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

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 263, 17 October 1877, Page 4

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

[By Mrs. Hariukl' Lewis.] CHAPTER XXXV. A DESPERATE MOVEMENT. The effect of Mr Pul ford’s bland and easy declaration of his bethothal to Lady Trevor, immediately alter the widow’s indignant dcni.il and protestations to the contrary, had perhaps, scarcely the effect he expected. Lady Trevor went into violent hysterics. Lord St. Leonard’s, after one moment’s incredulous stare, flew into a rage, denouncing his granddanghter ami Mr Pulford together, declaring that lie would not countenance any such marriage on the part of Lady Trevor, and that if she persisted in her engagement, he, the marquis, would never see her again. When the furious old lord paused in his denunciations and threatenings to take, breath, his angry, eyes turning from one to the other of the betrothed pair in a gaEu that might have scorched ami withered persons less hardened than those whom he addressed, Lady Trevor’s hysteric demonstrations increased to such an extent as to indicate uii luicr loss of self-control. But Mr Pulford stood calm and unmoved, his face as impassive as a sphinx. “ You do not approve of the marriage, then, my lord ?” ho said, very quietly, ‘taking advantage of the marquis’ 1 stale of breathlessness. “ Approve ?” cried the old lord, finding breath again with unexpected c 1 rty, fairly snorting in his wrath at Pul lords audacity. “Approve? If Lady Trevor marries you, sir, I shall disown her! Not one penny of my properly shall she ever see ! Approve? Humph !” Words were all too cold and meaningless to express his lordship’s rage. His frosty old eyes glared. His moustached lips parted above his bristling teeth, and his breath came in snorting gasps. H’g lion-like temper was aroused. Ho considered the projected alliance as a disgrace to Ids name and house. He was enraged at Lady Trevor’s lying and deceit, All his slumbering hatred of her,]all his suspicions of her, which in spite of his efforts, he could never really lull to sleep, conspired to inflame his passionate fury to the highest pitch. “ Calm yourself, my lord,” said Mr Pulford, cooly. “ Really you will throw yourself into an apoplexy if yon give way to such unreasoning anger. Possibly yon forgot that I am a gentleman of birth and education—” “ 1 do not care for your birth and education I” cried the marquis. “It is enough forme that you were the bosom friend of Sir Albert Trevor, one cf the worst scoundrels of his clay. You aided him and abetted him in his dissolute practices, although your cooler blood and lessor fortune did not permit you to share in them. Yon constituted yourself chief adviser and business agent to his widow, and now you tellme that she has agreed to marry you. A few minutes before she declared herself incapable of falsehood, and solemnly assured me that she was not engaged to marry you. It strikes me that, morally, you are well worthy of each other. If this marriage takes place, I beg to decline the honor of your wife’s acquaintance, sir. Lady Trevor, if you have any further explanations to make to me, you can make them by letter!” The marquis took up his hat and moved towards the door. The widow, half frantic at the turn afl’ahs had taken, made a gesture to the marquis to remain, while she looked imploringly at her hated suitor.

“ Leave the room, Pulforcl !” she said, beseechingly, in a homed undertone. “ You will ruin everything. Leave grandpapa to me !” Mr Pnlford smiled sardonically, but made no movement to obey, “ One moment, my lord,” he said, suavely, detaining the marquis at the very door. “ Edith, my darling, can you not plead with grandpapa to forgive us and look kindly upon us. Tell him how you love me, dearest—” Lady Trevor uttered a faint scream, covered her ears with her hands, and thrust her head into the depths of the sofa-pillow. Lord St. Leonards, with a wild short rage too deep for words, abruptly quitted the room and the house, violently slamming the doors behind him.

Mr Pulford again smiled and began walking the floor with his hands in his pockets,.whistling a tune. The widow indulged in a renewed burst of hysterics. When her emotion had spent its force, she struggled to a sitting position, angry and sullen, with inflamed visage, and hard black eyes glittering with evil passions, as unlovely an object, perhaps, as a lover’s ever rested upon.

Mr Pulford, however, delighted in his power over her. He stopped short before her, exclaiming: “ If yon are ready to be reasonable at last, dear Edith, I should like from you some sort of explanation of this very singular scene !” Lady Trevor angrily heather slippered foot upon the carpet. “ 1 bog to know,” continued Mr Pnlford, still blandly, but with an authorative

,ii c that indicated his intention to be muster, “why you denied to Lord St. Leonards our engagement of marriage.” “ Because,” cried Lady Trevor, finding voice at last, “ because you and I agreed that our engagement should be secret. You have seen the effect of your announcement upon him. He will never leave me a penny.” “ Your chances of inheriting any of his property had grown exctedingly slim, my dear Edith. He has avowed his int ution of finding Miss Ross and making her his heir.” “ But he can’t find her. Aild, not finding her, he might leave his unentailed property to me. I have counted upon inheriting it, now that she is out of the way !” cried the widow. “ His unentailed property is worth five thousand a year —an income worth scheming for,” remarked Mr Pulford, leisurely. “ Under ordinary circumstances, I should be willing to sacrifice my own personal feelings to obtain it. But yon have a fortune to which that is a more bagatelle, so to speak, and I do not choose to sacrifice greater advantages to obtain the lesser. His favour and friendship would be worth more to us than his money. Pie is a great statesman, a power in the land, a favorite with the queen, a counsellor to her majesty ; in fact, one of the noblest and mightiest peers of Great Britain. His nod can open to me the best houses in Englanclj as his frown can close them to me. lam ambitions of becoming a man of society, of joining fashionable clubs, and of obtaining a title. All these things his favor would render easy to me—” “ Then why did yon declare onr engagement to him ? Why did you provoke his anger and make such a scene ?” “ Because I am tired of waiting in vain—because he would never look favorably upon your marriage to me. The advantages his favor would bring could never be mine - because his favour is unattainable, I am letting the substance slip from my grasp while I chase after shadows. We have been engaged to each other about eight months. It was last September at Castle Cliff when I proposed to you, and you promised to marry me in a month’s time, and here it is May, and we are not married yet.” “ We have waited on account of the Marqnis—” “Wc will wait no longer, then. He is mortally offended, but I can live without his favor, as you and Sir Albert Trevor lived so many years.” “We waited also on account of that girl,” said Lady Trevor, in a lower tone. “ 1 would not marry while I had anything to fear from her.” “ Yon have nothing whatever' to fear from her now. If she isn’t dead she soon will be. I think you lack your usual wisdom in deferring onr marriage for any such cause, Edith. If I become your husband, it is to my interest to guard your interest and fortune from any marauder, is it not? We will not argue. You have put off our marriage upon excuses that appear to me unsound. I shall not listen to them longer. Our engagement shall no longer remain secret.” “ Mr Pulford—” “ The marriage takes place within a month ! By Heaven, madam, do you think 1 will submit to be cheated much longer out of my share in your wealth ? I have submitted to your whims this past winter, and have allowed our marriage to be put off indefinitely. You have visited country-houses, have flirted with marriageable men, have schemed to win Lord Glenham—l’ve seen it all ! —while I have come and gone as your business-agent, tolerated in good society because I am a gentleman and your friend, but only tolerated I Now we shall change all that. I intend to be master in this house, where now I am a guest. I intend to enter society as your husband; I intend to spend my shave of your fortune ; to drive and ride with you in the park; to be received as the equal of your lordly friends 5 to sit at the foot of your table as the master and dispense its hospitalities; to order your servants; to 101 lin your drawing-room,; to live the life of a gentleman of leisuie ! The day for your excuses and postponements is over 1 We will be married on the first Wednesday in June !”

He delivered his ultimatum as if it had been a decree of fate. Lady Trevor’s face grew livid. She had liked Pulford well enough as a servant; as her betrothed husband she loathed, detested and hated him. She was ambitions: the prospect of a marriage with him galled and humiliated her. She secretly loved Lord Glenham with all the fervour of her nature. She had by no means given up hope of winning the earl. Cecil Rosie forever removed from his path why should not Lord Glenham consider Us mother’s wishes and contract a marriage with the granddaughter of Lord St. Leonards? If Pulford persisted in his claims upon her, her love and ambition would be alike’ baulked. She knew that he would be a hard master rather than a doting husband, and she said to herself passionately that she would rather die than become his wife. And then all those dark and terrible schemes of deliverance from his power which she had considered when at Castle Cliff, in the first days of her betrothal io him, recurred to her with sinister force. 1 TO BE CONTINUED. J