THE DOUBLE SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9628, 21 October 1909, Page 2

THE DOUBLE SECRET.

CHAPTEIC Vll.—Continued,

"Say I; 'Mo, my lord; and, my Lord, we all feel very easy in our minds that the dear old lord is succeeded by such a gentleman as you, and we hope to serve you faithful." "And I noticed, as he went out, hisliead was up, and his step was different, and his whole air had altered—he looked bo'much prouder like; hut he'd always expected to be Lord Harcourt -his father had been dead four years. He didn't come back, and for a year no one dared enter this room. Since then, I've took the liberty of airing and dusting jt twice a year, and he has never come hack since. When I clean ud, I leaves things just as he left them, for Lord Harcourt isn't a man to trifle with, mus."

This story of Lord Harcourt's, youth had interested Pauline; now that it was finished she turned to leave the rcom, and, ts her surprise saw Mrs Bt j mis lying on the foot of the bed in a swoon, the cord of the cloak clutched in her unconscious hand.

"It's the close air!" cried Mrs Dobbs, lifting the widow into the corridor, and applying and rubbing her hand. Indeed the widow herself said, when she revived, that it was the close air that had overcome her, and Mrs Dobbs said it would soon be the time when she sunned and aired that room.

Another little incident over which Pauline wondered was that she found in a desk among som«\ letters one signed "Morecomb.'*

"Here," she said, "is a new name, and yet I think I have heard it somewhere. Morecomb! Mrs Hooper, did you know any one of t! e family named Morecomb? But I think this is of no consequence. It Is merely a note. I will lea\e it here; ptrhaps I shall rind others of that name." She tossud the letter toward the table, and it fell on the floor near Mrs Bemis, who did not seem to see it; but turning an instant after, Pauline fairly caught her breath at that innocent person's mien.

The widow, with clenched teeth, and quivering nostrils, seemed to be grinding this idle letter und«r her heel, while flames sparkled from ejes that had change their gentle hues for fire-shot green. Was she a maniac? but Pauline exclaimed simply enough: "Mrs Bemis, you are trampling on one of my letters I" Mrs Bemis bent ovsr.

"Ah! pardon. Was there not a there? I am so afraid of spiders."

She laid the rumpled letter on the desk. The third incident almost reeolved Pauline to part company with the widow. Miss Percy was resting herself by* pacing on the terrace just near the window where Mrs Bemis worked. The girl was bending over a cluster of put pie and gold crocuses which were gracing the last hours of February, when looking o»er her shoulder she was sure that-she saw her assistant reading a letter which Pauline had that morning received from Lady Astraea, and which she *had left on the portfolio. Mrs Bemis was reading it with intense interest. But when Pauline went in hastily the letter was so f-r from this woman, who was diligently binding s bcok, and who so innocently said she "supposed the letter must be where Miss Percy left it," that the girl began to believe herself mistaken. Shortly after this a letter from Lady Lina disappeared altogether, soon after it had been received. Meantime Pauline had resumed her walks with the old rector, and returning from such a walk one day while Mrs Bemis had been keeping Mrs Hooper company, she found the dinner only waiting for her to be served.. During dinner Pauline watched the wi'dow incessantly, and when the three had returned to the drawing-room, Mrs Hooper was nodding by the fire and Mrs Bemis was sewing, Pauline said abruptly: "Mrs Bemis, this afternoon I walked in the churchyard with Father Rowley, and somehow we got over Dy the north corner of the yard, and by the grave under the yew-tree, and the rector said to me, •this is the grave of Gervase Lewis, our organist.'"

Was it unkind of Pauline? She felt that it was when the widow shivered as if she had been struck a violent blow, bowed her head, and said nothing, but dropped her work, and presently bade "good-night" and walked up-stairs. That night Mrs Bemis packed her trunk and satchel. Thet next morning she came to the table in travel ling-dress. Pauline greeted her kindly, she was opening her letters. "Mrs Hooper," exclaimed Pauline, "dear Lady Lina comes here next week. What a singular fancy in the very midst of the season." Mrs Bemis went up-stairs and unpacked her trunk.

CHAPTER Vlir. THE SECRET DISTURBS LADY ASTRAEA. An early spring was brightening the country about Marke Holme; crocus-bells of white, gold, and purple, snow drops striped with white and green, daisies with red tips,

BY DUNCAN McGREGOR Author of "Kennedy's Foe," '-Ishnmel Eeforine "A Game of Three," "Edna's Peril," Etc., etc.

and tne evanescent bloom of pale purple anemones, made the parterres of the castle beautiful; while in the ivy mantles of the church and of the round tower, hundreds of velvetybrown 3parrows congratulated, gossiped and complained. The fir trees put on a fresher green; in the mossy dells the nraken unfurled its late veiled banners; the oak wood put forth a million buds, while trunk and branch and twig shone silver green against the rosy sky.

Medway, whose marge had been ssre, and whose winter floods had been brown ana wide, subdued itself to greet the coming of the spring, and in t the first March days rippled bright and clear, while swallows and bluebirds darted about between its newly clad banks.

Ob, happy resurrection of the year .* all things began their lives anew. Dame Hooper worked up to aay that the country was lovely, and serenely paced the terrace in the brightness lingering afcer dinner; the aged rector brushed back his gray locks, straightened , himself, discussed the reasons why the sap runs up tne tree, and why the leaf grows green, and read the service in a heartier tone, Mrs Bemi«grew young apace; her cheek took a soft flush: the light of joy and expectation ahone in her dark blue eyes; she grew in Dame Hooper's favour, and Pauline forgot her fears and her suspicions, Ted, the -gardener's uncouth lad, found himself on a March morning seventeen and a man; he also fouud himself in love—in love ' with Miss Percy's maid, Lucy. Ted bought bear's grease for his hair, biacked his boots every morning, and wore his best coat every day. As for Lucy she had on long dresses, being now nearly sixteen; she dressed her hair in a far away imitation of her mistress; asked Pauline if she might wear a blue ribbon at her neck; and the cap which Mrs Hooper insisted on her using looked like a morning glory of quilted white muslin, with a blue ribbon butterf.y upon the top. And so Lucy accepted in a spirit of 'charity the bouquets which Ted brought her, leaned out of the laundry window to chat with him when she should have been doing up Miss Percy's ruffles, and took moonlight walks with her young adorer in the romantic retreats of the kitchen garden. Meanwhile Mrs Dobbs opened ard sunned, and aired, swept and dusted the closed rooms of the castle, and made ready the han somest room in the inhabited portion for the daughter of the house. Sunny-hairtd and blue-eyed, bringiig jests and laughter, with wafts of fragrance, and a prevailing impression of pink an d white bloom, as if the "wind from the Western sea" had borne along, a handful of apple bl ssoms, Lady Lina came to the castle, brilliant as an April day; but, as April days bring often their clouds and fretting showers, Lady Lina brought her, cloud Of discontent in the person of her Aunt Vilthorpe, unchaperoned by whom she was not permitted to leave the ; guardian care of father and grandmama. Up rolled the carriage from the lodge about 10 o'clock in the morn ing, and out of the carriage darted Lady Lina into the arms of "her dearest Pauline," who, with Dame Hooper, stood on the first terrace, and round the corner of the well peeped Ted to see the glorious object of his humble*adoration. I TO BK CONTINUED.!