THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3083, 4 January 1909, Page 2

THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

CHAPTER XI. THE WANDERER'S RETURN. Daylight showed that the newcomer possessed an uncommonly handsome, deeply bronzed face, a head of curly brown hair, and haze! eyes, glittering with spirit and vivacity. Judging him us he lay there upon the bed, he would stand a trifle over six feet in his beets, which lay now on the floor where he had kicked them off the night before. Reaching lazily from the bed as soon as he was fairly awake, he pulled a bell-cord, laughing. _ "I wonder what they'll say ? Above all, Brum?" Brum was the steward at Blackmere, a sort of h ;ad servant and major domo, an old family servant and an old man, but still hale. He came running when he heard that the bell in Master Frank's room had rung. The rest were afraid to go. Frank Tyrrell had not been at Blackmere for three years before, the interval having been spent in strange and remote travels. He had travelled so far that he was without news from home, and did not know that the uncle who had been a second father to him, though he had quarrelled with bim at last, was dead, or even that hs had married in his old age. Bium burst into the room, and stood gaping at sight of the bearded and bronzed occupant of the bed. "Oh!" he ejaculated at iast, when Frank Tyrrell kept laughing, "nobody but you would laugh that way, sir; you're Master Frank, or his ghost. How did you get in, sir?' Frank Tyrrell showed a little key on his watch-chain.

"I got in by the door in the western wall. I've had the key with me all this time, and I don't believe any one has been through it since 1 went away. What's the news, Brum, and how's uncle?" Bruin stared.

"Haven't you heard? Captain Tyrrell is dead. He's been married and murdered since you went away, sir!"

Frank Tyrrell started up from the bed he had not left till njw. "Whit's that Brum?" "Married and murdc-red!" Brum repeated. Frank's handsome face bad turned somewhat pale. He looktd a good deal shocked.

"Dead —and murdered!" he muttered. "Poor old man ! .Did his wife do ! t, Brum? Whom did he marry? Where is she now?" "ishe's here,' gasped Brum, naiurall.v answering the last question first. "Slip's a cousin of the Heathcotes. Mr Randal and she wer-.? to have been married. But he backed out, for tome reason, and then she married Captain Tyrrell. He's alter her again new." "Who?" questioned Frank, somewhat bewildered. "Her cousin Randai." ■ *'Oh! you haven't told me who killed my uncle. Brum, nor when it was." "A little over a year ago. It was never found out who jid it, sir." "Brum, what sort of a woman is my uncle's widow?" "Handsome as a picture, and she took things wonderful—about the muider, I Mean, sir." "Wa& she fond of him?" Brum gnawed his gray whiskers reflectively. "Well, not exactly—not excessive-; ly, you might say," he answered, j talking up. j "Was he fond of her?" ! "Very fond of her at first, till he got jealous." "Jealous?" "She's so very handsuine, sir, and so yourg, and her cousin was coming to see ihem four or five times a week." "Did she encourage his visits?" "I don't know. Master quarrelled with her about his coming." "How uul she lake the quarrelling?" "She talksd back—not much, but sbaip. She's got a tender, too." "Was any one buspected of my uncle's death?" Brum looked at him furtively, and dropped his eyes. "No one, as I know," "Brum"—in a whisper-—"could my uncle's young wile have done it? "I don't think so, sir," the old man said, turning pale and looking troubled. "You wouldn't, if you'd ever seen hu\" Suddenly through Frank Tyrrell's rr.ind flashed the recollection of the spiri'like figure he had seen gliding through the stiil halls the night bef jre. "Heavens!" he thought, "could that have been she? She looked pure as snow and fair as the dead Elaine.' He glanced around the room, which was lar&s and lofty and handsomely furnished. "Has any one been occupying this room lately, Brum?" he asked curiously. . t , "Oh, sir. You were noticing the fresh look of everything? That is her doing —Mrs lyrrdl's. She asked me one day which was your room, and ordered it aired and put in fresh Ji'det' every week. It was cone this mcming." Frank Tyrrell's handsome Jace flushed faintly with surprise. "Odd!" he said. "Yes, sir. You slept on the outside of'the bed, didn't you?" "Yev I expected the inside had camp sheets. Send to the station won't vou, Brum, for my baggage' To who did iny uncle ieave his mon g v **' - . "To his wife. But she divided with Miss Altman." "Divided, did she.' She must be a rare sort. Is Blackmere hers, or Rt..«e Altaian's?" £ ' Blnckmere belongs to Mrs Will she let me stay a while, do . you think?" 1 Brum looked surprised.

By HELEN 001; WIN TIEIiCE, Author of "At His Own Game," "Carrie Emerson Wilde," "Badly Mj.tcr.ed," "Tl.e Cheated Bride," Etc.

"Why, of course, sir. Why not ? Besides, didn't she keep your room always ready for you" "To be sure. Go to her at once and present my apology for the unceremoniousness of my intrusion. Say that I was unaware of the changes at Blackmere during my long absence. Say nothing about my remaining, and don't genu for rny luggage till you come back and tell me what she jays." Brum went on his errand. a.';d returned almost immediately. "She blushed scarlet when I told her," the old man said, his eyes at their widest, "and then she got white again, and said you were welcome, and she hopco you vvouiti consider Blackmere as much youi home as it ever had been." "All right. Send some one to the station at once," said Frank excitedly. "Iwiil sir. Breakfast will be served in half an hour." Frank Tyrrell sloid a moment, running his slim brown fingers through his curly hair, a puzzled look on his face. "Blushed like scarlet, did she" he mutteied. " Now, what was that for. No, no—l don't believe it." Edith, meanwhile, had passed an almost sleepless night. Lois lay upon some cushions before the lire, buried in a sleep of utter exhaustion. Edith looked at her from time to time with a clouded and set face. "I hate this business," she muttered, "and I don't know what to do with her. It would be cruel to give her up to Randal again. He has beaten her more than once, and starved her all the time, I should think. Ugh! what a brute he has, become to strike a frail little creature like that! I'm glad I looked at her shoulders, though, and found the marks. He would serve me in the same way, I dare say, jf he could get me to marry him. Anyway, he shall never have her again. I believe he is capable of killing her if he thought he could do it safely. But he knows I wouldn't stand that."

Lois stirred slightly, ai d her thin face contracted as wiih pain.

Edith stopped and looked at her,

"How it brings it all back to me—my husband's unexpected coming, my fright at his strange looks. I've never settled with Rose yet for that lying letter which brought him home, but I mean to. Before God she is answerable for all that happened that awful night. I wonder what the end of it all would have been if I had run into the hall and screamed when we found Lois? I wish I had. I was a miserable coward to give in to Kandal as I did. Oh, how he has cursed my life! What a horrible year this has been ! How many more such have 1 got to iive? Does Randal mean to naunt me with his cruel face and frightful threats? Must I endure it if he does? Will he ever terrify me into nv r-v : r«* i-im? Heaven help me to def\ Lois' moved. Edith bent to catch the whispered words, and came near fainting, they were so like the last she had heard from thosa wan lips. "Poor Captain Tyrrell! What a hole in his side! How could you do it, Mis 3 Edy? But Mr Heathcote said he saw you." Edith Tyrrell rose to her feet with a pale smile. (To be continued).