THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3105, 30 January 1909, Page 2

THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

CHAPTER XXlX.—Continued. A surprise came when they had been at Heathcole three or four days. Lady Disbro was out watching the workmen, and, looking, as she had of late, very gloomy but resolute. Dorcas had gone to the bouse for a moment. Sbe seldom left her mistress, to whom the .faithful and sympathetic old women's presence •was a wonderful support and consolation.

Suddenly Dorcas came back, not running exactly, but certainly walking very swiftly, ai:d with a strange, excited expression on her wrinkled face.

"Miss Edith," she said solemnly, "I've seen your cousin Randal." Lady Disbrj lifted her startlsd eyes, and her handsome face seemed to become even whiter than it was before.

"Where?" was all she said. "At one of the windows of that room which you told me was his." "Come," Lady Disbro said, and set off for the house at so swift a pace that Dorcas found it difficult to keep up with her. The appartments they sought was in a remote part of the house, always lonely and secluded, but especially so now. The long halls and corridors, seldom hodden, had a ghostly gloom and stillness that made Dorcas shiver. But Lady Disbro thought of nothing' save of him whom she hoped to find in the old den-like room of his, of which she had so often heard, but which, as she solemnly assured Dorcas at the very threshold, she had never entered till now. The door was locked, but. Edith had brought tbekej with hrr, saying l to Dorcas: "If he is there, he has got in by a secret way, and the door will be locked, you will see." And it was. Lady Disbro inserted her key swiftly, turned it/ and flung open the door.

Such a damp, musty chiil air struck them as they entered-, and the room was almost dark, too, heavy curtains being draped about the only two windows it contained. "The air is like that of a vault," said/Lady Disbrs, flinging back a curtain;

•• fou must have been mistaken, Dorcas." she as the two stared eagerly over the empty room. "I don't believe anyone has been in this room for years—not since Randal left it, years ago. See the dust on the curtains and on the windowframe. You imagined it." Dorcas was quite pale. "I don't believe in ghosts, mistress," she said humbly, and with a very dazed look, "and I didn't imagine it. I saw Master Randal leaning out of that window. It was the same handsume, fair face, the yellow hair, and blue eyes, and he was looking off towards the Lady's Tower with, oh, such a wicked sneer on his lips, such hatred ond threatening in his face.

"Idon't see how it could be," [said Edith, after a thoughtful pause. "Look, yourself, Dorcas, dear; you see the oust, don't you? ■ Besides. I am sure he dare not be here by himself. 'J he room must be haunted to him almost as much as that other. And he is such a fearful coward."

Dorcas shook her head, still with that dazed look, as she passed round the room. i " "I can't see how, but I know it was he. I saw him as plainly as I see you now, Miss Edith." The old woman a Iways called her mistress Miss Edith in moments of excitement.

"Well, it is 'certainly very cdd," Edith remarked. "Shall we go now. The •room is like an ice-house; I can't imagine what makes it so cold," she added, shudderlngly, as the dropped the thick curtain back to its place. Dorcas seemed to go reluctantly. At last she followed Lady Disbro out very slowly, and stood on the threshold looking nack some moments. .

CHAPTER XXX. ! EDITH'S PERPLEXITIES. Mrs Turner met them as they were going back to the workmen at the ruins. She had a letter for Lady Disbro, one which had been forwarded from London. "Take it, Dorcas, and see what- it is," said my lady, "it can't be anything that I case about now." Dorcas obeyed, and caught her breath with a gasp as she looked at the superscription. "Miss Edith," she cried, "it is a foreign letter, and it is from him. He's not dead! He's not dead! Bless the Lord-for his goodness!" "It can't be," Edith said incredulously, but snatching the letter, and trembling so in every limb that she had to give it back to Dorcas to open, after trying in vain with her own shaking fingers. Good Dorcas tore it open, and put her arms round her mistress while she read. The letter was from Lord Disbro, and dated from Amicus. "Edith," the letter ran, "you will before this have guessed that something extraordinary must have happened to'keep me from you, and in such silence so long. Something has happened." "You will, perhaps, have feared 1 was dead." "I am dead to you. You and I will never, with my consent, meet again in this world. You are dead to me. The woman I loved, worshiped, adored even, is dead and buried. You, who know yourself and your so much better than I know or wi*h to know it, can understand why tiiis is, without putting me to the pain of any fuller explanation. I 1i.v..: " / E:' 1 --, -• I have k£t

By HELEN CORWIN PIERCE, Author of "At His Own dune," "Carrie Emerson Wilde," "B;idly MiUchcd," "J he Cheated Bride," Etc.

you. I believe that you love me. Had we met \ears sooner, you would have been, for my sake, really what I have so long believed you to be. "For the last time, my lost darling, I sign mvself '"YOUR FRANK."

As Lady Disbro read, the colour began to come into her white face. Her eyes began to light with an angry lire, through which tanderest love and thankfulness beamed. "My love, my love," she murmured, "can I ever chank Heaven enough lev sparing your life?" A moment later she hissed; through clenched teeth:

"My enemy, beware now. You will need Heaven's help when you and I meet again." She turned to Dorcas. She leaned her hand on that faithful creature's shoulder.

"We must find Randal Heathcote now," she said sternly; "and, dead or alive, we will find him." Dorcas gazed back into the eyes of her mistress with a troubled look. "You don't think there can be any mistake, my lady, about the letter being from his lordship?" she said doubtfully.

"Mistake?" repeated Lady Disbro. "Don't I know Frank's writing? What are you talking about, Dorcas?"

"Nothing, only I wish I knew what that look on Master Randal's face meant."

"What? You still insist that you saw him?"

"I did see him, my lady, and so you'll find, if you ever come to know the truth," the old woman declared solemnly.

That, night Lady Disbro and Dorcas went back to London. Lady Disbro's first move was to call upon the lawyer who had managed the Heathcote etitate. He was not a man she liked. He had assumed very early in this mysterious business of her cousin's disappearance that He was dead, and had proposed handing over the rents and similar moneys to Edith. But she would not have them.

To this lawyer she always said with her haughtiest air:

"My cousin Randal is not dead, and you know it. Don't pretend things to me. I know very well you are in his confidence." Now she walked into his office without the ceremonj of knocking. She was very pale, but her black eyes flashed with resolution.

Mr Bazel looked surprised. Then he recovered his self-possession and gallantly placed a chair for her. "Anything I can do for you to-day, my lady?" he asked obsequiously, as soon as Lady Disbro was seated.

"Yes," Lady Disbro answered slowly. "You can convey a message from me to Randal Heathcote." "Oh!"

The lawyer slightly shrugged his shoulders. He had been over the ground with her ladyship before, be fancied. "Pardon me, my lady," he, said, "but how do you expect me to get it to him?" (To be continued).