Walter Okshevsky wrote: "A very distinctive affair, indeed, Watson. A woman by the name of Stella Oden goes to her mother's funeral and sees a man whom she is immediately and absolutely enraptured by. She knows, as she has never known before, that this man is her soul mate. But, alas, after the service, he disappears and she has neither a name nor a forwarding address. Three days later, Ms. Oden murders her sister Clara. What was her motive, Watson? You have only one try (and leave my violin alone, would you!)" Clara was in love with Stella's fiance, over whom the two had become estranged. In order to separate the fiance from Stella, Clara murders their mother and hires a man to attend the funeral, flirt with Stella, and then disappear. (The mother's funeral guarantees that Stella would be in a particular place and time. It also puts Stella into an unsettled emotional state. Could also be that the mother was supporting Stella over Clara in terms of marrying the fiance. Perhaps Stella didn't really love the fiancee but was doing it to please the mother? spite Clara?) Stella breaks off her engagement in order to pursue the handsome stranger. Clara promptly turns up to console the ex-fiance. Stella realizes what Clara has done and kills her. Three days is a bit tight for this scenario but Victorian women were a repressed lot and prone to outbursts. Well at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Sincerely, Phil Enns ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html