Dr Swainson's Secret

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 360, 2 April 1903, Page 2

Dr Swainson's Secret

By GEO. R. SIMS.

[COPYBIGHT.] Harold Frederick D'Alroy Temple, tenth Earl Templecombe, paced the great library of Templecombe Hall with furious strides. His fiats were clenched, his aristocratic features livid with rage. ' I most do someting,' he said, 'or I shall go mad myself. He flung the French windows of the library wide open, so roughly and fiercely that a great pain of. glass shivered and fell ia fragments to the grouud. Then he stepped cut upon the lawn. It was a splendid August afternoon. Abve him the Bun was shining gloriously; around bim lay the loveliest gardens of England. He was surrounded by all that was beautiful in nature and art. Wealth and g~od taste bad nnde Templecombe one of the 6how places of the c untry; and not its least famous features were its splendid park and gardens. The grounds of Templecombe were open to the tourist and the visitor on certain days every week, and the Templecombe Arms Hotel which stoed at the park gates reaped a rich barve t during the season from the cong s>nt flow of well-tc-do British, Continental, American and Colonial tourists, who come to inspect the beauties of the Earl's anceetral home.

But standing in the glorious grounds today the great nobleman c to whom everything belonged fonbd no pleasure in his possessions. Tbo beauty of t> e scene mi eked him. The very sunshine which flooded the land seem* d to him an insult and an outrage. He lifted his arms wildly above him and blasphemous words mng from his lips. Then ho flung Hmrelf down upon a great stone seat banked round with beautiful fhwers, and burying his face in his hand, sobbed liko a child Presently there came acrtsj the lawn a tall, neatly dressed man, of about sixty, with the unmistakable professional look of the physici»n about him. But thare was no professional smile on the clean cot, closely shaven face. The Ear.'s visitor was Dr. Swainson, a specialist in insanity, and himself the head of a small private lunatic asylum for the care of the mad membera of the aristocracy. Dr. Swainson came to where the Karl waß sitting and touched him gently on the shoulder. 'Come, come,' he said kindly, J this won't do. It anyone could see y*u it would be sure to lead to gossip, and you know how important it is that tt-ere should not be the slightest suspicion anywhere of what has happened.' * Ton are right,' replied the Earl, « butthe shock was eo terrible, that if I had not given some vent to my feelings I believe I should have gone mad.' ■ I quite understand, but now we have to act, and therefore you must look every, ttiing calmly and steadily in the face You feel -sure that no one but yourself a ad the Ccuatess has any suspicion of wjo tee real culprit is ?' • Quito—quite, or I must hava eard of it. Several of my people have spoken about the affair this morning ome One of them saw the girl herself at her fathei'd cottage, bein/ intmate with the the family, and she hetseif, it seems, was quite unable to give any description of her assailant. The n:ght was dark and the lane is a vsry lonely one. It skirts the corner of the Park yonder. Look, you will see theie is not a sign • f a house or cottage anywhere near it. * A nd this servant of yours—did he hear the gi 's story P' _ • Not from her herself, but from her father. The girl is too weak and ill to talk much.'

«Tell ae»'e story as the father tells it' ' He says that his daughter, who is a fine, w 11-grown girl of eeventeen, had been visiting a married aister in the next village, about two miles away. It was about ten o'clock when she left, and it would be about half-past ten when she came to the lane where the oecurreßce took place.' ' She, waß walking quietly along whan she heard a rustling in the hedge, and it being pitch dark ehe give a little cry.' (To be continued.)

' Uncle William, are y.u troubiea anout the heieafter?' *No, suhj it's de wbarfo' or de herein wbat keeps me guessin'!'

Mrs Green—'Toll me, John, why do they call it a whist, ' congress' ?' Mr Green—They talk a deal in congress, you know.'

She—After all, what is the difference between illusion and delusion? HeIllusion is the lovely fancies we have ourselves ; delusion is the foolish fancies other people havj about themselves.

Slimson--* I hear you havß been fighting that little boy next door, and that he whipped you. How did that lappen?' Willie—' Well, he's going to give a party next week, and I was afraid if I licked him he wouldn t invite me.'

' How did you happen to insure in that particular company P' ' I consulted the wishes of my wife,' 'Of course; that's very praiseworthy. But—does she know anything about life insurance companies ?' ' Y es; she investigated, and found that this one always issues the prettiest calendars.'