Lady Trebor's Secret, OR THE MYSTERY OF CECIL ROSSE.

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 211, 18 April 1877, Page 4

Lady Trebor's Secret, OR THE MYSTERY OF CECIL ROSSE.

[By Mas. llauimkt Lewis.] O CHAPTER L— continued. He was strikingly handsome, with a distinguished presence, tall and nobly formed, with keen, gray eyes, a blond" mustache shading a firm, well-shaped mouth which was capable of expressing every shade of emotion, and witli a grand head crowned with little, close-curling rings of blonde hair. He was about twenty-eight years of age, yet he retained a youthful freshness of feeling, was chivalrous and noble in the highest degree, and was not only unmarried, but lie had never loved.

His companion, Maldrod Grafton, was his intimate friend and distant relative, who jmsscsscd a small fortune, was about thirty years of age, and also unmarried. The intimacy between the two men was inexplicable, for never were two persons more unlike than Lord Glenham and Maldred Grafton. His lordship was too noble and unsuspicious to discern the real nature of his kinsman, which was sly and scheming, intensely avaricious, and utteily unscrupulous. Yet Grafton’s exterior was plausible and insinuating ; lie was singularly gentle in his manners; ami Ids black eyes and swarthy features had been too well trained to reveal the secrets of his soul.

Cecil Rosse was not sufficiently skilled in physiognomy to read the characters of these two men. She only knew that she liked Lord Glenham, and with her liking came an instinctive faith in him. As for Grafton, she felt for him a singular distrust and an aversion that was destined to grow and strengthen into a stronger emotion.

When Lord Glenham had completed Lis small attempt at surgery, and the wounded arm had been well bandaged, Cecil Rosse thanked him courteously and avowed her intention of hastening home.

“We will accompany you, Miss Rosse,” said the carl. “ No, do not refuse. You arc not able to go alone. The loss of blood and the shock of the accident have been too much for you. Lean rqpon me—else I shall think that you have not forgiven me !” Cecil took his arm and led the way by the forest-path iu the direction of her homo. A. few minutes’ walk brought them out upon the steep village street and very near the parsonage. As they entered the little garden-gate, the old housekeeper, Grctchen, came out to meet them with loud expressions of alarm at the evident weakness of her young mistress. The old woman was but a peasant like her neighbours, but twenty years’ residence in the family of the Herr Pastor had given her a refinement that her neighbours lacked, and made her appear somewhat above lier condition. She fairly worshipped the pastor’s niece, and Cecil forced a smile and disengaged her arm from .its support as she said ; “ Hush, Grctchen, you will alarm my uncle. lam not seriously hurt.” She hastened to explain the recent accident, and then invited her companions to enter the house.

“ Not now/’ answered Lord Glonham. “ Lot we veill avail ourselves of your kind, invitation to-morrow, Miss Rosso, and call to inquire after your arm and also to pay our respects to the Herr Pastor,” He raised his hat courteously, and waited until Cecil had entered the dwelling with her old servant, and then lie led the way down to the village. At a little distance from the parsonage Lord Glenham halted and looked hack, a now light in his eyes, a new glow on his face. “You seem to have changed your plans, Glenham,” said Grafton, slowly, regarding his kinsman keenly. “There is no inn in Zorlitz, and the peasant who took us in this morning has such beastly accommodations that you purposed going on to-day. Why do you remain until to-morrow ?” The earl turned towards his companion his glowing face. “ Ho you b°lievo in love at first sight, Grafton ?” he asked, abruptly. The swarthy face of Grafton lit up with a sullen glow. A sinister light leaped to his furtive eyes. “ Yes,” ho said, huskily, “1 believe in love at first sight.” He did not add that his belief was of not an hour’s growth, “ Then, since you believe in love at first sight, you will not scoff at me,” said Lord Glenham. “ I love Miss Rosse, Grafton. I love her as Romeo loved Juliet at their first meeting ! As you know, I have never loved before. I have had a glorious ideal which, until now, I have never seen realized. Do I seem boyish ? Yet this love, which comes to mo late and arouse? all the ardor of my soul, is the one love of my life ! Grafton, I will win Miss Rosse to be my wife, or I will go down to my grave unmarried !” “You are bard hit, Glonham,” said Grafton, with a little sneer. “ You don’t know who or what Miss Rosse is—” “ I’ll stake my life on her purity and truth !” cried the earl, passionately. “ For the rest I care nothing !” She may he of vile parentage—” “ I know better. But whatever she is, I love her. I shall stay here for the the present, Grafton. Blessed be the fate that brought me here.. And when I go honcc, perhaps she may go with me.”

The Ivi'o men walked on together. Lord Glenham in a blissful silence. Grafton with his face averted and bis lealures distorted in a. malignant expression that would have startled bis companion could the earl have seen it “ tio bo loves her too ?” thought Grafton, fiis son! convulsed with baffled iniy. “ .But be has not won her, and be never shall. For I love her, too—this patrician beauty of the Blade Forest—l love her, ami 1 swear by all that is holy that she shall be my wile. My wife, and not bis. lie will woo her openly ; that 1 cannot do, lest be know me for Ids rival. Yet it shall go bard if I do not undermine him, cause her to refuse him, and then win her for myself. The first thing to be done is to discover bow Hu’s bbiglish-looking and English-speaking young lady happens to be the niece of a German pastor. Ah, my lord, cherish your little fancies, dream your little dreams, while 1 step in and win the prize before your very eyes I”

CHAPTER 11. A I’ATH On THORNS. In accordance with his expressed intention, Lord Glenham called at the Zorlitz parsonage upon the day subsequent to that on which had occurred the accident we have narrated, and enquired anxiously after the health of Miss Rosso. He was accompanied by his friend, Maldred Grafton, and old Grctchen, after informing them that her young mistress would see them, ushered them into the Herr Pastor’s study and presence. Herr Brocken arose from his easyehair and the perusal of a musty old tome to receive them. He was about seventy years of ago, venerable of aspect, with long, thin, bleached hair, a long, gray beard, Ins eyes concealed by spectacles, his mild, benignant countenance wearing an absent look, Lis entire appearance indicating the scholar and bookworm. The young carl introduced himself and his companion. The pastor had heard the story of the accident, and received Lis lordship’s fervent regrets and apologies with kindness, declaring that the wound Cecil had received was not serious in itself, and had been so well and promptly treated that no dangerous consequences would result from it. “ Miss Rosso is your niece, I think she said, Mein Heir,” said Grafton pleasantly, his hard, black eyes studying the old bookworm intently. “ >Sho looks like an English young lady, and not at all German. And she speaks English, I notice, like an Englishwoman. Her name, too, might be English. Pardon me, but ray curiosity is quite piqued at finding a young lady of her distinguished appearance and remarkable beauty in a little forest hamlet like this !” The pastor’s face clouded. Ho said briefly, as if ho preferred not to pursue the subject: “ Cecil’s father was an Englishman. Ah,” ho added, with a sigh of relief, “ here comes Cecil herself!” Tin 1 door opened, and the girl came iu wilii a gliding step and a peculiar grace that might have befitted a princess. The young men both arose, and she greeted them with a kindling flush, yet with a quiet self-possession that charmed them.

They had noticed on the previous day that she was attired differently from the peasant maidens of Zorlitz. Upon this morning she wore a simple white gown, which clung to her slim shape in soft folds, unbroken by ruffle or tuck. A frill of lace rose about her throat, and frills of lace fell over her small hands. A rose, fresh from the garden, served as a brooch, and her red-brown hair crinkled in masses from her forehead, falling over her shoulders in ripples that glittered like gold in a stray beam of sunshine. The impression she had made on the two young men on the previous day was strengthened and quickened into vivid passion during the second interview. When they went away, the resolve of each of the two men to woo, and if possible to win. Cecil Rosso had become the purpose of their lives. They settled themselves comfortably at Zorlitz, hunted in the forest, and visited the parsonage daily. Absorbed in his hooks, the Herr Pastor paid little heed to the visitors, whom Cecil entertained. June deepened into July, and August came and went, and still the Englishmen lingered at Zorlitz. No one but sharp-eyed old Grctnheu suspected that they were the lovers of “little Cecil,” whom the villagers regarded as little more than a child. No one but old Grctclion saw the change in her young mistress, but she rightly interpreted the restlessness, changeful ness, the capricionsness of Cecil as indicating a disturbed heart.

u She loves the English lord,” the old woman said to herself, well contented. “ And he loves her. The Herr Pastor is failing—no one can sec it bnt I—hnt when he dies the little franloin will have a grand home and a protector, and will not be driven to earn her own living, as I have often feared ! ” During these months at Zorlitz, Oofton had made inquiries among the villagers concerning the parentage of Cecil Posse. Ho had once or twice spoken on the subject to Herr Brocken, who had evaded his questions, and this evasion had convinced him there w r as some mystery about the girl’s origin, but none of the peasants could or would enlighten him. fio BE CONTINUED.]