THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3104, 29 January 1909, Page 2

THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

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

avenue as long as he was'in sight. I shouldn't wonder, either, if he was caught in the storm. It was that same night, my lady, the lightning struck the Lady's Tower." "Yes, I know—l trot your letter," Lady Disbro said abstractedly. •'"those Nell Gwynne room won't be the death of anybody any move," Mrs Turner remarked to Dorcas, seeing Lady Eishro was so preoccupied. My lady turned round sharply. "What" is that?" "The Nell Gwynne rooms are gone, my lady. The Tower didn't fall till the next morning, but those rooms . went in the first! crash. We never knew what had happened till that morning. We heard the awful thunderclap, and we «aw the very flash that did ir, but we never knew what damage was done till the next morning. We were all out staring at the ruins when the Lady's Tower j fell. And a mercy it didn't fall on j anyone. Some of us did think we j heard a screech as it tumbled, but-—" "Oh!" uttered Edith, with a sudden su-iek. "What if it was Frank!" "It couldn't have been," said Dorcas soothiugly, but =he had turned very pale herseif. She remembered that allusion to the secret passage in the anonymous letter which Edith . had shown her. What more likely | than that Lord Disbro might have been searching for that among the rjins at the very moment the Lady's Tower fell? "How odd," muttered Mrs Turner, but not inaudibly. "What is odd?" demanded Lady Disbro. "That Lord Disbio, if it was he, should have been the last one in those rooms." "Well, what of that?" said Dorcas angrily. •'Nothing; only the rooms have the death of fo many." Edith's lips were white. "What nonsence!" exclaimed Dorcas. "It was the day before, in the afternoon, when Lord Disbro was here, if at all." Edith shuddered. "You are very good," she said despairingly, "but something iu here," putting her hand to her heart, "tells me Frank is under those stones." She persisted in that opinion, in spite of all Dorcas's arguments, and an army of workmen was immediately set to work removing the fallen walls with as much expedition as possible. But it was doubtful if the work could be accomplished in a month. Ladv Disbro and Dorcas remained at Heathcote, Lady Disbro herself superintending ana hurrying the workmen. The most diligent inquiry, meanwhile had been made in the village of Annesley, but nothing was learned concerning either Lord Disbro's coming or going. But it was pretty certain he had come, and Dorcas herself, Jin her secret heart, inclined to the belief that he was where her white-faced mistress believed him to be—under the fallen walls of the Lady's Tower." (To be continued).

CHAPTER XXVl.—Continued

The servants domiciled in the very opposite extremity of the'vast pile had doubtless not yet guessed what had happened. Something—perhaps it was fatedrew Lord Disbro irresistibly forward. Had the Death Room, as he mentally named that chamter, indeed vanished. Then another wild thought came. The secret passage! If any such ex- j isted, this mighty wreck of stone walls must have exposed it. Setting his teeth. Lord Disbro, began to clime over the ruins with a wild and eager haste impossible of description. His face was deadly i pale, his dark hair hung in damp and disordered locks about it, his eyes shone with unnatural brilliancy. CHAPTER XXIX. "I SAW MASTER RANDAL LEANING OUT OF THAT WINDOW." Lady Disbro's first essay in play- , ing detective was to examine her husband's private papers. \ j She had questioned William and learned that a letter had been j brought to the door by a private hand for Lord Disoro, the day before he went away. She was in search of that letter. ™ "It's something I neve" thought I could be guilty of," she moaned bit--terß "spying into Frank's papers, but'if he hasn't got that letter with him —as I dare say he has—l mean to see it, for that has caused the present trouble. She turned her husband's desk inside out. She ransacked every drawer and pigeonhole, working with a sort of angry eagerness, and not permitting a single folded paper, great or small, to escape her. But she could not find the letter. "I don't believe he has it with him," she repeated to herself obstinately, "I can feel its wicked presence here. I will find it." That moment she spied a tiny keyhole, aimost concealed among a profusion of carved and ornamental work in the centre .of the desk. "Ah!" she cried. But she could find no key to fit it. She rose with a look of sudden resolution. A paper-weight—a crouched lion in bronze —stood on the velvet table near. She reached it. In another instant the desk was a wreck, and the contents of the secret drawer lay before her. There was only that wicked letter, with its lying enclosure. Frank had never kept a secret from his v,ife before. He had only this one to keep. Edith read the letter with set lips sparkling eyes. "Whoever wrote this, Heathcote planned it," she said bitterly, when she had finished. "Ah. my wicked cousin, you are very clever and very artful, but you canuot deceive me. Woe to you, too, my fine trickster, if you have told your vile story cleverly eiuugh to make Frank Tyrrell believe you."

She left the room with the letter crushed in her hand, caivless of her husband's ruined desk and scattered papers. On her way to her own appartments, to find Dorcas, she ordered a carriage to be in readiness at once. "Pack a few things as quickly as possible," she said to her faithful servant; "we are going to Annesley again." ""I know at least where Frank went, or tried to go. from here, and I'm going to follow his track. It's some more of my demon cousin's work." Dorcas stared at her mistress a moment in wild inquiry, but Lady Disbro shook her head. "Don't ask me now. I'll tell you as we go. What a fool 1 was," she added to herself, "not to guess something of the sort, and, aboye all, not to have looked for that vile letter before." They reached Annesley at daybreak, and drovl out to Heathcote at once, without waiting for breakfast. Something told Edith to hasten to Heathcote House.' Mrs Turner had got warning somehow that Lady Disbro was at hand, and, early as it was, she was waiting in the great doorway, obsequious and simpering. , "Has Lord Disbro been here?" questioned Edith, without ceremony. "Lord Diabro!" exclaimed Mrs Turner, in amazement. "No, my lady." Edith groaned and leaned her hand on Dorcas' shoulder. "Does Mrs Tuiiner know Lord Disbro?" asked thoughtful Dorcas. "Why, no, of course not; and might chose not to be known," cried Edith. "Has any stranger been here, Mrs Turner -any one within ten days, say, looking at the house—the Nell Gwynne rooms, in particular?" Mrs Turner started. "Yes, my lady. A strange gentleman was here just ten days ago. He stopped in those very rooms a long while, too. . . "He did?" said Lady TMsbro, with .a pale look at Dorcas. "A handsome man, Mrs Turner." "Oh, my lady, so handsome and sacl-looking." "Describe hjm," suggested Dorcas. "He had brown curly hair, and the prettiest, silky beard." said Mrs Turner enthusiastically. "Was he tall?" "Tall and slim, my lady!" "It wasFrank--I am sure of it, Dorcas; and ten days ago, too—of course it was Frank." "Nine days and a night, to be exsv > " üb?erved Mrs Turner. < : How did he come?" asked Dorcas. "He walked awav. I didn't see him come. I watched him down the