A Queen of the Stage by Fred M. White

Sefton hurried home with his find, and lost no time in getting to work upon the manuscripts. For an hour or two he waded through a mass of more or less trivial details. They were not uninteresting in their way, for they threw a considerable light upon the life of a man for whom he had always had the highest regard. He was still poring over the pages when his dinner was announced, and he had not yet dressed when that meal was laid upon the table. He sat down just as he was and hurried through his dinner. When he had finished and his cigar was lighted and the lamps were lit, he sat down in real earnest with no intention of going to bed until he had reached the last page of the diary.

There was nothing in the book to indicate the type of man who was likely to take his own life. The diaries were interesting, even from a literary point of view. They spoke of many things in which the writer had borne a leading part, and told of his travels and researches in many lands. It was not until Sefton had come to the middle of the third black-bound volume that he lighted on the name of Samuel Weiss. He read with enhanced zest.