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

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 246, 18 August 1877, Page 4

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

o [By Mrs. llarrikt Lewis.] CHAPTER XXIV. AT ST. I.EOXARUS. St. Leonards, In Sussex, was a inagni" ficent estate, comprising a thousand acres, laid out in farms, all in the highest state of tillage, in pastures and meadows, park and woodland. The house was a great, massive, gray stone pile, ot composite stylo of architecture, forming a princely dwelling. It was approached by a wide and stately avenue a mile or more in length, bordered with great rows of elm trees, and was set in the midst of the park, with its stretches of velvet sward, its clumps of trees, its red and fallow deer, and its ornamental lake in full view of the drawing-room windows—as fair a landscape as ever greeted human eyes. Lord St. Leonards had come down to his country-place immediately after his interview with Lady Trevor at her town-house, which wo have recorded. He had visited his lawyer according to his declared intention, and had enjoined him to make arrangements with the parents of Miss Rosso for the young lady’s legal adoption by his lordship, the marquis entertaining no doubt of Cecil’s own consent. Ho informed Iris lawyer that Lady Trevor would find for him the young lady’s address during the following week, when it would be forwarded to Mr Barker. Upon the very evening succeeding that interview, the marquis experienced the pangs of the return of his old enemy, the gout.

A physician was called in and counselled his lordship’s return to his country house, and absolute rest and freedom from all excitement. Lord St. Leonards, chafing at his forced departure at a time when he especially desired to remain in town, journeyed down to St. Leonards and nursed his afflicted foot and growled at his long-suffering and devoted valet. A week had passed, but no letter came from Lady Trevor. Lord St. Leonards telegraphed to her to send him Miss Rosse’s address. She responded that she had not seen the young lady since his visit, and could not give it. The marquis, in a fury, telegraphed his lawyer to see Lady Trevor and learn where she had first met Miss Rosse, Mr Barker called upon the widow and made the necessary inquiries. She informed him that a friend of hors, now in Italy, had recommended the young woman to her. “ I never knew the young girl’s address,” she declared. “ Bhe used to come to me always for work. I never sent for her.” “ But did you give out valuable work to a person whoso address you did not know, Lady Trevor ?” asked the lawyer, gravely. “It don’t look business-like, I confess,” said the baronet’s widow. “ I always was a thoughtless creature, and my friend’s recommendation deprived me of all sense of caution.” “You know the marquis,” said M r Barker. “ When he sets his heart on haying anything, he’ll move heaven and earth, if possible to obtain it. He has taken a fancy to this young girl, a remarkable fancy, and I am not sure but that, in his lonely old age, this craving of nature for filial care and,affection is a demand that ought to be gratified, even at cost to yourself, Lady Trevor. In any case, whether others are pleased or displeased, lie will have his own will. Now, if you will give mo your friend’s address in Italy* I will telegraph to her for Miss Rosse’s address.”

“ I have not my friend’s address,” said the widow, desperately. “ Toll mo your friend’s name, and I’ll find where she is, my lady.” “My friend’s name ?” stammered Lady Trevor. “ Why, how can I remember who recommends to me my shop-keepers and sewing-women ? I don’t remember. And let me tell yon, sir, that I don’t approve my grandfather’s project of adopting a low-born yonng woman into the place I should hold—”

“ The place you forfeited, Lady Trevor, •when you married against his lordship’s will”

“He has forgiven me. Cease your insolence, Mr Barker. How dare you remind me of the past when he has forgiven it ? I will not hold any further communication with yon concerning Miss Eossc. If she has not stolen my goods and fled the country — if she should ever present herself again at my house—l will procure her address and send it to my grandfather, as I promised. Till then, I desire not to he troubled about her.”

Mr Barker took good care not to call upon Lady Trevor again. But he consulted a directory, and despatched some of his clerks to search out every man named Eoss in the district of Southwark, whether shoemaker or other artisan, and made every effort to find the supposed family of Cecil. A week passed in this vain search, and then the lawyer journeyed down to St. Leonards with his report. The marqnis was seated in his grand library, before a glowing hearth, and

near a wide oriel window overlooking the park. One leg was upon a foot-rest, swathed in bandages, lie was in a bad humour. His frosty blue eyes were colder and sterner than ever, and emitted a scintillant light. His mouth was compressed firmly under h's bushy, white moustache. A little table at his elbow was covered with writing materials. He had just written a telegraphic despatch to his grand-daughter, Lady Trevor, to come to him by the first train. “ I’ve telegraphed her two or three times already,” ho muttered, “ and I’ll keep it up until she’s here. Why don’t Barker come ? ” Ho rung his little silver eall-boll fiercely. His valet appeared. “ Let that message be sent immediately !” he commanded, “Do you hear, you blockhead ? Why do you stand there like an idiot?” “ If you please, my lord, Mr Barker’s come.” “ Show him in then, dolt! Was here ever such a fool ? Off with you—” The valet disappeared, and the next moment the lawyer entered. “ Hero I am, tied clown with this infernal gout,” exclaimed the marquis. And the doctor says I arn not to be excited. How the Lord am I to help it? I’ve been expecting yon these three days. Have you found Miss Rosse ? ” “ No, my lord. I’ve looked after every Rosse in Southwark, and have not found the right one. - ’ “ You haven’t a decent clerk in your office ! ” cried the marquis, testily. “ Xot found her ? Do you suppose I am going to stand this cursed inefficiency of your apprentices ? Have you seen Lady Trcvoi ? ” “ Not since the interview, of which I wrote you. But I believe that her ladyship has Miss Rosso’s address, and refuses to give it through fear of being supplanted in your favor by her.” Supplanted in my favor— Lady Trevor never was in my favor. But she is deceitful enough to play mo such a trick.” The valet re-appeared, with an envelope on a salver. “ A telegram, my lord ! ” he said.

The marquis tore open the envelope. “ It is from Lady Trevor !” he, ejaculated, as his servant retired. “ She is on her way. Will bo here in an hour !’’ “ Thou, my lord, you can question her for yourself. She may answer you when she would not deign to speak to mo,” said Mr Barker. “ But before she comes I have something of importance to say to yon. I had scarcely begun my story. My clerks failed to find Miss Bosse’s father, so I sent one of them, Brown—a smart fellow is Brown —to see what he could discover through Lady Trevor’s hall-porter, the very man who would be likely to know Miss Rosse’s address, if any servant of Lady Trevor’s knew it.” “ And Brown discovered—” “ That Miss Rosse had been employed by a Madame Lange, of Regentstreet, a dealer in fancy-work, embroideries, and ful-dc-rols of that sort. The hall-porter said Madame Lange had recommended Miss Rosse to Lady Trevor. The information cost Brown a pretty penny, which of course I repaid him.” “ And then ? ”

“ Then Brown went to Madame Lange, and found that—but here comes in a mystery. He learned that Miss Rosse lives at Bays water, but that she had left her lodgings to work for Lady Trevor, and that she was gone to Greycourt in Yorkshire.”

“ And Edith played false all this while to mo ! She sent Miss Rosse to Yorkshire to get her out of my way, did she ?”

“ I telegraphed to Miss Rosse at Grcycourt, but received no answer. Then I repeated the message ; still no answer. Then I telegraphed to a person of whom I know at Masham and requested him to go to Greycourt and see Miss Rosse for me. His answer came yesterday. Miss Rosse has not been at Greycourt.” “ Then where is she ?”

“ I have learned her address in Bayswatcr, and I went there. The landlady told me that Miss Rosse went away over a fortnight ago and she has not seen her since.”

“ Her lodgings—Bayswater ! Then Edith has lied from the beginning ? There was no shoemaker-father in Southwark, there are no brothers and sisters—Edith has deceived me throughout.” “ Precisely, my lord.”

“ She was afraid I’d leave my money to a stranger, I sec through her,” declared Lord St. Leonards, grimly. “ But who could think that one of my blood could lie like that? A false, deceitful woman like her mother. We will confront her with these falsehoods of hers, and she shall tell us where Miss Rosse is.”

“ Perhaps she cannot do that, my Lord. I find that Miss Eosse went to Lady Trevor’s house on the day she quitted her lodgings, but she left Lady Trevor’s house with her servant for Greycourt. She must have been lost on her way. She has not been long in England. She is of foreign birth and education. I cannot think that Lady Trevor is connected with Miss Eosse’s disappearance.” 1 TO BE CONTINUED.]