THE DOUBLE SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9603, 24 September 1909, Page 2

THE DOUBLE SECRET.

¥ BY DUNCAN McQRBGOR, g

CHAPTER ll.—Continued. "'You are very ill, anil Mistress JtSolton tells me you have no one to care for your child. My little girl, of just her age, has died this week. I will adopt your child for my own." "She looked as if she could not believe me. She asked me to repeat what I hsd said to her. '"For your very own 7 ' she demanded; then: 'Are you able to make her comfortable?' "'Amply,' I replied. "She hesitated. '"To make her a lady?' she persisted. "1 looked back a*. Mistress Bolton, who was talking to the child, and whispered 'Yes.' "She turned her face to the wall, and I heard her whisner: '"Oh, God! will not this make up for the wrong done?" Then she beckoned Mrs Bolton, saying: "Mrs Bolton, this lady adopts my child, bee, I give her to her. No one else has a right to question what I do. She belongs to this lady.' "I said, '1 am to go awav to-mor-row—can I take her at once?' "'Yes,' she said, 'the sooner the better,' and I divined that there was something wrong between her and the child. She said: 'Yes,'take her quickly; 1 can die easier if she is gone.' "'I will pack her clothes,' said Mrs Bolton. "'No,' 1 said, 'not one thing; I shall dress her in my own child's clothes—3he takes her place. Go, put her to sleep in her 1 bed. "The, sick woman whispered: 'Yes, go, Mrs Bolton; I must sea this lady alone.'" "When Mrs Bolton and my adopted child had left us, the shlc woman said: "'Lock the door, and give me that Bible from the table.' "I did so, and she took the book in her hands. '"Kneel down!" she gasped. "I knelt. She caught in her shrun • ken palm m? hand and laid it on the book. '"Swear," she whispered, 'that you will deal with this child as your own, and give her every advantage in your power.' '"I swear,' I said. "'Swear that you will not permit her to make any low, bad marriage. "I swear,' 1 rtplied. "She took from under ha- pillow a small packet '"Swear thit these shall not be j opened until aas child is twtntyone.' "Again I gave the required pledge. '"Her name, shesaia, is Pauline. '"What is jour name?" I asked. "'Mary Martin,' she murmured, and f-.urned away her eyes. Then she said: 'Can 1 die with aheon my lips? No, my name is not Mary Martin.' "You are a lady?' I said. "I was well-born. '"And your child? '"She has better blood than mine. "I touched the wedding-ring on her hand. * '"Did her father put this ring on your hand?" "She made a great effort, and answered, 'No.' # ,'That was all. I took the packet that she gave me, a packet sealed up fin oil-silk. Lady Astraea, I give it now to you. You have promised to be this girl's friend. When she is twenty-one open it—that will be two years hence. I have fulfilled my first pledge—she has been as my daughter, and has had every advantage. 1 pass on to her the second pledge to make no low marriage that matter is now in her hands. 'Che next morning I dressed the child in the garments of my own child, gave her her name, told Mistress Bolton to give all her clothes to some poor child in Newcastle, and then I went my way to Liverpool. Mistress Bolton told me that the sick woman was very low, and only partially conscious I suppose she must have died within a day or so. "At Liverpool I hired a nurse, and there resumed my own name. I went to Edinburgh and there engaged a maid. I then sailed from Leith to Rotterdam, and from there 1 went to Carlsruhe, where I remained nine months, continually writing to my friends of the improvement in my child. The next summer, I went up to Berne, and there one day, as I was sitting on the Esplanade watching the lignts and shadows, pursuing each other over 1 the Jungfrau, who should come and sit down Dy me, but Peter Probyn. He had co»e to see the child with his own eyes. I beckoned at the nurse, who was looking down at the boats on the river, with the child in her arms-a child who jabbered as much French and German as she did English—a brown gipsy, full or health. You should have seen his surprise. "'This,' 1 said, 'is what living out of doors has done,' and I showed the tan on her face and hands, and then the pearly arm under the sleeve. "'Her hair has grown darker,' said Peter. '"Of course, I said: '1 expected that.' '"What is your name?' he asked of the child. '"Persis Ormesby, four years old,' she said. '"Why do you not congratulate me on my success in nursing''' I asked. i thought he looked oisappointed.

0 Author of "Kennedy's Foe," ••Ishmael Eeforme (, V "A Game of Three," "Edna's Peril." D 7 Etc, etc. /

'"I do,' he said stiffly. 'I never thought you would do so well.' "No one ever dreamed of questioning the identity of the child. From being continually with me she caught some of my ways, my tones, my tastes, and people said she was like me. I had gained my point, and triumphed, and Lady Astraea, I meant to keep the secret as long as 1 lived, and at my dying moment give this packet to Persis, to be destroyed unopened. But, Lady Astraea, we can never tell in heajth and strength what we shall do at that last crucial hour of life. "This long battle with death hag unnerved me. I suppose when we are laying down all our possession on earth, all these things that have seerred so important to us up to that moment, lose their interest. Once I thought 1 could die rather than give Peter Probyn an advantage, and now, if he were living, perhaps I could still keep silence for very pride and anger, but he has gone, and I never had anything I against the boy. Something tore the secret from out of my heart at the very la3t. I know now why that poor woman at Norburywain could not die without leaving' that packet, and saying that she was not Mary Martin I thought it a weakness in her then. But Persis, if you and Lady Astraea choose to keep silence " Persis seated on an ottoman was repting agßinst Lady Astraea's knee. "I shall hot keep silence," she said, "for that would be robbery." "This is poor pay lor your.devotion to me." sighed Charlotte Ormesby. "You have always been dutiful and for the years I have been here in torment, you have forsaken all things for me. It is poor pay, Persis." "I want no pay," said Persis. "Let us say this is your reward for fifteen years, and more of conferring on me all that the heiress of the Ormesbys could reside. You have furnished me with means to fight for myself." "I have sent for Allen Bird, this forty years the solicitor of the Ormesbys, to make my statement to him. and have him draw up for me my will. 1 have little to give, Persis. Fifteen hundred pounds and my , jewels will be all. Very different from your former prospects." I "Enough." said Persis bitterly, turning away her face, "for a girl without a name." j . Four weeks irom that day black hatchments were over the closed win • I dows of No. 10 St. James Square, i Within the Honourable Charlotte I Ormesby lay in solemn silence, tak- | ing her endless sleep. The servants stole softly about, dressed in det-ptibt. mourning. They had cared nothing , ftr a mistress who cared nothing for them, but they were likely to lose their places, and they had some hearty mourning over that. I TO BE CONTINUED, j