t have believed possible. My ward, Miss Roemer, a quiet, reserved
girl, fell in love with this man about whom none of us knew anything, a
man with a past of which he did not care to speak.

"I was not in any way satisfied with the match, and they seemed
to realise it. For Siders managed to persuade the girl to a secret
engagement. I discovered it a month or two ago, and it made me very
angry. I did not let them see how badly I felt, but I warned Lora not to
have too much to do with the boy, and I set about finding out something
regarding his earlier life. It was my duty to do this, as I was the
girl's guardian. She has no other relative living, and no one to turn to
except my aunt and myself. I wrote to Mr. Richard Tressider in Chicago,
the owner of the factory in which I had been employed while there. John
had told me that Tressider had been his client during the four years in
which he practiced law in Chicago. I received an answer about the middle
of August. Mr. Tressider had been able to find out only that John was
born in the town of Hartberg in a certain year. This was enough. I took
leave of absence for a few days and went to Hartberg, which, as you
know, is about 140 miles from here. Three days later I knew all that I
wanted to know. John Siders was not the man's real name, or, rather, it
was only part of his name. His full name was Theodor John Bellmann, and
his mother was an Englishwoman whose maiden name was Siders. His father
was a county official who died at an early age, leaving his widow and
the boy in deepest poverty. Mrs. Bellmann moved to G----to give music
lessons. Theodor went to school there, then finally to college, and was
an excellent pupil everywhere. But one day it was discovered that he
had been stealing money from the banker in whose house he was serving
as private tutor to the latter's sons. A large sum of money was missing,
and every evidence pointed to young Bellmann as the thief. He denied
strenuously that he was guilty, but the District Judge (it was the
present Prosecuting Attorney Schmidt in G--) sentenced him. He spent
eight months in prison, during which time his mother died of grief at
the disgrace. There must have been something good in the boy, for he
had never forgotten that it was his guilt that struck down his only
relative, the mother who had worked so hard for him. He had atoned for
this crime of his youth, and during the years that have passed since
then, he had been an honest