THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3098, 22 January 1909, Page 2

THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

CHAPTER XXlll.—Continued. i : "Nonsense! Come back to the ' ballroom. I'm not long-faced. I just got to thinking for a minute, that is all." I Edith went back with her husband, J and the rest of the night he pretend- 1 ed gaiety with as good success as she. But when all was over, and they were home once more, he fell again into that moody fit of thinking. , ''Frank," his wife said to him de-. sparingly. . He looked up at her and tried to smile, but he frowned instead. "I can't help it, Edith; I hoped that man was dead, and he is alive. He and I can't live long together in the same world. Something outside of myself tells me that." Edith shuddered and turned away. "Another!" she murmured. "Oh, Heaven, another!" "My lady," said Dorcas Lynn the , following day, when she had heard the whole story, "could anything be worse than this state of things? Would not any certainty be better than such Miserable suspense and fear as this?" "Almost," said Edith bitterly. "Don't you wish you had taken my advice and had not destroyed that letter?" "I never should have destroyed it if I had supposed Rose would go straight and tell him I had it." "What would you give to have it again, my lady?" Edith looked up into the face of her faithful Dorcas, startled at the significance of her tone. "Because," Dorcas Lynn went on, "I have it, safe and scarcely scorched. 1 snatched it almost as it fell on the coals. You were so absorbed in your husband's entrance that you did not see me." "Oh, Dorcas!" "Are you sorry, my lady?" "No; and yet Where is it!" "My lady, I can't give it to you to burn." "I ryon't burn it." "Nor destroy it in any way?" "I think not. I don't know." Dorcas Lynn looked at her mistress severely. "Miss Edy," she said, "this letter was never yours. It is less than ever yours since you tried to burn it. ; 1 aha'n't give it to you unless ypu promise me to show it to your husband. ( It's the only safe way, now that he knows there was a letter. It will restore his confidence in you and , relieve his suspense about your cousin. Besides, until you know what is in the letter, how are you going to close Miss Altman's mouth? She is sure to keep asking you disagreeable questions about it and about Heathcote." Edith rose to her feet. "Get me the letter, Dorcas, old friena. You're right, as you always are. Get me the letter, and I'll go to Lord Disbro with it this moment." "It is here, my lady, my dear Miss Edy," the old woman said, her voice trembling and her hand ahaking as she presented the much abused epistle. Edith kissed the withered old hand. "Whatshould I do without yOU?" she said. And then, without giving herself time to hesitate, left the room ' In search of her husband. She found faim writing letters in a little room he called his sanctum, opening off the large and stately library. She became pale and 'chilly at sight of him, and afc the thought of what might be in the letter, but she walked directly in and up to him with it in her hand. i'Tnere is that letter," she said, laying it down on his desk and keeping her slight fingers on it a raom»" |( . . "I have wished nearly eversince.that I mod an(J ,_..*i«W DoreasLynn told me that I ifoe tbOOght I would repent, and had. snatched it from the fire before it scarcely touched it. You must promise to let me read it with you, Frahk." Jf'By all means," her husband said, instantly. "Sit here and we will read it together. Edith smiled faintly and took the seat indicated, upon his knee, with an arm round his neck. Lord Disbro took the letter in bis hand and glanceu at the superscription. "Why," he said, "this is rather odd. It is directed to 'Frank Tyrrell, Esq.,'and'Earl of Disbro' has been added in another hand. Had you noticed that, Edith?" '"lhadnot," Lady Disbro said. "Open it, why don't you?" Frank tore the scorched envelope across and unfolded the sheet within. Both husband and wife uttered an exclamation of surprise as they glanced at the contents. CHAPTER XXIV. "I LOVE YOU ENOUGH TO FORGIVE ANYTHING." The letter was dated nearly two months after the night of poor Lois' death. It read thus : "I am tired of living, and have resolved to destroy myself. How I shall accomplish my purpose I have not yet decided. Neither does it matter to tell here. 1 write this to warn you, Frank Tyrrell, never to make your uncle's widow your wife if you do not, wish to share that uncle's fate. If ever you are tempted beyond vour ability to resist, ask Edith why I broke my engagement with her at the last moment, and marry her, if you can, after you have heard the reason, though the charges are a hundred to one she will not tell you. "RANDAL HEATHCOTE." \ Neither Frank nor Edith spoke for some moments. {

By HELEN COBWIN PIERCE, Author of "At His Own Ga,n e," "Carrie Emerson Wilde," "Badly Matched," "Tie Cheated Bride," Etc.

Edith was saying to herself, "What a villain! What a treacherous, artfull, wicked villian!" It is difficult to convey any intelligent idea of Frank's thoughts were, they were so confused. "Can it be a forgery?" he said at last. . "Not it," returned Edith irritably. "Let me ring for William. Rose said he gave her this precious epistle." She left her husband's knee and touched th 3 bell. William came presently. A man in the clothes of a labourer had brought it the night before, and had said something about having had the letter a long time and lost it and found it again. William had not clearly gathered how or where. The man seemed drunk and talked so thick it>as difficult to understand him, and Wil'iam took it without trying to get the full particulars of his story. William was dismissed and the husband and wife were alone again. "Well," Edith said, looking at Frank's gloomy, embarassed face. "Don't you wish now you had been warned by me and not insisted on making me your wife? I told you you would regret it." "Do you believe your cousin wrote that letter?" Frank asked, without looking up. "I am satisfied of it, and so are you. Don't pretend it to me. I know you so well, Frank, I can read every change in your face like an open book." Lord Disbro's handsome face flushed, his dark eyes flashed. "Then yon know I am not sorry I married you on any conditions, and never shall be. I love you enough to forgive anything, if there was anythir.g to forgive, enough to endure all things, even these miserable doubts. But I haven't asked you for your secret. I promised I would not, ani I never will." Edith's lips curled. "You won't ask me in words, but you will ask me in your gloomy looks, your growing doubts. My secret will separate us more painfully now thtn though we had never married, than though you importuned me to tell it every hour in the day. Ob, I see all the trouble that is in store for cs since you have read that villain's letter. I could almost wish now I had not been so scrupulous about opening and reading it because it was yours." "Do you believe he is dead, Edith? Do you believe he did kill himself as he threatened?" (To be continued).