WILDMOOR HALL

Manawatu Herald, Volume VII, Issue 266, 14 May 1889, Page 3

WILDMOOR HALL

— ♦— — . — (Pall Mall Budget.) CHAPTER I. (Continued) ■ Then followed a siokening story which I cannot bring myself to tell ; but though I strove to think that he ■poke calumnies, I remembered the inoident io the wood. I listened doggedly, with clenched teeth, as bit by bit the knife he had plunged into

me came nearer and nearer to my hearts. Maud Lemaistre false! X felt the ear%.^a^«Xoo^-wait to hdafho more ; tearing frpni^jjlm.^ I returned to the BlEfll, an6/ -ffiihout speaking to^a soul, I looked myself in the library, and with tremulous fingers I opened the ooffer/' It wa* empty ! iThen I : wniembered . tba". words she the nigh* thafrl -i&oirttf Jiev, the iewels. Armsleigh was right, thbugH I almost oursed him for it. . r Soon all England rang with^. ttie news ■of the fobbery, and reporters invaded the seclusion of Wildmoor in | ■ the hope of gaining information for a telling article, Detectives came < from Scotland "yard, and the name of | Maud Lemftistte, onoe sacred to me. , was upon* **ery - quidnunc's HpsJ throughou^tiMr4aiid Miss Savill) was well nigh 4isitraughb, a^d it was \ rumoured that |h>|^ockbad affected | her mind. When I broke the news to [her she appeared 'bfesid§ herself, but I was sufficiently^ discreet: to. abstain from any allusion to her per- 1 versity with^gari to, the removal of the treasures 'fo a strong room. She was vehement -ip iier 4enu'noiatitin of Miss Lemaistre! " .-.•."; v , " I maaut to, ,leave the wretched creature 'd, substantial pension," she said, " but now, my only hope is that she may be captured before the heirlooms are irretrievably lost, and then that ste may undergo the longest term of imprisonment the* law can inflict," . Though I could not But consider .. Maud guilty, it pained me more than I oared to confess to hear her spoken of in such unmeasured terms of op probinm. The servants had, of course, " always had their suspicions with regard to her honesty," and' I could not fail to hear disjointed portions of the villagers' gossip, in which the woman I haj| IbvecK and-revered was spoken of as an ungrateful wretch. One day I read the following from a morning paper 'f-f^T :«! ■) ; ,',. '■• * Miss Maud L'emaistre, who has gained for Ijierself jsolarge aa Amount of questionable notoriety in connection with the Wildmoor , Hall robbery, is described"! as* a 'very charming and refined young lady of three-and twenty. People are in the dark as to her antecedent*-;-, but it is stated that at ens' time shewas upon the operatic * stage in" Kew York, and that she is an orphan. - Little else is known concerning her, except that before entering into Miss Savill's service she had fulfilled a similar engagement in a Wealthy family in the West-endj the members of whioh describe her as par - ticularly engaging and ladylike, ifl manner. T r . . It was a relief to read something that at least lacked abuse, but it was poor consolation at best. An evening paper had a'smartly-written leader upon the dangers of employing adventuresses as governesses or companions. In a week-it had bßin' ascertained that Maud Lemaiftjre had gone to Paris ; and thither detectives were at onceß despatched; Before leaving HindKp, which he did three days afteir t^p fdisappear^ ance of Miss Leinwstre', JftLrmdleigh called to bid me good-bye and to endeavour to sustain me with friendly Tconsolation. Although I had a feeling of^dj&like fp^ •him*-' which ought rather to nave been one of respect and gratitude — I could not help feeling touched by his kindness. I had been so insensely infatuated that it was with the utmost difficulty and jHiin. alp^a, itbat I could bring myself to^ibjeliey^sithatJMatrd was a thief. Against reason, I hated Armsleigh for telling me what hehad, and I was not sorry when his burly figure had disappeared' from Wildmoor. One evening JMjss^a-vfll : "sent -fotf 1 me, and placing her ilnger^upon the heading of a column in an evening paper, she said exultiiigly^./'r^ead that, Mr Spencer." .•« ■^•- / - ! - - i -*-' 1 - I took the paper and read the following: — sai'h 'i<i fi!./ 1 Maud Lemaistre -wa£ arrested Versailles early this morning by anEnglish detective, and charged cm suspicion with having*' K l b'feien concerned in the robbery of jewels from Wildmoor Hall,niMi^'fp r «l6rclilhite. She is stated to ,hav»i ti'i((de a con^ fession. A couple iio'f/ diamonds'smpposed to have been abstracted from a necklet which was among th.e stolen article have been foiundv 6A a jeweller's in Amsterdam. — Paris, 10 A.M. Tbe blood rnshed to miylf«e j arid I pushed the paper from me • 4 Are you ndt.'!|hid'?i'''Baid Mlbb Savill, watching me narrowly. " I suppose I should be if she guilty," I answered. y >* 11 If she is guilty ! I have no doubt about ir myself," cried the *>ld lady ; "no evidence cau be blacker." I said no more, but..niade Jetjieiv writing my plea for* ; wUhdrah»fogV I thought all that irght of Maud's white wrists in handonfls, and my lieart ached for her, base find worth less as I feared she was. Buch was my mad infatuation, that I believed that if she stood before me, and 1 could but look into her deep, tender eyes, I could forgive all— that I should be powerU ss before her beau • tyf Austere readers will not, perhaps, pardon me for my folly, but they mast remember that I was very young, and that youth is the age of fo^iahapes and unreasoning idolatry' ',; , ' * - (Tote continued.) ■ f " -* '*■