THE DOUBLE SECRET.
BY DUNCAN McQREGOR Author of "Kennedy's Foe," 'Jshmael Eeforme "A Game of Three," "Edna's Peril." Etc, etc.
CHAPTER Vl.—Continued. From the nine o'clock breakfast at the castle until three, except the hour for luncheon, Pauline was busily engaged looking over 1 tters and pantrs, sorting them as to authors, setting these in order by years, and indexing them by themes, and then getting them ready for binding. She also, with the aid of Ted and Lucy to do the dusting and washing, cleanej and set in order cabinets, restored labels, and made catalogues. To her great delight she found that the aged rector, whom she loved to call "Father Rowley," was .a jnan of science and an antiquarigfl, and hours ar.d hours the man of eighty spent among the cabinets with this young girl and her juvenile assistants, giving strange names to varjoua objects of the collections, discoursing of the wonders of nature, and of legends of the olden times. After three o'clock Pauline went out and walked until dusk and dinner came simultaneously. In these rambles, as Dame Hooper was too heavyfooted to accompany her, Ted or Lucy followed her steps, and one choice treat was to take Ted to the oil church and have him below the organ while she played. Sometimes Father nowley and Dame Hoopsr i would toddle along to the chuich, and ; comtortably'established in the chancel, would listen to the music. Ano ther favourite ramble of Pauline's | was in the graveyard. Here were I olden tombs, quaint and choice in- j scriptions, strange hints of marvellous histories, or long-past romances, lingering yet about the trysting places of the dead, as faint fragrance hangs to withered roses. After a iong and tiresome day of work among the letters found in an ancient secretary, Pauline announced that she was going for a walk. It was a gray December afternoon, threatening instant rain; the wind sobbed mournfully, and the Medway rolled by in one long complaint. Dame Hooper roused from her dozing long enough to protest, "Such a dismal, forlorn day! Better stay by the bright fire, and enjoy a novel ; until dinner." But Pauline's young! blood needtd exercise, and away she went, with Ted following like a steady watch-dog after her steps. It was the time of the death and burial of the year; where so appropriate a place to spend it as in the place of graves? Now Ted was not a choice companion for a ,walk amid funeral tokens; his nature was out of harmony with the tragic or the pathetic. He would venture such remarks as: "Do see, miss, ain't he a drefful guy, this 'ere cherubim with wings a growing out of 'is ears, an' no legs? Just look 'e. my lady, bean't this a 'eathenish way to spell 'the' —y-e? I knows more'n this tumstun! Miss, 'ere's a little boy wot died o' ketchin' cold; mus'nt 'e a bin a weak one?"
To prevent which jarring numbers, Pauline was wont to bid Ted perch himself on the wall by the gate, and wait until she had made her pilgrimage among the graves. On this day Ted mounted aloft, and, to keep his spirits up, whistled and danced jigs alone the, top of the wall, while Pauline, uncpiiscioua of his antics, slowly paced her favourite ways. In a distant corner of the churchyard was a yew tree bending low over a grave marked only by a red sandstone slab with an Xon it. Drawing near this obscure spot, Pauline heard a low sound as of sobbing, and suddenly confronted a woman sitting on this grave, her sobbings dry and spasmodic, her head bowed so that her cheek restedd on the stone. She seemed'to be tall; her figure struck one by its singular symmetry. She was plainly dressed in black, with a net veil over her face, and her hands, clasped over the rough dark slone. showed small and white. Pauline's first impulse was to turn away, but this woman seemed so desolate that she paused and said softly: "This is the grave of one that you loved?" "Say rather the grave of the only o>ie whoever loved me. Is it not bitter never to recognise the face of an angel until it is turned from you forever''" "Is that thought remorse?"' said Pauline. "If it is, take comfort in the tact that real love is always forgiving " "Though love forgives, justice ex-, acts the penalty ot wrong," was the reply, a"d the conversation continued for some time, indeed until the stranger had accompanied Pauline to the door of her home, and had succeeded in interesting her deeply. That night Pauline wrote to Lady Astraea. "I think I hare found some one who will come to the castle and bind your letters - a widow who I have met here, and who desires the work as she must support herself. She tells me that she nas bound books, and choice papers, and pictures for amateurs. If she brings me suitable recommendations shall I engage her? Stie says she has acted as secretary and amanuensis for literary people, and knows how to make an index, a thing whicn I do very poorly." Lady Astraea assented to this proposal about the bookbinding, and the woman for whom Lord Thomas Harcourt had shunned Italy, and whom
his mother sought at the Towers, \v:\3 presently domiciled at the castle, whilj Pauline a dozen times a day seemed to catch uome fleeting vision or association as she looked at her, but fail-id to recognise the primrose-seller of Hyde Park.
CHAPTER VII. THE SECRET HAUNTS MARKE HOLMri CASTLE, Empowered to engage an assistant in her labours for Lady Astraea, Pauline pleased herself with exercising the utmost discretion. She examined with scrupulous care the recommendations offered her by the widow, who gave the name of Mrs Bemis. These recommendations were, first, one from a bookbinder's foreman in London, approving her tasteful and delicate skill in binding single ele ganc copies of valuable works; second, a letter from an old lady, with whom Mrs Bemis had lived for ten years, as reader and amanuensis. To be very sure of her case, Pauline wrote to the foreman, and to the niece of the aged lady, and received from the confirmation of their former commendations, prais ing Mrs Bemis warmly.
At first the widow lived npar the hamlet near the church, and came daily to her task, at ten o'clock. It was Mrs Hooper who proposed that this should cease, and Mrs Bemis should have her room in the castle. "The weather was stormy,'' said Mrs Hooper.; "unfit for a woman to come and go." But, really, the lady had three o'her reasons fur her hospitality. First, she felt lonely in the small household at the Towers; second, she liked the sway Mrs Bemis had of waiting on her unobtrusively, reading her to sleep and. showing other little attentions; and the third reason was the" strongeat, she feared that in the hamlet Mrs Bemis might contract some contagion and bring a fever or other disease into the sacred precincts of Marke Holme Castle.
Thus, before January closed Mrs . Bemis lived in the castle, and such was the simplicity of the life thee that a choice was only open between sending Mrs Bemis to the servants' table of their moderate establishment, or inviting her to their own, ihe widow was soon taking her weals as one of the little family. Something in Mrs Bemis impressed one with her natural position as a lady, and yet that something was mixed with an indefinable feeling that Mrs Bemis had a sorrow an J a mystery about her, and that both some pride and error of her own had had (o do. Pauline smiled to herself aa she thought wtiat Lady Astraea would say to the third at her beakfast-table, and at once that ever present thought of the secret of her own origin caused her to say to herself: "My own mother was doubtless such a person as this." The widow had not aided-Pauline many days in her work when she said abruptly ona morning while they Were alone: "Will you do me a favour?" She spoke eagerly. "If it is a favour wit'in my power," replied Pauline. "It is mereiy this—do not ask of irie, or inquire of any one else, whose errave that is under the yew-tree. It is unmarked; let it remain unknown. I would not have the story of my dead resurrected." I TO BE CONTINUED, i
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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9623, 16 October 1909, Page 2
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1,426THE DOUBLE SECRET. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9623, 16 October 1909, Page 2
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