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

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 285, 9 January 1878, Page 4

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

fßir Mas. llaiikiet Lewis.]

CHAPTER Ll.— contd. Mrs MacHougal uttered a groan of sympathy, “ We were near the little hay-barn,” continued, Cecil, “and the door was open. Wc slipped in, climbed the ladder, and crept upon the top of the hay and hid ourselves. A crack between the boards commanded a view of the house. Wc waited there until the lights in the lower part of the house had been extinguished, hut the lights upstairs still turned and we Oare not stir. At last, ti;os-‘ lights were put out, and then wo began to think of flight. We talked in whispers together. Wc were about to climb down the balder when some instinct compelled me to hike a final look at the house to assure myself that all was safe. I peeped out. The house w r as all a hi.-me !” “ I Ice lined she never set fire to the Loos;! !” cried Mrs MacHougal. ” W c were frightened, and hid again in the hay,” said Cecil. “ And there we stayed throughout the long and tenivie night. Wo dared not show ourselves, lest, we should bo discovered. Toward morning, heing quite worn out, we cropped asleep. When we awakened it was broad day, and Mr Pulford and Jarvis wore raking among the ashes. We feared lest they should detect us at the crude between the hom’d, and wc dared not look out often. We resolved to lie hidden until, to-night, and then to make an effort to escape. But we heard your voice, Mr Grafton, and wc looked out and saw you, and in the joy of the moment wu sprang up and hurried down the ladder, ami ran towards you—” “ You knew that I would protect you with my lid 1 ’ cried Craflon. “ And you were right. Before harm shall come to you, M iss Posse, 1 it will have to cross my dead tody '• it maun be that the fire was then an accident,” said Mr MacHougal. “ Or the Mark of Pulford, or the mou Jairvis.” *• it was no accident !” declared Grafton. ‘‘ li was the result of a deep and hellish design to destroy two innocent lives !” “ God bo thanked that that design was nae successful!” said the farmer, devoutly. “ An’ noo,” s dd the kindly neighbour who had given tiie MacHougal women lodgings during the past night, and had entertained the entire MacHougal family, with Pulford and Jarvis, at breakfast, “ the young lady sin’ the a aid women are clean fired out an’ ill wi’ fasting. Bring them to my house. We hae enoo an’ tiii spare. Coum, a’ o ye, mi’ lino a hot breakfast !” ‘‘ 'fake my arm, Miss Cecil,” said Grafton, gently, “ Lean upon me. You cannot do hotter than to accept tills kind invitation.” Gccil rose up, trembling’, but with a wan smile. “ Hirst,” said Mr MacHougal, coming forward, let me ask the young lady’s pardon lor dooting Lor ward an’ helping her enemies to oppress her. I see it a’ noo. An’ sin’ ye vouch for her reason, Mr Crail.on, 1 tak’ back a’ I hae said a boot her an’ the auld woman, an’, a, I lute-1 place ut her sairvice. She can hao the Larses — ’ “ Thank you,” interrupted Grafton, “ but sue will not need them. I thank you, in her name, for your offers of service, and, in her name, pardon all that lias massed. I know her to well to bel [eve that she will bear a grudge for your uiibciiei, since you repent it. I shall take Miss Rosso away with me this morn'ng !” He drew Cecil's arm in his, ordered his driver to proceed to the next house, and followed the guidance of the hospitable neigh hour. Gretchen and the MacHougals followed. When the meal was concluded, Grafton i-resenled Lis entertainers with the remains of Iris stores and won their fei vent grati i udo . And then, the horses having been fed and watered and rubbed down, and put again to the carriage, Cecil made her adieux to the MacHougal family. The driver cracked his whip, the horses started briskly, and the carriage rolled out of the yard into the highway. Cedi put out, her bead for a last look at tiie kindly faces of the simple Highland people and waved her hand iit a final farewell. Then she sank back upon the cushions, and was borne imst the hamlet, and on the road to Inverness. , CHAPTER LII. AT THE MOUNTAIN INN. Grafton arranged a shawl ns a pillow’ and placed it under Cecil’s head. She closed her eyes wearily, faint and wan after her long fatigue and excitement and ha watched her with adoring eyes. A thriil of tenderness went through Grafton's soul as lie gazed upon her, and a sudden moisture oimma ' Lis hard, black eyes. 44 You arc safe now, Bliss Cecil,” he said s -illy. “ Those wretches cannot harm you now, even if we were to meet them face to face.”

The girl breathed a long, deep sighMb ere are we going now ?” asked old Gretchen. “To Inverness, on our way to London. We shall arrive at Inverness to-night, and lake the morning train for London.” “We shall be glad to get back to London, shall we not, Miss Cecil ?” cried Gretchen, joyously. “We shall go back to our old rooms in Queen’s Crescent, and Mrs. Thomas will welcome us and wo shall feel quite at home, shall wo not ?” Cecil smiled faintly. “ We owe our safety to yon, Mr Grafton,” declared Gretchen, warmly. “ But for you we should have been still hiding in that barn, hungry, cold, and terrified. But for you wc might have been discovered there before night and held as prisoners, while the MacJDougals sent after Pulford or Jarvis to return for ns. You arc the only friend wc have iu all the wide world !” Grafton bent forward toward Cecil, his face flushing. “ If Miss Cecil will but believe me her best friend, I shall be quite content,” Cecil opened her weary eyes and looked at him gratefully. 41 Ho not think mo ungrateful because 1 have not expressed my gratitude in words, Mr Grafton,” she said gently. “ I thank you from my soul for your great kindness m hastening to us at Gretchen’s appeal. If you could but know’ the delicious sense of safety and rcstfulness I feel at this moment, you w’ould feel repaid for your generous goodness.”

“ I am repaid—more than repaid !’’ declared Grafton, fervently. “ I would gladly die to serve you, Miss Cecil. Think no more of gratitude. Do not foci that I deserve your thanks. I wish that you would consider that you have a sacred claim upon ray protection, arid that in permitting’ me to serve you, you do me a great favor.” “ You are very kind—” “ For months, Miss Cecil, I have mourned you as dead !” cried Grafton, in an impassioned voice. “ A day or two after you left London, I called at your lodging in Bayswatcr, and was told that you had quitted town, that you were gone to Yorkshire, to Lady Trevor’s country-house, I went to Yorkshire; you had not been there. I returned to Loudon, half frantic. I employed detectives to search for yon. I went to Zorlitz, but no one there could throw any light upon your disappearance. I visited every station on the line to Greycourt. I searched hospitals, asylums, every place in which i fancied you might have found refuge. I visited intelligence offices: I went to all the great cities of the continent: I followed otrango women over nearly ail Europe, in the hope of finding you —” “ TV hat devotion !” breathed Gretchcn. i “And I had made up my mind that you were dead, Cecil, when Grctchen’s letter came, raising me from despair to the sublirncst heights of joy ! 1 have you at last. Yon arc safe and well. And I am the happiest man in the kingdom.. He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it passionately. Cecil drew away hastily, her face reddening;. “ And while 1 mourned yon as dead, the victim of some awful fatality, you were a prisoner in a lonely house on the Scottish coast,” pursued Grafton. “I visited the railway stations and questioned the guards. How conld I have missed you ? Did you not leave London on the night of the day on which, you lent Bayswatcr?” “ Yes,” assented Cecil, “ but we did not leave by train. Lady Trevor kindly offered ns a free passage on her yacht, which, she said, was about to sail for Greycourt. V/o drove to Gravesend in the cab, and Mr Pulford put us on board the yacht—” “ The yacht ? We never thought of that!” said Grafton, 'excitedly. “ The yacht? It was on the west coast at the time. They must have procured another vessel than the Undine.” Cecil described the journey, their terrible sufferings, and final escape from their would-be murderers. “ .Now you know all,” she said, when she had concluded. “ Gretchcn thought that Mr Pulford might have some connection with the man who brought me to Zorlitz. Mr Pulford certainly hired Jarvis and his companions to destroy mo.” “ He was the instrument employed by a jealous woman to got yon out of her way,” said Grafton. “ That woman was Lady Trevor.” “ But I never harmed her—” Yon came between her and her fondest ambitions. She is past her first youth, and she beheld in you a young girl, beautiful as a vision, and she feared you. When she quarrelled with her lover,” said Grafton, calling to his assistance the lie he had invented months before, “and sent him from her, he went with mo to the Black Forest on a him ting expedition he met yon and was charmed with your beauty and sweetness. How could he have helped being so ? He believed that he loved you—pardon me Miss Cecil, if I wound your feelings, bat I must tell the story correctly. It is time that you heard the whole truth. He asked the old pastor’s consent to pay his addresses to yon. Her Brocken told him the story of your origin. The carl is very proud: lie could not marry a woman of unknown birth, not if the woman were Yen as herself. Ho hastened back to England, determined to conquer his passion for you. He went to his

hut.ting-box in Scotland. Lady Trewr was at Castle Cliff, Lord St Leonards's Imuting-seat, only li vc miles distant from his own place. They met again’ and again, and, as might have been expected, made np their quarrel and renewed their engagement of marriage. But Lady Trevor is a jealous person. She could not forgive Lord Glenham for permitting his affections to wander to you. She regarded yon as her rival and hated yon.” The girl’s proud, sweet mouth quivered. “ Still, why should she kill me ?” she asked, bitterly.

“ You had come between her and her love. Then, Lord St. Leonards saw you, and fell in love with you, in a fatherly sort of way, and was anxious to adopt you. You reminded him of some one he had known, perhaps, and he was determined to find you, and avowed his intention cl making you his heiress in place of his granddaughter, Lady Trevor. The widow feared that you would cut her out of her expected legacies, and she wanted you removed from her path. If jealousy and baffled greed do not seem sufficient motives for her attempts at murder, remember that she is no wellprincipled person, but a dangerous, terrible woman, whoso will has been law all her life long. She is hard, selfish, and unscrupulous, a thoroughly wicked woman, who will scruple at no crime to attain her purposes, if that crime can be worked out in secret, without fear of detection.” “ And it is such a woman that Lord Glenham loves ?” “ He does not know her as you and I do. Love is blind, you know.” Cecil’s face dropped to her pillow. Her quivering features showed her agitation at the mention of Lord G lenham’s name. “ I suppose,” said Gretchen, t; that no one but you searched for Miss Cecil, Mr. Oiafton?” “ Ho one but me and the detectives I employed. Who else was there to search ?” “ Who indeed ?” said Geci l , sorrowfully. “ Hid—did Lord Glenham learn of my disappearance ?” “ Yes, I told him. Ho was sorry, of course, and lie wished me success in my search, but was too occupied with his own concerns to assist me.” “ When is he to be married ?” asked Gretchen. Grafton glanced at the girl’s halfhidden face. Ho knew that she loved Glenham with all her young soul. He knew that she was listening in a breathless agony for his answer. Ho determined to cut short at once any possibly lingering’ hope she might entertain, and answered : “ Lord Glenham and Lady Trevor are married. The wedding occurred last week in London.” PTO BE CONTINUED, J