The Secret Adversary

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culled from detective fiction.

"When did you last see the dece--your cousin, I mean?"

"Never seen her," responded Mr. Hersheimmer.

"What?" demanded Tommy, astonished.

Hersheimmer turned to him.

"No, sir. As I said before, my father and her mother were brother and
sister, just as you might be"--Tommy did not correct this view of their
relationship--"but they didn't always get on together. And when my aunt
made up her mind to marry Amos Finn, who was a poor school teacher out
West, my father was just mad! Said if he made his pile, as he seemed
in a fair way to do, she'd never see a cent of it. Well, the upshot was
that Aunt Jane went out West and we never heard from her again.