CHAPTER LXIV.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 196, 26 March 1887, Page 7

CHAPTER LXIV.

"oh, who will help me to avenge MYSELF V* Helen Hope was undoubtedly a handsome woman. She had not the supreme, gracious loveliness of Edna Ambrose, nor the guileness charm of Violet of Leigh ; but she was of Btriking presence, that would please many an eye. Her jet- black hair lay in large shining ripples ; her black brows were finely arched; her lips were red and full ; her grey eyes expressed the changes of her headstrong, passionate nature; her skin, while colourless, was smooth and clear ; her figure admirably moulded. When Leigh entered the " Folly,"/ Helen was lying asleep on the leopard-skin, her arms thrown over her head, one shapely foot fallen from the low couch to the floor ; her black dress, with » knot of pomegranate ribbon at the throat, setting off well h«r dark, stormy beauty She was a woman likely to attract men, and Leigh wondered why she had not already secured some advantageous marriage. He stood, with folded arms, looking upon her. She had never moved his heart, and desperate pursuit angered bim. Under his fixed gaze she woke, brushed back the hair that had fallen over her brow, and sat up. " Here again, Helen !" said Leigh. " I supposed that by this time your useless pursuit of me would have ended. Why are you in thiß room ?" " Because it brings me nearer to you — reminds me of you — and I knew you would come here." " Helen," said Leigh, quietly, seating himself in his easy-chair, leaning back, and speaking with much eelf-control, "let us talk reasonably. You are a young, hand some, ambitious woman. With your appearance and accomplishments you can no doubt secure a marriage that will place you in a good position. Come, now, I will give you money that will support you handsomely for two years. In that time you can take a place in some large thriving town, and make a good marriage. Or, if you wish to marry a man who would go to the colonies, I will use my influence to secure him a good appointment under Government Think of thie. Milton's hero — of whom you eem to have much in your disposition— says ' it ie better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.' Since you cannot reign in English society, go to Canada or Australia, where you can make yourself a social queen." Helen's cheek burned, and her eyes shot flames, but she answered steadily : "Norman, that would not make me a countesß, nor give me you !" "Are you still cherishing that idle dream?" said Leigh. "You have hinted, yes, plainly spoken, of death or divorce as freeing me of my countess. I wish you to understand me. Violet is in sound health ; she takes care of herself ; she has renewed life in her child, and is likely to survive me, which would only be the survival of the fittest. Aa for divorce, I want you to remember that Violet is a good, pure woman " "But," interrupted Helen, "you can cave her. If you go to the Continent with me she could aek divorce." " Nonsense ! If I did commit so rash an act I assure you that Violet would quietly wait until I should come back, Remember, we have a child, and we both care too much for our son to blight his name and future with a public scandal." " But a public scandal shall come and blight him," hissed Helen between her clenched teeth. "Besides," pursued Leigh, steadily, re solved that this should be a final interview with Helen, and that they should come to an understanding, •• "Why should I go to the Continent with you ? Ido not care one straw for you. I never did." "Norman Leigh," said Helen, "I have loved you madly, but I have warned you that I can hate you just as madly. If you will not follow me because you love me, you may because you fear me." "Rather than live at your mercy, woman, the toy of your jealousy, under the threat of your vengeance, I would die." " lea. Do not forget that I have told you that if we did not live together we should die together." "I know. You have wasted breath in many idle threats." " They are not idle. Consider, Norman, that though I am nameless, and know little about my birth, I do know that I am Scotch, and the Scotch are good haters. They are also capable of what their law calls the 'madness of Scotch mind,' or capacity for dreadful vengeance." "Whatever you are capable of," said Leigh, with scorn, " I will have no more to do with you. Take my fair offers ; go make a name and place for yourself, or continue to hunt, and threaten me, and I will hand you over to the police." " Then I shall accuse you of the murder of Bart Kemp, who came here to ccc you on the twenty-first of November, and who is advertised for in this paper," She held out a London " Times " with a marked paragraph. Lord Leigh read it coolly. " I have seen this before." "If I go to the advertiser and tell him that Kemp came here to you, and you flung him from that window into the Black Pool, what then ?" cried Helen. " I should have to disprove it." '' And if his papers in the hands of his attorney giro a reason for his visit to you, and for your wanting to get him out of the way, what then ?" " What do you mean by all this ?" " I mean juat this ; I saw the man here ; I caw him struggling in the Pool. Your eecret is in my hands. No one will think of tracing his disappearance to you, unless a clue is given " " There is the reason you hinted at just now in the attorney's hands," suggested Leigh. "What is that?""Whatever it ie," aaid Helen, precipitately, "I am ready to swear an alibi for you. I would testify that you were with me, all that day, at— say the Hermitage " " Perjure yourself for me ?" " I would do anything for you !" cried Helen. 11 Or against me. But go on " \ " And, as I said, your eafity is in my hands. Ccme, then, with me. I cannot I live without you. I will make you happy. Let us go to the Continent, to America, to North Africa— any where j let us live and be, happy ; and. your counties can be content here with her siJn. If the dies, or sets a a divore, a-s eho will, 1 for her heart belongs to another, you will marry. me." " I .believe you are a mud woman," said Leigh, coldly. " " -~* r 14 Les jne tell you that you are not the only oneLivho^ saw' Bart Kemp here that da^ Adva^jny serraatf. saw him, and has informed' jth^adveirtlsing; "attorney of his ' baying been here\at that elate. " •• -" But%w he told him that he lies in the ■ " Thef£QoXh9s been dragged ; he is not there." ~ " ..

"Then you took him oat and barfed him)" oried Helen, frantically. "I will bring the murder to light. I will ory for justice on you." " This ia fury wasted," said Leigh, pleasing himself with taunting her. ' ' The man, seized with epilepsy, fell into the Fool ; but Adam, happily being near, dragged him out. He was a maniac; and Adam took him to a mine in Derbyshire, where he lived, until he escaped in the next March. He is mad." "I do not believe it You have imprisoned him in some mad-houee. I will tell the attorney to see him." This was so exactly what Leigh had meant to do that he blanched a little; but said, quietly : «' I tell you the truth ; ho has gone, and how or where I do not know. I do not fear him ; he was merely a relative by marriage of my mother. Your plan has failed, just as that other plan to fiod damaging papers in my house last winter failed. I tell you clearly that I will no longer endure your pursuit. I will deliver you to the police, on charge of felony, and A^am and the countesa shall ba my witnesses. Where are the Leigh papers you stole?" 14 1 took none," cried Helen. "You did. I shall swear that valuable papers were lost when you rifled my cloßet. Now the tables are turned upon you. You are caught in your net, suppose all England does learn that I amused my«elf once by making love to a governe&s ? The thing has been done before. The singular thiog will be that the governess expected to be Couatess of Leigh, and keeps on insisting on a right, even when I am a married man. I warn you never to see me again !" And with a look of scorn and hate, Leigh strode out of the " Folly." Helen Hope sprang to her feet with a wild cry. She flung up her arms and ground her teeth with rage. " Oh, who will help me to avenge myself on this man ?"