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

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 252, 8 September 1877, Page 4

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

o [By Mas. Harriet Lewis.] CHAPTER XXVll— coni. u She may have fallen among thieves, said Mr Barker. “She and her servant were brought up in a secluded hamlet of the Black Forest, and are perfectly ignorant of the wickedness in the great world. Some harm must have happened her, or she would have communicated with Lady Trevor, or Mrs Thomas, the lodging-house keeper.” “ I shall return to town by the afternoon train,” said the earl, Ids features stern and resolved, ‘‘and I shall not give over the search for her until she hj found, or this terrible mystery solved. Mr Barker, let me know all that you have done. I shall go over the same ground, but more carefully, and your proceedings may serve as a guide to me ” The lawyer rehearsed the story of his researches in every detail. The old marquis sat silent, digesting the fact of the identity of the young lady who had so won upon him with the supposed adventuress against whom he had warned the carl. Lord St. Leonards, with all his faults of pride and prejudice, was pre-eminently just. His infatuation with Cecil conquered liis ambition in regard to the marriage of his heir to his granddaughter. When Mr Barker had concluded and the carl had ceased his eager questionings, the old lord exclaimed :

“ Gordon, I did Miss Rosso a flagrant injustice iu comlomning her as an adventuress. I take back what I said. Now that I have seen her, I will stake my life upon her purity and nobleness. She is worthy even of yon. What matters her origin ? I will adopt her as my grandchild, if she will consent. Some awful peril besets her. Find her, rescue her, bring her to me, and you shall have my consent to your marriage with her!”

Lady Glcnham rose up, white and excited, her haughty old face full of passionate anger. “ But I,” she cried, u will never consent that my son should marry a girl without name or parentage. I have not seen her, Marquis, but a pretty face would never influence my ideas of right and wrong. The girl is no fitting mate for the representative of a noble house. Let her keep to her needle and her obscurity. If Gordon marries her, he shall do so with his mother’s curse. You may look for her, all of you, but I hope that, you will not find her, I would rather tikat the girl were dead than that she should live to become my son’s wife!”

Lady Trevor’s black eyes gleamed behind the screen ofher handkerchief with a baleful glow. “ The countess will have her wish,” she thought, with malignant glee. “ And I—if I wait patiently—will catch the earl’s heart in the rebound. Patience! Patience shall be my watchword 1 And I shall win the game !”

CHAPTER XX VIII. THE LOVER’S SEARCH. Lord Glcnhara rotured to town, in company with Mr Barker, by the train he had mentioned. Tic began his search for Cecil Rosse that very evening. Accompanied by Mr Barker, he drove from the railway station in a cab directly to Number Four, Queen’s Crescent, and obtained an interview with Mrs Thomas. The worthy landlady was found in a condition of anxiety bordering upon despair. She extolled her lost young lodger in the highest terras, and declared her conviction that she and old Grctchen had been murdered. She had not heard from either since they had left her house on their way to South Amlley-street. She told of all the mysterious disapr pearances of which she had heard in the course of- her existence, and declared her conviction that if Miss Rosso were living she would have written to her, Mrs Thomas. “ The Lord knows,” she sobbed, (C that I never see a truer lady than she. And I loved her, and she knew it She’d a never quit the country without telling me, or giving directions about the box she left with me. To think as I advised her to go to Yorkshire to that lonely house, and as perhaps I’m guilty cf her death, that’s what troubles me!”

With a heavy heart, the young earl proceeded to his hotel, dropping Mr Barker on the way. He found Maldred Grafton awaiting him, and informed him of his day’s proceedings, and of his determination to prosecute his search until Cecil should be found. *

“ And I’ll work with you !” exclaimed Grafton, resolved to share the counsels of the earl and know all his plans, that he might profit by them should occasion arise. “I tried to spare you this trouble, old fellow, but I could not. But I devote my life and energies to this search for Miss Rosse. Heaven grant wo may find her soon !”■ The earl grasped the hand of the traitor in a warm and trusting clasp. * s ‘ Stay with me,” he said. “Wo will work, together, Grafton. May God bless you for your true, unselfish friendship in my hour of need !” The two sat late that night arranging plans of action. The next morning the earl engaged the services of a detective

and set him at work, but he did not give over his own search. He went over the whole ground carefully for himself. He saw and questioned Lady Trevor’s hall-porter, and that person’s story, founded upon a mistake, was repeated with additions and embellishments such as suggested themselves to his mind. Lady Trevor and Mr Pnlford would certainly have been delighted if they had known how well the menial, whom they had wisely refrained from instructing, played into their hands.

The earl next sought out the cabman who had conveyed Miss Rosse and her servant to Lady Trevor’s house. He corroborated Lady Trevor’s story, repeating his own former statements to Grafton and Mr Barker. The second cabman, he who had taken Cecil away from Lady Trevor’s house, had been picked up by chance and could not be discovered. Lord Glcuham caused an advertisement to be inserted in all the daily newspapers, requesting the cabman who had taken a young lady and her servant from a house in South Audley-strect, upon a date which he mentioned, to call at a certain address and learn something to his advantage. “He wrote a second advertisement for the “ agony column ” of the Times, addressed to “ Cecil of Zorlitz,” and begging her to write to “ Gordon,” at the address of her Bayswater landlady, and inform him of her present address. A third advertisement, more widely spread than the others, published in the newspapers and circulated in handbills, which were distributed throughout the entire kingdom, and sent especially to police stations and establishments, offered one hundred pounds reward for information leading to the discovery of Miss Cecil Rosse, or her old German servant, Grotchen. Then followed a circumstantial description of Cecil and her attendant, setting down their height, features, and all the small items of personality that would be likely to attract the attention of strangers.

The earl’s next movement was to proceed to Greyconrt. Grafton wont with him. The detective had preceded them, but they questioned the old housekeeper thoroughly, saw the letter Lady Trevor had written her, bidding her scud to the station to meet Miss Rosse, and even visited the rooms which had been prepared for Miss Rosso and her servant. Grafton went further. He demanded to sec the tapestry which Miss Rosso had been engaged to restore, and was conducted up to the chamber known as the Tapestry Room. , This was a long and large state apartment, like a French salon, the walls hung entirely with a rare and exquisite tapestry, embodying Scriptural designs, embroidered by delicate hands that had centuries since mouldered to dust. Much of the tapestry was still perfect, but there were great patches which moths had riddled or eaten out entirely. A skilful needlewoman would certainly require six months to restore it. “ Of course I didn’t really doubt any portion of Lady Trevor’s story,” said Grafton, when his examination had been completed; “ still I am glad to see it confirmed in every point. It makes our way clearer. Wo now positively know that Miss Rosse was engaged in serious earnest and perfect good faith to execute a most important work, and that Lady Trevor made every arrangement for her reception and stay hero. The fault, clearly, does not lie at Lady Trevor’s door 1 ”

“ You are arguing to satisfy your own doubts, Grafton, not mine. Thank God, I can not suspect my own kinswoman of a horrible treachery or crime. What object could she have had in removing Miss Rosse out of other people’s knowledge. “ Jealousy might have prompted her to do it,” replied Grafton. “ You are blind, Glenham, or you would have seen long ago that the handsome widow adores yon. She inherits from her adventuress mother a reckless, unscrupulous disposition—hear me out! capable—when urged to desperation—of crime!” “ Grafton, I cannot hear you speak so of • Lord St. Leonards’ granddaughter.” “Her innocence is established; I fall exonerate her. Forgive me, Glenham, if 1 run counter to your prejudices now and then. We cannot afford to overlook the faintest clew in a case like this. And now, I suppose, we can carry out your idea of visiting every station on the line ?” “Beginningat Enston Square. We must return to London to* consult with the detective and to see if any answers have been returned to our advertisements.” They returned to town accordingly. The detective had gained no clew ; the advertisements had received no answer. Then began an examination of those stations upon the railway line at which the mail-train stops. The detective learned that upon the day after that on which Cecil had disappeared, a young lady and her foreign servant, supposed to have been a French maid, had alighted at a btation, midway between London and Leeds. This clew was followed up. Weeks were spent in tracing this young lady, whose description corresponded in several details, with that of Miss Rosse, and sho was finally discovered by the indefatigable detective to be the daughter of a wealthy Sheffield cutlery merchant, and not at all like Miss Rosse, except that sho was also fair and slender. ] TO BE CONTINUED. J