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

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 244, 11 August 1877, Page 4

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

o fBv r Mrs. Harriet Lewis.] CHAPTER XXIII. AN UNAVAILING SEARCH. Maldred Grafton, seized with the most serious alarm at the mysterious disappearance of Cecil Rosso and her maid, and filled with excitement, engaged at once in an eager search for them. lie declared that lie should not cat nor sleep until the mystery was solved. He felt instinctively that there had been foul play in regard to them, that Cecil was not hiding herself—that some great harm had happened to her. “ Her beauty has brought some awful peril upon her,” he exclaimed, the sweat starting upon his forehead in great beads. “ She is a stranger in England. Brought up in a secluded forest hamlet, among simple, honest peasants, she is as unsuspicious and trusting as a baby ! And her servant is a credulous old creature, who believes people mean all they say. They would easily have fallen into a trap. She is like a lamb among wolves. Groat Heavens! Have the wolves found her and seized upon her ? Has some one seen her, admired .her, and ensnared her as one would a bird ? But this is madness. In these days, people do not do such things,. Yet where is she ?” His agony was unmistakably real and terrible. He loved Cecil Rosse witli all the strength of his bold, strong, selfish nature. He had schemed and toiled to win her. To lose her now, so strangely and mysteriously, was more than ho could bear. Perhaps she was at that moment in some great trouble—perhaps she was in peril of her life ? Perhaps she was dead ? He grew faint, and sick, and giddy, with the awful supposition, and leaned heavily against the door-post, his swarthy face growing suddenly white. ' “ Won’t you come in, sir ?” asked the old housekeeper, full of concern. “ No. If she is not here, why should I waste time by lingering?” exclaimed Grafton. “ I must go back to London by the first train. I will make inquiries on the route. I will search for her in town. It is two entire weeks since she

disappeared. Two whole weeks ! AVhat may not have happened in that time ?”

He questioned the housekeeper further. She was a simple, honest countrywoman, incapable of guile. It was very clear that she had received a letter from Lady Trevor, bidding her send to the railway station on a certain day to meet Miss ' Eosse, who had been engaged to do certain repairs upon valuable tapestrywork. In fact, on being urged, the old housekeeper produced the letter, and Craftou read it. Nothing could appear more clear and straightforward than the contents of this epistle. The train upon which Miss Eosse might be expected to arrive at the station was specified. Lady Trevor enjoined the housekeeper , to treat Miss Eosse with respect and attention, and to pay particular regard for the girl's comfort. “ And I’m sure I did everything I could do,” said the old woman. “ We’ve no horses here now, sir, and I scut the farmer over with Ids spring-cart, the best carriage at my command. And I prepared a hot supper for her, but sue did not come. I should have written to my lady, only I thought she must know from Miss Eosse herself that Miss Eosse had not come.”

“You had better write to Lady Trevor. She thinks Miss Eosse here. By the way,” added Grafton, with sudden suspicion, “ is there any old tapestry in the house ?”

“ Certainly, sir. The walls of the Tapestry-room arc covered with hangings all done hy hand that are five hundred years old. People often come to see them. Will you go up, sir ?”

“ No, oh, no,” replied Crafton,

ashamed of his suspicion and cpiestion. u Of course not. I merely asked the question through absent-mindedness.” He dropped a coin in her hand, mounted into the waiting fly, and ordered the driver to return to the railway station, seven miles distant.

The drive was performed briskly. Grafton was too excited and anxious to remain silent, and asked questions with feverish rapidity, but no liijlit could be obtained upon the mystery that occupied him.

They entered the little village of Masham and drove directly to the railway station. Here Grafton made eager inquiries of guards, porters, and various other officials. Even under the stimulus of the coins ho liberally bestowed, no one could remember a young lady from London, accompanied by a German servant, at the time Grafton mentioned—nor, indeed, at any other time. Grafton repeated his description of Cecil until lie was weary, but no one had seen her, and he was forced, at last, to believe that she had never even arrived at Masham.

“ She might have made a mistake and alighted at the wrong station,” he said to himself. “ But if she had, how would that account for two weeks’ absence and silence ? I’ll go over the ground carefully and inquire at every station, however.”

He took the first train for London. Tutting his resolve into practice, he

inquired at every station on the route at which the mail-train—the one he believed Cecil to have taken—stopped, but obtained no clew to those whom he sought. Upon arriving in town at a late hour that night, he proceeded to -his hotel, where he tossed for several hours on his bed, sleepless and excited. He arose early, haggard and worn, and after a hasty toilet and breakfast he resumed his search. “ I’ll begin at the other end of the srmirl,” he said to himself. “ I’ll trace her from the moment of leaving Bayswater.” lie drove to Queen’s Crescent, Number Pour. Early as was the hour Mrs Thomas was np, and came without delay into the little parlor into which be had been shown. 11 Mr Grafton !” she exclaimed. u Why, how you do look, sir ! Are yon ill ?” “No, no,”- replied Grafton, impatiently. “ Have you heard from Miss Rosse since I was here ?” “ Why, no, sir. It’s only a day or two since-—” “ I wont to Lady Trevor,” interrupted Grafton, beginning to walk the floor restlessly, “ and she had not heard from Miss Rosse, but supposed her to be in Yorkshire. I went to Yorkshire—” “ Since the day before yesterday ? “ Why, yon have rushed straight through, sir. And how is Miss Rosso, bless her sweet face ? ” “ She is not there ! ” ejaculated Crafton, hoarsely, “ Not there ?” repeated Mrs Thomas, stupidly. “ She has not been there. She has disappeared. She is lost somewhere on her way from Bayswater to Greycourt.” “ Lost ? That innocent young girl! Disappeared ? Why, something’s happened to her, Mr Crafton. Some harm lias come to her ! ” cried Mrs Thomas, wringing her hands. “ Who procured the cab in which she left your house, madam ? ” “ Sukey, the maid, sir. I sent her out to the nearest cab-stand, and she fetched it.” “ I may be able to trace Miss Rosse to the railway station through the cabman,” said Grafton. “ Let Snkey come with me to the stand. If the man is there she can point him out to me, and I’ll question him. If he is not there I will return again and again until I find him.” Mrs Thomas went out into her narrow entry and called loudly for Sukey. The maid came hurrying up the area stairs. To state the service required of her occupied but a moment, and Snkey hurried away for her hat. She returned almost immediately, and Crafton followed her into the street and to the nearest cab-stand.

“ There’s the cabby now, sir,” exclaimed the girl, pointing out a stupid looking man who was in tlic act of removing a nose-bag from the head of his horse. “ The very one, as I’ll swear to, sir, afore the Lord Mayor, if it’s necessary. He took the poor younglady from our house, as he -won’t dare to deny, sir, not to my face,” Crafton approached the man and opened a conversation by producing half-crown which‘he displayed alluringly between bis fingers. “ My good fellow,” ho exclaimed, “ I want you to refresh your memory and answer me a few questions. Do you remember taking a young lady and her servant, about two weeks ago, from Number Four, Queen’s Crescent ? ” “ Don’t you go for to deny it! ” interrupted Sukey, severely, fixing her gaze upon the cabman. “ I’ll swear you did it, and it was I that fetched you. The truth, young man ! ” “ I ain’t going for to deny it! ” declared the cabman, indignantly. “Why should I deny it? You comes for me at the time you specifies and I goes. What of it ? I did take the. voung lady and a rare pretty nn she was too, and her old fnrriu servant along of her. What of that ? ” and he glared at his interlocutors, not softened by the glitter of the half-crown. “ To what place did yon convey the Xonng lady ? ” asked Crafton. “ Yes,” cried Sukey, judicially, “ that’s the question. Where did von take her ? The truth, young man, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth ! ” “ I ain’t going to lie, not for no arfcrown,” said the cabman, sulkily. “ I took the young lady to the place she ordered. There’s where I took her ! ” * l And that place ? ” demanded Crafton. “Be still, my good girl. Y r ou do not need to interfere. Here’s five shillings for yon, my fine fellow. And now teli mo where yon took the young lady. To the railway station?” “ No, sir, to South Audley-street, to a great house there, as belongs to a rich barrownight’s widow, Lady Trevor.” •

“ Oh, yon did ?” said Grafton, dropping half the sum of money into the man’s hand. “ And after South Audley-street, where did you take her?”

“ No’ers. I left her there !” “ Left her there at Lady Trevor’s ?” “ Jes’ so, sir. You see, sir, the young lady asked me to take her to South Audley-street. It was nigh six o’clock, and the horse was tired and hungry. If I’d known as she wanted a lohger turn I’d a give the chance to some other cabby, bein’ as I’d had nothing to eat for four hours, except one or two glasses of beer to stay my stomach. So when the young lady gets

oat in South Audley-street and goes into the house, I waits a bit and then takes down her luggage !” “ Well ?” “Just then a gentleman comes out of the house, a chap with a sandy beard and eye-glasses stuck on his nose—” “Mr Pnlfcrd ! Yes, I know.” “ And lie asks me if I can drive the young lady to the Northern Railway station. And I says as I’m beat and the horse is beat. I allow as I could have been prevailed on to go, for a cabhorse will always stand a few miles more, but the gentleman says * All right,’ says he, and ho pays me up liberal and something extra for beer, and so I goes !” “ And you did not take the young lady away from South Audley-street ?” “ No, I did’nt.” “ And you haven’t seen her since she entered that house ?” f*TO BB CONTINUED. J