THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3097, 21 January 1909, Page 2

THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

CHAPTER XXll.—Continued. "IV A letter to Frank?" Edith ' exclaimed. I "But if it is from your cousin, and j under the circumstances " j "No," Lady Disbro said decidedly, j "Frank and I never open each other's letters under any circumstances. I can destroy it, I can't read it." "Your husband has too much confidence in you to believe Mr Heath- , cote. Hadn't you better give him the lfittsr?" Edith shook her head with a despairing cry. "He has doubted me, Dorcas; I believe he will again." "He would not if you told him the -whole bitter story. Tell him everything, Miss Edy—do, do! A baa oath is better broken than kept, and there never was a wickeder one than this." "Oh, I dare not, I dare not!" A step sounded near. A hand was laid on the handle of the door, and Lord Disbro's voice was heard addressing some one outside. Edith bounded up and seized the letter, glancing as she did so at the firelit grate at the other side of the room. Doreas Lynn touched her with her hand. "My lady, don't—don't burn it. Tell him the whole truth." But Edith broke away from her and flung the letter on the fire. She was barely in time. The nevt moment Prank Tyrrell entered the room. He was in evening dress and looking wonderfully handsome, but his face was pale and he seemed slightly agitated. "Rose tells me you have a letter for me from Mr Heathcote," he said. Edith ran forward and clasped her hands round his ne:k. "Oh, Frank! Frank!" she cried, hysterically. Lord Disbro kissed her cheek and gently drew her arms from around "Where is it, Edith? Let me see it at once. I was always a bad fellow to endure suspense, and I hated that man so long for fear he should take you from me that I confess to feeling disagreeable till I have seen his letter. He can't take you away from me now, that is one good thing. Come —the letter." Edith drew herself up and looked at him. Never had she seemed so heautiful, so royal in her loveliness, as see did to-night. There was a daring light in her magnificent black eyes, a faint colour in her cheeks, brought there by the moment's excitement. She stood on the very brink of a sea which might engulf all sne cared for in life, and she knew it. But she did not hesitate, and she never contemplated the possibility of breaking her oath to her wicked cousin bv telling her husband everything. "I can't give you the letter, Frank," she said," with her hand still on his shoulder. "It is there; I have burned it." She pointed to the fire. Lord Disbro looked at har blankly. "Burned it?" he repeated. "Why did you do that?" "Because I did not want you to see it, of course." replied his wile firmly. "Oh!" Frank's symmetrical brow wrinkled. He put one hand up and began to pull his silky wiskers nervously. "I don't understand this, Edith. There must something very terrible in the letter for you to deliberately destroy it, to keep me from seeing it." Edith's hand dropped from his shoulder and she went and sat down in a chair and tapped angrily with her foot on the floor. So this was the way. was it? she thought. He pretended to "-orship the ground she walked on and then, at the first d fficulty, talked that way. "I didn't do it deliberately," she said, "and I don't know what was in it." "You don't?" echoed her husband, in amazement. "Then why did you burn it." "I told you, to keep you from reading it. There was sure to be something wicked in it if Randal Heathcote wrote it." Frank's face turned paler than ever. "I have suspected it," he said slowly. "Your secret is something between you and Heathcote—something wicked by your own admission." CHAPTER XXIII. DORCAS SURPRISES HER MISTRESS. Edith made a despairing gesture. "You promised me never to ask me what it was. Xou married me knowI had a secret and swearing to believe in me, whatever came. Oh ! Frank!" "Yes, but I didn't expect anything of thi3kind," he said, softening a little and drawing nearer to her. "Ju a t look at it, Edith darling. You know how I love you and how I always hated that man. And here he writes a letter to me and you get it and burn it up, without Jetting me see it at all. You know you couldn't stand anything of the kind; now could you?" "J. know you are jealous, just as your uncle was before you. It cost him his life," Edith muttered, uneasily to herself. "Heaven grant it may not cost you as much, and me more." She lifted her hands and iaid them on her husband's as he stood before her. If ever woman's face spoke of deathless love hers did. "Frank," she said, "I tell you I don't know what was in that letter. I recognised the writing on the outside, that is all. I burned it with the seal unbroken, because I know my cousin to be a ,bad, revengeful man, widiS'i b"2v::d avyV:'. 1 ? I ever knew,

By HELEN CORWIN PIERCE, Author of "At His Own Game," "Carrie Emerson Wilde," "Badly Matched," "The Cheated Bride/' Etc.

and I felt that if he wrote to you instead of me it could only be for some mischief. Won't you trust me as you said you would, and stop worrying about that letter?" Frank stooped and laid his hands on her shouldera. "Will you swear to me, Edith, that you don't know what was in it?" The beautiful face clouded again, but she said " Yes " haughtily. "1 don't know, and that ought to satisfy you. But I have no objection to swear to it, if you can't take my simple word." Frank was touched. "I will take it," he cried in tender contrition. "I'm ashamed of myself, Edith." His wife looked up with a dazzling smile. "Don't say another word, Frank. Kiss me, and let's be off. The carriage must have been waiting nearly an hour." The husband and wife went to the entertainment of the evening, seemingly in the best of spirits, on gjod terms with each other and the world, much to Rose's disgust. "But if Randal Heathcote is alive he's sure to come here sooner or later," she thought, "and if another letter comes I think I will see what is inside it myself." Lady Disbro was the gayest of the gay, and queen of the entertainmen, as usual. Her husband's eyes followed her adoringly wherever she moved. "How happy she seems," he said to himself as he watched her. "What a proud, pure face she has. She can't have any wickedness in her soul and look like that. But I wish I knew what was in that letter." Edith, too, in spite cf her gaiety ar.d her happy seeming, had an ache in her heart. She wished she knew what was is that letter. Not knowing, how could she tell but that her hated cousin might be coming in upon her at any time. She could not help wondering, too, how Heathcote felt about her marriage to the very man he had sworn she never should marry. She noticed her husband's preoccupation, his absent-mindedness, and finally she missed him, and, on searching, foui.d him in the conservatory staring into a marble fountain margined with water-lilies and presided over by snowy Naiads wreathed I in vines. I "Frank," she said reproachfully, after she had stood and matched him unsuspected some moments, "you are j thinking about that letter—you know I you are." I Frank looked up with a start and j made an attempt to clear his face of t the heavy clouds that obscured it. j "No," he said energetically, "indeed, no." "Then you were thinking of him. ' It's all the same. Let's go home. j You've spoiled all the the pleasure of i the evening for me with your long i face. I (To be continued).