She was a widow, and free— free with only the eecret known to herself and her mother tbat she had been the wife of a foreign swindler who had, for some reason best known to himself, turned- patriot, and been most opportunely killed. Kate Vasari— or Kate Rennie, as she called herself— hesitated when Charles Hailsham asked her to be Ma wife. She hesitated because she did not know whether to tell him. of the Vasari episode. Once again she was weak and foolish, and held her peace. She was strengthened in thi* by her mother, who, having consulted another foolish old lady equally unlearned in the law, had discovered tbat Kate had never been legally married because she made a false declaration, entering herself as of full age when she was only seventeen. In such manner do many old ladies deceive themselves with regard to little points of the law. Kate Hailsham was Luigi Vasari's lawful wife when she pigned her name Kate Rennie in the vescry after her union with Charles Hailsham. She was always Luigi Vasari's lawful wife, for the man, instead of having died a patriot as Kate believed, had been a convict, having earned his protection of the Italian Government for as charming a little fraud a 6 ever a scoundrel concocted, It was soon after his release from a long term of penal servitude that he made his way to England, and, searching for his wife to sponge apon, found her no longer the little mueic-mistress, but the wife of a rich man. Luigi saw his gold mine, and played his cards well. He waited to strike more su rely but waited too long. When his letter arrived his victim was beyond his reach. Poor Charles Hailsham, however, paid him handsomely to hold his tongue. For the sake of Charley —for the sake of the dead wife's name—this husband had to be pensioned off. It was a terrible storey for a man to find but in the first week of his bereavement. It was a shocking thought to know that the woman be loved had been killed by the dis covery of the secret she had tried in vaii* to tell him ere she died. Charles Hailsham is a widower still. He will never marry again. He is known far and wide as a country squire of the right sort— and Charley boy. 