THE DOUBLE SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9627, 20 October 1909, Page 2

THE DOUBLE SECRET.

CHAPTER ML—Continued

"It tastca horribly queer," said Pauline, as she finished her cup. "Th«t is the brandy that, you ;>ro untis.d to, "said Mrs I:s._ti'ii "I never tasted any Di'i'ore. nor shall I desire ariy a«?;ii:i." "I think it iv, lovely,'' said Mrs Hooper, sipping her portion " You are nervous, Miss Percy, and nei-d tomething to make you sleep. JJid yon ever take any form of opium?" "Yes, once, long ago," replied Pauline. "And wh:it effect did it have on you? Some people it excites." "It made me sleep very heavily." Mrs Bcrnis was looking in the tire and she looked pleased Lucy was sent to b:d; Mrs Bern is accompanied Mrs Hooper to her room, then returned to Pauline. "I fee] very sleepy." said Pauline. • "Ah, that is right; now, Miss Percy, if you want anything in the night, ring this little hell: I have unlocked the doo>" between your room and mine, and I will come instead of Lucy." An hour later tinre might have been seen a ghost walking in Marke Holme Castle. The ghost first locked the door of the corridor on which were the rooms occupied by Pauline, Mrs Hooper and Lucy. Then the ghost stopped by Dame Hooper's door, and listened to the old lady's deep, sleepy breath; it was a ghost given to locking doors, for next this nocturnal stroller turned the key on Lucy sleeping the sleep of innocent youth. Next this tall ghost of the shapely shoulders and light step let fall the window draperies of Pauline's apartment?, and lightly drew the curtains about her bed, listening for aD instant, as this was being done, to the girl's breathing, and gently touching a finger to her pulse. The ghost went to the dressing-table, and there was reflected in the glass the face of Mrs Bemis, "What accommodating constitutions some people have," said the widow, picking up Miss Percy's keys. i

The widow might have been long in service as a customs officer, with such deftness, speed and thoroughness did she begin and carry on a search in Miss Percy's properties.

The seurch was one of exhaustive system. Every drawer, box, desk, portfolio, bag, and casket waß searched, until scarcely a pin or a needle could nave escaped attention. No letter but was read, no book but its blank leaves were searched. The name uf Charlotte Ormesby on'jewels or on books seemed to perplex this searcher. As she continued her quest more and more hopelessly perplexity grew on her face. Finally this inquisition was ended. Mrs Betnis s:it down by the hearth, glanced around the room, all as orderly as she had found it, and all the keys lying on the dressing-table. ''lt is not here," sne said. "Is the secret lost, or has it gone into other keeping?" tine rose, parted the bed-curtains, and bent over Pauline, remarked her deep slumber, uncovei'ed her chest, and bent her ear to listen to the murmur of her lungs. She looped back the curtains, and going slowly to the toilet table, took up two of the letters which had come that day.

Mrs Bernia had blushed at her exploration of Miss Percy's possessions: now she blushed at reading secretly another person's letters. "But who has a better right than I? ' she asked herself, and unfolded the letter of Allan Bird.—a brief business litter ending with "hopes that Miss Percy found herself well and happy; her jewels and papers were in safe-keeping, and he was her devoted friend, Allan Bird.''

Mrs Bemis did not read between the lines the love of Allan Birdlove at which he half blushed, since its object was forty years his junior—but she pounced on the word papers.

"Ah! perhaps he is the keeper of the secret," she said; "and if he has it, could I beguile it from him' I have aw[ays had power over men." Then she looked again at the letter, and smiled at her madnes3. "Burglars may get away the trea sures deposited in the most vaunted of modern safes, but who could wrest a secret or creep into the confidence of the man that wrote that letter? You, at least, are invulnerable Allan Bird." She read the second letter, lingering over every line: then she re-read it; finally she returned to the toilet-table and laid one letter down; one she kept. "Who has a better right?" she whispered. She listened once more to Pauline's breathing, sighed, and went to her own room, unlocking first Lucy's door and the corridor. Laid on her pillow, she grew calm; a sweet, restful feeling stole over her; she slept like a comforted child. Tne morning light shone ruddy on her sleeping face without waking her. ' That ruddy light revealed a macs of bright hair on the pillow, a small white hand clusping some treasure to the sleeping breast, a face that in slumber had grown soft, and youthful and loving. She slept so well that the morning light did not arouse her, nor did the step of Lucy going to her mistress. '.'Are you better this morning, Miss Percy?" asked Lucy.

BY DUNCAN MCGREGOR Author of "Kennedy's Foe," ''lshiuael Kefonwe "A Gaiuo -jf Three,'' "Kdna'tJ Peril." Etc, etc.

"I have been very soundly asleep," said Pauline; "but my hea'l aches i;nd is terribly heavy. It mus*; be that brandy in thn coffee I'll never l:;iv ; > any more of it." "No more, would J, my lady/' wnif3 L"cy; "it's a vilo doaa," "Cic't m.: some tea," said Pauline, ";u,(l 1 will not rise? until noon. Then I :-iul! tie quite well again." Afu'r this no word from Mrs iiv.fiiis about having. She wa3 industrious and devoted, wore a little iarger cap, and kept as much as possible out of the rector's sight. ! Life /lowfd on quetly enough, and hastily enough, yet there were two or three little incidents which Pauline noticed at the time, and recalled afterward when she was going very carefully ov.ev the history of these day:; for Lady Astraea. A raw morning having come in February, Pauline found it a convenient opportunity for going over the clostd rooms of the castle, according to Lady Astraea's directions, to search them for stray letters or papers or objects of interest for the cabinet. Mrs Bemis accompanied her, and Mrs Dobbs, the hcusepeepei.

In a high-ceiled and richly furbished bedroom on the S3uth of tie rectangular portion of the building, there was an odd appearance of some one having just left the place. On the. bed was a cloak of peculiar make, remarkable especially for a heavy cord and tassel of tarnished gold. On' the table lay a brush and razor. A pair of gentleman's buckled shoes lay near the hearth. A suit of clothes was thrown over a chair, and topped ny a hat of a fasnion some quarter of a century old. Mrs Dobbs marked Pauline's look of surprise. She said: "Eh, miss, it do look queer, don't it! Like as if one had but just gone out. And yet it is many a year since Lord Harcourt came and left; a flying viair, you may well say, for not two hours did he stop. WtU do I remember. It was duskfall of a February day, when Dobbs ana me we started at a crashing ring sn sudden and wild like that we all jumped up. There was four of us in tne servants' ball, and together w« went to ths door. There stood Lord Thomas —Mr .Harcourt he was up till then; he stood there with his man behind him, and my lord was dressed in thtse very clothae. His man carried a portmanttau. My Icrd t-poke up quiiiK :

'"Dobbs, have the carriage ready in an hour to take me to catch the Maiostone ccacn. My grandfather is dead. And, Dobbs, put the family here in mourning." '"Yts, my lord,' says Dobbs, over and aoove startled, for the old lord was but seventy, and lialc and stout. and we had all said like as not he'd see his centurv out.

"'Mrs Dubbs,' says my lord, "hand Timball that candle and show us up to my room in the south corridor. I must put on my mourning. And, Mrs Pobbs, send me a server with a biscuit and a piece of cold meat.' "And as he came up-stairs I heard him say to himself. ' "Taidn't look to be Lord Harcourt so soon.' "Well, he dressed and ate his bit of supper, and came down to find us in the hall waiting and the carriage before thE doo>". "'Mrs Dobbs," says he, 'take my south room key from Timball, and don't let any one go there until 1 come back.' I TO BE CONTINUED, i