in their sittingroom."

A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE. The clerk took the seat she pointed to, and was about to tell his errand when Mary Silver interrupted him. "1 beg your pardon-," she exclaimed, "but I believe 1 heard a bell ring." She disappeared as if going to answer that call. The clerk waited her return. Would Mary Silver never come back? Had she forgotten all about him? He waited impatiently for a long time. At last he rang the bell. It was not Mary Silver who appeared in answer to it. but another servant. She was astonished to see him there. Silver, she informed him, had put on her bonnet and "outdoor things" and had gone out. She did not know when she would return.

Was the woman mad? The clerk remembered ho'W; pale sin; had grown when he mentioned that he had come in reference lo mi advertisement for her in a newspaper. It had seemed to fill her with some, strange apprehension. AX EXTRAOHDIXAKY FLIGHT. Mary Silver never came back! In quiries at the house discovered nothing of her. Her employers stated that she had been with them for several years, and they j«ver wished to meet with a more conscientious and able servant. When there had been illness in the house no one could have lieen more devoted in her attention to the sick ones. Her conduct had lieen irreproachable. It appeared .that when she had left the clerk in the sitting room "she had hurriedly collected a few of her most precious little belongings together and had lied with them.

What could flic the explanation of that extraordinary llight? All that was certain was that Mary Silver hail disappeared and there was no trace of her left. •'The woman is one of those foolish people who are filled with terror at the idea of lawyers seeking them," concluded the solicitor who had the finding of her in hand. "Or perhaps there may be some painful mystery connected with her past life." A VAIX SEAKCH. Solicitors are well aware of the fact that many unsuspected! people have secrets in their lives the threatened revelation of which fills them with terror. The iirm had been .instructed to discover the whereabouts of Mary Silver by a stranger who had given them his name and address at one of the large it hotels in the town. He had, he stated, money in land for the servant that had been left her bv a former mistress of hers. Hay by day that client had called to learn how the ell'oi'ts to lind Mary Silver were being rewarded. Tne day that the letter had come to hand giving the linn the address of Mary Silver he had handed to them an envelope directed to her, which he had instructed should be delivered by the head of the lirni into her own hands. A MJSSING STTtAXGEIi. They had seen nothing of him since. Inquiry at his hotel only resulted in the discovery that he had left it the day he had'handed over that envelope. No one knew his address or had the slightest notion where he came from. The solicitor remembered the name and address of the lady who the stranger said had left Silver money. Possibly there he might find some 'clue to the client who liad left that envelope with them.

The story the stranger had told them respecting that bequest to her ,\v.is fals»! Nothing could be discovered as to the man's identity. The solicitor decided that ho would be justified now in opening the envelope left with him. Jn it surely there would be some name and address, lie broke the seal. The envelope contained ten .CIOO notes roiled up iu u blank sheet of paper! THE HONEY IS INVESTED. There was nothing to be dune but io invest the money to the best advantage and to await the reappearance of cither Jlnry Silver or of that client who had placed it in their hands. Ten years later the romance of Mary I Silver 'was to bo recalled iu a strange | manner.

In a. room of .the hotel from which Hie. solicitor hail received that strange client those long years ago he was now standing before a'grave-faced man. "My'patient has sent for you," said the doctor, "to make his will. Before, vou see him I .thought it right to tell you that he should be most careful as to how he exerts himself. His heart is alfected most seriously. He tells me that he arrived here yesterday from London, ft was almost madness for him to undertake such a journey in his state of health, and he has had a very dangerous seizure. Over-exertion or any excitement, and I will not be responsible for the consequences." A DKAMATIO DIS<JOVEKY.

The. man who had sent for the solicitor was tlie man who had sought Mary Silver those long years past! Would it 1)0 necessary to tell him that Mary Silver had not been found—Unit she had never had the money he had left for her, and; if so, what'would be the con- ' '■■ If I have bad news for him?'' he asked anxiously of the doctor. The doeUm.s'hrugged his shoulders. -If von have, don't speak it," he advised! "1 have no hesitation in saying that it will almost certainly mean his death." ■ . ;, A minute or two later the solicitor stood beside the bed of the sick man. With a feeble gesture lie motioned him to a chair.

A WICKED MAX'S KEMOKSE. Ten venrs ago he had .placed m the solicitor's hands' £1,001) to be handed to Mary Silver. She was his wife, though Silver was not his name. She had assumed that name in place of the one he had given her and the name he had disgraced. The solicitor remembered weii tli<' name the sick man had told him was his real one. He remembered the sensation the crime that man had comuiiHcil had occasioned,-and the long years of penal servitude that had visited the oll'eiue.

•• When I came out of prison," went on the sick man painfully, " I found the woman I had brought that disgra-e on had (lisapneared. I determined T would not burden her by claiming, her. I would not ask her to share a disgraced life." Vndcr another name lie had prospered in the world. He had traced his wile under the name of Mary Silver to service in Uvidlington, but she had hot there iwhcn lie" discovered the clue i.o her identity, lie had learnt she had left for Shelliehl. and had placed the matter of her discovery in the ban's of the linn of solicitors. HKIWIUTIUX-AXI) DEATH.

"And now I have come io ask you about her." said the sick man. " I fell, that mv end was drawing close. I have no other 1 love in the world but she. I had made a will leaving her the bulk of my properly, and the rnuaiuder 'o some'of my relations lo whom I felt the money might be some compensation for the shame J. brought upon them.

But now, close to death as I am, 1 h-.ivi resolved to leave her all. Write- wriu as quickly as you can tiial I leave ai to .Mary Silver."

A moment or two later the sulk-itm darted from the room. He had reqiie.! Ed the doctor to remain in wailing, it had, he lold him. some ill news that h. might Ik. forced to speak to that si.-i, man, ami he was anxious the phv.shi.u should lie in attendance if il' wen wrung from his lips. At his cry the physician rushed in .c the room. He leaned over the bed.

''Head!" he said. •• Dead! Your news, whatever it was, his killed him!" A low days later, the "stranger frum London" was carried to his grave. The only mourner, if such a name could be applied to him, was a ilerk from the solicitor's ollice, who at tended to see that all was done in order. V search ! 1e.,1 resr . ,| in the discovery of no sign oi .evious will he had made. Inquiries in London, however, led to the discovery of .the dead man's business. He had left property worth about C7,«(H>, and that properly, as he had lied intestate, was now the property of his relations, chief among whom 'was his wife—.Mary Silver! A WOMAN'S LOVK. One day the lawyer who had sought her in vain hud occasion to pav a v'Fsit to the graveyard in whieh the dead n lay. He wandered to the side of the grave, lie looked at it in amazement. Who was it mho put those llowers on it? Who had paid the man who hn there that token or remembrance audi affection? He made inquiry, and learnt that sometimes that grave was visited by a lady. He gave orders that a watch should be kept.

HER REWARD. At the end of a few weeks she cam., once more. And that was how at length the money that belonged to Mary Silver became hers—how she learm at last, what she seemed to value more than wealth, how the dead man had sought her those long years ago, with that offering the witness of repentance—of his efforts to a new life that should blot out the old, and of his love for her.