PAOLINA OR THE MILLIONAIRE'S PLOT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10193, 21 March 1911, Page 2

PAOLINA OR THE MILLIONAIRE'S PLOT.

OUR SERIAL.

By MARIPOSA WEIR. Author of "Evadyne's Temptation," "A Chase Round the World," ©tc

CHAPTER LIT .—Continued

She ceased speaking, and passed her hands over her forehead. Then she looked round again until her eyes rested upon Hannah'Hagburn. "Dear lady," said Hannah, "you are safe at last; you are surrounded by true friends. You have nothing to fear."

"J. dreamed that it was so," said Paolina, "but I. feel so weak. And, oh, Hannah! 1 feel so hungry. I feared, to touch what they offered me, and I think I have eaten nothing since they sent you away."

Hanahn disappeared, and returned in a moment with a cup of tea and a plate of cold meat, which Paolina drank and ate with the avidity of keen hunger.

"I release you from your promise, ' said Tripp, touching the shoulder of .the stranger. "Look: round you. Do you behold'your child?" '-It needs no proofs," cried he. "The voice, the figure, the eyes are her mother's. Regina,"my child, do you not know me?"

is at present in court —who had discovered a wonderful anaesthetic, by virtue of which a person could be thrown in to a condition of trance so closely analogous to death as not to be distinguishable from it. My noble client had witnessed some experiments by his learned friend, with this wonderful anaesthetic, and, being desperately in love, and naturally of a romantic turn of mind, it occurred to him that this discovery might be turned to account for the purpose "of removing the fears which prevented the object of his affection from accepting his hand. He suggested the plan to her. Its very, singularity and romance made it attractive, and she oossented to the scheme. It was proposed to the learned savant, who, being of a less sentimental and more practical turn of mind, most strenuously opposed it. But the two lovers persisted, and at last the savant yielded to their importunities. [ ,

"My father!" "My daughter!" And they were clasped in each other's arms. •

"Spiretti, my true and faithful friend," said the stranger, turning towards the doctor, "am I then so changed that you do not recognise me now?" "Ercole! . TheMarchese Ercolq Marlia'ni, for twenty years reputed dead;" exclaimed Spiretti. "I am he," returned the other, and fhe two old men embraced each other. ...-,{ 'The MarchesesaidiPaolina,' "then you are my'uncle" "And here is your cousin Regina," added the marchese, leading his daughter to the bedside. "I already love her, as if she were my sister!" exclaimed Paolina, drawing her to her and kissing her forehead. "Heaven knows I have cause. It Avas she who detected the horrible device of my enemies to give me the \ semblance of a corpse. It was she who rescued me from the grave." "Ahem!" said Counselor Tripp, walking to the middle of the room and assuming an oratorical attitude. ''All this is somewhat irregular and coinA brief statement that will unravel this tangled skein of circumstances may not be unacceptable to the company." All eyes were turned upon the lawyer who had 'for some time been fid--1 geting at the derangement of His programme, caused by the personal explanations which had been made. "May it please the court, and gentlemen of the jury," resumed the counselor, "that is to say, ladies and gentlemen, it has pleased an all-wise Providence to place in my hands the clue to the mysterious events and complicated relations with which the various parties before the court—l mean, now assembled here undo.* such peculiar circumstances, are concerned. Give me your attention for a moment, and all shall be made clear.'.' ■.<.•■';■

"A picnic was planned, one pleasant day, to, the ; 'Pinetta' —a pinewood, I believe, in the vicinity of Ravenna. In the afternoon the pair wer'e "secretly married at ah old suburban church, but little frequented,,near the wood. A few hours later the bride was discovered, aparently dead, in the Pinetta. The funeral rites were duly performed, and the body was placed —due precautions being taken —in a vault specially prepared for the purpose. •

"At midnight the newly made husband, the savant, and two chosen friends, all of whom were pledged to secrecy, repaired to the vault. The. sleeping bride was resuscitated, even have this.,night- seen the; niece of brought back* to life from apparent death, A carriage was in waiting, and in an hour the Marchcse Ercole Marlianni and La Speranza, his bride, were on the road to Rome.

"They iied to England, where my noble client, in deference to the wishes of his wife,- who feared the verige-j ful pursuit of her jealous lover, assum- j the name of Percy. "In duo time a child was born to them — a daughter—who. is also 'in court, and by whose marvellous insight her cousin, Pa.olina Huntingdon, has just been rescued from the grave. A French lady, who then called herself Madam LafoH, but who has more recently adopted the name of Madam Campan, was employed as tihe 1 governess of the child. ■•• ) At this point the person alluded to, who, was lying down in an adjoining room, roused herself from the drunken stupor, and began to look around her and listen.

"Lies!" interrupted the subject frf the eulogistic remarks. "Nothing bljrfc lies!" and she glared at the as if meditating a personal attack. >■'■'

"Twenty years ago the aristocratic circles of Ravenna were greatly scandalized by'a rumour that the head of a noble Italian family was about to contract a matrimonial alliance;, with an actress renowned for her genius and her beauty. In our own favoured country, which is, as the whole universe is aware, 'the land of the free and the home of the brave,' and where there are no down-trodden masses on one hand, and no haughty aristocracy on the other, such prejudices fortunately, do not exist. The noble gentleman to whom I have alluded, though an. aristocrat by birth and breeding, was at heart a democrat. He loved this highly gifted woman, and he res- i olved to wed her, and brave the unenlightened censure of the society •in which he moved. But the lady had the! misfortune to have another adorer belonging to a lower social grade—a man of fierce pasions, unscrupulous, reckless, and dangerous—who, when -his suit was rejected, swore a terrible oath that he would assassinate her if" ever she gave her hand to another. Such was her dread of this jealous and brutal savage, that she dared not accept the proposals'of honourable marriage made by my distinguished client —I mean, by the noble gentleman aforesaid. ... .

"Now it so happened that among the most cherished friends of the said noble gentleman and his noble family was a certain learned savant —he, too,

. "Moreover," pursued the counselor, without heeding the interruption, "articles of jewellery and other valuables, from, time to time mysteriously disappeared. Some of these articles were found in her possession, and she was dismissed. In order to be revenged for. her dismissal, Madam Laf orb, alias Campan, stole the child, and with her paramour fled to Australia y taking the child with them. Later they came to San Francisco, taking the child with them. Later they came to California, and opened a low concert hall in Saa Francisco, where they endeavoured to utilize the young girl's-precocious talent by compeling her to dance and sing in public. In consequence of her repugnance to this mode of life, and of the cruel usage she received at the hands of this precious pair, the young girl ran away one wintry night, resolved to starve or perish of exposure rather than submit longer to the oppressions and persecutions to which she had been subjected. Friendless,' homeless, and not knowing where to turn, she at length sat down upon a doorstep, wearied, hungry and despairing. (To Be Continued.)

j "Tin's lady, though no doub t t a.per--1 son of talent and accomplishments, had some unpleasant peculiarities/ She was perhaps a trifle too much ad.dieted to the use of brandy and absinth—" , . I