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

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 223, 30 May 1877, Page 4

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

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CHAPTER IX. ( Continued .)

“I know.w You desired to marry Lord Glenham ?”

“ A marriage with Lord Glenham would bo more suitable for me,” acknowledged Lady Trevor, composedly. “He has rank, wealth, position to match my own, whereas every one would wonder if I wore to marry you. My grandfather, who is becoming reconciled to me after our long estrangement, especially desires mo to marry his heir. Now, I will make terms with you to secure my continued freedom. 1 will pay you an annuity of five thousand pounds —” Mr Pnlford snapped his fingers. “ 1 will give you a tine estate —” “ I want everything, not a portion,” interrupted Mr Pul ford, frankly, “1 want you, Lady Trevor, for my wife, I want all your wealth in present and in Hie future. You understand ? 1 w ill make no terms whatever. I demand your unconditional surrender. Lady Trevor set her teeth together firmly, so that her lips were compressed and bloodless.

“ X gave you credit for more sense Ilian yon arc now displaying,” said Mr Pulford. “ You do not seem to realize how completely you are in my power. Do you need to bo reminded that I hold a secret of yours the revelation of which will send you to a felon’s cell ? ’ “ Hush ! Don’t speak so loud.” “ Shall I rehearse to you the particulars of a crime committed by you fourteen years ago ?” continued Mr Pulford, grimly. “ Refuse mo, madam, ami instead ofallowing you to become the bride of Lord Glenham, I’ll send you to Newgate to stand your trial for a terrible crime. I’ll strip, you of your honour, of your great wealth you schemed to gain—” “ Hush !” interrupted Lady Trevor, looking nervously over her shoulder t >wavds the door. “ Why blame mo for the crime Sir Albert planned—” “ And which you helped him execute. I’ll prove you an unnatural sister, a monster of hypocrisy, deceit ami wickedness; and justice will be meted out to you. la place of your dainty silken garb, you’ll wear the prison uniform. In place of your spacious chambers and soft bed and skilled atattemlance, you’ll have a narrow cull, hard toil, ignominy—” “Oh, stop, stop! You need no longer threaten me—” “ You consent to marry-me ?” “ Since I am forced to do so.’’

Perhaps it was as well for Mr Pul ford’s peace of mind that he could not see the baleful gleam in Lady Trevor’s eyes, at that moment shaded by her hand, or the terrible expression that writhed about her mouth.

“ We are betrothed, then, Edith ?” lie exclaimed, in a tone of satisfaction. “ Yon will exchange the name of Lady Trevor for that of .Lady Edith Pnlford—when ?”

“ 1 have given up rny ambitions and my love because I dare not do otherwise,” said Lady Trevor, in a hard voice. “ But I surrender to yon, making one single condition. The engagement must be kept a profound secret between you and me so long as wo remain in Scotland, and for a fortnight after our return to England.” “ You make conditions ? Suppose I refuse ?”

“ Then I’ll dare you to do your worst. And if I am put in a felon’s clock, I’ll denounce you as my accomplice; I’ll swear that you and Sir Albert forced me to commit the crime. I was but the weak instrument of your will and his.”

Mr Pnlford started back, his face changing. He had set his heart upon an immediate announcement of his betrothal to Lady Trevor, and her unlooked-for acuteness had placed an obstacle in his path. “By Jove !” ‘ho exclaimed. “ You are sharper than I gave you credit for. Why do you make this condition ?” “On account of my grandfather. Lord St. Leonards cast me off because of my first marriage, and has never, seen me since until now. He is intensely proud, and wore he to learn of my engagement to marry yon he would again disown me, and the fortune I hope to inherit from him he would leave elsewhere.”

“ But how can six weeks’ delay reconcile him to our marriage?” asked Mr Pnlford, suspiciously. “ I shall try to keep him here a week, and shall exert myself to win his love and confidence. When I return to England, I expect to go to St. Leonards, his own homo. Two weeks there, in constant companionship with him, will complete the task I begin here. He will like me, grow to depend upon me, and will consent to our marriage !” Mr Pnlford regarded Lady Trevor with doubt and suspicion, but her eyes met his frandly, and she looked honest and sincere.

“ The extra fortune is worth trying for,” he remarked, thoughtfully. “ Six weeks’ delay can make but little difference. I will wait.”

“'Thank yon. In the meantime, yon are not to betray the secret of our engagement to a living soul.” “ I promise.”

“ And you arc not to criticise my actions. I desire to make the most of my last days of freedom. I shall receive Lord Glenham here ; I shall do as I please in every respect.” “ I consent. Make the most of your six weeks of freedom, for punctually to the day 1 shall announce our engagement. And within a month thereafter yon will become my wife.”

Lady Trevor arose. “ There is nothing more to say, I believe,” she remarked. “We drop the, subiect here—to renew it six weeks hence ! ”

Mr Pnlford approached nearer to her and suddenly bent and kissed her. She drew away haughtily, but commanded herself by a groat effort, and concealed much of her auger and repulsion. “ Good-night, Edith,” said her suitor, “ You will do well to reconcile yourself to the inevitable. lam not a patient man, and I shall vecpiire my wile to treat me with respect and at least a semblance of affection.”

He kissed her again in a triumphant fashion and then withdrew.

Lady Trevor drew out her pockethandkerchief and rubbed her cheeks fiercely. “ How dare he ? ” she muttered. “ I hate him. Rather than marry him Pd kill myself. I’ve six weeks of grace. What may not happen in six weeks ? ” She paced the drawing-room with hurried tread, her eyes gleaming, her breathing short and quick. “ Six weeks ! ” she repeated, in a low whisper. “In six weeks 1 shall be free from him for ever. For in six weeks, Horace Pnlford will be dead ! ”

CHAPTER X. GKTT IN O T O WO R K

It was a rainy evening in London. The street-lamps glimmered with sickly light through the gloom. The houseless poor huddled in doorways and under arches. Business men pressed rapidly through the streets, under shelter of their umbrellas. Cabs rattled busily over the pavements, scarcely one to be seen unoccupied. A few shops remained open, but no customers were to be seen before the counters. London was at its dreariest, seeming a great, desolate wilderness, without comfort or cheer within its wide boundaries.

It was on tins night, in the wet and gloom, that Cecil Rosso and her old servant Grotchon, arrived at Charing Cross station to begin their life in England.

Grotchon had learned a few words of English, but found herself helpless in emergency. As the pair stepped out upon the lighted platform, it was Cecil who took the lead, She was as ignorant of the world as her peasant-companion, but her quick wit, superior intelligence, and quiet observations had already acquainted her with the proper mode of procedure. She had bought on the journey a Bradshaw’s Guide, and had studied it attentively. As she now passed with Gretchen, a little dazed by the lights and confusion, her eyes rested on the long line of fast-tilling cabs. She signaled a “ four-wheeler,” and approached it. Her luggage was secured and piled on top, and Cecil and Gretchen entered the vehicle.

“ What hotel ?” asked Hie driver. Cecil named a hotel which she had selected from the advertisements, and the cab whirled oat of the station into the wet and dreary streets. As Gretchen and her young mistress looked out of the windows, both experienced a sensation of bome-sickness. “ I hope we have not done foolishly in leaving dear old Zorlitz,” sighed the old German woman. “ How desolate and strange it looks ! If we were ill here, who would care for us ? Yet if we were ill there, every villager would wait upon us and nurse us back to health.” “ If you are ill I will take care of you, Gretchen,” responded Cecil, with forced cheerfulness. “It docs look cheerless, i own, but this is England, my native laud, and I ought not to feel as if I wore a foreigner. We shall soon be settled and feci at home here, and living in Loudon will be a grand experience for us. Think of the good villagers who have never quitted Zorlitz in all their lives ! How they will stare at you next year when we go back ! ” This view of the case brightened old Gretchen, who settled herself comfortably in her seat and began to anticipate the glories of her return to Zorlitz as a travelled person—one who had seen the world.

The cab drew up before a little private hotel in a quiet and respectable street. The cabman pulled the bell, and Cecil and her servant alighted. A housemaid, in white cap and apron, opened the door to them, and led the way upstairs to a small parlor. Then she summoned the proprietress of the house, a portly woman in black silk, who rustled in and who “took stock” of her guests with a pair of very keen eyes. It was impossible, however, to see in Cecil anything but a lady, young, very beautiful, very innocent, and ia Gretchen anything but the honest, stolid, German peasant woman. The landlady signified that she had suitable accommodation for them, and sent a porter to discharge the cabman and bring up the boxes. Cecil was presently conducted to a small upper room, with a high, four-post bedstead and old-fashioned furniture. A largo, light closet, with a single bed, adjoined, and was intended for Grctchcn’s accommodation. The chcerlcssncss of the rooms was something oppressive. Cecil rang the bell and ordered tea and toast to be sent

up; afid over the tray the young mistress and her servant chatted * the former resolutely cheerful, and Hie latter trying to throw off the gloom that had settled upon her. “ We will find lodgings to-morrow,” said Cecil. “That’s the proper thing to do in. England, Grelchen. It is cheap, too, and we can keep house after a fashion, and you shall make our tea and toast, and we will have a little home for ourselves and bo happy.” “ And if we get tired of Loudon we can go back to Zorlltz. We have got plenty of money, Miss Cecil. We need not work unless we choose. I have the money the Herr Pastor left me all sewed in my stays. Still,” added the old woman, prudently, “ I’d like to keep that as a provision for my old age—” “ Then we must work. It will he better for us both to work. I shall turn my accomplishments to use, Grcthou, but wo will not be separated.” fro BK CONTINUED.]