For Her Sister's Sake; OR, THE LAVENDEN SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8350, 5 February 1907, Page 2

For Her Sister's Sake; OR, THE LAVENDEN SECRET.

CHAPTER XXlll.—Continued. For reply Agnew put into his pocket the letter she had restored to him, and called to the coachman. "Home," he said, and got into the carriage. The brougham rolled out of Palace Yard. Julia Lavenden was weeping silently. At length she controlled herself sufficiently to speak. "Winnie must have gone late last night," she said; "we only learned this morning by her maid coming to ask mine if she had slept with me." 'But I—l don't understand," Edward Agnew declared hoarsely. "You say she had gone—disappeared; there must have been foul play.'' J Julia trembled. 'Why should there I have been?" she asked. "All women •who arc hopeless and unhappy want to hide themselves. No; she went intentionally, and I am to blame." "You!" repeated.Agnew, amazed. Julia choked back her tears. "Yes," she sobbed, "I, and I alone. . I should have insisted on telling you. I know you would have made her feel it did not matter." Edward Agnew started. "Will you please tell me'the whole truth, Lady Lavenden" he said, almost sternly. "If I should have known it, before, there is all the more reason i why I should know it now." Julia Lavenden yielded to his tone of command. "Winnie has gone away, Mr Agnew," she said, "because the poor child loves you, and thinks she ought not to marry you. Mine is the shame to which she cannot consent to link your name and your career. My past has had its tragedy--a wonderful tragedy. Mr Agnew, pity me. I am the wife of a common thief, the wife of a convicted felon!" •■ The young lawyer was silent. Julia mistook the purport of his silence. "Yes," she cried, with a sudden desperate bitterness, "Winnie was right—it would have been wicked to associate my shame and misery with the name of an honourable man. Love cannot bridge a gulf of that sort. You could not choose for your wife the sister-in-law of a convict. It is I who have separated you, I who have broken my darling's heart! Would to Heaven I could hide myself, | too—hide myself and die, too!" Edward Agnew took her hands in his. "Lady Lavenden," he said, "you wrong me. I told you once . that nothing which did not constituterft~legal barrier to our marriage, or that did not alter my view of Winnie herself, could affect my love for her, or my determination to make her-my wife. That letter which reached you this afternoon was written to implore her again to reconsider her refusal. I regret that you did not confide in me before, but it would have made no difference io my love irr Winnie; it makes none now." / Julia snatched at the firm, strong hands that held her own and kissed them passionately. "I knew! I knew!" she gasped Wildly. "Oh! why would not my darling believe me? She might have been so happy, instead of lost to us, wandering alone and friendless, we dare not think where." The man to whom she was clinging in her spasm of emotion shuddered violently. "Lady Lavenden," he said, "let me urge you to control yourself. There is no time to be lost. Whatever the cost to yourself, we must take the necessary steps to secure Miss Lavenden's safey. Do you know if she has with her a sufficient supply of money?" Julia Lavenden shook her head sadly. "We know nothing," she answered; "nor did I venture to investigate, for fear of exciting the servants to gossip. I hoped—l was sure—that Winnie would communicate with me in some way—l am sure she will!" An exclamation burst from Edward Agnew. ''Good heavens! Lady Lavenden,'' he rejoined, "a young and beautiful woman has vanished mysteriously--deliberately, it Wiay be, but still mysteriously. Whatever other interests may be at stake, our first duty is to ascertain that she has found a fiting haven." He pulled the check-string, and the brougham began to draw in toward the curb. They were in Piccadilly. "What are you goingN to do?" asked Julia, alarmed by his air of resolution. Agnew replied curtly: "Do what ought to have been done this morning, Lady Lavenden," he declared; "go to Scotland Yard." The words struck terror to Julia Lavenden's heart, and she would bave protested. But a deeper terror kept her silent. She would not, she dared not, tell him all the truth. She dared not speak of the escape of David Garth from Dartmoor prison; of his visit, disguised, to Lavenden House. She dared not hint at the identity of James Garth and Mr James Garside;, above all, she dared not link herself with the visit of that blue-shawled nurse to the fiat in Grammont Mansion." She endeavoured to collect herself; Agnew was speaking. "You may rely uponjny discretion, and that of the authorities, Lady Lavenden," he said, "I shall tell them no more than is necessary to enlist their respectful interest in any one resembling Miss Lavenden, not in London only, but throughout the i provinces. Indeed, f. propose to ask that a suitable person be sent to Lavenden House with us, to take any necessary information." s " .He leaned from the window to give an order to the coachman, and the brougham turned back in the direction of Whitehall. Half an hour later they were on their way to Lavenden House again. In the brougham opposite to Julia Lavenden and Edward Agnew, was a plain-clothes detec-

By R. Horman Silver, thor of "A DonMe Music," "A Daughter of Mystery," "Held Apart,' "The Golden Duiarf," etc.

".For Her Sister's Sake " was commenced on December 20 th.]

tive. Julia Lavenden sat silent, her breast heaving, her eyes cast down. Only once had she dared to raise them to the face of the detective. She had almost expected to behold the pink, plump countenance of Mr Quail, the officer whom she had met at Peter Crimple's, the cheerful sleuth-hound whom Scotland Yard had put upon the track of James Garside's murderer. It was with a sense of relief that she saw the heavy, commonplace visage of a typical policeman. CHAPTER XXIV. MERIVALE HAS AN IDEA. "Agnew be hanged for an officious, meddling fool! A pretty mess he has made of things, invoking the aid of those solemn busybodies at Scotland Yard! Why the dickens did you let Julia go to him?" George Merivale was striding irrritably to and fro in his sister's boudoir, his hands behind his back. The pale sunshine of a pleasant winter morning, falling in a broad band of yellow radiance from a window of the' room, showed ( that his shrewd selfish features were flushed and twitching; his' whole demeanour was that of a man who is on the verge of a violent outbreak of passion. Constance Istria sat back among the silken cushions of the. deep couch by the fire. She had been watching him acutely. "As I told you once before," she retorted, "I am not a mind-reader. Julia'said nothing to me about consulting Agnew, or you may be sure I should have prevented it. However, I wager Julia never' bargained for Agne\v calling in the aid of the police. Her face last night, while the man who came with them from Scotland Yard asked his questions and wrote out his report, was a study in terror. By the way, George " There was significance in her pronunciation of his name that led her brother to pause in his uneasy pacing and look at her. Her gaze met his penetratingly. "You remember my mentioning to you awhile ago," she went on, "a mysterious visit Julia had had from a hospital nurse of some sort, a creature m a blue and gray uniform? Cecile had heard her speak of 'A message from the dead.' " s Merivale contemplated the toe of his glossy boot. "Y-yes," he said after a pause of affected thought; "I believe I recollect your referring to'some such incident." His sister smiled-- an enigmatic smile. "Quite so,"' she observed, "Now, tell me, did this famous secret that was to give you the whip-hand of Winnie have anything to do with this nurse and her visit" j George Merivale hesitated."' "I fancy I have already warned you, j Constance," he rejoined, "that the : famous Lavenden secret, as far as I \ have been able to fathom it, was safer with me than you. If you don't want to stir up a particularly choice scandal you'll let sleeping dogs lie." Constance Istria sneered, j "A scandal about the Lavendens/' she said. "I am not so sure that it would not suit my book." Her brother / frowned. "That's where you make a mistake," he declared; "you women never can play your own game property. A scandal about the Lavendens .would enlist all Agnew's chivalry in their defence—perhaps even drive Winnie into his arms. No; let me deal with Winnie in my own way; you'll find it will suit you better in the long-run." "Your way!" repeated Constance Istria disdainfully. "I'll be sworn it was your clumsy bullying that made her take to flight." Merivale bit his ilp. "Perhaps," he rejoined; "and perhaps not. What would you say if the whole tiling were a clever fraud—if Julia knows all the time where the girl is?" | His sister started. "You —you think that?" she asked. Merivale snapped his fingers. "What more natural?" he demanded. "Winnie goes to Julia and ! owns that I know too much. Julia elects to put Winnie out of ray reach., and leave me to decide upon my next move. Well, I have decided; I will play the bloodhound and track Miss Winnie down." Constance 1 aughed harshly. "You may be right," she responded; "but I don't think that, even if you are, you will succeed in finding the girl's hiding place." "We shall see," answered George Merivale. "Believe me, Constance, I am playing the only game that will leave Edward Agnew free for you to exercise your fascinations upon. Interfere with' my plans, and it will be to discover too late that the fellow has managed to cleverly slip through your net." {To be Continueud).