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

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 256, 22 September 1877, Page 4

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

o [Bv Mas. Harriet Lewis.] (Ml A PT if R XXX. EAVESDROI’I'INW. There was something so startled ami startling in the manner of old Gretcheu that Miss Rosso was seined with a quick and vivid alarm. She arose immediately, not slopping to question the old woman, and received from her servant’s hands her large cloak, which she gathered about Iter shoulders. “ Follow me, Miss Cecil,” said Gretchen. “Not a word! Be silent as death —but come !” The old woman opened the door and led the way into the ball. They glided along over the stone floor, the cold gusts of wind that traversed the corridors striking a chill to Cecil’s bones. Gretcheu conducted her young mistress down a flight of narrow stone steps through a lower corridor, down another flight of steps, and through a long stone passage in which impenetrable darkness reigned. Cecil clung to her old servant as they sped on together. “ Where arc we going ?” whispered the young mistress at last beginning to recover from the vague terror that had rendered her so quietly obedient to Grotchen’s will. “To the kitchen—the servants’ hall?”

“Hush!” said the old woman, in a warning whisper. “ Here wc are !”

They had arrived before the massive oaken door leading to the kitchen. Gretchon stooped and peeped through the keyhole. Then, arising, she gently pressed her mistress to occupy her place.

“ Look !” she whispered. Cecil involuntarily obeyed. Looking through the immense and ancient keyhole, she beheld the interior of the large, low kitchen, with its great fireplace filled with blazing logs, its dresser laden with dishes and tins, and

a table in the glow of the firelight, upon which was spread a bountiful supper. Around the table were gathered Mr and Mrs Jarvis, and Maria, the Portuguese woman.

The husband and wife were by no means a prepossessing looking pair. The former was a man of middle age, with a square-built heavy frame, with brawny arms disproportionately long, and with a bullet head set upon a short thick neck. He looked rough and coarse and brutal, and his mental and moral charactcristice corresponded with his external

appearance. Mts Jarvis was also middle-aged,

and heavily built. She had more natural refinement than hov husband, and her intellect was also superior to his in strength and keenness, lint morally she was no better than he. The two had sprung from the lowest class of London life, and were familiar with crime. The throe had evidently finished their repast. The Portuguese woman ■was leaning both elbows upon the table, addressing her companions in very good English, she having acquired considerable facility in the nsc of that tongue since her arrival at Black * Lock. Miss Rosso was about to rise and withdraw from the contemplation of tin's .scene, with a sense of vising indignation against Gretchcn for so needlessly alarming her, when her old servant, divining her intention, held her in her place with a determined hand. In the, .same instant Maria’s voice penetrated to the young lady’s ears. “The trouble we’ve so long looked forward to is close at hand,” Maria’s subilant tones were saying. “ You may . . sneer at me if you will, but I repeat—this quiet young lady, with her soft and gentle ways, is likely to be a very troublesome customer. Once let her suspect the truth, and we shall have our ha..ds full !” “ She needn’t suspect the truth for a month yet,” observed Mrs Jarvis. “ One storm will succeed another, the roads will continue impassable, and her gomg can be put off upon excuses as even she will have to accept as reasonable.” “ But she means to signal a boat !” “We must prevent That!” said Mr Jarvis, with a rough oath. “ There it is !” cried Maria. “If you prevent the signal, how are yon going to keep ' from her the fact tiiat she’s a prisoner ?” Cecil started.. What could they mean I “Well,” responded Mrs Jarvis, coolly, “ if she forces us to tell her the truth, let the truth be spoken. As well first as last. Won’t she open her eyes when she finds she ain’t at Greycourt at all, nor in Yorkshire —as she couldn’t have been imposed on only for being a foreigner—and that this ain’t no Lady Trevor’s house.” “ And that her embroidery work has all -been a humbug,” cried Mr Jarvis.

“ And that she has been a prisoner all these months while she thought herself so free,” chimed in Maria. Cecil Posse was appalled. That some stupendous piece of villany was in pro-

gross, and that she was its intended victim, forced itself upon her convictions. She clung to the door-knob, leaning upon it heavily, “ It’s the rmnmi st piece of business 1 ever engaged into,"’ observed Mr Jarvis. “ Here we’ve kept watch all these months over a young woman as never has oven imagined she was our prisoner, and has took her walks along of a keeper—you, Maria—never suspecting your real character ? It is the beateacst thing! Lor’, if that young woman know’ll who we really is, she’d jest faint with horror I Her dehket stummick couldn’t stand the shock 1” “ An’ such a winter as wc’yc had !” exclaimed Mrs Jarvis, discontentedly. “ Snow ami ice and wind till I’m that sick of ’em all I should prefer Botomy Bay. It we had that big sum of money as is promised us, we could go wherever we liked, wc could settle that there business of yours, Jarvis, with the police, and live like Icings —that’s what we could!”

“ Yes, but the big sum of money you speak of,” responded Jarvis, “ only comes under one condition.” “ And that condition is the girl’s death ?’’ said Mrs Jarvis, in a low, suppressed voice, which yet distinctly reached the oars of the listeners. Cecil stood ,as if petrified. There was a deadly meaning in the looks and tones of the three plotters—a horrible earnestness that would not permit her to doubt that they were speaking words of truth. But what was this frightful conspiracy against her ? Did some one seek her liberty, and oven her life ? A cold sweat sprang out upon her face. Her heart seemed to cease its boating. Yet her bearing prctcrnalurally quickened, heard all that followed. “ It I get the sum that’s promised mo/’ said Maria, her greasy dark face full of scheming, “ 1 shall go back to my own conn try and buy a bouse and keep a servant and live like a lady. And I shall make a very good marriage with that dowry. I wish the girl was dead.” “ So do I !” said Mrs Jarvis, sullenly. “ Her life is all that stands between me and what I most desire !” “ I suppose yon know as that life is a small obstacle,” said Mrs Jarvis. “ A very small obstacle indeed. And our employer, lie wants her dead. What’s to binder our facilitatin’ natur, so to speak ?” The three looked at each other with evil significance. Gretcheu clutched her young mistress by the shoulder with an unconsciously fierce grip. “ Well,” said Mrs Jarvis, slowly, “it is the spirit of our employer’s words, if not the letter of ’em, to hurry up her death. We’ve done worse things, Jarvis, nor that.”

“ I am willing,” said Maria, eagerly. “ I want my money. With that for a dowry I can many a man I know and set up a cabaret. I’d buy the house, and be mistress of it. I’ve got it all planned, and to be kept here by a slender girl—a mere baby in strength—ban ! 1 won’t stand it, if yon do !” “We ain’t so exactly anxious to fool away time here neither,” said Jarvis. “ Why, the gal may live years if left to herself. Them slender uns is the very setatch for hanging on to life sometimes. And she’s a strong-willed mi, as brave as a lion, I’ve seen it in her eyes.” “ After yon’e taken a glass too much,” said his wife, with a sneer. “We are all agreed as we couldn’t stand another winter here ?” 11 Wo are ?” salt! the other, in a breath. “ And we’re agreed as we’d like our money immediate ?” “ Wc are !”

“ Then,” said Mrs Jarvis, “ how are we going to get it ? How shall we get rid of the girl ? How shall we compass her death ?” Grctchen leaned more heavily upon her young mistress, breathing hard. “ Hush !” muttered Maria. “ What’s that noise ?” They all listened. A silence like that of death reigned. “ It must have been a rat,” said Jarvis. “ There’s awful rats in this house, big enough to eat tip a cat. I wish my hounds outside was ratters ; then you’d see sport.” “ Miss Rosse is safe in her room, eating her venison-steak,” said Mrs Jarvis, “ and planning her signals, or packing her trunk. Lor’, to think a human being in this here nineteenth century can be so unsuspicious-like, and honest and babylike as she is, is wonderful. She was brought up among peasants in a black forest somewheres, and that German creetur is as stupid as a cow. Don’t know beans !” “ But we’ll have to get rid of her along with her missus,” said Jarvis. “ Old Gretchon is a cow as I shouldn’t wish to leave alive to tell talcs on us.”

“ And how’s the thing to he done ?” questioned Maria,. “ Poison ” “ Or pushing oyer the - cliff ?” suggested Mrs Jarvis. ‘ That would be an excellent plan.” “ Or smothering with a bolster,” said Jarvis, 11 like a man I see onst to a theatre. He was jealous and smothered his wife—” “ You mean Lothario,” interrupted Mrs Jarvis. “ The deed had better be done quiet. I know a poison weed to stew up with their coffee. We can talk the thing over at our leisure now we’ve decided to kill them. We can’t get

away from this place safely under a month. I don’t want to stay under this roof one night after their deaths, for fear they’d han’t us. Such things is, they say, and I won’t risk it !” I TO UE CONTINUED, J