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"Because because did you see
her face? It is not curiosity. It is
vital that I should know."
"Yes, I noticed that she resembles
her picture there. Mine is a hard bus
iness, my friend, but we money
leeches, as they call us, have a heart
sometimes. I pitied the poor girl,
for she looked poor and sad, and she
kissed the locket at leaving, weeping
and begging of me not to sell it if she
could not redeem it soon."
"Did you get her address?"
"I always ask that You are inter
ested and you look straight. There
it is." ,
Hurriedly John Thurston copied the
name and address on the pawnticket,
"Miss Lisle." Then she had not mar
ried! He thanked the pawnbroker,
forgetting all about suicide now, and
hastened from the place.
The address he had received led
him to a poor tenement building
about a mile distant. He made cau
tious inquiries to learn that Miss Lisle
and a lady friend occupied a rear attic
at the top of the building. Five min
utes later, standing on a roof stair
way, Thurston looked through an.
open transom into a wretched room.
A fire was burning, evidently just
started, and some parcels on a table
indicated that they had just been pur
chased, probably with the proceeds of
the loan made from the pawnbroker.
Upon a bed lay the wasted form of
a woman. She was weeping, while
her hands were outstretched in love
and gratitude towards -Alice Lisle,
who was bustling about the room and
cheerily making it more comfort
able. "Oh, you are breaking my heart,
you are so good to me!" sobbed the
woman onthe bed. "Here for a month
you have cared for me, a stranger,
half-starving yourself, and at last
parting with a lost love momento, the
locket "
"Better times will come, dear," in
terrupted Alice comfortingly. "I shall
surely get work, and you, too, when
you are welL We shall redeem my
poor cherished token of a happy t
past," she added sadly, "for I would'
not lose it for anything. Be brave
dear, there will yet come to your pa-
tient soul showers of blessings."
Two discoveries overwhelmed the
mind of the watching Thurston at
that moment The first was that
Alice Lisle was loyal to his memory.
The next was that she was sacrificing
herself for a poor invalid fellow crea
ture He reached within an Inner
pocket and drew forth a dozen or
more bank bills that represented a
part of his legacy. It was a vivid, ir
rational impulse that caused him to
fling the precious money through the
transom a shower of blessings, in
deed! Somehow a rare joy took posses
sion of his soul as he fled from the
spot He wandered about the streets,
thinking, thinking. Ah! here was an
object in life at last; to watch over
in secret this devoted first love, to see
that she did not suffer. He would
never become known to her; ah, no!
with the convict stain upon his life!
A hand touched his shoulder and
Thurston turned to confront a po
liceman. The latter was scanning a
photograph in his hand. Thurston
recognized it as one of himself, taken
when he entered prison.
"I believe you are Mr. Thurston?"
spoke the officer, quite respectfully.
"Yes," answered Thurston, his
heart sinking. On the threshold of
new hopes, was he to be hunted down
by the police as he had been by crim
inals? "Would you Btep to headquarters
with me, sir?" pursued the officer. "It
is something important had orders
to locate you for a week."
Dejected, anticipating all kinds of
direful trouble, Thurston entered the
presence of the chief of police a few
minutes later.
"Mr. Thurston," spoke the official,
"I have some strange news to impart
sent you to prison has just confessed,
dying, that he, and not you, was the
guilty criminal. His father has writ-
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