THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3085, 6 January 1909, Page 2

THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

CHAPTER Xll.—Continued

"I don't propose to leap anywhere."

"You are infatuated with her, and you know it. Men are always the fools of a pretty face."' "Her's is not a pretty face. She is very beautiful. Ido believe «he is as good as she is lovely." "She is a false and guilty creature!" Rose said spitefully. "I can't prove it now, but I shall some day." "Who is that you are speaking of. Rose?" called a sweet voice from an upper window, and both looked up to see the snow-pale beautiful face of Edith Tyrrell leaning beyond the casement. The dark soft eyes met Rose's hard blue ones placidly. Across the crimson mouth shb brushed a cluster of white roses, some of the leaves of which fell upon the pavement at Frank's feet. Rose did not answer. She looked down, to hide the hatred and aversion in her face. Edith turned to Frank. " May I know who this false and guilty creature is? I might meet her sometime." Frank coloured vividly. Then hastily gathered up the white rose leaves where they had fallen. "I am sure she is as purees these, in spite of Rose's fears," he said passionately, and thrust them in his bosom. Edith looked at him earnestly a moment, and something like a tear flashed in her eyes as she turned away. "Why did you say that?" Rose scornfully demanded. "You know nothing either of her guilt or her innocence, "I know enough of her innocence to satisfy myself," he said enthusiastically. "Indeed. I wish vou would satisfy me." "That would be impossible. You are not open to conviction, for vou hate her. You would reject the most j absolute testimony to her innocence, short of the production of the real murderer." "You are right there, I would; but J have better reason than my haired of her."

"What are they?" "You know that my grandfather was jealous of her? Well, he had reason." "Rose!"

"Oh, I was there. I"ve seen too much of her to be told what she was, or is. She was a horrible flirt in those days, and you'll find she's the same in these. She went on with that cousin of hers till any man would have wanted to kill them both, and been sustified in it." Frank turned palt. "It was some rumour of her performances that sent him unexpectedly back to Heathcote, from what he supposed to be the very death-bed of his brother. They had just got rid of a too-faithful servant —sent her out of the way on a false telegram—when my grandfather arrived without a word of warning. I don't know how they all met, but I do know, from Edith's own acknowledgment, that she quarrelled fearfully with her husband and that very night he was murdered " "In the park! She had not left her room after he left her," interposed Frank eagerly. "I know that is the story. 1 don't believe it, however. No one else saw him alive after she did, and you might search fifty years and you would find no pne who did. Oh, you needn't tell me— -I know she killed him!" Frank made a gesture of impatience. "1 wish you knew how absurdly you talk." "Thanks. lam willing you should say that. But promise me one thing, Frank Tyrrell—that you won't marry the widow of my grandfather and your uncle till the murderer of that unhappy man is found." Frank's handsome face flushed and whitened almost in the same moment 1 £ "If I had any prospect off marrying her, 1-shouldn't be fool enough to peril it by any such nonsense as that!" he said sternly. "You will be a much greater fool if you let her catch you." "She wouldn't have me if I begged her on my knees." "I shouldn't like to see her have the chance." "If I live, I shall ask her some time, if it is only to be refused." Rose grew pale in her turn.

"You do love her, then? I suspected it. This gives me one more motive for hunting her down. Remember, when it is too late, Frank Tyrrell, that I warned you!" Rose turned as she spoke, and fled as fast as she could go into the thickest shrubbery of the garded, where she flung herself down, sobbing with rage"She'll get him, too," she moaned; "he's just as bewitched as grandpa was, and he's sure to be Lord Disbro some day. i forgot that at first. An 3 she'il get him, she'll get him! 1 wish I could strangle her! I wish I could put something on her pretty, wicked face some night that would eat all she beauty out of it, and leave it a mass of hideous scars. If he would only marry me! But I believe he hates me as bitterly as I do her." „ ■ i Frank Tyrrell had been fascinated by Edith from the first. But he did not mean to fall in. love with her. He had already renewed acquaintance ship with many of his old chums, and from more than one he had heard vague allusions to a rumour connect- j ing bis uncle's wife with his uncle's death. ~ , , . He did not beheve these, but the very hint of such a tale put him on h.s guard about being enthralled by her charms. He fancied he had only to resolve not to fall in love with tier to avoid J

By HELEN CORWIN PIERCE, Arfrhcr of "At His Own Gmve," "Carrie Emerson Wilde," "Badly Mu.cV.ed/' "Tie Cheated Bride," Etc.

CHAPTER,XIII

it. and never was a greater mistake made. He had never meant to ask Edith to marry him, though ha had told Rose so.

But Rose's continual accusation, suspicion, and abuse of Edith had resulted very differently from what she had calculated. They provoked him to defend her, and enlisted his sympathy for her against Rose's prejudice and hatred.

"The servants seem devoted to Mrs Tyrrell." Frank once remarked to Rose.

Rose shrugged her shoulders. "She knows how to make them do so. She studies to attract them to her—our own old family servants, too. She is cajoling them against the day when they may all be called upon to bear witness concerning her in a court of justice." "What nonsense, Rose."

"She began on you, before she ever saw you. Oh, 1 knew what it meant when such a fuss was made so often ' about having your rooms in fresh order, and then she wouldn't let old Lara be shot, because be had been a favourite dog of yours, though he has been only a surly nuisance a long time, blind and good for nothing but to howl. And she hates degs, too—hates and is afraid of them." "Does she?" Frank Tyrrell looked thoughtful. "Do you think I have changed much in the three years I have been away?" he asked Rose ione day at dinner. "I should never have known you." "I should," Edith said impulsiveiy. "You?" Rose cried, and Frank lifted a glance of surprise. "Why, you never saw him till three weeks ago," Rose said. Edith changed colour a little, and wished Frank would look somewhere else, as she said irritably: "Mr Tyrrell's pictnre is with the others. I have often noticed it, and I should have known him anywhere from his resemblance to it." "Ob, should you?" Rose said, with a "significant look at Frank, which was, however, lost upon him, for he was watching Edith still, and it was with difficulty he could take his eyes trom her blushing and confused face. Edith was extremely vexed with herself for blushing, and angry with him for the expression she imagined she read in his eyes.. All that evening she treated him with extreme hauteur.

PROSPECT OF ANOTHER DARK SECRET. That night, after all was quiet in the house, Frank Tyrreli stole from his chamber with a match in one hand and an unlighted lamp in the other. He was going to the picturegallery, to examine his own picture. Sovne one was there before him. Far away in the wide darkness of the great hall shone a glow of light, and Leside it the same pale, spirituelle figure he had seen the first night of his arrival. (To be continued).