THE DOUBLE SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9632, 26 October 1909, Page 2

THE DOUBLE SECRET.

CHAPTER Vlll.—Continued

Mrs Bemis then passed on, shut the door, and <ill was silent. As she disappeared a sudden thought of anguish rushed into Pauline s mind. "This woman is my mother!" This woman ! And this was her exchange for Charlotte Ormesbj! If she had ft It little filial emotion toward Charlotte Omesby to this woman she *elt less, ahe suspected her; she had watched her; she had warned Lady Lina against her. "Oh," she sighed, "it would not be so hard if 1 had feU drawn to her as Lina dots, hut Ido not. If she is my mother, there is some dreadful g eCre t, ' ' She ft It prompted to spring up, to rush into Mrs bemis' room, and cry out: "Who are you? And who am 17" Perhaps if she had done so, long complications wculd have been saved, but tiiis straight path was not marked out for her by fate. The long pelf-restrain taught by nursing Charlotte O.mseby had impressed Pauline's whole nature with prudence and reserve; even in such a bitter hour as this she could reason; she fel", that there vas one iieart wise and strong and true in which she could find refuge and help—the heart of Lady Aslraea. Here was a woman who could guide and console her. As the vast difference in character between Lady Astraea and this woman, whom she believed she must recognise as her long unknown mother, before her, her self-con-trol vanished for the moment, and she broke into a storm of sobs, which awoke her pretty companion. "Darling Pauline!" cried Lady Lina, drawing her back to her pillow. "Wlidt is the matter—have you had a frightful dream, or are you sick? Lie still, utar, you will take cold." Poor Pauline ! she allowd herself to be quitted and rose early in the morning to write to Lady Astraea thus:

"Can you fomp here? Will it be too much trouble? I do not know what to do. The curate has fallen in love with Lady Lina, and Mis Bemis, the assistant that 1 engaged for your work, .turns out to be a very . singult-r woman. Ihere is something: mysterious about lirr, and she has quite infatuated Lady Lina, and 1 fear for her influence. Something very strange happened last night, but that, I think, concerns me. and not Lady Lina." Two days after at dinner, a telegram was brought fiom Maidstone to Pauline. Lady Lina, with her usual frisknes?, chose to get excited over this, and jumping frotn her seat ran and read the despatch aloud over Miss Percy's shoulder: "I will be at Maidstone to-morrow, at three. Send the carriage to the station. "Astraea IL" "My venerable grandmama coming here 1 My goodnea.i! what have I been doing? Pauline, what have you been telling her? Aunt V, what brings my grandmama here?" The next morning Pauline found a letter on plate: "Dear Miss Percy: News which reached me late last night obliges me to go away in haste. I did not like to disturb you so eaily this morning. I shall send a carrier from Maidstont for my box. I am taking a fly from the inn, the Holme Arms. Dear Miss Percv, I shall ever hold in grateful remembrance your undeserved goodness toward me. Your humbly,

"A. Bemis.'" Pauline read the letter once, and then read it aloud.

"Gnnei" cried Lady Lina. "PossibleJ Why, what a queer idea, and in such haste. She might have explained/'

"I'm very sorry," said Mrs Hooper, "she was so obliging." "I'm very glad," said Mrs Vilthorpe, looking daggers at Pauline. "I do not enjoy having servants thrust into ray company." At evening arrived Lady Astraea, and was met at the door by the whde household. Distributing her greetings to each in proper turn, she took Pauline in her arms after Lady Lina, and Mrs Vilthorpe, and whispered, as she kissed her: > "where is this Mrs Beniis?" "She has gone) left before breaksfast, "replied Pauline softly. "Most unfortunate! Did she know of my coming?" "Unhappily Lady Lina read your despatch aloud in her presence. Even her box went before noon to-day.'' Having remained at the castle two days, and learned all that Pauline could tell her, Lady Astraea informed Miss Percy that she intended to return at once to London un business, and that she had pent a telegram to Lord Harcourt requesting him to come and take charge of hi 3 daughter during that absence. "I have asked Lina," said her ladyship, "what she knows about this widow, but you might as well question a two-year-old child! lie knows nothing of Mrs Bemi3; never did know anything of her; liked her well enough, and thought her just like most other people. Now, Pauline, do not think that this person is your mother. X think she is a woman whom I have great cause to fear as having a wish to influence and injure my granddaughter. Maybe the beauty, nnocence, and affeetionateness of he girl affected her; perhaps her

BY DUNCAN McQREGOR Author of "Kennedy's Foe," '•lshimiel Eeforroe "A Game of Three," "Edict's Peril," Etc., etc.

words spoken in sleep referred to facts in her own history, which, if told, would set Lina on her guard against her." "I hope you msy be right," said Pa'iline. "I *do not want such a mother. In truth, I do not want anv mother whom 1 am likely to find. Lady Astraea, sometimes it seems more than I can endure to face life with the burden on me of my nameless and suspicious origin." "I have great faith in blood," said Lady Astraea, "and knowing what you are, I believe you will find a par entage at which you will have no cause to blush." The trains between Maidstone and London, which carried Lord Harcourt and Lady Astraea in opposite direction?, passed each other. His lordship came back, with a glowing face, to his long-deserted castle, but that gloom lightened on meeting Miss Percy, with whom he fell into his former kindly relations. x The next , morning at eleven o'clock a hackney coach turned into the Temple Inn. Lady Astraea, follwed by Mrs Birkin, climbed the dusty stairs to the abodes of legal knowledge, and entered the chambers of Allan Bird.

CHAPTER IX. LORD HARCOURT FLIES FROM THE SECRET. The carriage driven by Dobb?, which hart taken Lady Astraea to the Maidstone depot, waited for the train bringing Lord Thomas Harcourt to the estate, which he had not visited for 21 years. As a boy, Medway banks had been his dearest rest; they were bright with memories of an innocent childhood, but over their brightness had settled the cloud of the one great error that sullied an otherwise upright life. Led by the thoughtlessness of youth and the evil counsel of a companion, Thomas Harcourt, before bis accession to the title and estate, had to blame himself for a long course of deception. for broken vows, for an honest man's heart saddened, and a woman's life —"like sweet strings jangled out of tune.' -

Maturity realises • the immense extent ot such departures from the paths of right. Lord Harcourt looked back upon his ways, and r.ow that he was unbiased by the glamour of passion, he loathed his iD-doing. He was now » father, and his anxieties for the captious beauty, object of so much Jove, pride and care, and his secret feeling that vengeance for the sins of his youth would overtake him in her, caused him yet further to condemn himself. The sins of the fathers pursue their children. As he looked ovtr the lovely landscape near his,cattle, lie remembered that here he had plighttd faith to a young beauty, whom pride of birth had caused him to abandon He remembered that in their last stormy interview she had sworn to be revenged on Harcourt pride. For many years he ha-d felt sure how that vengeance would fall—in beguiling his daughter to some disgrace . I TO BK OONTINtIED. i