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

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 247, 22 August 1877, Page 4

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

[By Mas. Harriot Lkwis.] CHAPTER XXlV.— Contd. AT BT. LEONARDS. “ But I do think so,” declared Lord ‘St. Leonards, in the resolute tones cf : a perfect conviction. “ She has sent the young lady somewhere else than to Greycourt, or she has frightened her out of the way. I must and will know the truth. Edith may have induced Miss Rosse' to quit England. She may have procured her a situation as governess 'to get her out of my reach.” : “ I think your solution of the difficulty not the right one, my lord. Pray do not let prejudice cause you to accuse Lady Trevor of acts she probably could not have committed. It is clear, from the statement of the hall-porter to Mr Brown, that Miss Rosso left South Audley-street for Euston Square to take the train for Yorkshire. That much is proved.” j “ And Edith meant to hide Miss Rosse up there from - my pursuit. Barker, let no expense be spared. This young girl must be found. Lost for two whole weeks ! Great Heaven, what can have become of her ?” “ Her servant is with her and has shared her fate,” said the lawyer. “ They may have gone abroad to their former home. I shall send Brown to investigate that possibility—” The door opened again, and the valet appeared. “ Lady Trevor has arrived, my lord !” he announced. “ Show her in here !” commanded the marquis. “ Now for light, Barker ! Be searching in your cross-examina-tion !”

CHAPTER XXV. AN UNEXPECTED ORDEAL, [Lady Trevor had received the repeated summonses of the old marquis but had not dared to obey them until after the return to town of her confederate in crime. IJpt when she had scon Mr Pulford, and heard from his own lips that she had nothing more to fear in regard to Cecil Rosse, all her terrors . and anxieties gave place to a delicious • sense of security, and she set out \ -upon her visit to St. Leonards in high ■'Spirits. Throughout the journey she oci icupied herself with delightful visions. v 'She had conceived the idea that the .-stern old lord was about to make a will • devising to her all his transferable property, and that more than this, he had invited her to his house to meet Lord Glenham, with a view to bring about n marriage between his granddaughter and the heir to his title and estates. “ I will do my share towards carrying out his plans,” she thought. “ I shall soon free myself from Pulford’s claims, and then I can marry the earl. I wonder if old Barker is at St* Leonards ready to draw up the new will ?” Upon alighting from the carriage and entering the grand hall of the mansion, she was met by the lady-housekeeper, with whom she was engaged for a moment while the Marquis’s valet, who wao in waiting for the arrival, hastened to inform his master. He returned immediately, requesting Lady Trevor to join the marquis in the libra*7- .. ...

“ Very well,” said the visitor, composedly. “ Say to Lord St. Leonards that I will come to him as soon as I shall have become a little refreshed and rested. Mrs Melville, be kind enough to conduct me to my room I” The house-keeper led the way up the state staircase to the wide upper hall and to a luxurious suite of rooms opening therefrom. “ My old rooms !” said Lady Trevor, “ How long it is since I occupied them ! I shall not be at St. Leonards a great deal hereafter, Mrs Melville. By the way, is grandpapa’s lawyer, Mr Barker, at St. Leonards ?” “ Yes, he is in the library with the marquis at this moment, your ladyship,” replied Mrs Melville. Lady Trevor’s eyes brightened. “ I supposed so,” she commented. “ Cerise, dress me at once. Mrs Melville, be good enough to send me up a cup of tea, and have my boxes brought V U P*” ■ Lady Trevor’s orders were promptly obeyed. The visitor drank her tea, and made an elegant toilette. The bloom and beauty of her brunette complexion were renewed. Her black hair was arranged in fresh 'puffs and braids and curls. Then, confident of her personal charms, and unsuspicious of the ordeal in store for her, her handsome face wreathed with smiles, she descended to .the library. , ,j The marquis and his lawyer were still in consultation when she swept in. ■ Mr Barker arose respectfully, greeting her with a low bow. The marqnis, who was irritated at Her long delay, regarded her with a pair of stormy eyes, and his sterh old month wore a grim and sarcastic smile.

“ You must excuse my rising, Edith,’ he said, with a glance at his swathed and bandaged leg. “So you’ve come—at last ?” Lady Trevor rushed towards the old marquis with a little cry of ecstacy. “At last! dear grandpapa,” she exclaimed, embracing him, much to his distaste. “ I received your letters and telegrams, but I couldn’t come before. I have been very ill, in bed, you know, but I have hastened to you as soon as my physician would allow me.”

“ Humph!” muttered Lord St. Leonards, who did not believe a word she said—he know her too well for that. “ So you’ve been ill ?” “ Very ill,” responded Lady Trevor, plaintively ; “ but I am better now, ani.l I have flown to you, dear grandpapa, on the wings of love. To think of your being ill, and I, your only loving descendant, not with you, lam so glad to see you again.” ! “ Humph !” muttered the old marquis again. “ How naturally everything looks,” said Lady Trevor, looking around her Critically. “ Nothing is changed since I lived here, grandpapa. I have my dear old rooms again, with the same furniture, and everything just as I left it fifteen or sixteen years ago. Nothing is changed except, you and me, grandpapa. I am more thoughtful than I was in those old days. I have suffered so much. And you do not seem a day older than you did then,” “ I suppose I look as if I intended to live forever,” said the old lord,’ dryly. “ I only wish you could, grandpapa. Ah I Mr Barker, how do you do ? Your lawyer hero, my lord? I hope you are not troubled about your illness—that you are not making your will, or anything like that ?” “Well, no, I am not,” said Lord St, Leonards, comprehending-that she had expected to assist at the ceremony of making his will. “ I expect to live many years yet, I come of a longlived family, as you may remember. Bit down, Edith. Barker, please push Lady Trevor’s chair near to mine.” The widow’s face was all aglow with satisfaction as she sank into the proffered chair. “Dear grandpapa,” she exclaimed, “how good of you to forgive my waywardness and disobedience at last. I have so longed for your pardon. And now, to crown your late kindness in visiting me at Castle Cliff, with this invitation to your home, this complete reconciliation, is a goodness that goes to my very soul, I am penitent enough for the past, I assure you. I repented my marriage with Sir Albert Trevor before I bad been his wife a year. Shall everything be now between us as if there had never been a quarrel ?” she asked, in her most honeyed tones. “ May I not be the comfort of your declining, years, dear grandpapa ?” Lord St. Leonards could not repress a look of disgust.” “We will dispense with sentiment, if you please Edith,” he remarked. “ I have not sent for you with a view to any romantic reconciliation. If affairs turn out in the future to my satisfaction, I shall be pleased to be on friendly terras with you, bat for the present I am content to leave our relations as they arc.” “As they are ? They are certainly very pleasant. I could ask nothing better,” said Lady Trevor, determined to see in her summons to St. Leonards a mark of the old lord’s renewed favor. “ To be again an inmate of your home, dear grandpapa, forgiven by you for my past waywardness, more than contents me. When you know me better, I am sure that you will give me the love I crave from you, aiid which I deserve.”

“Humph!” again said the old lord, grimly. “ I don’t care to discuss our personal relations* Edith. I sent for you to come to me because. I was unable to come to you. I want to ask you a few questions.” Lady Trevor glanced significantly at the lawyer. “Oh, wo can speak out before Mr Barker,” said the marquis, quickly. “ In fact, his presence is necessary.” “Necessary?” „ Edith,” said Lord St, Leonards, abruptly, “ where is Miss Eosse ? ” Lacy Trevor started. In spite of her efforts at self-control she trembled and was frightened. Her face blanched, and a scared look came into her hard black eyes. “ Miss Eosse ? ” she ejaculated. “ Why do you ask me that question ? Am I Miss Eosse’s keeper ? ” “ Did not Cain return to his Maker an answer similar to that after he had killed his brother ? ” asked the marquis, sternly. * Lady Trevor put one shaking hand to her face, which had suddenly, in spite of the cosmetics that overlaid its surface, grown white and horrified, with a look upon it which, if he could have seen it, Mr Barker , could not have interpreted otherwise than as one of conscious guilt. In truth, the question and the marquis’s accusing tone, struck terror to the woman’s soul. She was unable to answer, and sat as if paralyzed. There was a brief silence, which was broken by the impatient marquis. I To‘ BE CONTINUED. J