diff options
Diffstat (limited to '42100-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 42100-0.txt | 18592 |
1 files changed, 18592 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/42100-0.txt b/42100-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..66a486f --- /dev/null +++ b/42100-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18592 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42100 *** + +CONTENTS + + The Bride of the Tomb; or, Lancelot Darling's Betrothed + Chapter I. + Chapter II. + Chapter III. + Chapter IV. + Chapter V. + Chapter VI. + Chapter VII. + Chapter VIII. + Chapter IX. + Chapter X. + Chapter XI. + Chapter XII. + Chapter XIII. + Chapter XIV. + Chapter XV. + Chapter XVI. + Chapter XVII. + Chapter XVIII. + Chapter XIX. + Chapter XX. + Chapter XXI. + Chapter XXII. + Chapter XXIII. + Chapter XXIV. + Chapter XXV. + Chapter XXVI. + Chapter XXVII. + Chapter XXVIII. + Chapter XXIX. + Chapter XXX. + Chapter XXXI. + Chapter XXXII. + Chapter XXXIII. + Chapter XXXIV. + Chapter XXXV. + Chapter XXXVI. + Chapter XXXVII. + Chapter XXXVIII. + Chapter XXXIX. + Chapter XL. + + Queenie's Terrible Secret; or, A Young Girl's Strange Fate + Chapter I. + Chapter II. + Chapter III. + Chapter IV. + Chapter V. + Chapter VI. + Chapter VII. + Chapter VIII. + Chapter IX. + Chapter X. + Chapter XI. + Chapter XII. + Chapter XIII. + Chapter XIV. + Chapter XV. + Chapter XVI. + Chapter XVII. + Chapter XVIII. + Chapter XIX. + Chapter XX. + Chapter XXI. + Chapter XXII. + Chapter XXIII. + Chapter XXIV. + Chapter XXV. + Chapter XXVI. + Chapter XXVII. + Chapter XXVIII. + Chapter XXIX. + Chapter XXX. + Chapter XXXI. + Chapter XXXII. + Chapter XXXIII. + Chapter XXXIV. + Chapter XXXV. + Chapter XXXVI. + Chapter XXXVII. + Chapter XXXVIII. + Chapter XXXIX. + Chapter XL. + Chapter XLI. + Chapter XLII. + Chapter XLIII. + + + + + EAGLE SERIES No. 426 + + + THE BRIDE OF THE TOMB + AND + QUEENIE'S TERRIBLE SECRET + + [Illustration] + + BY + MRS. ALEX. M^cVEIGH MILLER + + STREET & SMITH × PUBLISHERS × NEW YORK + + + + +_The Eagle Series_ + +_OF POPULAR FICTION_ + + _Principally Copyrights._ _Elegant Colored Covers_ + + +This is the pioneer line of copyright novels. Its popularity has +increased with every number, until, at the present time, it stands +unrivaled as regards sales and contents. + +It is composed, mainly, of popular copyrighted titles which cannot be +had in any other lines at any price. The authors, as far as literary +ability and reputation are concerned, represent the foremost men and +women of their time. The books, without exception, are of entrancing +interest, and manifestly those most desired by the American reading +public. A purchase of two or three of these books at random, will make +you a firm believer that there is no line of novels which can compare +favorably with the EAGLE SERIES. + +PUBLISHED EVERY WEEK + + + =To be Published During May= + + 466--Love, the Victor By a Popular Southern Author + + =To be Published During April= + + =465--Outside Her Eden= =By Mrs. Harriet Lewis= + =464--The Old Life's Shadows= =By Mrs. Harriet Lewis= + =463--A Wife's Triumph= =By Effie Adelaide Rowlands= + 462--A Stormy Wedding By Mary E. Bryan + + =To be Published During March= + + 461--Above All Things By Adelaide Stirling + =460--Dr. Jack's Talisman= =By St. George Rathborne= + 459--A Golden Mask By Charlotte M. Stanley + =458--When Love Meets Love= =By Charles Garvice= + + =To be Published During February= + + =457--Adrift in the World= =By Mrs. Harriet Lewis= + =456--A Vixen's Treachery= =By Mrs. Harriet Lewis= + =455--Love's Greatest Gift= =By Effie Adelaide Rowlands= + 454--Love's Probation By Elizabeth Olmis + + =To be Published During January= + + 453--A Poor Girl's Passion By Gertrude Warden + 452--The Last of the Van Slacks By Edward S. Van Zile + =451--Helen's Triumph= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + =450--Rosamond's Love= =By Mrs. Harriet Lewis= + =449--The Bailiff's Scheme= =By Mrs. Harriet Lewis= + + * * * * * + + 448--When Love Dawns By Adelaide Stirling + =447--A Favorite of Fortune= =By St. George Rathborne= + 446--Bound with Love's Fetters By Mary Grace Halpine + =445--An Angel of Evil= =By Effie Adelaide Rowlands= + 444--Love's Trials By Alfred R. Calhoun + 443--In Spite of Proof By Gertrude Warden + 442--Love Before Duty By Mrs. L. T. Meade + 441--A Princess of the Stage By Nataly von Eschstruth + =440--Edna's Secret Marriage= =By Charles Garvice= + 439--Little Nan By Mary A. Denison + =438--So Like a Man= =By Effie Adelaide Rowlands= + 437--The Breach of Custom By Mrs. D. M. Lowrey + =436--The Rival Toreadors= =By St. George Rathborne= + 435--Under Oath By Jean Kate Ludlum + 434--The Guardian's Trust By Mary A. Denison + =433--Winifred's Sacrifice= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 432--Breta's Double By Helen V. Greyson + =431--Her Husband and Her Love,= =By Effie Adelaide Rowlands= + 430--The Honor of a Heart By Mary J. Safford + 429--A Fair Fraud By Emily Lovett Cameron + 428--A Tramp's Daughter By Hazel Wood + =427--A Wizard of the Moors= =By St. George Rathborne= + 426--The Bride of the Tomb and Queenie's Terrible Secret, + By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller + 425--A College Widow By Frank H. Howe + =424--A Splendid Man= =By Effie Adelaide Rowlands= + 423--A Woman's Way By Capt. Frederick Whittaker + 422--Lady Kildare By Mrs. Harriet Lewis + 421--Her Sweet Reward By Barbara Kent + 420--A Sweet Little Lady By Gertrude Warden + =419--The Other Woman= =By Charles Garvice= + 418--An Insignificant Woman By W. Heimburg + =417--Brave Barbara= =By Effie Adelaide Rowlands= + =416--Down in Dixie= =By St. George Rathborne= + =415--Trixy= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 414--A Girl's First Love By Elizabeth C. Winter + 413--Were They Married? By Hazel Wood + 412--The Love That Lives By Capt. Fred'k Whittaker + 411--Fettered and Freed By Eugene Charvette + 410--Miss Mischief By W. Heimburg + =409--A Girl's Kingdom= =By Effie Adelaide Rowlands= + 408--On a False Charge By Seward W. Hopkins + =407--Esther, the Fright= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + =406--Felipe's Pretty Sister= =By St. George Rathborne= + 405--The Haunted Husband By Mrs. Harriet Lewis + 404--The Captive Bride By Capt. Fred'k Whittaker + 403--The Rival Suitors By J. H. Connelly + 402--A Silent Heroine By Mrs. D. M. Lowrey + 401--The Woman Who Came Between Effie Adelaide Rowlands + 400--For Another's Wrong By W. Heimburg + =399--Betsey's Transformation= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 398--Cupid's Disguise By Fanny Lewald + 397--A Gilded Promise By Walter Bloomfield + =396--Back to Old Kentucky= =By St. George Rathborne= + 395--Wooing a Widow By E. A. King + 394--A Drama of a Life By Jean Kate Ludlum + 393--On the Wings of Fate By Effie Adelaide Rowlands + 392--A Resurrected Love By Seward W. Hopkins + =391--Marguerite's Heritage= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 390--A Mutual Vow By Harold Payne + 389--Sundered Hearts By Mrs. Harriet Lewis + 388--Two Wives By Hazel Wood + 387--A Heroine's Plot By Katherine S. MacQuoid + 386--Teddy's Enchantress By St. George Rathborne + 385--A Woman Against Her By Effie Adelaide Rowlands + 384--Yet She Loved Him By Mrs. Kate Vaughn + 383--A Lover From Across the Sea By Mary J. Safford + =382--Mona= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 381--The Sunshine of Love By Mrs. Harriet Lewis + 380--Her Double Life By Mrs. Harriet Lewis + 379--Blinded by Love By Nataly Von Eschstruth + 378--John Winthrop's Defeat By Jean Kate Ludlum + 377--Forever True By Effie Adelaide Rowlands + =376--The Red Slipper= =By St. George Rathborne= + 375--Transgressing the Law By Capt. Fred'k Whittaker + 374--True Daughter of Hartenstein By Mary J. Safford + =373--A Thorn Among Roses= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + =372--A Girl in a Thousand= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 371--Cecil Rosse By Mrs. Harriet Lewis + 370--Edith Trevor's Secret By Mrs. Harriet Lewis + 369--At a Great Cost By Effie Adelaide Rowlands + =368--The Pride of Her Life= =By Charles Garvice= + 367--Hearts and Coronets By Jane G. Fuller + =366--Comrades In Exile= =By St. George Rathborne= + 365--Under a Cloud By Jean Kate Ludlum + 364--A Fool's Paradise By Mary Grace Halpine + 363--The Opposite House By Nataly Von Eschstruth + =362--Stella Rosevelt= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + =361--The Ashes of Love= =By Charles Garvice= + 360--An Only Daughter By Hazel Wood + 359--The Spectre's Secret By Sylvanus Cobb, Jr. + 358--Beryl's Husband By Mrs. Harriet Lewis + =357--Montezuma's Mines= =By St. George Rathborne= + 356--Little Kit By Effie Adelaide Rowlands + 355--Wife and Woman By Mary J. Safford + =354--A Love Comedy= =By Charles Garvice= + 353--Family Pride, Vol. II. By Mary J. Holmes + 352--Family Pride, Vol. I. By Mary J. Holmes + =351--The Churchyard Betrothal= =By Mrs. G. Sheldon= + 350--A Wronged Wife By Mary Grace Halpine + 349--Marion Grey By Mary J. Holmes + =348--My Florida Sweetheart= =By St. George Rathborne= + =347--The Eyes of Love= =By Charles Garvice= + 346--Guy Tresillian's Fate By Mrs. Harriet Lewis + 345--Tresillian Court By Mrs. Harriet Lewis + 344--Leah's Mistake By Mrs. H. C. Hoffman + 343--Little Sunshine By Adah M. Howard + 342--Her Little Highness By Nataly von Eschstruth + 341--Bad Hugh, Vol. II. By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes + 340--Bad Hugh, Vol. I. By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes + =339--His Heart's Queen= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + =338--A Daughter of Russia= =By St. George Rathborne= + 337--Dear Elsie By Mary J. Safford + 336--Rose Mather By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes + 335--We Parted at the Altar By Laura Jean Libbey + 334--Miss McDonald By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes + =333--Stella's Fortune= =By Charles Garvice= + (The Sculptor's Wooing) + 332--Darkness and Daylight By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes + 331--Christine By Adeline Sergeant + 330--Aikenside By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes + =329--My Hildegarde= =By St. George Rathborne= + =328--He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not= =By Charles Garvice= + (Valeria) + 327--Was She Wife or Widow? By Malcolm Bell + 326--Parted by Fate By Laura Jean Libbey + 325--The Leighton Homestead By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes + 324--A Love Match By Sylvanus Cobb, Jr. + 323--The Little Countess By S. E. Boggs + 322--Mildred By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes + 321--Neva's Three Lovers By Mrs. Harriet Lewis + =320--Mynheer Joe= =By St. George Rathborne= + 319--Millbank By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes + =318--Staunch of Heart= =By Charles Garvice= + (Adrien Le Roy) + 317--Ione By Laura Jean Libbey + 316--Edith Lyle's Secret By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes + 315--The Dark Secret By May Agnes Fleming + 314--A Maid's Fatal Love By Helen Corwin Pierce + 313--A Kinsman's Sin By Effie Adelaide Rowlands + =312--Woven on Fate's Loom= =By Charles Garvice= + (And Farmer Holt's Daughter) + =311--Wedded by Fate= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 310--A Late Repentance By Mary A. Denison. + 309--The Heiress of Castle Cliffe By May Agnes Fleming. + 308--Lady Ryhope's Lover By Emma Garrison Jones. + =307--The Winning of Isolde= =By St. George Rathborne= + 306--Love's Golden Rule By Geraldine Fleming. + =305--Led by Love= =By Charles Garvice= + =304--Staunch as a Woman= =By Charles Garvice= + (A Maiden's Sacrifice) + 303--The Queen of the Isle By May Agnes Fleming. + 302--When Man's Love Fades By Hazel Wood. + 301--The False and the True By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. + =300--The Spider and the Fly= =By Charles Garvice= + (Violet) + =299--Little Miss Whirlwind= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 298--Should She Have Left Him? By William C. Hudson. + 297--That Girl from Texas By Mrs. J. H. Walworth. + =296--The Heir of Vering= =By Charles Garvice= + 295--A Terrible Secret By Geraldine Fleming. + =294--A Warrior Bold= =By St. George Rathborne= + 293--For Love of Anne Lambart By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. + =292--For Her Only= =By Charles Garvice= + (Diana) + =291--A Mysterious Wedding Ring=, =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 290--A Change of Heart By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. + 289--Married in Mask By Mansfield T. Walworth. + =288--Sibyl's Influence= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + =287--The Lady of Darracourt= =By Charles Garvice= + 286--A Debt of Vengeance By Mrs. E. Burke Collins. + 285--Born to Betray By Mrs. M. V. Victor. + =284--Dr. Jack's Widow= =By St. George Rathborne= + =283--My Lady Pride= =By Charles Garvice= + (Floris) + =282--The Forsaken Bride= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 281--For Love Alone By Wenona Gilman. + =280--Love's Dilemma= =By Charles Garvice= + (For an Earldom) + 279--Nina's Peril By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 278--Laura Brayton By Julia Edwards. + =277--Brownie's Triumph= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + =276--So Nearly Lost= =By Charles Garvice= + (The Springtime of Love) + 275--Love's Cruel Whim By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. + 274--A Romantic Girl By Evelyn E. Green. + =273--At Swords Points= =By St. George Rathborne= + =272--So Fair, So False= =By Charles Garvice= + (The Beauty of the Season) + 271--With Love's Laurel Crowned By W. C. Stiles. + 270--Had She Foreseen By Dora Delmar. + 269--Brunette and Blonde By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + =268--Olivia; or, It Was for Her Sake= =By Charles Garvice= + =267--Jeanne= =By Charles Garvice= + (Barriers Between) + 266--The Welfleet Mystery By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon. + 265--First Love is Best By S. K. Hocking. + 264--For Gold or Soul By Lurana W. Sheldon. + =263--An American Nabob= =By St. George Rathborne= + 262--A Woman's Faith By Henry Wallace. + 261--A Siren's Heart By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. + 260--At a Girl's Mercy By Jean Kate Ludlum. + 259--By a Golden Cord By Dora Delmar. + 258--An Amazing Marriage By Mrs. Sumner Hayden. + =257--A Martyred Love= =By Charles Garvice= + (Iris; or, Under the Shadow) + 256--Thy Name is Woman By F. H. Howe. + =255--The Little Marplot= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + =254--Little Miss Millions= =By St. George Rathborne= + 253--A Fashionable Marriage By Mrs. Alex. Frazer. + 252--A Handsome Sinner By Dora Delmar. + 251--When Love is True By Mabel Collins. + =250--A Woman's Soul= =By Charles Garvice= + (Doris; or, Behind the Footlights) + 249--What Love Will Do By Geraldine Fleming. + 248--Jeanne, Countess Du Barry By H. L. Williams. + 247--Within Love's Portals By Frank Barrett. + 246--True to Herself By Mrs. J. H. Walworth. + 245--A Modern Marriage By Clara Lanza. + =244--A Hoiden's Conquest= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 243--His Double Self By Scott Campbell. + =242--A Wounded Heart= =By Charles Garvice= + (Sweet As a Rose) + 241--Her Love and Trust By Adeline Sergeant. + =240--Saved by the Sword= =By St. George Rathborne= + 239--Don Cæsar De Bazan By Victor Hugo. + 238--That Other Woman By Annie Thomas. + 237--Woman or Witch? By Dora Delmar. + =236--Her Humble Lover= =By Charles Garvice= + (The Usurper; or, The Gipsy Peer) + 235--Gratia's Trials By Lucy Randall Comfort. + 234--His Mother's Sin By Adeline Sergeant. + =233--Nora= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 232--A Debt of Honor By Mabel Collins. + =231--The Earl's Heir= =By Charles Garvice= + (Lady Norah) + 230--A Woman's Atonement, and A Mother's Mistake, By Adah M. Howard. + 229--For the Sake of the Family By May Crommelin. + 228--His Brother's Widow By Mary Grace Halpine. + 227--For Love and Honor By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. + 226--The Roll of Honor By Annie Thomas. + 225--A Miserable Woman By Mrs. H. C. Hoffman. + 224--A Sister's Sacrifice By Geraldine Fleming. + =223--Leola Dale's Fortune= =By Charles Garvice= + =222--The Lily of Mordaunt= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 221--The Honorable Jane By Annie Thomas. + 220--A Fatal Past By Dora Russell. + =219--Lost, A Pearle= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon.= + 218--A Life for a Love By Mrs. L. T. Meade. + 217--His Noble Wife By George Manville Fenn. + 216--The Lost Bride By Clara Augusta. + =215--Only a Girl's Love= =By Charles Garvice= + 214--Olga's Crime By Frank Barrett. + 213--The Heiress of Egremont By Mrs. Harriet Lewis. + 212--Doubly Wronged By Adah M. Howard. + 211--As We Forgive By Lurana W. Sheldon. + =210--Wild Oats= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 209--She Loved but Left Him By Julia Edwards. + =208--A Chase for a Bride= =By St. George Rathborne= + 207--Little Golden's Daughter By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 206--A Daughter of Maryland By G. Waldo Browne. + 205--If Love Be Love By D. Cecil Gibbs. + 204--With Heart So True By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. + =203--Only One Love= =By Charles Garvice= + 202--Marjorie By Katharine S. MacQuoid. + 201--Blind Elsie's Crime By Mary Grace Halpine. + 200--In God's Country By D. Higbee. + =199--Geoffrey's Victory= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 198--Guy Kenmore's Wife, and The Rose and the Lily, + By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 197--A Woman Scorned By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. + =196--A Sailor's Sweetheart= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 195--Her Faithful Knight By Gertrude Warden. + 194--A Sinless Crime By Geraldine Fleming. + 193--A Vagabond's Honor By Ernest De Lancey Pierson. + 192--An Old Man's Darling and Jacquelina, By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 191--A Harvest of Thorns By Mrs. H. C. Hoffman. + 190--A Captain of the Kaiser By St. George Rathborne. + 189--Berris By Katharine S. MacQuoid. + =188--Dorothy Arnold's Escape= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 187--The Black Ball By Ernest De Lancey Pierson. + 186--Beneath a Spell By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. + 185--The Adventures of Miss Volney By Ella Wheeler Wilcox. + 184--Sunlight and Gloom By Geraldine Fleming. + 183--Quo Vadis By Henryk Sienkiewicz. + 182--A Legal Wreck By William Gillette. + 181--The Baronet's Bride By May Agnes Fleming. + 180--A Lazy Man's Work By Frances Campbell Sparhawk. + 179--One Man's Evil By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. + 178--A Slave of Circumstances By Ernest De Lancey Pierson. + =177--A True Aristocrat= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 176--Jack Gordon, Knight Errant By William C. Hudson. + (Barclay North) + 175--For Honor's Sake By Laura C. Ford. + =174--His Guardian Angel= =By Charles Garvice= + =173--A Bar Sinister= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + =172--A King and a Coward= =By Effie Adelaide Rowlands.= + 171--That Dakota Girl By Stella Gilman. + 170--A Little Radical By Mrs. J. H. Walworth. + 169--The Trials of an Actress By Wenona Gilman. + 168--Thrice Lost, Thrice Won By May Agnes Fleming. + 167--The Manhattaners By Edward S. Van Zile. + =166--The Masked Bridal= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 165--The Road of the Rough By Maurice M. Minton. + 164--Couldn't Say No By the author of Helen's Babies. + 163--A Splendid Egotist By Mrs. J. H. Walworth. + 162--A Man of the Name of John By Florence King. + =161--Miss Fairfax of Virginia= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 160--His Way and Her Will By Frances Aymar Mathews. + 159--A Fair Maid of Marblehead By Kate Tannatt Woods. + 158--Stella the Star By Wenona Gilman. + 157--Who Wins? By May Agnes Fleming. + 156--A Soldier Lover By Edward S. Brooks. + =155--Nameless Dell= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 154--Husband and Foe By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. + 153--Her Son's Wife By Hazel Wood. + 152--A Mute Confessor By Will N. Harben. + 151--The Heiress of Glen Gower By May Agnes Fleming. + 150--Sunset Pass By General Charles King. + 149--The Man She Loved By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. + 148--Will She Win? By Emma Garrison Jones. + =147--Under Egyptian Skies= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 146--Magdalen's Vow By May Agnes Fleming. + 145--Country Lanes and City Pavements By Maurice M. Minton. + =144--Dorothy's Jewels= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 143--A Charity Girl By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. + =142--Her Rescue from the Turks=, =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 141--Lady Evelyn By May Agnes Fleming. + 140--That Girl of Johnson's By Jean Kate Ludlum. + 139--Little Lady Charles By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. + 138--A Fatal Wooing By Laura Jean Libbey. + 137--A Wedded Widow By T. W. Hanshew. + 136--The Unseen Bridegroom By May Agnes Fleming. + 135--Cast Up by the Tide By Dora Delmar. + =134--Squire John= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + =133--Max= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 132--Whose Was the Crime? By Gertrude Warden. + 131--Nerine's Second Choice By Adelaide Stirling. + =130--A Passion Flower= =By Charles Garvice= + (Madge) + 129--In Sight of St. Paul's By Sutton Vane. + 128--The Scent of the Roses By Dora Delmar. + 127--Nobody's Daughter By Clara Augusta. + =126--The Girl from Hong-Kong= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 125--Devil's Island By A. D. Hall. + 124--Prettiest of All By Julia Edwards. + 123--Northern Lights By A. D. Hall. + =122--Grazia's Mistake= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 121--Cecile's Marriage By Lucy Randall Comfort. + 120--The White Squadron By T. C. Harbaugh. + =119--'Twixt Smile and Tear= =By Charles Garvice= + (Dulcie) + 118--Saved from the Sea By Richard Duffy. + =117--She Loved Him= =By Charles Garvice= + 116--The Daughter of the Regiment By Mary A. Denison. + =115--A Fair Revolutionist= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 114--Half a Truth By Dora Delmar. + 113--A Crushed Lily By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 112--The Cattle King By A. D. Hall. + =111--Faithful Shirley= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 110--Whose Wife Is She? By Annie Lisle. + =109--Signa's Sweetheart= =By Charles Garvice= + (Lord Delamere's Bride) + =108--A Son of Mars= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 107--Carla: or, Married at Sight By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. + 106--Lillian, My Lillian By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 105--When London Sleeps By Chas. Darrell. + 104--A Proud Dishonor By Genie Holzmeyer. + 103--The Span of Life By Sutton Vane. + =102--Sweet Cymbeline= =By Charles Garvice= + (Bellmaire) + =101--A Goddess of Africa= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 100--Alice Blake By Francis S. Smith. + =99--Audrey's Recompense= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + =98--Claire= =By Charles Garvice= + (The Mistress of Court Regna) + 97--The War Reporter By Warren Edwards. + 96--The Little Minister By J. M. Barrie. + =95--A Wilful Maid= =By Charles Garvice= + (Philippa) + 94--Darkest Russia By H. Gratton Donnelly. + 93--A Queen of Treachery By T. W. Hanshew. + 92--Humanity By Sutton Vane. + 91--Sweet Violet By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 90--For Fair Virginia By Russ Whytal. + 89--A Gentleman from Gascony By Bicknell Dudley. + =88--Virgie's Inheritance= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 87--Shenandoah By J. Perkins Tracy. + 86--A Widowed Bride By Lucy Randall Comfort. + =85--Lorrie: or, Hollow Gold= =By Charles Garvice= + =84--Imogene= =By Charles Garvice= + (Dumaresq's Temptation) + 83--The Locksmith of Lyons By Prof. Wm. Henry Peck. + 82--Captain Impudence By Edwin Milton Royle. + 81--Wedded for an Hour By Emma Garrison Jones. + =80--The Fair Maid of Fez= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + =79--Out of the Past= =By Charles Garvice= + (Marjorie) + 78--The Yankee Champion By Sylvanus Cobb, Jr. + =77--Tina= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 76--Mavourneen From the celebrated play. + 75--Under Fire By T. P. James. + 74--The Cotton King By Sutton Vane. + =73--The Marquis= =By Charles Garvice= + 72--Wilful Winnie By Harriet Sherburne + =71--The Spider's Web= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + =70--Sydney= =By Charles Garvice= + (A Wilful Young Woman) + 69--His Perfect Trust By a popular author. + 68--The Little Cuban Rebel By Edna Winfield. + 67--Gismonda By Victorien Sardou. + =66--Witch Hazel= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 65--Won by the Sword By J. Perkins Tracy. + 64--Dora Tenney By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 63--Lawyer Bell from Boston By Robert Lee Tyler. + 62--Stella Stirling By Julia Edwards. + 61--La Tosca By Victorien Sardou. + =60--The County Fair= =From the celebrated play= + 59--Gladys Greye By Bertha M. Clay. + =58--Major Matterson of Kentucky= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 57--Rosamond By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 56--The Dispatch Bearer By Warren Edwards. + =55--Thrice Wedded= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 54--Cleopatra By Victorien Sardou. + 53--The Old Homestead By Denman Thompson. + 52--Woman Against Woman By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. + 51--The Price He Paid By E. Werner. + =50--Her Ransom= =By Charles Garvice= + (Paid For) + 49--None But the Brave By Robert Lee Tyler. + 48--Another Man's Wife By Bertha M. Clay. + =47--The Colonel by Brevet= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 46--Off with the Old Love By Mrs. M. V. Victor. + 45--A Yale Man By Robert Lee Tyler. + =44--That Dowdy= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 43--Little Coquette Bonnie By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 42--Another Woman's Husband By Bertha M. Clay. + =41--Her Heart's Desire= =By Charles Garvice= + (An Innocent Girl) + =40--Monsieur Bob= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 39--The Colonel's Wife By Warren Edwards. + =38--The Nabob of Singapore= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 37--The Heart of Virginia By J. Perkins Tracy. + 36--Fedora By Victorien Sardou. + =35--The Great Mogul= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 34--Pretty Geraldine By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + =33--Mrs. Bob= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 32--The Blockade Runner By J. Perkins Tracy. + 31--A Siren's Love By Robert Lee Tyler. + =30--Baron Sam= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 29--Theodora By Victorien Sardou. + =28--Miss Caprice= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 27--Estelle's Millionaire Lover By Julia Edwards. + =26--Captain Tom= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + 25--Little Southern Beauty By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + =24--A Wasted Love= =By Charles Garvice= + (On Love's Altar) + =23--Miss Pauline of New York= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + =22--Elaine= =By Charles Garvice= + 21--A Heart's Idol By Bertha M. Clay. + 20--The Senator's Bride By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 19--Mr. Lake of Chicago By Harry DuBois Milman. + =18--Dr. Jack's Wife= =By the author of Dr. Jack= + =17--Leslie's Loyalty= =By Charles Garvice= + (His Love So True) + 16--The Fatal Card By Haddon Chambers and B. C. Stephenson. + =15--Dr. Jack= =By St. George Rathborne= + 14--Violet Lisle By Bertha M. Clay. + 13--The Little Widow By Julia Edwards. + =12--Edrie's Legacy= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 11--The Gypsy's Daughter By Bertha M. Clay. + 10--Little Sunshine By Francis S. Smith. + 9--The Virginia Heiress By May Agnes Fleming. + 8--Beautiful But Poor By Julia Edwards. + =7--Two Keys= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + 6--The Midnight Marriage By A. M. Douglas. + 5--The Senator's Favorite By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 4--For a Woman's Honor By Bertha M. Clay. + 3--He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not By Julia Edwards. + =2--Ruby's Reward= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + =1--Queen Bess= =By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon= + + + + + The Bride of the Tomb + + AND + + Queenie's Terrible Secret + + BY + + MRS. ALEX. McVEIGH MILLER + + AUTHOR OF + + "A Crushed Lily," "Brunette and Blonde," "Nina's Peril," etc. + + [Illustration] + + NEW YORK + + STREET & SMITH, PUBLISHERS, + 79-89 SEVENTH AVENUE + + + + + Copyright, 1883 + By Norman L. Munro + + The Bride of the Tomb + Queenie's Terrible Secret + + + + + THE BRIDE OF THE TOMB; + + OR, + + Lancelot Darling's Betrothed. + + By MRS. ALEX. McVEIGH MILLER. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +Sweet Lily Lawrence had committed _suicide_! + +Oh! impossible! A girl so young, so gifted, so lovely, the darling of +her father's heart, the idol of her brilliant lover, the heiress of a +splendid fortune--what had she to do with the grim king of terrors? +Death to her was an enemy to be shunned and dreaded rather than a lover +to be courted. + +And to-morrow was her bridal day! + +Yet there she lay prone on the velvet carpet, with its delicate pattern +of myosotis, and the soft light of the June morning shining through the +open window on the still form, robed in creamy white satin and priceless +lace, the fair hair streaming across the floor, the turquoise blue eyes +wide-open with a look of unutterable horror frozen in their upward +stare, the small and dimpled white hand clinching tightly a tiny jeweled +dagger whose murderous thrust had left a ghastly, gory, crimson stain on +the snowy satin lace above her heart. By that crimson stain death +claimed her for his own--the fairest bride the grim monarch ever took to +his icy arms. + +A thrill of universal horror ran through the great city where she had +been known and loved, not more for her beauty and wealth than for her +sweet and gentle character. Friends came and went through the portals of +Banker Lawrence's splendid brown stone mansion on Fifth avenue for a +sight of the beautiful suicide who had been expected to appear so soon +as a happy bride. Mr. Lawrence, the bereaved and sorely stricken father, +appeared like one dazed with grief and horror. Ada, his younger and only +remaining daughter, was confined to her room in strong hysterics, +attended by the maids. Mrs. Vance, the beautiful widow of a second +cousin of Mrs. Lawrence, a lady who made her home at the banker's, was +the only one in the house who retained sufficient calmness to attend to +anything at all. It was she who kept back the curious throng of the +news-seekers who would fain have invaded the mansion. It was she who +talked with sympathizing friends, breaking now and then into a +heart-wrung sob, and hiding her eyes in her damp lace handkerchief. + +"Oh, doctor," she cried, as the physician who had been hastily summoned +after the shocking discovery, bent over the pale form trying to see if +any spark of life remained--"oh, doctor, she is not really dead, is she? +Surely our darling Lily is not gone from us forever!" + +The physician looked up curiously at the dark, beautiful face of the +speaker now convulsed with grief and horror. He bent again over the +recumbent form, closely examining the beautiful white features of the +girl, touched her wide-open eye-lids, felt her tightly clenched hands +carefully, and laid his ear over the still breast whose crimson blood +had stiffened the bridal robe above the tender heart so lately bounding +with the joyous pulses of youth and hope and perfect happiness. + +"I am sorry to say," he answered, rising and looking down with a pale +face and trembling hands, "that Miss Lawrence is, indeed, no more. Life +has been extinct for hours." + +A few hours later a coroner's inquest was held over the remains. Mrs. +Vance, Miss Ada Lawrence, and the deceased girl's waiting-maid were the +three who had seen Lily Lawrence last in life. Their testimony was +accordingly taken. + +The maid deposed that on the night on which the fatal event had +transpired her mistress had kept her in her room until about eleven +o'clock, for the purpose of making some trifling alterations in the fit +of the elegant white satin bridal robe. + +While thus engaged Miss Ada Lawrence and Mrs. Vance had come in for a +chat with Miss Lawrence. Miss Ada, a young school-girl, and fond of +finery, had persuaded her sister to don the beautiful dress and veil. + +After staying awhile and admiring the loveliness of Miss Lawrence, the +maid had been dismissed, her young mistress saying that she would +herself remove the dress, having already laid aside the veil and wreath +of orange blossoms. + +She (the maid) had accordingly bidden the ladies good-night. The next +morning, as usual, she had gone at eight o'clock to call her young +mistress. She had found the door locked on the inside. + +In response to repeated knocks and calls no answer had been elicited, +and becoming frightened she had repeated the fact to the family, who +were just assembling at breakfast. Mr. Lawrence had caused the door to +be forced immediately. On entering they had found Miss Lawrence lying +dead upon the floor, arrayed in her bridal dress, and clutching in her +right hand a small, jeweled dagger. + +She was asked here by the coroner if the dagger had belonged to Miss +Lawrence. She answered in the affirmative, saying that Mrs. Vance had +presented it to her a few days before as a bridal present, and that it +had lain on the dressing-table ever since as an ornament. + +Being asked why they had supposed it to be suicide instead of murder, +the affectionate girl burst into tears, and replied that her sweet young +mistress had not an enemy on earth, so that no one could have murdered +her for malice; and that none of her splendid jewelry or bridal presents +had been touched, so that no one could have murdered her for gain; and +that the natural inference was that Miss Lawrence had taken her own life +with her own weapon. + +The young lady had seemed much as usual in her manner when she last saw +her, had betrayed no undue agitation of mind and was only anxious about +the fit of the bridal robe in which she was to appear on the morrow. The +maid was suffered to leave the stand, on which Miss Ada Lawrence, +dreadfully nervous and agitated, was led in and took her place. + +Her testimony was merely a corroboration of the maid's. She had left the +room in Mrs. Vance's company shortly after the maid's dismissal. Both +had kissed her good-night and left her standing at the mirror smiling at +her lovely reflection. Lily had seemed in good health and spirits. She +did not know of any reason for her sister's committing suicide; but as +she had no enemies, and nothing had been touched in the room, it was the +natural inference. She had not seen her sister again until the next +morning, when she lay cold and dead in the middle of her room. + +Mrs. Vance gave substantially the same testimony, with the addition that +she had heard Miss Lawrence lock her room door after their departure. +She knew of no cause that could have driven the young girl to take her +own life. For a few months past she had noticed that Lily had strange +fits of depression and abstraction. She had thought then that some +secret sorrow preyed on the mind of her cousin, but she did not know of +what nature. She was suffered to retire, her agitation growing +uncontrollable, while many admiring glances followed her graceful form +as she swept from the room. + +Dr. Pratt was next called to the stand. He was a tall, dark, +sinister-looking man, with restless black eyes and nervous manner. He +gave his testimony briefly and to the point. + +He was not Mr. Lawrence's family physician. He was riding past the house +on his way to visit a patient when he had been suddenly called in by the +summons of a domestic who rushed frantically into the street after him. +He had gone into Miss Lawrence's room, where he found the family +assembled and indulging in the wildest grief. The young bride-elect lay +dead upon the floor, grasping a small dagger in her right hand. Upon +examination he found that life had been extinct for eight or nine hours. +He thought that death must have been instantaneous with the +dagger-thrust. From the pose of the body and the position of the right +arm and hand, together with the direction of the deadly weapon, all the +probabilities pointed to an act of self-destruction. + +A few more witnesses were examined, but nothing new was elicited, and +the jury retired to consult. + +The verdict was given to the effect that "Miss Lawrence came to her +death by a dagger-thrust inflicted by her own hand--probably under a +temporary aberration of mind." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +Doctor Pratt attended the funeral of Miss Lawrence, looking grave and +sad, and dignified as the mournful occasion demanded. His restless eyes +took in every detail, noted the grief of the mourners and friends, +peered beneath the heavy crape veil of handsome Mrs. Vance, noted the +absence of the bereaved bridegroom-elect; he even entered the gloomy +vault and stood by the open coffin among the friends who were taking +their last look at the pallid features of the beautiful suicide whose +golden hair strayed over the white satin pillow, mingling with fragrant +rosebuds and lilies. + +After the funeral was over he drove to a fashionable street, and +stopping at a fine hotel, sent up his card to a person whom he +designated as Mr. Colville. + +After a brief delay he was shown up to that gentleman's room. + +Mr. Colville was a rather handsome but dissipated-looking man, of +perhaps forty years. He was dressed in the extreme of fashion, and the +elegance of his apparel, his costly diamonds, as well as the +luxuriousness of the furniture about him, betokened a man of wealth and +ease. + +He removed his cigar from his dark mustached lips, and said, with a +light laugh: + +"Ah, Pratt, what deviltry are you up to now?" + +"I have just come from attending a funeral," Doctor Pratt answered +sedately, as he seated himself in a satin-cushioned arm-chair. + +"A funeral!" Mr. Colville started and grew pale. "Was it that of--of +Miss Lawrence?" + +"The same," was the calm reply. + +"Ah! beautiful Lily--so you are gone to be the bride of death--to be +clasped to her icy heart! Well, better so," said Colville, bitterly. + +"I wonder at your coldness," said Doctor Pratt, eying him keenly. "I +thought you loved her to desperation." + +"Man, man--I did, I did!" cried out Colville, starting up and pacing the +floor wildly, "but what of that? She would not have my love. She laughed +it to scorn, and was about to give herself to my haughty rival. Great +Heaven! I was nearly crazed by the knowledge. It was a happy madness +that armed her hand against her own life! I am glad she is dead. I would +rather she were the prey of the worm than given to the arms of another." + +"Sit down, sit down," said the physician, shortly. "Calm yourself, or +you will fall in a fit as did your horror-struck rival on hearing the +dreadful news of her death." + +"Fell in a fit, did he?" said Colville, stopping short in his hurried +walk. "I wish he had died. But, no! he might have rejoined her then in +some better land than this." + +"If there be a better land, which I doubt," said Pratt, with a cold +sneer. + +Colville threw himself down into an arm-chair and looked moodily across +at the physician. + +"Well, what have you come after?" he asked, abruptly and testily. "You +have put me up to so many devilish schemes that I always expect some +villany when I see your satanic countenance." + +"I have put my freedom in jeopardy this week for the sake of your +happiness," Doctor Pratt answered with assumed indifference, "but if you +take such a high tone I can leave with my secret untold." + +"A secret!" said Colville, looking up with some interest; "your secrets +are always worth hearing, doctor. Let me have it, I beg you." + +"This one is worth hearing, any way," said Doctor Pratt grimly, and, +rising, he turned the door-key in the lock, after looking out +suspiciously into the wide hall. Returning, he drew his chair close to +Colville's and continued, calmly: "I cannot afford to give you this +secret, Colville, I will sell it to you for the pretty little sum of ten +thousand dollars--a mere bagatelle, that, to a man of your wealth." + +"Ten thousand dollars! is the man mad?" muttered Colville. "Why, man +alive, there is not a secret under the sun I would pay that much for!" + +"Is there not?" smiled the other, and bending a little nearer he +whispered in low, impressive accents: "What would you give me, Harold +Colville, if I could take Lily Lawrence from her coffin to-night, cheat +the grave-worm of its prey, and give her to your arms, warm, living, +beautiful--dead to all the world, alive only to you?" + +"Great Heaven! the half of my fortune were not too great a price for +such a miracle," breathed Colville, excitedly. "But, Pratt, you are +raving! Even your skill, great though I own it to be, could not +accomplish that, unless you are leagued with the devil, as I have often +suspected you are." + +"Thanks," said the grim physician, curtly, then interrogated calmly: "So +ten thousand dollars would not weigh much in the scale against Lily +Lawrence living?" + +"Not a feather's weight! I would give it to you freely, gladly, but, +Pratt, you cannot do it!" + +"I _can_ do it! Listen to me, Colville," he whispered breathlessly. +"Lily Lawrence lies in her coffin to-night, to all the world dead: but +to me she is a living woman, and as such may be resurrected." + +"But how--why----" + +"Be calm, I will explain all. When her lifeless form was discovered I +was hastily called in. I went; I carefully examined the body, which lay, +to all appearance, cold and dead. I found an almost imperceptible warmth +about her heart, a tinge of color in the palms of her hands, and a +vacant stare in the eyes resembling death, but which might be only +produced by that rare and strange disease known to medical men as +'catalepsy.' There was a slight flesh-wound about the heart; but the +blow had been struck by such a trembling hand that it had failed to +penetrate a vital part, and the dreadful shock of the attempted murder +(for I do not believe in the sapient jury's verdict of suicide) threw +the poor girl into a state of syncope, or catalepsy, so closely +resembling death that it deceived all but my professional eyes." + +"Yet you suffered them to entomb a living woman?" + +"For your sake, remember, Colville; for as I knelt by the beautiful +creature, half stunned by my startling discovery, the thought of you +darted into my head like an inspiration. I remembered what you must +suffer if she lived to bless your rival with her love. I said to +myself--It will be several days, most likely, before she rouses from +this trance of death. Let them bury her, and make to themselves other +idols. In the meantime I will resurrect her, give her to Colville's +eager arms, and earn his eternal gratitude as well as a more substantial +fee for myself." + +"Pratt, you are a demon!" + +"Is that the way you thank me for my friendship?" + +"No, oh, no; you have done well--you have done right, and you shall have +your reward. But, Heavens! to think of her lying there in her living +beauty among the skeletons and the worms--perhaps even now she is waking +amid those gloomy shades! Ugh!" he shuddered, and started from the +chair. + +"No danger, I think," said the dark physician, smiling contemptuously; +"I observed her closely this evening, and there were no signs of +reviving. Patience, my friend, I bribed the old sexton, I have the key +to the vault. In a few hours it will be night, and then we will bear +away your drooping Lily to revive beneath the sunshine of your love." + +"But where can we take her? If the theft is discovered there will be a +hue and cry raised about the body." + +"I know of a safe place. You remember the old couple in the suburbs? the +same who kept poor Fanny till her ravings ended in her death?" + +"Oh, God! do not remind me of such horrible things--let the dead past +lie! Yes, I remember!" + +"We will take her _there_. I have been to see them, and prepared them +for our coming. You will have to pay heavily, of course, but you will +not mind that in such a cause. Now, then, will you go with me to the +graveyard to-night?" + +"I will, and may the devil, who certainly helps you in your evil deeds, +doctor, aid us both in this precarious scheme, and restore my living +love to my devoted arms!" + +"Amen!" breathed Doctor Pratt piously. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +It was the day following the funeral of sweet Lily Lawrence--a sunny +day, fragrant and bloomy with the wealth of summer. Outside of Mr. +Lawrence's stately mansion in the handsome grounds enclosing it, flowers +blossomed, the fountain threw up its diamond spray, and birds twittered +and chirped. + +But within the house all was silence and gloom. Mr. Lawrence was shut up +in the library alone with his grief; Ada Lawrence lay ill of a low, +nervous fever, induced by her poignant sorrow, and Mrs. Vance sat in the +drawing-room alone, nervous and ill, and starting at every trivial +sound. + +The stately-looking widow was very handsome this morning. She wore a +dress of thin black grenadine, relieved by creamy old lace at throat and +wrists, and delicate ribbons of heliotrope color. Her wavy black hair +was braided about her small head like a coronet, and a cluster of +heliotrope blossoms nestled in its silken darkness. + +A faint roseate bloom tinted her lips and cheeks, and hightened by +contrast the restless brightness of her full, dark eyes, and the +whiteness of her low brow. She was fully thirty-five years old, but +nature and art had combined so gracefully in her make-up that she did +not appear twenty-five. + +A sudden peal of the door-bell made her spring up suddenly in nervous +terror of she scarce knew what. She had hardly reseated herself when an +obsequious servant ushered in a tall, exceedingly distinguished-looking +young man. It was Lancelot Darling, the betrothed lover of the dead +girl. + +He was a splendidly handsome and imposing gentleman, but his elegant +dress was disordered, his face was pale, almost to the verge of +ghastliness, his large, brilliant dark eyes were so wild in their +expression of grief that they almost seemed to glare upon the lady who +advanced toward him with extended hands. + +"Mr. Darling," she murmured in a low tone of surprise and pleasure. "You +are better, you are able to be out." + +He pressed her hand speechlessly, and tottered to a sofa, falling +heavily upon it while his eyes closed for a minute. In a fright at the +look of exhaustion on his white face, Mrs. Vance darted from the room, +soon returning with a glass of cordial. + +She lifted his head on her arm and pressed the goblet to his lips, +trembling excessively the while. In a moment he revived, and rising on +his elbow looked up while a faint flush mounted to his white forehead. + +"Pardon me," he said, in a broken voice. "This is unmanly, I know, but I +have been very ill, Mrs. Vance, and I am weak still--and it is hard, oh! +so hard to come here like this!" He sat up, pushing the dark locks back +from his brow, while a shudder ran through his strong frame. + +"Believe me, I sympathize with you, I grieve with you," murmured the +lady in silvery tones. "Our poor, lost Lily!" and her face was hidden in +her handkerchief while a sob seemed to shake her graceful form. + +"They say she died by her own hand," he cried, excitedly. "My God! what +mystery is here, Mrs. Vance? What hidden cause drove the girl who was +almost my wife to that fearful deed?" + +"Did you suspect no cause?" asked she, looking at him sadly. + +"None--there could be none. Young, beautiful, loving and beloved, she +had no cause for sorrow." + +"So it seemed to _you_," she answered, in low, soft tones, looking down +as if she could not bear the anguish written on his features; "but +strange as it may seem, Lily had some trouble unknown to us all, but +which I suspected months ago. She had strange moods of deep depression +and abstraction, followed by a feverish, unnatural gaiety. My suspicion +of some mysterious trouble weighing on her heart was only confirmed by +her sad and tragic death." + +"Of what nature did you suspect her mysterious trouble to be?" asked the +young man, looking at her in surprise and anxiety. + +"I had nothing but conjecture to build on," said she, reluctantly. "It +would be cruelty to harrow your soul with suspicions that may be +baseless." + +"But I insist on your telling me," said he, with unconscious +imperiousness of tone and look. + +"I fancied--mind, I only _fancied_," said she, deprecatingly, "that +Lily, though betrothed to you, had conceived an unrequited attachment +for another, or that perhaps she was the victim of some boarding-school +entanglement which threatened to mar her happiness." + +"Oh, impossible!" he answered, decisively. "Lily had no silly +school-girl entanglements. She told me so. And she loved me alone--loved +me as devotedly as I loved her--I am perfectly certain of that. No, Mrs. +Vance, you are mistaken. The theory of the jury is the only one I can +accept. The fatal deed must have been committed under a temporary +aberration of mind." + +The sudden entrance of Mr. Lawrence checked the mournful expression that +rose to her lips. + +As the two men shook hands in silence, each noted the ravages grief had +made in the other. + +Mr. Lawrence's portly form was bowed feebly, his genial face was seamed +with lines of grief and care, while premature silver threads shone amid +his chestnut-brown hair. + +The ghastly pallor of Lancelot Darling, his wild eyes, his trembling +hands, attested how maddening and soul-harrowing was his despair. + +"Lance, my poor boy, you have been ill," said the banker, in a gentle +tone of sympathy. + +"Yes, I have been ill," said Lancelot, brokenly; then almost crushing +the banker's hand in his strong, unconscious grasp, he broke out wildly: +"Mr. Lawrence, I have come here to beg a favor of you." + +"Name it," said Mr. Lawrence, kindly. + +"I want the key of your vault. I want to see my Lily's face once more," +he answered, in an imploring tone. + +"Would it be well? Would it be wise?" asked the other in a tone of +surprise and pain. + +"I do not know, I do not ask," said Lancelot, impetuously. "I only know +that my soul hungers for a sight of my darling's face. Do not refuse me, +my friend. Let me see her once more before death has obliterated all her +beauty!" + +"Better think of her, Lance, as when you last saw her in life and +health," said the banker uneasily. "She is already changed. You are too +weak to bear the agitation that would ensue if I granted your request." + +"You refuse me, then," said the young man in a voice of passionate +grief. "She was to have been my wife ere now, yet you will not suffer me +to press one last, long kiss on the cold lips of my darling." + +"Oh, do not refuse him," cried Mrs. Vance, gliding forward and laying a +persuasive little hand on the banker's arm. "Think of his bleeding heart +and blighted hopes. Remember how fondly he loved her. Go with him to the +vault, and show him our broken Lily lying asleep in the deep rest she +coveted." + +Lancelot's heavy, dark eyes flashed a look of gratitude upon the +beautiful pleader as she ceased to speak. + +The banker paused irresolutely. + +"If I thought he could bear it," he murmured. + +"I _can_ bear it, I _will_!" said Lancelot, firmly. "Only grant my +request." + +"The sexton has the key of the vault," said Mr. Lawrence, yielding +reluctantly. "I will go with you, Lance." + +"Let it be at once then. My carriage is at the gate," said the half +frenzied young lover, moving off after a slight bow to Mrs. Vance. + +Mr. Lawrence followed him, the door was closed, and the handsome widow +stood alone in the center of the splendid drawing-room. She took one or +two turns up and down the room, her black dress trailing its gloomy +folds over the rich carpet. + +"Let him go," she said at last, pausing and clenching her delicate hands +together. "Let him go! That marble mask of his beautiful love can but +disenchant him. I have already dropped a suspicion of her love into his +heart. He does not heed it yet, but no matter, it shall take root, it +shall grow, it shall bear fruit an hundredfold! He shall turn to me yet. +I love him with a love passing everything, and I will stop at nothing +till I call him mine!" + +She laughed aloud as the thought of her future triumph swept through her +heart. It was a strange, eerie laugh--It sounded as if a beautiful fiend +had laughed in Hades. + + * * * * * + +The elegant carriage, with its high stepping, spirited gray horses, +bowled rapidly along the busy streets of New York, and at length paused +before the beautiful cemetery in which Mr. Lawrence's vault was +situated. The banker then stepped into the sexton's house where he +called for the key of the vault. The sexton gave it to him with some +surprise at the request, and the gentleman returned to Lancelot Darling +who was impatiently pacing a graveled path in the "fair Necropolis of +the dead." + +The banker paused and laid his hand on the young man's arm. + +"I have the key, Lance," he said, "but even now I wish I could persuade +you not to enter the vault; I dread the effect on your already weak +nerves. Remember what a difference there must be between the blooming +Lily you last looked upon and the poor, faded flower in yon gloomy stone +vault." + +"Mr. Lawrence, you do but torture me," said the young man, with a +gesture of wild despair. "However she may be changed let me see her. Yet +I cannot believe that that beautiful face can be altered so soon. Cruel +death would stay his defacing hand when he looked on such loveliness." + +With a sigh of regret the elder man turned and walked on down the shady +path. Lancelot followed him, taking no note of the beautiful day and the +song of the birds and the fragrance of the rare flowers all around him. +Over the low mounds everywhere gentle hands of affection had planted +lovely flowers and shrubs, trying to make grim death beautiful. But he +heeded them not as he stopped in front of the marble vault, guarded by a +marble angel, and followed Mr. Lawrence into its dim recesses. + +They walked down the echoing aisle, between rows of moldy, decaying +coffins, and paused with beating hearts and labored breath beside a new +casket, loaded with wreaths and crosses of fragrant white hot-house +flowers. + +The murky air of the charnel house was heavy with the scent of +tube-roses, violets and pale white roses. With trembling hands they +removed these tokens of affection, until the lid of the coffin was +disclosed. With a shudder Lancelot read the inscription on the silver +plate: + + "LILY LAWRENCE. + "_Aged eighteen._" + +Mr. Lawrence drew out the silver screws and removed the lid. + +"My God!" he cried, as he gazed within. + +The costly casket was empty. The white satin cushioning that love had +devised to make the bed of death a soft one, held the impress of her +form, the pillow was lightly dented where her golden head had lain, but +the cold form that rested there yesterday with white hands folded over +the quiet heart, with pale lips shut over the woful secret of her death, +that loved form was gone from their gaze. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Go with me, kind reader, to the outskirts of the great city; enter with +me an humble house; we pass invisibly inside the locked door, we glide +unseen up the staircase, and into a plainly furnished, low-ceiled room. +Our acquaintance, Doctor Pratt, is there--also his co-conspirator, +Harold Colville, is there. Both are bending anxiously over a low, white +bed where a girlish, recumbent form lies extended. + +At the foot of the bed stands an old crone with gray elf-locks floating +under a tawdry black lace cap. Wrinkled, and bent, and witch-like, with +beady black eyes and parchment-like skin, she is frightful to look at as +she peers curiously into the beautiful white face lying on the pillow. + +"Pratt, you have deceived me," Colville breaks out sternly; "all your +restoratives have failed, all your potent art is at fault. Look at that +marble face, those breathless lips. It is death, not life, we look +upon." + +"Bah!" said Doctor Pratt. Rising and going to the young lady's head, he +gently turned it on one side: at the same time he changed the position +of one arm. _Both retained for a short time their new position_ then +slowly resumed their former place. He raised her eyelids and they +remained open a brief interval, then gently closed again. The beautiful +blue eyes they disclosed were neither glassy nor corpse-like, though +fixed in a vacant, unnatural stare. The physician resumed his seat and +said, calmly: + +"You see, Colville, it is life, not death. I tell you it is that rare, +mysterious affection we call _catalepsy_--a state fearfully blending the +conditions of life and death--a seeming life in death, or death in life. +It is true that all my remedies have failed: but it is equally true that +life is not extinct, though the spark may perish from exhaustion if she +does not soon revive. It is now four days since the cold steel entered +her side and this mysterious unconsciousness fell upon her. But the +horrid spell must soon be broken, or death will ensue as a consequence +of loss of blood and vitality." + +They withdrew a little further from the bed, Pratt still keeping a +watchful eye upon the patient, while Colville tried to keep his roving +glance away from the death-like face that sent a shudder of fear now and +then along his frame. It seemed fearfully like death despite the learned +theory of the case which Doctor Pratt was patiently explaining to him. + +"You said the first time we talked of this that you believed Miss +Lawrence had been murdered," said Colville, suddenly. "Why did you form +that opinion despite the contrary evidence?" + +"There was no evidence to the contrary," said the dark physician, +complacently. "I formed it on the evidence of my own eyes. True, Miss +Lawrence's door was locked on the inside; but"--he paused a moment to +give effect to his words--"but a heavy, luxuriant honeysuckle vine was +trained from the ground up to her window in the second story. The +murderer, or murderess, entered her room by the door, turned the key, +perpetrated the dreadful deed, and escaped by sliding down the +thickly-twisted vine to the ground." + +"That is only your theory, doctor, I suppose." + +"It is a fact, not theory, monsieur. I furtively examined the vine +myself. It was broken in places, bruised in its tender parts, and +quantities of leaves and flowers were strewn upon the ground. It plainly +showed that a heavy body had slid down upon it and injured it. I wonder +that it escaped the dull eyes of the jury." + +"You are an astute man, doctor. Who, then, was the assassin of one so +young and fair?" + +"I do not know, but I half suspected the beautiful woman who lives at +Lawrence's--a sort of cousin, I think--a Mrs. Vance by name. Her +evidence went a little further than the rest. She asserted that she +heard the young lady lock her door that night--she seemed to favor the +idea of suicide also by pressing a theory of her own, that Miss Lawrence +had a secret trouble--was subject to fits of abstraction and depression. +Yes, decidedly, I suspect the beautiful widow." + +"What motive could she have had?" + +"That I do not know. I could find out though if I set my wits to work. +But I have no interest in knowing." + +"I have it," said Colville, suddenly; "I am acquainted with Mrs. Vance. +When I used to visit the Lawrences I found out--no matter how--that Mrs. +Vance was in love with Lancelot Darling. If she did the deed it was +jealousy that goaded her to its commission." + +"Very probably," said the doctor. + +They had talked on, forgetful or regardless of the old woman who sat at +the foot of the bed. She was listening eagerly, with twitching fingers, +and muttered inaudibly, "Gold, gold." + +"What are you muttering about, old hag?" said Pratt, overhearing her. +"None of your jargon now. And don't repeat what we have been saying to +your old man. If you do I will send your black soul to its doom sooner +than it would go of its own accord! Do you hear me, old witch?" + +"Yes, I hear; I will never repeat it, never," whined the old wretch, +grinning horribly. + +"See that you don't, then," said Colville. + +The evening hours wore on to midnight, and the three watchers in the +quiet room kept their places, undisturbed by even a breath from the pale +form on the bed. The old crone sat wide awake and on the alert: Doctor +Pratt leaned back and watched the patient through half-closed lids; +Colville dozed in a large arm-chair. Surely there never was a patient +who gave so little trouble to the nurses. No querulous complaint came +from the pale lips, no restless hands tossed aside the bed-clothes, no +fever-parched tongue cried out for the cooling draught of ice-water. +Still and pale she lay through the panting summer night, taking no note +of time or aught earthly. + +Hark! the midnight hour tolled solemnly and sharply. Mysterious hour +when crime stalks abroad under shelter of darkness, when disembodied +spirits re-visit the haunts of men! Colville started from his uneasy +dozing, then settled himself again as the last loud stroke died away in +hollow echoes. But he did not sleep again, for a simultaneous cry from +the physician and the old woman turned his glance toward the bed. Ah! +what was that? + +The awful spell of death was _broken_. The patient presented a ghastly +appearance. Her large, blue eyes were wide open, and staring an +indescribable look of horror at the witch-like face of the old woman. +Her lips were slightly apart, and a thin stream of blood was trickling +from her mouth and nostrils. + +"Begone," said the physician, sharply. "Bring warm water and sponges." + +She quickly returned with the necessary articles. Doctor Pratt gently +sponged away the blood with warm water so as not to entirely check the +bleeding. A long, deep sigh quivered over the patient's lips, and +turning her head she looked languidly about her. Doctor Pratt made a +sign to Colville and he hastily drew aside out of range of her vision. + +"Drink this wine, Lily," said the physician, putting a wine-glass to her +lips. She feebly swallowed the contents, then closing her eyes with a +languid sigh fell into a deep, refreshing sleep, breathing softly and +audibly. He turned to Colville with a triumphant smile. + +"What about my theory _now_?" said he. + +Colville was trembling with excitement. He came forward, and looked at +the face sleeping calmly on the pillow, its rigid lines softening into +natural repose. + +"Surely, Pratt, you are in league with the devil," said he, +half-fearfully. "An hour ago I could have sworn that it was grim death +we looked upon, but now----" + +"But now," said Doctor Pratt, "she is doing well--she will soon recover. +And then you can set about your wooing." + +"Ah!" said Colville, doubtfully. "I wish that your potent art could +insure me her love as skillfully as you insured me her life!" + +The patient's deep slumber lasted till the rosy dawn of the summer morn +began to break over the earth. Then the blue eyes opened with a look of +bewilderment in their beautiful depths. + +"Where am I?" she languidly interrogated, sweeping her small white hand +across her brow. + +Colville had gone, but the unwearied physician sitting by the bedside +answered, calmly: + +"You are in good hands, Miss Lawrence. I am your physician. You have +been very ill, and must not agitate yourself by asking questions yet." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +"You say I have been very ill?" said Lily, looking up into the dark face +bending over her. + +"Yes, you have been near to death's door; but indeed you must not talk; +you will exhaust yourself." + +"But I must talk," said the patient, willfully. "Why am I here? This is +not my home," glancing round the poor, ill-furnished room. "Where are my +father, my sister, my maid? Oh, God!" and a piercing shriek burst from +her lips. "I remember everything--the murderous dagger-thrust, the +horrid spell that bound me hand and foot and tongue. I could not speak, +I could not move; but I heard them weeping round me; I heard----" + +"For Heaven's sake, cease! You will kill yourself indeed, Miss +Lawrence!" cried the physician in alarm. + +But she waved him off, and sitting upright in bed continued wildly: + +"I heard your voice telling them that I was dead. I heard the horrid +inquest held over me. I heard the funeral service while I lay in the +open coffin, unable to stir, unable to comfort my weeping loved ones. +They bore me away. They locked me--me, a living, agonized human +creature--into the dreadful vault with the horrible dead for companions. +Ah! then, indeed, I became unconscious. I knew no more. Oh! oh! what +torture, what agonies I have endured!" cried the girl, waving her white +hands over her head and screaming aloud in her terrified recollection of +the dreadful agonies she had borne while in her cataleptic state. + +"She will kill herself indeed," muttered Pratt, hastily forcing a +composing draught between her writhing lips. + +She continued to rave wildly until the potent drug took effect on her +overwrought system and produced a deep, unnatural slumber. + +He went away and left her to the care of the witchlike old woman. She +awoke toward evening and found the old woman knitting away by her +bedside. The beautiful girl looked at her in wonder and fright. + +"Are you a vision from another world or only a fevered phantom of my +brain?" she inquired in a weak voice. + +The creature only scowled at her in reply, but she rose and brought a +bowl of fresh arrowroot and fed the patient, who found it very +refreshing after her protracted fasting. + +Old Haidee, as she was called, left the room with the empty bowl, and +Lily lay still, looking about her with a vague dread creeping into her +heart. Had she indeed died in that horrible vault, and was she now in +another world inhabited by such hideous beings as the one who had just +left her? She shuddered and closed her eyes. The sound of a footstep +aroused her. A man was entering the room. It was Harold Colville. He +came and stood by the bed-side, looking down at her pale face with +passionate tenderness shining in his eyes. + +Her white cheeks turned crimson. + +"Mr. Colville!" she cried, angrily, "what means this unwarrantable +intrusion?" + +"Oh, Lily! this from you!" he cried in sorrowful reproach. "Lily, I have +saved your life, my darling, and this is my reward; when all others +deserted you and left you in your coffin my love could not rest without +one more look at your dear face. Yes, the love you spurned in happier +days clung to you then and sought you amid the horrors of the dreadful +charnel-house. I entered the vault; I opened the coffin; I kissed the +lips that were dearer to me dead than those of any living woman. And +then I discovered faint signs of life! In my rapture at the discovery I +bore you away in my carriage and placed you under the care of a splendid +physician. You revived; you lived--yes, dead to all the world beside, +you live alone for me, my fair, my peerless Lily!" + +He smiled triumphantly, while a look of horror dawned in her eyes. + +"You--you will restore me to my friends?" she gasped in breathless +agitation. + +"Lily, can you ask it? Can I bear to give you up, long and truly as I +have loved you? When death, in compassion for my sorrow, has given you +up from the very tomb itself to my loving arms could I give you back to +your less devoted lover and live my life without you, my peerless +darling? Lily, do not ask me for such a sacrifice." + +"I am never to see father, sister, friends, again?" asked she, with +whitening lips. + +"Yes, yes, Lily. Only consent to reward my fidelity with your dear hand, +and you shall see them all again." + +"I cannot," she moaned, faintly; "I am betrothed to another." + +"Death has broken the bond," said he; "your lover has torn you from his +heart ere this in angry resentment at your supposed suicide. He believes +that you loved another and chose death in preference to a loveless +marriage with him. Give yourself to me, Lily, and that will confirm his +belief." + +"Oh, never, never! I do not love you," she cried, vehemently. + +"Love would come in time, darling. Gratitude to the savior of your life +would create love. I could make you happy, Lily; I have wealth, +position, influence--all the things that woman values most." + +"I can never love anyone but Lancelot Darling," she said, while a blush +tinged her cheek at the sweet confession. + +His brow grew dark as night. + +"Speak not the name of my hated rival," he cried, angrily. "I saved your +life, not he! Yet this is your gratitude!" + +"Oh, indeed I am grateful if indeed you saved my life," she cried. "But +ask me for some other reward. Take my eternal gratitude, my undying +friendship, take the last penny of my fortune, but spare me my +happiness!" + +"You rave, Lily," he answered, coldly. "Nothing you have offered me has +any value in my eyes except yourself. I will never, never resign you. +You are in my power here. To all the world you are dead. You shall +remain so until you marry me!" + +"I will never, never marry you!" she cried, with passionate defiance. + +"We shall see," he answered, angrily; but his words fell on deaf ears. +She had fallen back in a deep swoon. He went out and sent Haidee to +assist her while he hurriedly left the house. + +The swoon was a deep one. Lily lay quite exhausted after she revived, +and was still and speechless for some hours. Doctor Pratt came that +night and gave her another sleeping potion. She took it quietly without +remark, and slept heavily all night. The sun was high in the heavens +next day when old Haidee, sitting by her pillow, started to find those +large blue eyes fixed thoughtfully upon her. She ran and brought a +nourishing breakfast up-stairs to her patient. + +"You are better," said she, in her cracked voice, seeing that Lily ate +with an appetite. + +"I am stronger," said she, as Haidee removed the tray. + +She was quiet a while after the old crone had taken her seat and resumed +her knitting. Presently she asked, abruptly: + +"What is your name?" + +"They call me Haidee," said the old woman, shortly. + +"Do you live here alone, Haidee?" + +"My old man lives with me," said she. + +"You are very poor, I suppose," said Lily, letting her eyes rove over +the poorly furnished bedroom. + +"Miserably poor, honey," said old Haidee, while an avaricious light +gleamed in her small black eyes. + +"Is this place in New York?" asked the patient. + +"Thereabouts," answered old Haidee. + +"Would you like to earn some money--heaps of shining gold?" asked the +girl, timidly. + +The old woman's beady eyes sparkled. "Aye, that I would," said she. + +"If you will carry a little note to my father for me, I'll give you +plenty of money," said Lily, tremblingly. + +"Where is your money?" asked Haidee, cautiously. + +"I have no money with me," said Lily, "but my father will give you some +when you take him this note." + +"The pay must be in advance," said Haidee, provokingly, "I can't trust +your promise." + +Lily looked about her despairingly. There was nothing valuable about her +except a diamond ring on her finger. Her eyes fell upon that. + +"I will give you my diamond ring if you will carry the note to my +father." + +"Aye, aye, but your captors would miss it from your finger," said +Haidee, watching the sparkling jewel with greedy eyes. "They would +suspect you had bribed me, and they would kill old Haidee." + +"That is true," murmured the patient, sadly. She lay a little while lost +in thought, then her face grew bright. + +"I will tell you what I will do," said she. "See, there are five +diamonds in my ring. Each one is worth a hundred dollars. I will loosen +one of the stones and give it to you if you will help me to escape from +here. They will not miss one single stone from the ring, or if they do +they will think it had become loosened from the setting and lost. Come, +what do you say?" + +"It is a risky undertaking, and the reward is small," muttered the old +creature. + +"My father shall give much more if you help me. Haidee, will you do it?" +asked Lily, imploringly. + +"Yes, I will," said the old woman, greedily. + +"Now?" asked Lily. + +"Yes, now, before the doctor or Mr. Colville comes back. My old man can +take care of you until I return." + +Lily shuddered at the mention of the old man, but hastily begged for +writing materials. + +There were none to be had except the stub of an old pencil and some +light brown wrapping-paper. The old crone brought her these with a +muttered apology for her poverty, and sitting up in bed, Lily wrote a +few feeble, incoherent lines to her father. + + "Dear papa," she wrote, "I am not dead, though you put me in a + coffin and locked me in the vault with all the dead and gone + Lawrences. I was stolen from the vault, and a doctor brought me to + life again. I am kept a prisoner here by Harold Colville, who + swears he will not release me until I marry him. I have hired the + old woman who takes care of me to take you this letter. You must + give her money, papa dear, for her kindness. She will conduct you + here where I am. Oh! hasten, papa, and release me from this + horrible prison. + + "Your loving daughter, + + "LILY." + +Taking the old woman's knitting needle she carefully pryed out one of +the diamonds from her ring, and putting it with the note into Haidee's +hand bade her hasten. + +"It is a long way from here. It will take me several hours to go," was +the answer. + +"I shall count the minutes till you return," said Lily. "God bless you, +Haidee, for your goodness to me at this trying time." + +The old woman chuckled as she went out, and locked the door after her. +At the foot of the stairs she paused and carefully reread the +superscription of the letter. + +"Number 1800 Fifth avenue," said she, gloatingly. "Ah! the outside of +this letter is all I want to see." + +She hobbled into her room, set her old man on guard to watch her +prisoner, and blithely wended her way cityward. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +"Mrs. Vance, there is an old woman down-stairs says she has brought the +laces you wished to see," said a trim little serving maid at Mrs. +Vance's door. + +Mrs. Vance looked up impatiently from her book. + +"I have not ordered any laces at all," said the lady, sharply. "Send the +lying old creature away, Agnes." + +The trim maid hesitated. + +"You ought to look at them, Mrs. Vance," said she, timidly; "such lovely +laces I never saw. They are as delicate as sea-foam and very cheap. I +expect they are smuggled goods." + +"Well, well, let her come up then, but I do not need any of her wares." + +Agnes went away and presently reappeared a moment at the door, and +ushered in old Haidee with a basket on her arm. The maid then left them +together. + +"Now, then," said the lady, sharply, "what did you mean by saying I had +ordered your laces?" + +"Oh! pretty lady, forgive an old woman's lie to the maids for the sake +of getting in. I have bargains, lady--lovely laces smuggled through the +Custom House without any duty--I can sell them to you much cheaper than +the merchants can afford to do." + +"Let me see them, then," said the lady, with apparent indifference. + +Old Haidee unpacked her wares and exhibited a small but fine assortment +of real laces. Her prices were extremely low, and Mrs. Vance, though she +pretended indifference, was charmed with their elegance, and the small +sum asked by the vender. After a good deal of haggling she selected +several yards, and paid for them in gold pieces taken from a silken +netted purse through whose interstices gleamed many more pieces of the +same kind. Old Haidee's eyes gleamed greedily at the sight. + +"Gold-gold!" she muttered, working her claw-like fingers. "Give me the +purse, pretty lady." + +Mrs. Vance withdrew a step in amazement. + +"Old woman, you are crazy. Go, leave the room this very instant!" + +"Give me the gold," still pleaded the miserly old hag. + +"I will have you turned out of the house this minute, miserable old +beggar!" cried Mrs. Vance, moving toward the bell. + +"Stop one moment, lady, I have something to say to you--a secret to tell +you. You would not have me tell it before the servants, would you?" said +the old woman, in such a meaning tone that Mrs. Vance actually +hesitated, with her hand on the bell-rope. + +"Say on," said she, haughtily, and thinking to herself that the old +lace-vender was insane. + +"Bend closer, lady, the walls have ears sometimes. This is a terrible +secret," said Haidee, with a solemn air. + +Mrs. Vance moved a step nearer, impressed in spite of herself by the +eerie, witch-like gestures and sepulchral air of the speaker. + +"Lady, a few nights ago a fair young girl was murdered within these +stately walls. Ah! you tremble; she trembled too when the jealous woman +stole into her room, turned the key in the lock, and struck her down as +she stood looking at her sweet reflection in her bridal dress--yes, +struck her down with a brutal dagger-thrust in her heart. The wicked +murderess stooped to see if her guilty work was done, then escaped down +the ladder of vines that climbed up to the window. The jury said that +the poor girl committed suicide; but we know better--do we not, +beautiful lady?" + +"You are a fiend," cried Mrs. Vance, from the chair where she had sunk +down, still clutching the heavy purse of gold coins in her cold hand. +"You lie! no one murdered her--she died by her own hand." + +"Lady, I shall not tell my secret to any one but you," said Haidee, with +a low and fiend-like laugh. "Now, will you give me the gold?" + +"Never! You have come here to blackmail me! you wish to frighten me by +trumped up suspicion; I will not buy your silence!" cried Mrs. Vance, +passionately. + +"Very well, lady, I will go to Mr. Lawrence, I will go to Mr. Darling, I +will tell them what I have told you," said the lace-vender, rising to +leave. + +"Stay--who knows this lying tale besides yourself?" + +"No one, lady. I, Haidee Leveret, am the only witness of your crime, and +you can buy my silence with that purse of gold," said the old crone, +sepulchrally. + +"Take it, then," said Mrs. Vance, flinging it down at her feet "and keep +the secret till your dying day! you need not return to blackmail me +again. That is all the gold I have. I am a poor woman. I can get no more +to give you!" + +The old woman gathered up the purse of coins, hid it in her bosom, and +trotted out, mouthing and mumbling to herself. Mrs. Vance fell down upon +the floor writhing in terror. "My sin has found me out," she cried, +wringing her white hands helplessly. "Oh, Lancelot, Lancelot, it was all +for you!" + + * * * * * + +"A lucky day," said old Haidee to herself as she trotted down the +street. "A fine piece of work, and well paid for! A purse of gold and a +diamond! Well, well!" + +She stopped and took poor Lily's note from her pocket where it had lain +concealed, and tearing it into minute fragments threw it into the +street. A gentleman passing by observed the action curiously. It was Mr. +Lawrence. Ah! if he had but known whose hand had written the note whose +coarse, brown fragments lay under his feet, if he had but turned and +followed that hideous old witch, what months of sorrow might have been +spared him. But he did not know, and he went on to his home, bowed and +heart-broken, while old Haidee trotted quickly past, crooning a low tune +in the pride of her gratified avarice and cunning. + +As she went into the door of her home, Doctor Pratt came in suddenly +after her. + +"Now where have you been, Haidee?" he asked, suspiciously. + +"Only to market, doctor," said she, trembling, sidling past him with the +basket on her arm. + +He found his patient restless and excited. She was tossing uneasily from +side to side of the bed, and her cheeks were flushed and feverish. He +took the small hand, and found the pulse bounding rapidly beneath his +touch. + +"This will not do," said he, "you must not excite yourself unduly." + +The door opened, admitting Haidee with a bowl of fresh arrowroot. Lily +looked wistfully beyond her, but she was quite alone. She saw in +Haidee's cautious, negative shake of the head that her mission had +failed. She fell back, crushed with her disappointment. + +"Come, take your nourishment," said Pratt, kindly. + +She shook her head. A choking sensation arose in her throat, and she +could not swallow. She determined to make one appeal to this +grim-looking man. + +"Doctor," she said, clasping her hands imploringly, "I appeal to your +honor, to your generosity, to your humanity, to restore me to my home +and father!" + +Doctor Pratt shook his head decisively. + +"It is impossible for me to do that," he answered; "you are in the power +of Mr. Colville; I am merely employed by him to attend you in your +illness. You must make your appeal to him." + +"He is a villain, a designing wretch!" she broke out, indignantly. "I +will make no appeal to him. But, doctor, if you will go and tell my +father where to find me, I will give you five thousand dollars the day I +am liberated from this prison-house." + +He laughed and drew a newspaper from his pocket. Putting it in her +hands, he directed her attention to a marked paragraph. She read it with +streaming eyes. It ran simply: + +"Much sympathy has been excited for the Lawrence family in the painful +discovery that the body of Miss Lily Lawrence has been stolen from the +vault of her father. The well-known wealth of the great banker makes it +seem probable that the foul deed was committed with a view to a heavy +ransom. It will be seen in our reward column that Mr. Lawrence offers +ten thousand dollars for the return of the corpse." + +"So your father offers more for the repose of your dead body than you do +for your living one," he said, laughing. "No, Miss Lawrence, I cannot +accept your munificent bribe. My duty to Mr. Colville forbids. And _au +revoir_. I must be going. I leave you some medicine and will see you +again to-morrow. Take the best care of her, Haidee." + +He went away, and they heard the hall door clang behind him. Lily turned +to her silent attendant. + +"Haidee, you did not go," she murmured, in a reproachful tone. + +"Oh! yes, I did, miss, but your father was not there," readily answered +the treacherous old woman. + +"Oh! then you left the note for him, and also your address?" said Lily +in a more hopeful tone. + +"Aye, that I did, miss," said old Haidee, lying glibly; "I gave it to a +very pretty lady." + +"It was my sister Ada, then," said Lily. + +"No, miss; your sister lies ill of a fever. I gave it to a lady called +Mrs. Vance," lied Haidee, watching the patient's face keenly. + +A startling change swept over the girl's white features. Fear, terror, +resentment--all were blended in that look. + +"Oh!" she cried, "then indeed I have no hope of release! She will not +give the letter to my father. She is my murderess--she tried to kill me. +She will come here and make her fatal work sure! Watch for her, +Haidee--do not allow her to enter here. She will kill me, indeed she +will kill me!" + +"Oh, me, honey, I am so sorry that I gave her the note," said Haidee, +artfully; "but do not be afraid, she shall not come here to finish her +devil's work--no, not she, my poor deary." + +Alas! alas! poor Lily! Doctor Pratt's opiates could not bring oblivion +of her troubles that night. She raved and tossed through the long and +weary night, while Haidee, thoroughly alarmed, was very glad to see the +physician's face quite early the next morning. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +"Come home and dine with me, Lance," said Mr. Lawrence, meeting +Lancelot Darling amid the bustle and stir of Wall street. + +Poor Lance had been strolling carelessly up and down with a care-worn, +wretched look upon his handsome face. Time went very slowly with him +now. He turned about and, shaking hands with his friend, walked on by +his side. + +"Is there any news?" he asked, his mind reverting instantly to the +painful event which occupied all his waking thoughts. + +"None," answered the banker, sadly. "Some of the sharpest detectives in +the city are trying to trace it, but as yet there is not the faintest +clew." + +He sighed and Lancelot echoed the sigh. Both walked silently on. At +length the banker signaled a car and, entering it, they became at once +the cynosure of all the eyes within it. Their recent terrible affliction +was so well known that sympathy shone on them from every eye. But little +was said to them even by the friends they encountered. The mute trouble +of their faces seemed to repel the mere trivialities of conversation, +and no one wished to speak of the mournful tragedy whose impress was +written so legibly on the faces of both the sufferers. + +"You are looking very ill," Mrs. Vance said, in a gentle tone of +sympathy, when the banker had left the guest in the drawing-room while +he went up to see Ada, whose illness had not as yet taken any favorable +turn. + +"I am quite well, thank you," he answered, absently, and with an +unconscious, heart-wrung sigh. He was looking about him sadly, seeing in +fancy the graceful, girlish form that had so often flitted through this +grand room. She saw the turn his mind had taken, and instantly diverted +it to the present. + +"Has anything been heard from our poor Lily yet?" she asked, in low, +mournful tones. + +"Nothing, nothing. Oh! Mrs. Vance, this suspense is very hard to bear," +said he, impetuously, won by the gentle sympathy in her face and voice +to an outburst he had not intended. "It is almost killing me!" + +"Poor Lance," said she, in a broken voice; "your features show the +traces of your great suffering. It is hard for us all to bear, but +harder still for you." + +Her delicate hand fluttered down upon his own with a pressure of mute +sympathy, while she buried her face in her handkerchief, sobbing softly. + +"I should not have brought my gloomy face here to sadden you still +more--forgive me for my reckless outburst," said he, pained by the sight +of her womanly grief, which always goes to a man's heart. + +"Do not regret it," she answered, through her sobs. "Let me grieve with +you, poor boy, in your trouble. Believe me, sympathy is very sweet." + +"Thank you," he answered, gently. "Ah! this indeed is a house of +mourning. Is Ada any better to-day, Mrs. Vance?" + +"I am sorry to say she is not," answered the lady, making a pretence of +drying her eyes, which, however, had not been wet by a single tear. "She +has a low, intermittent fever, which does not as yet yield at all to the +physician's treatment. God grant we are not to lose our lovely Ada, +too. Ah! that would indeed be a sad consequence of poor Lily's rash +suicide." + +He shuddered through all his strong young frame at that concluding word. + +"Oh, God!" he groaned, "the mystery of it! Suicide! Suicide! If God had +taken her from us, I could learn to say, 'It is well'--but that she +should weary of us all, that she should rush out of this life that I +thought to make so fair and beautiful to her in our united future! I +cannot understand it--it is horrible, maddening!" + +Musingly she murmured over a few lines from Tom Hood's mournful poem, +"The Bridge of Sighs:" + + "Mad from Life's history, + Swift to Death's mystery, + Glad to be hurled + Anywhere, anywhere, out of the world!" + +The words seemed to madden him. Impatiently he strode up and down the +floor. + +"She never loved me as I loved her!" he broke out, passionately. "I +could not have done aught to grieve her so. If earth had been a desert, +it must still have been Paradise to me while she walked upon it. Oh! +Lily, Lily, you were very cruel!" + +"Do not grieve so, I beseech you," said the widow's gentle voice. +Timidly she took his hand and led him to a seat. "You will make yourself +ill. We cannot afford to lose you, too. You were so near becoming one of +the family that you seem almost to take the place of our dear one who +has left us." + +"You think me almost a madman," said he, remorsefully. "I startle you +with my wild words. I should not have come here." + +"Yes, you should," she answered, kindly. "You should come oftener than +you do and let me sympathize with you in your trouble. Who can grieve +with you so well as I who knew and loved your dear one? Promise to come +every day, dear Lance, and let us share our trouble together." + +"I will try," he answered, moved by her gentle friendliness, and +thinking as he looked up that she was a very handsome woman. Not with +the beauty of his lost Lily. _Her_ angelic, blonde fairness typified the +highest beauty to him. But handsome with a certain queenliness that was +very winning. How dark and soft her eyes were--how beautiful the sweep +of the long, dark lashes. And her cheeks--how rich and soft was the +color that glowed upon them and deepened to crimson tints upon her full +lips. And when that dark, bright face glowed with tenderness and feeling +how very fascinating it became. When she took on herself the _role_ of +comforter how softly she could pour the oil of healing on the troubled +waves of feeling. She had Lance soothed and quieted before Mr. Lawrence +came down, with a pale and troubled face, from Ada's sick room. + +Dinner went off rather soberly and solemnly. The array of silver and +cut-glass was dazzling, the edibles costly and dainty, but Lance +scarcely made a pretence of eating. Mr. Lawrence merely trifled with the +viands, and Mrs. Vance was the only one whose appetite was equal to the +demands of the occasion. Conversation lagged, though the beautiful +widow tried to keep it up with all the consummate art of which she was +mistress. But the gentlemen did not second her efforts, and she was +relieved when the formal ceremony was over and they went out to smoke +their cigars. + +"I will go in and see Ada a little," thought she. "The nurse says the +fever is not infectious." + +She tripped lightly up the steps and into the room where poor Ada lay +tossing in her burning fever. She was very much like her sister in +appearance, but the luxurious chamber where she lay was in great +contrast with that in which poor suffering Lily was now immured. True, +Lily had all the comforts her sickness needed, but here the capricious +eyes of an invalid found everything to charm and soothe the weary eye. +Here delicate curtains of silk and lace shut out the too dazzling light +of day; here dainty white hangings delighted the eye with their coolness +and purity. Here and there were set vases of freshly-cut flowers filling +the air with sweetness, and rare and costly paintings looked down from +the softly tinted walls. + +An expression of annoyance swept over the girl's fair, ingenuous face as +Mrs. Vance bent airily over her and touched her feverish brow with her +delicately rouged lips. + +"You should not kiss me," said she, pettishly, "this fever may be +infectious." + +"The doctor said it was not infectious, my dear," murmured the lady +sweetly. "I asked him myself this morning." + +"Oh! you did, eh? I suppose wild horses could not have dragged you in +here to see me if it had been," said Ada, sarcastically. + +"Is there anything I can do for you, my love?" asked Mrs. Vance, +gracefully ignoring the spoiled girl's incivility. + +"Nothing--only do not talk to me--talking hurts my head," replied the +invalid, turning her face away. + +"Ah, then, if I only disturb you I will take my leave," said the +handsome widow, tripping out of the room. + +"You were rather rude, my dear," said the nurse, surprised at her gentle +patient's sudden petulance. + +"I don't care," said Ada vehemently, "I hate that woman! I cannot tell +why it is, but I have hated her ever since she came here to live, nearly +two years ago. She knows I do not like her, but she affects +unconsciousness of it. Keep the door locked, nurse, and do not let her +come in here again--tell her I am too ill to see anyone. When she kissed +me just now I felt as if a great slimy snake had crawled over me--ugh!" +she said, shuddering at the recollection. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +The great agitation of poor imprisoned Lily Lawrence culminated in a +severe fit of illness, and Doctor Pratt found need for all his skill +before convalescence set in again. Mr. Colville prudently kept himself +in the background now, so she was not troubled by the sight of the +villain's face for several weeks. Haidee proved herself a careful and +efficient nurse, and in three weeks' time poor Lily rose from her +sick-bed pale, weak and weary, her girlish heart filled with heaviness +and despair. She had again and again entreated old Haidee to go to her +father, but in vain. The old woman stubbornly turned a deaf ear to all +her entreaties. The old crone's husband Lily had not yet seen, though +she frequently heard his gruff and brutal tones in the next room to +hers, which appeared to be his sleeping-apartment. + +She was sitting up one day in the great arm-chair puzzling her brain +over some plan of escape. She looked very lovely still, though wasted by +illness and sorrow. Haidee had provided her with a neat blue wrapper, +and her fairness was almost dazzling by contrast with its becoming hue. +Her rich golden hair was gathered in a loose coil at the back of her +graceful little head, showing the whiteness of her neck, and the rosy +tinting of her small, shell-like ears. A fancy seized her to look out of +the window which was always covered with thick curtains. It was warm and +sultry and she longed for a breath of the sweet and balmy air outside +her gloomy-looking room. + +Rising with feeble steps she went to the window, and pulled aside the +curtain. + +Horrors! the window was barred with great, heavy iron bars! + +Some vague, indefinite plan of escape through that window had been +forming in her mind. She almost screamed in her despair as she saw the +futility of her plan. + +"Hateful prison-bars!" said she, angrily, and clenching one in her small +hand she shook it with angry violence. To her surprise the rotten +wood-work yielded, and the bar fell from its place and remained in her +hand. Very cautiously she looked through the aperture just formed. + +She saw that she was in an old and weather-beaten house set in the midst +of a large garden whose overgrown shrubs and bushes had grown wild and +tangled, and over-run the paths. There was not another house within half +a mile of this one. She was far out on the suburbs, she comprehended at +once. + +A noise below startled her from her reconnoissance. Hastily fitting the +heavy bar back to its place, she dropped the curtains and tottered back +to her seat, assuming an air of indifference and weariness. + +The door opened and Harold Colville entered. + +"Good-evening, Miss Lawrence," said he, coolly; "I trust you find +yourself improving." + +Lily vouchsafed him no answer save a look of scorn and contempt. + +"Come--come, fair lady," said he, seating himself near her, "have you no +kinder greeting for your devoted admirer?" + +"Leave the room, if you please," said she, while the indignant crimson +suffused her cheeks. "I have nothing to say to you, sir!" + +"Nothing? surely it were wiser, Lily, to try to make terms with me than +to bandy angry words. Remember you are in my power. I love you, and I +want your love in return. But, proud girl, beware how you change my love +into hate." + +"Mr. Colville," said she, "it is cruel, it is unmanly thus to persecute +a defenseless girl. I beseech you, restore me to my home and my father. +Think of my poor father, my suffering sister. There are other women who +will love you, women who have not given away their hearts as I have +done." + +"There is but one woman on earth to me, Lily, and I have sworn to make +her my own. You cannot move me by all you say--as well try to topple a +mountain from its base as to move me from my firm will. Better, far +better were it for you, Lily Lawrence, to waive all this useless +pleading, make yourself as charming as you well know how to do, and +become my wife. If you still persist in refusing there may be worse +things in store for you." + +She could not misunderstand the insulting meaning of his angry speech. +The hot blood flushed into her face, then receded and left her pale as +death. In bitter shame at his rudeness she bowed her face in her hands. + +"You understand me," said he with a low, malignant laugh; "so much the +better! Now listen to reason, Lily. I love you, and you are in my power! +you are dead to the world, dead to the father who reared you, the sister +who loved you, the man you would have wedded. Consent to marry me, and +within an hour after I call you my wife you shall see your friends +again, and tell them the romantic story of my love, and how it saved +your life; you can tell them that such devotion won you to reward my +fidelity with your hand. All this I offer you in good faith and honor, +and give you time for decision. But refuse--and--well, you know you are +still in my power!" + +She rose and stood confronting him in all the pride and dignity of +outraged and insulted purity. She was rarely, peerlessly beautiful with +that scarlet tide staining her cheeks, that lightning flash in the +violet eyes. + +"Villain, coward, dog!" she cried, in the white heat of passionate +resentment, "how dare you threaten me thus? Know that I defy you! I +spurn you! I will never be your wife! I will die first, do you hear me? +I will die by my own hand rather than be so disgraced." + +"Rave on, my beauty," he answered, laughing tauntingly. "Flap your +pretty wings against your prison bars, my little bird, you will only +ruffle your feathers in vain. By Jove, you only make me more determined! +I never saw you so beautiful, so utterly fascinating! I did not think +you had so queenly a spirit, my fair one! you would make your fortune on +the tragic stage!" + +"Oh! go, go," she gasped, lifting her hand with a wild gesture toward +the door, "go, leave me, unless you wish to see me dying!" + +He paused irresolute an instant; then her flashing eye and dauntless air +cowed his craven spirit into submission. With a slight bow he turned and +went out of the door. + +Face downward on the bed, Lily wept and sobbed unrestrainedly. She was +determined, if release did not come ere long, to die by her own hand. +"Better than dishonor," thought she with another burst of anguished +tears. + +She looked about her for some instrument to secrete in case she should +be driven to the last stronghold of honor. There was nothing to secure. +Old Haidee had made sure of that. "Well," she thought, "if there is +nothing else I can strangle myself with my handkerchief." + +The hours wore on to twilight. Old Haidee brought her supper, grumbled +because she did not eat it, and scowlingly withdrew. Lily was left alone +with her sad thoughts for companions. She went to the window, pulled +aside the curtain, and looked out. The twilight had faded, a few pale +stars glimmered in the cloudy sky, a crescent moon gave forth a weak and +watery light. A wild thought darted into her mind. "Oh! if I could +escape through these broken bars. Ah! why not?" + +She stood still and listened. Familiar sounds from the adjoining room +informed her that the Leverets were retiring. She crouched down and +waited perhaps half an hour. Then a dual chorus of snores announced that +her lynx-eyed guardians slept. + +Breathlessly she stole to the window and removed the iron bar. It left +an aperture large enough to admit her slight form. She tried the other +bars, but they seemed more firmly fixed than the first one she had +tried. They resisted her strongest efforts. + +"If I only had a strong rope," she thought to herself, "I could secure +it to these bars and slide down it to the ground." + +She leaned her head through the aperture and looked down to see how far +she would have to descend. The distance appeared to be about thirty +feet. + +"If I only had a rope," she thought again, "I could certainly gain my +freedom--freedom! that means home again, papa, Ada, Lancelot!" + +She sat down, her heart beating wildly at the thought. They believed her +dead. She pictured their wild, incredulous joy at first when she burst +in among them, their own living darling. What a story she would have to +tell, and how swiftly the vengeance of papa and Lancelot would descend +on Mrs. Vance and Harold Colville. Her breath came quick and fast, her +courage mounted high within her. + +"I must escape," she murmured with passionate vehemence; "surely there +must be some way out of this horrible prison." + +She thought of all the stories she had heard and read of the escape of +prisoners--she remembered that she had read of one man who had torn his +bed-clothes into strips and made a rope of them by which he descended +from the window. Why could not she do the same? + +Cautiously, so as not to awaken the sleepers in the next room, she +removed the bed-covers. There were not many, for the sultry summer +weather precluded the possibility of their use, but there were two +strong linen sheets. + +"These would do, I think," she murmured to herself. "I am so light it +would not need a very strong rope to bear my weight. I will tear these +sheets into four long strips each. That will make eight strips. I will +tie them together in knots, fasten the rope thus formed to a bar, and +lower myself from the window. If the rope is not long enough I must jump +the remainder of the distance. Then, free from this dreadful prison, I +must trust in Providence to find the way home." + +She set to work diligently. She was obliged to be very cautious for fear +the sound of her work should penetrate the ears of her jailers. She had +nothing with which to cut the cloth, and it was strong and difficult to +tear. But by dint of hard labor with teeth and fingers she at length +accomplished it, and set to work tying the slips of linen together. + +It took some time to make these knots secure. When that was done she +secured the end of her impromptu rope to the lowest bar of the window, +and looked out to see how far the end escaped the ground. Joy, joy! it +was only about ten feet. + +"I can easily jump that distance," she thought, with a thrill of triumph +at her success. + +She looked about for some wrapping to put over her thin blue dress. A +long dark cloak with hood attached hung conveniently against the wall. + +"They must have put that around me when I was brought here," she said, +"so I will wear it to go away in," and, taking it down, she rolled it +into a compact bundle and threw it out of the window. + +Nothing now remained but to follow the bundle. She stood still a moment +with streaming eyes raised to Heaven while with clasped hands she +invoked the divine mercy and protection on her perilous undertaking. +Then shuddering, she climbed into the window, forced her body through +the narrow opening, and, catching to the rope, swung herself downward. + +Hark! there was a swish in the shrubbery in the garden below as if some +heavy body had dashed through them. Her heart leaped into her throat, +her clasp on the rope grew unconsciously looser, and she slipped much +lower; so low that she heard distinctly on the ground beneath a deep, +low, hurried breathing. + +In an agony of dread and fear she clung tightly to the rope and waited +for some demonstration from below. Some unexpected peril had intervened +between her and freedom. + +Hush! Hark! Suddenly, as if all Hades had broken loose, there rose a +fearful, blood-curdling sound on the soft warm air of the summer night. +Louder and deeper still it grew, and Lily, hanging there by the clasp of +her frail little hands, midway between the window and the ground, knew +that it was the cruel, hungry, relentless baying of a deep-mouthed +blood-hound. + +A scream of terror burst from her lips as she heard the dangerous +creature at work beneath her wreaking its vengeance on the cloak she had +thrown down--tearing it and rending it with fangs and paws. Thus, she +thought, with a gasp of agony, the terrible beast would soon be rending +her warm, living body. + +Its vengeance sated on the cloak, the blood-hound began to make hungry +leaps into the air towards Lily's body, at the same time uttering +murderous yelps that froze the blood in the poor young creature's veins. +She felt herself growing weak and faint, and knew that she could hold on +but a few minutes longer ere she must faint and fall into the devouring +jaws of the blood-thirsty animal. Oh! God, she thought, what a horrible +death, to be torn limb from limb by that hungry brute! Papa and Lancelot +would never know all she had suffered. + +She had escaped death by steel, death by living entombment, to be rent +in twain by this awful blood-hound! + +Suddenly, with a cry of rage, a night-capped head was thrust out of a +window above. The Leverets had been awakened by the noise, and now +hastened to the rescue. Lily heard them coming and tried to hold on yet +a little longer; but her strength was spent, her bruised hands relaxed +their hold, and with a shriek of horror she was hurled downward into the +hungry jaws that were waiting for her. She heard the wild, prolonged +howl of joy given by the dog, felt its hot breath on her face, then +unconsciousness supervened and she knew no more. + +At that moment when her death would have been but the work of an +instant, a powerful hand grasped the dog's collar and dragged him, +howling and yelping away to his kennel, while old Haidee raised the +unconscious girl carefully up and looked at her limp form in the +moonlight. + +"Is she dead?" muttered the old witch. "Has the hound killed her? Here, +Peter," as the old man came back from fastening the dog into his kennel, +"carry the girl up-stairs--I believe the dog has killed her." + +They carried her back and laid her down upon the bed whose coverings she +had stripped and rent with such high hope an hour ago. + +White and cold she lay there as if indeed life had been driven from its +beautiful citadel forever. Old Haidee carefully examined her face and +limbs. There was no sign of any wound from the animal's fangs. + +"He has not bitten her. If she be dead, it is sheer fright that has +killed her," said she. "Peter, you ugly brute, stand aside. If she were +to revive, the sight of you would be enough to frighten her to death!" + +Peter removed his homely countenance to one side, while old Haidee +pursued her task of bringing the unconscious girl out of her swoon. Cold +water, camphor, burnt feathers and ammonia were successively tried by +the old crone before faint breath began to flutter again over the pale +lips. Her eyes opened and she looked up in bewilderment. + +"Where am I?" she moaned. "What is the matter--oh! what is that?" + +Her wandering gaze had fastened on old Peter Leveret, and she regarded +him with looks of horror. And no wonder, for old Peter was hump-backed +and deformed, and had a countenance so wicked it resembled that of a +brute more than a human being. A shock of bristly, unkempt red hair +surmounted his visage, and his straggling beard was of the same fiery +hue. He leered maliciously at her looks of terror. + +"Pshaw! that is only my old man, miss," said Haidee, shortly. "You need +not put on so many airs at sight of him, for I do assure you that if he +had not pulled old Nero off you just in the very nick of time, the +hound would have torn you to pieces long before this." + +"I thank you," said Lily, timidly, forcing herself to look gently at the +repulsive old creature. "Oh, where did the dreadful dog come from?" + +"We keeps it chained up all day in the garden, and at night we lets him +loose to purwent you from escaping, miss," answered old Peter, doggedly. + +"Strange that I never heard him before," mused Lily, reflectively. + +"He never had occasion to make himself heard before," said Haidee, +grimly. + +Lily shuddered and remained silent. + +"Pray, miss," said old Peter, who had been examining the window +curiously, "how did you get the iron bar out of this here window? You +don't look strong enough to have wrenched it out." + +"The woodwork was rotten," she answered, quietly. "I pulled the bar out +at the first effort." + +"Peter," said old Haidee, "go into the third room from this and see if +the bars are strong in that window." + +Old Peter hobbled out on his errand, and Haidee said, shortly: + +"I did not think you would try to give us the slip, miss, or I would +have warned you long ago about old Nero. There is no use trying to +escape from here--you are as secure in this house as if you were in your +grave. Grave perils await you the moment you step over this threshold. +Old Nero was but a foretaste of what you may meet with, so I advise you +to marry Mr. Colville, and content yourself." + +"I will never, never marry him, Haidee," said the young girl, sadly, yet +dauntlessly. "And you need not try to frighten me from trying to escape, +for I shall use every endeavor to that end. I can but die, and death is +preferable to what I must endure in this house." + +She lay back and closed her eyes wearily. + +Peter Leveret entered and reported the bars as strong and tight in the +third room. + +"You may sit here by the patient, then, while I go and prepare that room +for her reception," said his wife. + +"You will not put her in _that_ room," said Peter, with vague surprise +and doubt. + +"Yes, in that very room--there is no other where the windows are barred. +She must occupy that until we can get this window fixed. Nothing will +hurt her. I dare say she is not afraid of ghosts," said Haidee, grimly, +as she passed out. + +She was absent half an hour or more. Lily lay still with closed eyes all +the while, dreading to see again the villanous countenance of old Peter, +for hideous as Haidee had appeared to her startled eyes, her aspect was +beauty in comparison with that of her husband. It was with feelings of +relief, therefore, that Lily welcomed her return. + +"Come," said the old crone, shortly, "I will conduct you to a more +secure apartment, miss." + +She led Lily along a dark passage, thrust her rudely into a +dimly-lighted room, and locked the door upon her. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +Thus rudely disposed of, Lily stood still a moment in the center of the +floor whither the old woman's rude push had landed her, and looked about +her with a swelling heart full of grief and indignation. + +She found herself in a meagerly furnished, low-ceiled room, very similar +to the one she had just quitted. The single window was barred with iron +strongly and securely fitted in. The low, white bed had a very +refreshing look to her worn and agitated frame, and throwing herself +upon it, dressed as she was, Lily fell into a deep and weary slumber, +broken now and then by a sob that welled up from her heart. + +It was probably midnight when she was awakened by the peal of thunder +overhead, and the patter of heavy rain upon the roof. A violent summer +storm was in progress, and Lily lay still awhile and listened in awe to +the raging elements warring furiously together. In a temporary lull of +the storm, she fancied she heard groans of pain arising from beneath the +floor, and sprang up in bed, trembling violently. She listened again, +but the sound was not repeated, and the girl smiled as she said to +herself: + +"It was only my nervous fancy, giving a human voice to the winds and +rain. There can be no one in this old house save my cruel jailers and +myself." + +She laid her head down again upon the pillow, and as the ominous sounds +were not repeated, and the wild thunder-storm decreased in violence, she +fell asleep and did not wake until the sun was high in the summer +heavens. + +Haidee, entering with her breakfast and fresh water for her ablutions, +scowled at her suspiciously. + +"Did you sleep well?" interrogated she. + +"Very well," answered Lily, coldly and briefly. + +"Did nothing disturb you through the night?" said the old witch, +watching the young girl keenly from beneath her shaggy, over-hanging +eyebrows. + +"Thunder awakened me," replied Lily, calmly, "and once, in a pause of +the storm, it seemed to me I heard a human voice groaning; but I became +satisfied afterward that it was only the wind in the trees." + +"Most likely," said Haidee. "I'm glad you were not frightened. But they +do say this room is haunted. A woman died in here, and they do say she +walks about and wrings her hands and groans. I know nothing about it +myself, but I will own that I have heard strange sounds here." + +The long, lonely day wore on while she sat absorbed in her painful +thoughts. Colville, with "malice prepense," had denied her the solace of +books, work, or music, thinking that the unutterable weariness and +stagnation of her life would drive her sooner into his eager arms. + +Time passed on leaden footsteps to the impatient young creature whose +life hitherto had held every pleasure that love and wealth combined +could lavish on its beautiful idol. + +Noon brought Haidee and her dinner. Wearied by the length of the sultry +day and her own vexing thoughts, Lily scarcely tasted the food brought +her. + +"Take it away," she said, indifferently, "I have no appetite, Haidee." + +Haidee obeyed in silence, and left her walking up and down the floor in +passionate impatience. Now and then she shuddered with fear at +remembering her escape of the previous night. + +"I shall have to die," she thought, despairingly. "There is no hope of +escape from this house. But, oh! may it not be by such a dreadful method +as that." + +Her meditations were suddenly interrupted by a horrible sound. It was +the far-off clank of a heavy chain mingled with the anguished wail of an +unearthly voice. It broke so suddenly on the stillness that Lily started +in affright, the very hairs on her head seeming to stand erect in her +over-mastering horror. + +She had never been a believer in the supernatural, but what was that, +she asked herself, with a wildly beating heart. The sounds continued, +muffled by distance, yet distinctly horrible and realistic. They seemed +to rise from the floor beneath her feet. She covered her ears with her +hands, but the sounds penetrated to her whirling brain in spite of her +efforts not to hear--dreadful sounds of woe from the suffering lips of +some human or inhuman creature. All the while the heavy chain seemed +clanking in unison with the voice. + +Was Haidee's ghost-story true after all, Lily asked herself, in doubt +and bewilderment. No, she would not believe it. Only the narrow-minded +and superstitious believed in such things. Suddenly the solution of the +mystery broke on her mind like the light of an inspiration. She +understood Haidee's anxiety that she should believe in the unearthly +nature of the sound she was likely to hear. + +"It is nothing supernatural," she said to herself, firmly. "I am not the +only prisoner in this house. Some poor being, more wretchedly treated +even than myself, perhaps driven to madness, as they will probably drive +me, is confined in some loathsome dungeon below me, and Haidee does not +wish me to know it." + +"Poor soul, poor soul!" murmured Lily in divine pity and compassion for +the unknown prisoner. + +As she sat musing sadly her eyes fell absently on the carpet beneath her +feet. It had evidently been laid down the night before in a great hurry, +for it was unevenly spread, and was not tacked down. There was no carpet +in the room she had occupied before. Why had old Haidee been so +particular about placing one here? + +"It is rather strange," she thought to herself. "Haidee had something to +conceal. I will look under that carpet." + +She glanced toward the key-hole, fearing that argus eyes might be +watching her. No one was there. She rolled up a piece of wrapping paper +that lay carelessly upon the floor and pushed it into the opening. + +"Now I will see what that carpet hides," said the brave girl to herself. + +She advanced to the corner of the room and slowly turned back the +corners of the gay flowered carpet as far as the middle. She was +rewarded by more than she expected. The carpet had been drawn over a +trap-door in the center of the room. It had recently been used, too, +thought the girl, for it was free from dust and a small crevice appeared +at one end. She inserted her fingers in the opening thus found, and +cautiously pushed against it. The door slid back under the flooring +lightly and easily, and disclosed below Lily's room a long and narrow +winding stairway. It looked gloomy and dark, as if the footsteps of the +wicked alone trod over its hidden way, and with a shudder Lily pushed +the door back into its place, carefully replaced the carpet, removed the +paper from the key-hole, and sat down with a wildly-beating heart and +trembling limbs. + +"That stairway evidently leads to the dungeon of that poor chained +prisoner," was her inward comment. "Who can it be that Haidee has +immured there? Perhaps another victim of Dr. Pratt and Harold Colville. +Oh! God, that such infamous villany should go unpunished beneath the sky +of heaven!" + +She walked to the iron-barred window, and looked out through the +grating. + +The sun was shining in the blue heavens--the tangled old garden, +refreshed by the storm of the previous night, was a wilderness of bloom. +Untrimmed, the roses spread their wild, loving arms over the ground, or +climbed heavenward by whatever frail support they could reach. Vines +broken down from their frames blossomed luxuriantly on the ground, and +ran across the winding path. A high stone wall ran around the whole +place, shutting out all the bloom and sweetness from the curious gaze of +any who might chance to pass. Poor Lily inhaled the fragrant air that +rose to her window with a heart-wrung sigh. What sunshine and sweetness +and beauty were outside of her horrible prison--what grief, what +desolation, perhaps even madness, within. + +The fresh pure air infused new courage into her fainting heart; the +memory of those mournful, anguished wails became less dreadful as her +courage rose. + +"I will go down that winding stairway to-night," was the resolve taking +shape in her mind. "I will try and find that poor soul imprisoned +beneath me. Ah! can I, dare I? Who knows what awful shape of idiocy or +madness may affright me thence? No matter; after enduring the dread +companionship of the dead in the charnel house, I can bear that chained +creature also." + +The day wore on. Twilight came with its dusky shadows and passed. Old +Haidee entered with supper and a freshly trimmed lamp. Lily could +scarcely eat, she was so excited by the thought of her projected night +adventure. + +"I suppose you are trying to starve yourself to death, miss," said she +grimly; "I shall send word to Dr. Pratt and he will give you some stuff +to stimulate your appetite." + +Lily made no reply. + +"I suppose you'll not try to escape to-night," continued Haidee +maliciously. "If you do old Nero will be on the watch for you. He never +sleeps at night." + +"I will make my next attempt at daylight then," replied Lily coolly. + +"You'll not find another loose bar," retorted the old woman angrily, as +she went out with the scarcely touched dishes. + +Lily waited a long while in perfect silence for the sound of the old +people going up-stairs. At length she heard their harsh footsteps +creaking up the stairs. As she had expected old Haidee's course was +straight towards her room. She sprang into bed, drew the covers up to +her chin, and feigned slumber. The key grated in the lock and the old +woman's fiendish visage peered in. + +"Ah! there you are safe in your nest, pretty bird," croaked she; "well, +happy dreams to you." So saying, she turned the key again and went away, +satisfied that her charge was safe for that night. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +Lily lay perfectly still, but quite sleepless for more than two hours. +During that time she heard several groans from below, accompanied by the +ominous clank of the chain. At length, as the cries grew louder and more +frequent, she determined at all hazards to seek the poor, suffering +creature. + +She rose and removed the carpet, slid back the trap-door, and gazed down +into the gloomy pit below. All was blackness and darkness, but the +harsh, wailing sounds arose more distinctly than before. She took up the +lamp in her hand, and with an irrepressible shudder, began to descend +the winding stair. Presently she stood at the foot of the stairs in a +narrow passage-way. + +At the further end was a door. Trembling so that she could scarcely hold +the lamp, Lily advanced and tried the handle. It yielded to her touch +and swung open. She found herself in an empty, dismal room, its walls +festooned with cobwebs, its cold flooring formed of solid stone. + +As she looked about by the dim light of the lamp she saw another door, +and resolutely advancing she caught the knob and swung it open. Another +instant and she had stepped across the threshold and stood in the +presence of the mystery. + +It was an empty, cobwebbed room like the first, its only furniture +consisting of a narrow cot-bed. Close beside it an iron staple was +driven into the stone floor. A long and heavy iron chain was fastened to +this staple. At its opposite end it was linked to a strong leathern belt +wound about the frame of a poor creature lying at full length on the bed +and wasted to a living _skeleton_! + +In all her speculations regarding the mysterious prisoner, Lily had not +imagined aught as dreadful as the reality. There lay the poor frame upon +the bed, its tattered dress scarce covering its bony knees, its +claw-like hands twisted wildly together. The limbs presented the +appearance of bones with parchment-like skin drawn tightly over them. + +Masses of long, black hair, tangled and unkempt, strayed over the coarse +pillow, and fierce, dark eyes, sunken and dim, peered from their hollow +orbits in a face shriveled simply to skin and bone, the cheeks fallen +in, the temples hollow, the purple lips drawn away from the glistening +white teeth. This dreadful creature stopped its frenzied cries at Lily's +entrance, and crouching into a frightened heap wailed out submissively: + +"I will hush, I will hush! Do not beat me again!" + +"Poor creature, I will not harm you," answered Lily, gently. + +She stood in the center of the room, holding the lamp in her shaking +hand, its light streaming over her lovely face and golden hair. The poor +creature turned suddenly at the sound of her compassionate voice and +looked at her with an expression of awe in her great, hollow eyes. + +"Are you an angel?" she asked, abruptly. + +"No, poor soul; I am a wronged and unhappy prisoner like yourself!" + +"Another one of _his_ victims?" queried the living skeleton, sitting up +on the cot and folding her emaciated arms around her skinny knees. + +Lily came forward and seated herself on the foot of the bed, and set her +lamp on the floor. + +"Of whom are you speaking?" asked she. + +"Of Harold Colville, to be sure," said the poor woman, shuddering as the +name writhed over her blanched lips. "Has he married you, too, eh?" + +"God forbid," ejaculated her visitor with a strong shiver of disgust. "I +am a poor girl whom he is trying to force into a marriage with him. He +has stolen me away from my friends and is keeping me locked up here +until I consent to be his wife. But I will never, never do so!" she +cried, passionately. + +"You do not love him?" said the poor frame beside her. + +"No, I hate him! But who are you?" asked Lily, her interest deepening in +the poor creature whose mind it was evident still burned clearly in her +wrecked frame. + +"I am Fanny Colville," was the answer, in a low and bitter tone. "I am +Harold Colville's lawful wife--I was married to him four years ago." + +"Is it possible?" cried Lily, with a violent start. "Then why are you +here?" + +"My husband wearied of me," said poor Fanny, her dark eyes burning like +coals. "He stole me away from my friends, too, lady, but I went +willingly because I loved him--yes, I loved him then! He married me and +I hid away the certificate the good minister gave me. We traveled for a +year or so, and lived very happily. Then he wearied of me and brought me +here. He told me our marriage ceremony was a farce--that we had not been +lawfully married--he demanded the certificate the minister had given me. +But I was not a fool, I knew he lied to me, and I would not give up the +paper for the sake of the little child that was soon coming to me. I +kept it hidden away, and he raved and swore at me, then went away and +left me. He hired the Leverets to kill me and the child also when my +hour should arrive. The day came--my child was born--a healthy, living +boy. They took it away from me and said that it died. I knew they had +killed it. But they were not merciful enough to kill me. They drove me +mad with their cruelty. I became a raving, dangerous maniac for awhile, +and they chained me down here like a dog. Here I have remained nearly +two years, fed on a scanty supply of bread and water. You see what they +give for a week's subsistence," said she, pointing to a half-eaten loaf +of bread and a jug of water, both upon the floor. + +Lily looked and shuddered. + +"Does your husband ever come to see you?" she inquired. + +"No, no; he thinks me dead--he paid old Peter Leveret to murder me. But +they are slowly starving me to death instead of thrusting a knife into +my heart. And I am so strong, it takes me a long while to die!" + +She paused a moment, catching her breath painfully, then continued: + +"Dreadful deeds have been committed here--murder's red right hand has +been lifted often. Look down into that pit, lady." + +She pointed to a trap-door near the iron staple. + +Lily pushed it aside and looked down, but saw only thick darkness, while +a noisome smell rushed out of the pit. She closed it hurriedly. + +"I see nothing," she said, "but darkness." + +"Because it is night," said Fanny Colville. "You should come when it is +daylight, lady. You would see horrible, grinning skeletons then. I look +at them sometimes. They are the only companions I have." + +"Poor Fanny, I wish you could escape out of this horrible place. Would +you like to do so?" + +"Oh! so much," said the living skeleton, clasping her bony hands. "I +have dear friends far away from here whom I love so much. They know +nothing of my whereabouts. How gladly they would welcome me back." + +"My case is the same," said Lily, mournfully. "I have tried to escape, +but was near losing my life through falling into the clutches of the +blood-hound they keep here. But I am going to try again, Fanny, and I +will try to help you out of your prison also. I will come and see you +again," said she, taking up her lamp and turning to go. + +"Do not go yet, sweet lady," cried the prisoner, imploringly; "I love to +look at you and hear you speak. I have not heard a kind word for more +than two years until you came in like an angel to-night." + +"I must go now," replied Lily, gently. "I am afraid old Haidee will miss +me and trace me here. Keep up a brave heart--I will come again to-morrow +night if nothing happens. Good-night, now, Fanny." + +"Good-night, miss," said the unfortunate creature, seizing Lily's hand +and kissing it. "I am happier for your coming, and I shall expect you +again to-morrow night!" + +The young girl took up her lamp and went away, leaving the poor creature +alone in her dreadful solitude once more. But hope, like a brightly +beaming star, had penetrated that gloomy dungeon and beamed into Fanny +Colville's lacerated heart. She lay awake all night, thinking feverishly +of the beautiful girl who had visited her, and building bright +air-castles on the slight hint of escape she had thrown out. + +And Lily, too, tossed on a feverish bed which gentle slumber refused to +visit with its benign influence. Fear, horror and indignation filled her +heart against Harold Colville and the Leverets, mixed with deep sorrow +and pity for the injured Fanny. She understood now the depth of villany +of which her would-be suitor was capable, and the wickedness of Haidee +and Peter appeared more dreadful than before. No wonder Haidee found her +tossing on a bed of pain the next morning, racked by a nervous headache. +Colville called to see her, but went away when he heard she was ill, and +sent Doctor Pratt instead, who prescribed a sedative and left her +sleeping heavily and profoundly. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +Late in the evening she awoke, feeling rested and refreshed by her long +sleep. Her headache was quite gone, and Haidee found her sitting in the +arm-chair when she came in with supper. + +She drank a cup of tea, ate a few mouthfuls of food, and declared +herself much better. Old Haidee, however, brought in her knitting and +pertinaciously sat out the evening with her, with the intention, no +doubt, of listening for sounds from below and marking their effect on +her captive. But no sound, no groans, broke the stillness. Fanny +Colville, in the new hope that had dawned upon her, had refrained all +day from the groans and cries that usually gave vent to her despair. She +was impatiently waiting for the return of her visitor of the night +before. + +Haidee had not visited the poor chained captive since the night she had +incarcerated Lily in her new lodging. In fact, there was no entrance to +the dungeon except through the trap-door in this room. Haidee had taken +her a week's rations that night, and scowlingly bade her to abstain from +her noise or it would be worse for her. She now concluded that the +captive had obeyed her mandate, or that death had at last removed her +out of her power. It was with a feeling of relief at the last thought +that she left Lily's room, telling her with a malicious grin that old +Nero was loose in the garden as usual. + +It was almost midnight before Lily ventured to seek poor Fanny Colville +again. Long before she descended the stairs she could hear the sound of +the rusty chain as the poor woman tossed restlessly on her bed of pain. +Her wild eyes lighted glaringly at the young girl's entrance. + +"I thought you were not coming," she said pathetically. + +"I dared not come earlier," Lily answered, relating the cause of her +detention. + +"Old Haidee is a fiend," said Fanny, briefly and comprehensively. + +"I have been revolving in my mind a plan of escape for us both," said +Lily, proceeding to detail it to her eager listener. + +But Fanny sighed and looked down at her skeleton limbs and the heavy +chain. + +"That would do for you, but not for me," she said; "I am too weak. It is +a long way from here to the city. We have no money--we have to walk +several miles to your father's house. You see I know the distance--I +came here in daylight. I can tell _you_ the way to go, but my wasted +limbs would not carry me a mile. I should only fall by the way, and be a +hindrance to you." + +Lily sighed as her clear-headed companion thus presented the +difficulties in their way. + +"I had forgotten your exceeding weakness in the ardor of my hopes," said +she. + +"Besides," continued Fanny, "look at this chain. We have nothing with +which to cut the leather or file the iron. I cannot get away from this +staple." + +"Can I, then, do nothing to help you, my poor creature?" cried Lily, in +great distress as she saw how futile was the plan she had proposed. + +"Of course there is," answered Fanny, hopefully. "The plan you spoke of +is quite feasible for you. Put it into operation as soon as possible. I +feel almost assured of your success. Then as soon as you have told your +story to your father, tell him mine also, and entreat him to send a +force of police out here to arrest the Leverets and liberate me." + +"Certainly, I could do that," said Lily, brightening, "that would be the +better plan after all--but still I cannot bear to leave you here alone, +poor soul, in your wretchedness. Who can tell what may happen ere relief +can reach you? Perhaps this slow starvation may finish its dreadful work +upon you." + +"Never fear," was the hopeful reply. "I have subsisted like this for two +long years, yet I feel the flame of life still brightly burning in my +wasted frame. And, think you, I cannot endure a few more days' +confinement when you have given me such hope to feed upon?" + +Her eyes were brightly burning in her wasted face, and her parched lips +tried to smile. She took her visitor's little white hand caressingly +between her own bony members and looked at it in fond admiration. + +"You are a beautiful girl," she said. "Ah, would you believe that I was +once a pretty girl, and that I am young still--but little older than +you, perhaps, for I am only twenty, though, trouble and starvation have +made me prematurely old!" + +Lily looked the astonishment she felt, for indeed that poor face with +all the curves and lines of flesh stricken out of it by the sharp pangs +of starvation, had indeed no mark to discern whether she were young or +old. True, the matted locks of black hair were too thick for those of +age, but they were thickly streaked with silver threads. Harold +Colville's wretched victim retained now no trace of either youth or +beauty. + +Lily remained with her several hours, feeling all the while that she ran +a great risk in remaining, yet still unwilling to leave the unhappy +woman who showed such pitiful pleasure in seeing once more the friendly +face of a human being. But she was forced to go at length, having +listened to the story of Fanny's life, and exchanged a like friendly +confidence. + +"I may not see you again, Fanny," she said, "for I may make the attempt +to-morrow. It must be made in the day-time, you know, when Nero is +chained up. But you may rest assured that if I succeed in escaping I +shall lose no time in having you liberated, and your guilty captors +brought to punishment." + +"May God help you," said the prisoner, fervently. "I will pray for your +success." + +And with a sigh she kissed the white hands and looked lovingly after the +slight form as it glided away. + +Lily went back to her room half apprehensive that the old witch might be +waiting for her there. But all was safe; the room was vacant of all but +her own sweet presence. She disrobed herself, extinguished the lamp, and +lying down upon the bed fell into a light slumber, broken by many fitful +and strangely-troubled dreams. + +She awakened only when the summer sun was shining high in the heavens. +Haidee was waiting with her breakfast, and seemed even more petulant +than usual. + +"It seems to me you require more sleep than anyone I ever saw," she +said, tartly. "After sleeping all day yesterday, you cannot even get +awake for your breakfast this morning." + +"I dare say you would sleep heavily yourself, Haidee, if you had been +drugged as I was yesterday," retorted the young girl, good-humoredly. +"And really, I am feeling ill and weary this morning. This warm weather +and close confinement begin to tell on my health sadly. Perhaps I may +escape you yet through the welcome gates of death." + +"No danger of that," was the quick reply. "Youth and health can bear +much more than you have had to stand yet, my fine lady." + +She went out and did not return until noon. Her prisoner lay dressed +upon the bed with flushed and burning cheeks and strangely glittering +eyes. + +"Haidee," she said, "I cannot eat my dinner. I am feeling very +strangely. I have a dreadful feeling here." She pressed her hand upon +her heart and seemed to gasp for breath. "Go, send for the doctor as +quickly as possible. Perhaps I am about to die!" + +Haidee looked at her in doubt a moment. The suffering aspect of the +captive reassured her. She was evidently ill. + +"I will send at once for Doctor Pratt," said she, leaving the room in +haste, but not forgetting to lock the door. + +"I have sent old Peter for the doctor," said she, returning "but it may +be several hours before he returns. It is a long way to the city." + +"Sit down and stay with me, then, Haidee. I am afraid to remain alone +when I feel so strangely." + +Ten, fifteen minutes elapsed, then the patient said, faintly: + +"Haidee, for the love of Heaven, try and get me a glass of wine! Perhaps +it may relieve this wild fluttering and palpitation of my heart!" + +Again Haidee went out, locking the door as before. The patient sprang up +and stood waiting when the witch returned. The key grated, the door +swung open--but at that instant Haidee received a dexterous push that +sent her sprawling into the middle of the room, the wine glass crashing +on the floor. Before she could rise, Lily sprang past her, into the +hall, slammed and locked the door, removed the key and ran wildly down +the stairs. + +The outer door was fastened, but the key was in the lock. As she paused +to remove it, she could hear the old woman's frenzied shrieks of anger +and despair on realizing her situation. She flung the door open, flew +down the path, pushed open the heavy iron gate, and ran wildly down the +lonely country road, the afternoon sun beating hotly down on her +unprotected head, the dust flying thick and fast beneath the rapid +pit-a-pat of her small, slippered feet. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +She was free, she was free! that happy thought beat time in Lily's heart +to her wildly rushing feet. She was outside of that horrible prison, old +Haidee was locked in, and could not pursue her, old Peter could not +return for several hours. She had that much time in advance of them. +Only a few miles lay between her and her loved home. Surely, surely, +with the start she had she could distance her enemies and reach the +haven of rest for which she yearned and prayed. + +She ran on and on, her brain reeling, her heart beating almost to +suffocation, the perspiration running down her face in streams. + +Sheer exhaustion at last caused her to slacken her pace and look behind +her at the lonely stretch of road over which her flying feet had swiftly +carried her. The old house in which she had passed such awful hours was +out of sight; a turn in the road had hidden it from view. No baleful +pursuer was on her track yet. She turned and looked before her. A long +stretch of country road, dotted here and there with poor-looking houses, +lay ahead. She wet her handkerchief in a rill that trickled by the side +of the road, bound it about her throbbing head, and set forward again, +steadily, but at a less swinging pace than she had used before. +Exhausted nature could not hold out at the rapid rate with which she had +begun. + +On and on she went through the blistering sunshine. Her head ached, the +hot road burnt her feet, the warm wind blew the dust into her strained +and weary eyes. No matter--she did not heed these trifling things. She +was free! That was the glad refrain to which her bounding heart kept +time. She was so happy she could not realize her great physical weakness +and weariness. + +It seemed to her at last that hours had passed since she had set forth +on her journey, carefully following some directions Fanny Colville had +given her. The houses and lots began to stand nearer together. She was +getting nearer to the great city. She began to be afraid that she would +meet old Peter Leveret returning to his home after his errand to Doctor +Pratt. + +At last she came to a little house standing apart from the others. She +peeped in and saw an elderly woman sitting at the open door sewing on a +coarse garment, and singing blithely at her task. She opened the gate +and went up to her. + +"Will you let me come in and rest, and have a drink of water?" said she, +gently. "I am very tired!" + +The woman looked up in surprise. God knows what she thought of the poor +girl standing there bareheaded and dusty, in her blue morning dress, +looking so drooping and weary, but she moved aside and said kindly: + +"Yes! dear heart, come in and rest, and have a bit and a sup--you look +as if you needed all three." + +The kind words and gentle smile went to the lonely girl's heart. Tears +started into her eyes as she took the offered glass of water and drained +it thirstily. + +"I thank you, I do not wish anything to eat," she answered wearily, "but +if you will give me an old bonnet I will be glad--I have no bonnet, you +see--and an old dress, for I do not wish to go into the city with this +morning-dress--I will pay you well, indeed I will. See, I will give you +my diamond ring." + +The woman started in surprise as her strange visitant turned the costly +ring upon her finger. + +"Here is some strange mystery," she thought within herself. "The girl is +running away, mayhap, and wants a disguise." + +She went to a closet, and brought out an old straw hat and thick veil, +and a long, light sack somewhat worn. + +"I will not take your ring, my dear," she said kindly. "You may take +these things, though, and welcome. Maybe I am doing wrong in helping you +to run away, but then again I may be doing you a great kindness. You +look very forlorn, my poor dear." + +Lily went to work in a dazed kind of way putting on the long sack over +her dress and the hat on her head. This done she wound the thick veil +tightly over her face and turned to go. + +"I thank you for your kindness, my good woman," she said. "I will come +back here some time and reward you richly, I will indeed. Now I am +going. If anybody comes here to ask about me be sure and tell them I +have not been here. Do not let them know----" + +Whatever else she was going to say died unuttered on her pale lips. +Exhausted nature was giving away. She threw up her hands wildly, +staggered forward a step, and fell fainting on the floor. + +"Poor soul," said the good woman, kneeling down on the floor, and +loosening the hat and veil from her head, "she is dead tired-out." + +She straightened Lily out upon the floor, and dashed cold water into her +white face, but with no success. The swoon was a deep one, and it was +fully an hour before the girl was sufficiently revived to be lifted up +by the woman's strong arms and laid upon a clean white bed. + +"A beauty and no mistake," thought the warm-hearted creature, smoothing +back the damp, golden ringlets from the marble white brow on the pillow. + +Lily's large, blue eyes opened and looked up at her in amaze. + +"Am I sick? Have I been here long?" she inquired, struggling up to a +sitting posture and looking out through the window anxiously. "Why, the +sun is setting," said she, turning her bewildered face on her kind +attendant. + +"Yes, you fainted and were a long time coming to," was the answer: "you +have been here more than an hour." + +Lily slipped down from the bed and began to put on her hat and veil with +trembling hands. + +"I must be going," she said; "I have far to go yet, and it is growing so +late." + +Before the astonished woman could remonstrate, she was out of the house, +going slowly on her way. She was so weak she could not walk very fast. +Her impetuous will alone sustained her dragging footsteps. Thick +twilight had fallen before she entered the busy, bustling city. Sorely +frightened at finding herself alone in the gathering darkness, yet +afraid that the glare of the gaslights would reveal her shrinking form +to her pursuers, she shrank along in the friendly shadows, drawing back +nervously from the hurrying forms that brushed past her, and trembling +at every footstep behind her. But in spite of her nervousness she at +length entered the elegant street where her father resided. + +All was gaiety and life in the brilliant houses as she hurried past +them. The light from the drawing-rooms streamed out upon her shrinking +form. + +Wild and entrancing strains of music filled the night air. Long lines of +carriages were drawn up in front of some of the houses whose owners were +holding balls and receptions. She knew them all; they were all friends +of hers: but she flitted past them like a spirit, pausing not in her +frightened yet happy course until she stood before the windows of her +father's handsome mansion. + +These windows were lighted, too, but not so brightly as some; music, +too, stole through them, but it was soft and subdued. Death had been +there so recently they had not the heart to be gay, she thought. + +Wild with her joy she threw off her disguising hat and veil and running +up the broad, marble steps rang the bell. It was opened by the stately +old servitor whom she had been accustomed to from childhood. But instead +of welcoming her home, the gray-haired old man fled wildly down the hall +after one glance into her lovely white face. + +"He takes me for a ghost," she thought, laughing and running after him +down the wide hall till she reached the drawing-room door which stood +open for coolness that sultry night. + +She stopped in the doorway, framed like a picture in the hall gaslights, +and looked into the room. + +They were all there before her--her dear ones! The piano stood in the +center of the room, its back towards her, with Mrs. Vance on the +music-stool, directly facing her. Her white hands strayed over the pearl +keys, and Lancelot Darling stood beside her, and turned the leaves of +her music. + +A low divan was drawn near them, and Ada rested upon it, looking very +fair and ethereal in her deep mourning dress. Her father sat beside her +looking very grave and sad. + +"Papa, papa!" cried poor Lily in a choking voice. + +The passionate cry, low as it was, was distinctly heard by the +quartette. They all looked up and saw her standing there in the light +with her wild, white face and streaming golden hair. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +The group in the drawing-room gazed at Lily for a moment in mingled awe +and consternation, but suddenly, before word or sound broke the trance +of silence, the beautiful picture was wholly blotted out and obliterated +by a blackness of darkness that filled and flooded the wide hall. + +Then the sound of women's screams filled the grand drawing-room. + +"Lily, Lily!" screamed Ada, throwing herself into her father's arms, +while Mrs. Vance fell writhing upon the floor, shrieking in abject +terror. + +Lancelot Darling paused a moment to extricate himself from the clinging +hands of the kneeling woman, then bounded out into the hall. + +Darkness met him only as he ran excitedly up and down its length. There +was no one there. The front door, standing wide open, attracted his +attention. He went out on the porch and looked up and down. Just then +Mr. Lawrence came out and joined in the search. There was no one +passing. They went in and found Willis, the aged servitor, who had +returned to his post, and was lighting up the gas again. + +"Willis, what is the meaning of this?" he asked, sharply. "The hall door +open, the gas out, and you absent from your post!" + +"On my soul, Mr. Lawrence. I could not help it! I saw a ghost," said the +man, looking about him in visible trepidation. + +"Explain yourself," said his master, sternly. + +"I went to answer the door-bell," said Willis, trembling, "and when I +opened the door there stood a ghost, all in white, looking at me and +smiling. I was so frightened I let go the door-handle and ran away; I +beg your pardon for neglecting my duty, sir, and leaving the door ajar," +concluded the man, humbly. + +"What sort of a ghost did you see?" asked Mr. Darling. + +The man's eyes grew large and wild. + +"Perhaps I ought not to tell you," said he, "but, begging your pardon, +Mr. Lawrence, and yours, Mr. Darling, it was the spirit of our poor lost +Miss Lily!" + +Mr. Lawrence grew pale as he looked at the man. + +"Come, Lance; come, Willis," he said, "we will search the house from top +to bottom. There is some mystery here which we may penetrate." + +They looked into every room and closet, they neglected no hiding place +from garret to cellar, but no one, either ghost or being, was +discovered. Mr. Lawrence went up to Ada's room to see if she were +recovering from her agitation. + +She was lying in bed pale, but very quiet, attended by her maid. He sent +the girl away, and told his daughter what Willis had seen, and how +vainly they had searched the house. + +"Papa, what do you think?" asked she, in low, awe-struck tones. "Was it, +indeed, as the man asserts, the restless spirit of my sister? It was +like her, only paler and more shadowy, as a spirit well might be." + +"Ada, I do not know what to think," said her father in low, moved tones, +"I am lost in a maze of doubt and conjecture. Can it be that my +daughter's soul cannot rest while her poor desecrated body remains +uncoffined?" + +"It may be so," said Ada, weeping. "What a mournful tone was in that +voice as it breathed your name!" + +He started up, pacing the floor in wild agitation. + +"I must go down to Lance," he said. "We will go and see the detective +again to-night, and learn if any clew has been found. We must find her +body if skill and money combined can accomplish it; I cannot bear for +her restless soul to be seeking its body at my hands!" + +Mrs. Vance had retired to her room in a state of abject terror. + +She believed that she had seen and heard the veritable spirit of the +girl she had murdered, instigated thereto by jealousy. + +Her bold and venturesome spirit had never yet felt the promptings of +remorse for her dreadful deed. She rejoiced that Lily was dead, and that +the shameful stigma of suicide lay upon her memory; though she was the +daily witness of the bereaved family's sorrow, though she saw that +Lancelot Darling was aged as if ten years had passed over his head in +the past few weeks, still she felt no grief for her sin, and kept on her +resolute way, swearing in her secret soul to win the young man whom she +passionately adored, and whose wealth and position made him the most +eligible _parti_ in the whole city. Love and ambition alike spurred her +on to the attainment of her cherished object. + +But the dreadful revelation of old Haidee had struck a lightning flash +of terror to her guilty soul. + +She had believed herself secure in her sin; she had thought it known +only to herself of all the world, and the knowledge that her secret +belonged to another had almost crazed her with the fear of its betrayal. +She regretted that she had not followed the old witch home that day and +struck another secret blow that would have sealed the old woman's lips +forever. + +She who had struck down so ruthlessly the fair and blooming life of Lily +Lawrence would have felt no compunction in ending prematurely the old +and sin-blasted existence of Haidee Leveret. All that she lacked was the +chance. + +Now another scathing monition had been hurled against her guilty +conscience. In the hour when old Haidee's continued silence and absence +had begun to inspire her with confidence again, when the wooing tones +had brought Lancelot Darling to her side, when she could almost feel his +breath upon her cheek as he bent to turn the pages of her music--in that +supreme hour the image of the woman she hated had risen to blast her +sight, and to come between her and the love she sought. It was horrible, +it was maddening. + +She sought her solitary apartment and flung herself face downward on the +bed, afraid to lift her heavy eyes lest they should be blasted by the +sight of the restless spirit which her guilty hand had driven forth a +wanderer from the fair citadel it once inhabited. + +"Do the dead walk?" she said to herself, in fearful agitation, "do they +revisit the haunts of life and love? Do they ever return and denounce +their murderers? Oh! God, why do I ask myself these fruitless questions? +Do I not know? Have I not looked upon the face of the dead this night? +Ah! what if she had pointed a ghostly finger at me, and said before them +all, 'Thou art my murderess!'" + +Shivering as if with the ague she buried her head in the bed-clothes. + +A sudden rap at the door caused her to start violently. + +"Enter," said she, almost inaudibly. + +It was only one of the neat housemaids. She looked concerned at the +ghastly white face the widow lifted on her entrance. + +"Are you ill, Mrs. Vance?" she inquired. + +"No--yes--that is, my head aches badly," was the confused answer. + +The maid had heard the story of the ghostly visitor from Willis, and +rightly attributed the agitation of the lady to that cause. + +She did not allude to it, however, as Mrs. Vance did not. She simply +said: + +"I found this trinket in the hall as I was passing through it, Mrs. +Vance. I have shown it to Miss Lawrence, but she does not know anything +about it, so I came to ask if it belonged to you?" + +She held the piece of gold in her hand. Mrs. Vance arose and examined it +by the light. + +It was the broken half of a golden locket such as gentlemen wear on +their watch-chains. It was of costly workmanship, richly chased, with a +delicate monogram set in minute diamonds. The intertwined letters were +"H. C." + +"It does not belong to me, Mary," answered Mrs. Vance. "It has probably +broken off from some gentleman's watch-chain, and dropped as he was +passing through the hall. But I do not know to whom it can belong. We +have had no visitors to-day, and indeed I cannot recollect any +acquaintance we have with the initials, 'H. C.' What do you intend to do +with it?" + +"I shall ask Mr. Lawrence to take charge of it as soon as he returns," +replied Mary. "It may be that he can find the owner. It is quite +valuable, is it not, ma'am?" + +"Yes, it has some value, Mary--the monogram is set with real diamonds, +though they are very small. It evidently belongs to a person of some +means," said Mrs. Vance, returning the trinket to Mary's hand. + +The trim little maid said a polite good-night and tripped away with the +jewel carefully wrapped in a handkerchief. Mrs. Vance, with her thoughts +turned into a new channel, sat musing thoughtfully over the little +incident. The longer she thought it over the more mysterious it +appeared. + +"To whom can it belong?" said she to herself. "No gentlemen at all have +called here to-day. Can it have any connection with our mysterious +visitation to-night?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +Mr. Lawrence detailed to the special detective, Mr. Shelton, the +particulars of his daughter's appearance that evening. He was listened +to with the closest attention. + +When he had concluded his story, the detective said, respectfully: + +"I am a very practical man, Mr. Lawrence, and my profession only makes +me more so. When I am brought in contact with a mystery I invariably +suspect crime. And I must tell you that I do not believe in the +visionary nature of the girl you saw in your hall this evening. I am not +a believer in the supernatural." + +"What then, is your opinion of the phenomenon?" inquired Mr. Lawrence. + +"That it was no phenomenon at all," answered Mr. Shelton, smiling. "It +was palpably an attempt at robbery. Some girl with a resemblance to your +lost daughter was employed to frighten off the man at the door, while +her accomplices entered the hall, turned off the light and perpetrated a +burglary." + +"But there was nothing stolen," objected Mr. Lawrence. "The house was +searched immediately, for I had an idea rather similar to yours at +first. But nothing had been taken nor was there any person concealed in +the house." + +The detective smiled blandly in the comfortable knowledge of his own +superior wisdom. + +"The thieves were only frightened off that time," said he; "they will +come again, feeling secure in the belief that the girl played the ghost +to perfection. The next time do not be frightened but make an instant +effort to capture her, and she can soon be forced to reveal her +accomplices." + +"You have learned nothing yet about the grave-robbers?" asked Mr. +Lawrence, dismissing the first subject, thinking it quite possible that +Mr. Shelton's exposition of the case was a very correct one. + +"I have found the first link in the chain," said the detective +brightening up. + +"You have?" said the banker, gladly. + +"It is a very slight clew, though," said Mr. Shelton. "I would not have +you build your hopes on it, Mr. Lawrence, for it may not lead to +anything. The case is a very mysterious one, and so far has completely +baffled thorough investigation." + +"But that you have discovered anything at all is an earnest of hope," +said the banker. "Slight things lead to great discoveries sometimes. +Will you give us the benefit of your discovery?" + +"It must be held in the strictest confidence," said Mr. Shelton, looking +from Mr. Lawrence to Mr. Darling, who had sat quite silent throughout the +interview. "Of course you know that if suffered to get abroad it would +put the guilty party on their guard." + +Both gentlemen promised that they would preserve inviolable secrecy. + +"Briefly, then, I have learned that the sexton was bribed to lend out +the key of your vault the night of the funeral, Mr. Lawrence." + +"The villain!" said Mr. Lawrence, hotly. + +"Softly," said the detective; "he is not so bad as you think. His error +lay in the possession of a soft heart unfortunately abetted by a soft +head." + +"I fail to catch your meaning," said the banker. + +"I mean," said the detective, "that poor old man had no thought or dream +of abetting a robbery. His consent was most reluctantly forced from him +by the sighs and protestations of a pretended lover, who only desired +that he might be permitted to look once more on the beloved face of the +dead. The sighing Romeo prevailed over the old man's scruples with his +frantic appeals and obtained the key, rewarding the sexton with all a +lover's generosity. It was returned to him in a short while, and so +implicit was his faith in the romantic lover that he never even looked +in the vault to see if all was secure. The shocking discovery made the +following day by Mr. Darling and yourself so appalled him with its +possibilities of harm to himself, that he feared to reveal the fact of +his unconscious complicity in the theft." + +"Yet he revealed it to you," said Mr. Lawrence. + +"The detectives are a shrewd lot for worming secrets out of people," +said Shelton, with one of his non-committal smiles. "I used much +_finesse_ with the old man before I made my discovery. I suppose I may +feel safe in supposing that you will not molest him at the present +critical time? Much depends on secrecy." + +"The case is in your hands--rest assured I shall not make any disastrous +move in it," returned Mr. Lawrence, reassuringly. + +"One thing further," said Mr. Shelton. "I learned that the man who +enacted the hypocritical _role_ of the despairing lover was tall and +dark, but have not succeeded in identifying him yet. That is the meager +extent of my information at present." + +"I hope and trust it may soon lead to an entire elucidation of the +mystery," said the banker, rising to leave. + +"I will report all discoveries tending that way immediately, sir," +answered the detective, bowing his visitors out of the office. + +"How are you impressed with Mr. Shelton's powers as a detective, Lance?" +asked Mr. Lawrence as they walked on a few blocks before hailing a car. + +"I believe he is an able man, but--I am not prepared to subscribe to his +theory of the event which happened to-night," was the somewhat +hesitating reply of the young man. + +"You are not? What, then, is your opinion?" asked the banker, in some +surprise. + +"Mr. Lawrence, I believe that it was really and truly our lost Lily whom +we beheld to-night," said Lancelot, earnestly. + +"Really and truly our Lily! Come, Lance, you talk wildly. Has your +affliction turned your brain, poor boy? Recollect that Lily is dead." + +"I know--I know. Who could realize that fact more forcibly than I do? +But, my dear friend, I did not mean that it was Lily in the flesh. What +I meant was that Lily's spirit, the better part of her which is +imperishable, really and truly appeared to us to-night," said the young +man, who was of a very impressive and imaginative cast of mind. + +Mr. Lawrence regarded him curiously. + +"But why should you persist in this belief, Lance, when the clever Mr. +Shelton has so clearly shown us the fallacy of the idea?" + +"He has not shown us the fallacy of the idea at all," answered Lancelot +Darling earnestly, as before. "He has only given us his practical theory +regarding it." + +"Have you any conjecture regarding her object in so appearing to us--if, +indeed, you take the right view of the matter, Lance?" asked the banker, +impressed by the serious manner of his young friend. + +"I have not thought of it, Mr. Lawrence. I have no distinct or tangible +impression at all except this one, which is indelibly fixed on my mind. +I believe that the pure, white soul of Lily Lawrence looked out visibly +upon us to-night from the eyes of the girl whom we saw in the hall. I +cannot be mistaken. My soul leaped forth to meet hers as it could not +have done for any other woman, mortal or immortal," replied the loyal +lover earnestly. + +"Well, here is my car," said the banker, hastening to signal it. + +"Good-night, sir," said Lance, turning a corner and going down the +street toward his hotel to pass the weary night in restless tossing and +sleeplessness, while visions of his beautiful lost love haunted his +feverish brain until he was well-nigh driven to madness. + +Mr. Lawrence went back to the detective next day with the costly broken +jewel that Mary, the housemaid, had found in the hall. He explained to +Mr. Shelton that no gentleman had called at the house the day previous +except Mr. Darling, who said he had never seen it before. + +"This confirms my view of the case," said Mr. Shelton, triumphantly "Did +I not say that the girl had one or more accomplices? This was probably +dropped by the man in his hurried flight. Yet it would seem to have +belonged to a person of taste and wealth. Such a one would not be +engaged in burglary. The mystery only deepens." + +"But may not this be a clew by which to discover the perpetrators of the +dastardly act?" inquired the banker. + +"It ought to do so," said the detective, frankly. + +He remained lost in thought a few moments then inquired: + +"Have you any acquaintance who can claim these initials, Mr. Lawrence?" + +"Let me think. My circle of acquaintance is large, but I cannot recall +anyone claiming H. C. as his monogram. My memory may not serve me +correctly, though." + +"Perhaps your card-receiver may do better, Mr. Lawrence. Will you +examine that and let me know?" + +"Certainly. Suppose you accompany me, and let us find out at once? I do +not feel disposed to let this vexing matter rest." + +"With pleasure, as I have a leisure hour at my disposal." + +They returned to the house together and entered at once upon their +quest. + +It was not long before their labors were rewarded with success The +detective looked up with a small square of pasteboard in his hand, from +which he read aloud triumphantly. + +"Harold Colville!" + +"'H. C.' Harold Colville!" exclaimed the banker. "Why, really I had +forgotten Mr. Colville." + +"He visits here then, of course," said the detective. + +"He did--at one time--frequently. Latterly he has discontinued his +visits. Indeed, it has been four or five months since he called upon +us." + +"Had he any reason for the cessation of his visits?" + +"Yes," said the banker, promptly. "He was a suitor for the hand of my +daughter, Lily. She rejected him--being already engaged to Mr. Darling." + +"I have seen Mr. Colville," said Shelton. "He is a man of wealth and +leisure--dissipated and fast, I have heard." + +"You have been correctly informed," was the reply. + +"Indeed?" said Mr. Shelton. He laid the card back as he spoke, and rose +to take leave. + +"Does this discovery throw any light on the mystery?" said the other. + +"I will be frank with you, Mr. Lawrence. It does not. The case seems +complicated at present, but it is my business to unravel the crooked +skein, and I hope to do so. You will suffer me to retain this bit of +jewelry for the present. I wish to see if Mr. Colville can furnish the +missing half." + +"You suspect him, then--" said the banker, breaking off his sentence +because perplexed how to end it. + +"I suspect him of nothing at present," was the reply. "This trinket may +have been stolen from him and lost by another, I have that to find out. +If it be proved that Mr. Colville lost this locket in your hall last +night, my theory of a projected theft will not hold water. A gentleman +of his wealth and position would not need to descend to that phase of +crime. Some other object must have actuated him." + +He paused, drawing on his gloves. + +"There is one thing more," he resumed. "Keep this mutual discovery we +have made a dead secret until I give you leave to reveal it. Do not even +mention it to your daughter or to Mr. Darling. He does not believe the +theory I advanced last night. I read it in his expressive features. He +thinks he really saw a spirit. Let him think so still; I am gathering +the tangled ends of a fearful mystery in my hands. But if human skill +can unravel it I will not fail to do so. Good-day, Mr. Lawrence." + +He tripped airily away down the street with the air and manner of a +well-bred gentleman. Few who saw the well-dressed man swinging his natty +little cane so jauntily and wearing that supremely indifferent air would +have supposed him to be the most daring and accomplished detective in +the State of New York. So thought Mr. Lawrence as he watched him walk +away. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +The rage of old Haidee Leveret at finding herself duped and outwitted by +such a weak girl as Lily Lawrence was frightful to witness and +impossible to describe. She raved, she stormed, she tore her scanty gray +locks and blasphemed in the most frightful and blood-curdling terms. + +In vain she tried the door-handle, in vain she shook the iron bars in +the window. They resisted her most vigorous efforts. + +In her terrible rage she fell to breaking and tearing everything in her +room that could be destroyed. She threw down the dishes containing +Lily's untasted dinner and shivered them into fragments. She tore off +the bed-covers and rent them in pieces in the hight of her insane fury. +If Lily had fallen into her cruel hands just then she would have killed +her remorselessly. + +At length, having sated her rage momentarily by wreaking it on those +poor inanimate things, she began to quiet down somewhat and to consider +the situation. + +The enemy had worsted her, that was self-evident. Stratagem had +succeeded against brute force and power. + +Lily Lawrence had freed herself from captivity, and there was no one to +pursue her and bring her back. Old Peter was not likely to return for +several hours. If Lily's strength held out she would be safe in her home +ere the old man could get back to town and carry the tidings to Doctor +Pratt and Harold Colville. + +Harold Colville had promised the old couple a most extravagant reward +for the safe-keeping of his beautiful prisoner. + +Not only did the loss of this trouble the old crone's mind, but also the +fact that Lily would betray them all into the hands of the police and +that exposure and punishment would follow on the discovery of the +nefarious works which she and her husband had wrought for years. A +species of abject terror filled her quaking frame at the thought. She +thought of the miserly accumulations of her wicked life secreted beneath +the roof of the old house, and dreaded lest her greedy eyes should never +again be permitted to gloat over that golden hoard. + +In the hight of these woful cogitations her thoughts suddenly recurred +to the prisoner in the gloomy dungeon beneath her. + +Poor Fanny Colville, whose hearing had been strained all day to detect +the faintest sound from above, had been a frightened listener to old +Haidee's fearful explosion of wrath. + +She knew by the violence of the witch's rage that Lily had succeeded in +her stratagem and effected her escape. The knowledge filled her with +joy, even while she feared that rage would instigate Haidee to yet +further cruelties against herself. The desire for life was yet strong in +the breast of the poor starving creature, and she shrank in terror while +she thought it was probable that old Haidee would kill her in her +frantic desire to wreak vengeance upon something. Even while she +shivered over her fear she heard the heavy footsteps lumbering down the +stairs toward the dungeon. + +"What! are you not dead yet, you she-devil?" was the fierce salutation +that greeted her ears. + +Her enemy advanced, and seizing hold of her crouching body as it lay +upon the bed, shook it with the fury of a wild-cat until it seemed as if +the poor bones must rattle. "What do you mean by living in this way? +Must I kill you at last with my own hands?" + +"Spare me," moaned the poor victim between her chattering teeth, "spare +me yet a little longer, I am so young, and life is so sweet!" + +"Sweet, you fool!" cried the old hag, desisting from sheer weariness, +and letting go of the poor skeleton to glare fiercely at her. "What! +Life is sweet, chained in a dungeon, in rags, on a crust of bread and a +sup of water?" + +"Yes, oh, yes!" faltered the poor creature, hoping to gain a little time +so that deliverance from her bonds might come. + +"Live then, you worm!" cried the old witch, throwing life at her poor +victim with a curse. "Live as long as you can since you find it such a +luxury!" + +The shivering heap of rags and bones did not answer. Stamping about the +floor, glaring at the frightened Fanny, her mood changed. She said +retrospectively: + +"After all you are not such a devil as she! You have not the spirit in +your poor, crushed, beaten body! You have never even tried to escape +from me and bring me to punishment! Why should I tread on you when you +will not even turn like the worm? No, live, live! Never fear but you +shall have your crust of bread and sup of water while Haidee remains +here to bring it to you." + +So saying she went out again, and Fanny wept tears of joy at her +departure. But a little while now, she thought gladly, and Lily would be +at home. Then to-morrow at the farthest her own deliverance would +arrive. She thought of the loved ones she had never expected to see +again, of the dear old mother and father in their old home in the +country, and the affectionate girl's tears flowed like rain for very joy +at the blissful hope of reunion. + +Alas! poor Fanny! + +It seemed many hours to Haidee before her husband and Doctor Pratt +returned. It was very near sunset, for Doctor Pratt had been absent +visiting a patient, and Peter had been forced to await his return. + +When at last they came and knocked at the door she had to inform them, +with a curse for every word, of Lily's escape. Then they were compelled +to force the door open, for the brave girl had taken the key with her +and thrown it away in the road. + +As soon as Doctor Pratt heard her story he sprang into the buggy and +drove into the city with furious haste in search of Colville. It was +late before he found him, so that Lily was almost home before he learned +the story. + +"I suppose it is all up with us now," said Colville, after swearing an +oath or two. "And we had better be getting away from town before we are +arrested. I suppose she is at home by now." + +"There is only one chance in ten that she is not," was the reply. "Her +excessive weakness may have caused her to fall by the way. It seems +impossible that one so debilitated by sickness should take so long a +walk without resting." + +"You think there is a chance of her recapture, then?" inquired Colville +eagerly. + +"There may be," was the cautious reply. "You see, if she is yet on the +road we can watch for her near her home; and as it is getting dark it +would be very easy to seize her and put her into a waiting carriage. +After that there would be no difficulty. Chloroform would stifle her +screams while we drove back to Leveret's with her." + +"But the carriage driver, doctor. Might he not betray us?" + +"I will drive my own carriage," answered Pratt. "We will stop near the +corner of Mr. Lawrence's house. You will then get out and watch for her. +If she should appear you will hastily throw a cloak over her head and +carry her to the carriage." + +"Well planned, doctor! Let us be going at once. Every moment is precious +in this extremity." + +"We must first purchase a bottle of chloroform, a sponge, and a long, +water-proof cloak in which to envelope her form," said the doctor, +recollecting precautions which Colville in his impetuosity was about +forgetting. + +These purchases were hastily made, and the two worthies stepped into the +doctor's light carriage and drove rapidly away on their mission of evil. + +They were not a minute too soon. As the carriage stopped at the corner a +slight form hurried past, plainly visible in the light of the +street-lamp. + +"It is she!" said Pratt in a hasty whisper. He recognized her graceful +form in spite of the disguising veil and sack. + +Colville was stung to madness by the sight. + +"I will have her," he declared with a terrible oath, "if I have to tear +her from the arms of her lover!" + +He sprang out and followed her. She had gone up the steps and rung the +bell. Just as he came opposite the steps he saw old Willis open the +door, and witnessed his headlong flight from the supposed spirit of his +young mistress. As she glided into the house he ran lightly up the steps +and followed her. She heard the footsteps of her pursuer and faintly +moaned: + +"Papa! papa!" + +But in that moment, ere assistance could reach her, the gaslights were +turned out by a steady hand; she was plucked backward by the skirt of +her dress, and fell into Colville's arms, so muffled by the heavy cloak +he threw over her that she could not breathe. Hardly clogged by the +light burden in his arms he ran through the hall and down the steps +before Lancelot Darling reached the door. It was but the work of a +moment to reach the carriage and give his captive into the doctor's +ready arms. He then sprang in himself and drove rapidly away with their +beautiful captive. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +Lily awakened from the temporary stupor induced by chloroform and found +herself a prisoner again in the old familiar room. She was lying on the +bed, and Doctor Pratt, grim, and satanic-looking as usual, sat by the +side. + +Harold Colville was also an occupant of the room, and Haidee Leveret, +from the foot of the bed, gave her a fiendish scowl in answer to the +glance she cast upon her. + +"How do you feel after your journey this evening?" inquired the +physician, with a sarcastic smile. + +A glance of scorn from Lily's eyes fell upon him. She did not vouchsafe +him any reply. + +"I think you must begin to realize by this time that it is quite +impossible for you to escape from us," continued Doctor Pratt. "You have +now made two attempts which have resulted in nothing except to make us +more vigilant than before in keeping you safely secured. Hereafter you +will be doubly guarded by Haidee and Peter. He will accompany her and +stand outside the room door whenever she has any business within. You +are aware that the window is too heavily and strongly barred for you to +tamper with it. You now see that there is no possible chance for you to +make a third attempt to elude us." + +There was no reply. Lily still regarded him with a flashing gaze full of +scorn and contempt; but the villain went on, in no-wise disconcerted by +her anger: + +"It seems to me, Miss Lawrence, that your best and wisest course would +be to thankfully accept Mr. Colville's proposals of marriage. Surely +that cannot be such a terrible thing to do. There are many ladies who +would be proud of the honor which he seeks to force upon you. Your +former home is forever lost to you; you are as one dead to your family. +They have seen you laid away in the tomb. If you went to them now they +would not believe that you belonged to them; they would scout your story +as impossible and yourself as an impostor. There remains, therefore, but +one possible chance of restoration to your friends and to liberty, and +that is to appear before them in the character of Mrs. Harold Colville." + +"Mr. Colville has already had an answer to his proposals," answered +Lily, firmly. "I will die before I accept liberty on these terms!" + +"Do not allow any scruples in regard to Mr. Darling to influence your +decision," interrupted Colville, speaking for the first time, "for I can +assure you, on the honor of a gentleman, Miss Lawrence, that he has +transferred his fickle affections to the wily widow who tried to murder +you in order that she might steal into his heart and win his hand and +fortune." + +"It is false; Lancelot has not forgotten me so soon," cried Lily, +warmly. + +But though she defended her lover's loyalty so bravely, there flashed +over her mind a remembrance of the scene she had momentarily witnessed +last night--Mrs. Vance at the grand piano, playing and singing softly, +her lover--her handsome, kingly Lancelot--bending over her as he turned +the pages of her music. + +She had thought nothing of it then; but in the light of Harold +Colville's bold assertion it seemed to her terribly significant. + +"I do not wonder that my assertion taxes your credulity," returned +Colville, with a maddening smile. "It seemed almost beyond belief when +it first came to my knowledge. Not yet three months from your supposed +death, I can scarcely understand how the man who lacked but a few hours +of being your husband could console himself with the smiles of another +so soon. But he is young and impressible, and I grant you she is rarely +beautiful, and gifted with consummate art." + +"I can add my testimony to Mr. Colville's assertion," said Doctor Pratt. +"Your lover has, indeed, been beguiled into forgetfulness of his grief +by the fascination of the charming widow. They are now acknowledged +lovers!" + +"I do not believe it," answered Lily, proudly. "Do you think I would +take your word, Harold Colville, or yours, Doctor Pratt, for the truth? +You have proved yourselves villains, and I do not place the least +confidence in your assertions. You tell me these things believing I will +the more readily yield to your wishes. But you are mistaken--sadly +mistaken! I tell you now that if Lancelot Darling should marry Mrs. +Vance to-morrow it would not make any difference in my rejection of a +villain's suit!" + +Both the worthies glared at her with fierce wrath. + +"So be it," said Colville, angrily. "But remember, you will remain a +prisoner until you accede to my wishes, no matter how long you hold out. +Haidee, you need not provide so sumptuously for so contumacious a +captive. Let bread and water be her portion until her rebellious spirit +is broken. I will see her again in a month's time. Come, doctor; come, +Haidee; let us leave her to the pleasures of solitary contemplation." + +All three retired; the door, which had been provided with another key, +was securely locked, and she was left again in her loneliness and bitter +sorrow. + +Weak and weary with her long journey and unbroken fast she lay still, +her limbs aching with fatigue and her heart almost broken with sorrow. + +Her momentary glimpse of her dear ones had filled her heart with a wild +flood of new tenderness for them. She had come back to them from the +dead, and she felt that they would have been filled with the deepest joy +in receiving her again. + +She had been so cruelly torn from them in the very moment when they +first caught sight of her! She wondered what they would think. + +"Perhaps they will share old Willis' delusion that it was a spirit," +thought she, with a flood of tears. + +She had almost forgotten Fanny in the bitter anguish of being retaken +thus in the very moment of impending re-union with her family. + +But presently she heard the clank of the poor captive's chain, as she +turned restlessly on her hard bed, and caught the sound of her groans. + +"Poor Fanny," she thought, "how will she bear this sad disappointment +when she hoped so much from my escape!" + +Weak and trembling she rose from the bed, and taking the lamp in her +hand staggeringly descended the stairs in quest of her poor companion in +captivity and sorrow. + +Fanny lay extended on the cot, moaning piteously. She cried out in +surprise and terror, fearing that Haidee had returned to threaten and +abuse her. But she soon saw that it was the sweet face of the captive +girl that beamed upon her. + +"My God, Miss Lawrence, is it you?" she said. "I thought, I hoped that +you had escaped!" + +Lily threw herself down upon the hard stone floor and wept piteously. +The trial was hard upon herself, as affecting her own individual +welfare. + +Now the burden of this poor creature's sorrow added to the weight of her +own made it almost insupportable. It was some time before she could +summon sufficient calmness to relate her mournful story to the suffering +creature. + +"It is all over," she said in conclusion. "There is no hope of escape +from our prison, and death is before us." + +Fanny lay still, moaning now and then in pain. She made no attempt to +rise, and at last Lily noticed the fact. + +"What is the matter with you, my poor soul?" said she. "Are you worse? +Are you unable to rise?" + +"I cannot raise my head," answered the poor girl patiently, "my poor +bones have been shaken and beaten terribly by old Haidee. I am very +stiff and sore." + +As well as she could she related the story of old Haidee's rage at her +captive's escape, her descent into the dungeon and her wild onslaught on +her starving captive. Lily wept at the recital of Fanny's sufferings. + +"She was wreaking her rage at my escape, upon you, poor Fanny," said +she. "Oh! God, why dost thou allow the wicked thus to triumph over the +weak and the innocent?" + +"Are you much hurt? Do you think you can survive it?" she asked +presently in anxious tones. + +"I don't know. I am very sore at present. There seems very little life +left in me. Perhaps it would be better if I should die," said the poor +creature despondently. The little spark of hope awakened in her breast +by Lily's escape was dead now, and despair had claimed her for its own. +Lily knelt by the cot and felt her hands. They were cold and clammy, and +chilly dews stood upon the wasted brow. Lily started. Could this be +death that was stealing over the poor captive? She feared it was, but +she was afraid to linger longer lest old Haidee should find her out. She +rose reluctantly. + +"I wish I could stay with you, Fanny," said she. "It seems hard to leave +you suffering thus alone. But if old Haidee should find me, she might +kill you for fear I should betray her. So it seems that I must go. +Good-night." + +Lily took the poor, wasted hand and pressing it gently, went away, +fearing that the few sands of life remaining to Harold Colville's +injured wife were fast running out. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +About a month subsequent to the events which have been related in the +last chapter, Mrs. Vance and Ada Lawrence sat alone in the drawing-room +of their splendid home. Ada had been reading, but the volume seemed to +have little interest, for it had fallen from her hands to the floor, and +she was reclining on a luxurious divan, looking bored and sad, while now +and then a low sigh rippled across her coral lips. + +She was very lovely, being a pure blonde with red and white complexion +and hair of golden tint. Her face looked flower-like in its delicacy, +gleaming out from the somber folds of her mourning dress. + +Mrs. Vance, sitting opposite, absorbed in a voluminous billow of crimson +crochet work, looked over at her, and started as if she had only just +begun to realize the girl's exceeding fairness. + +"How pretty she is," she thought apprehensively, "and how startling her +likeness to her dead sister! Good Heavens! what if Lance should see the +resemblance as plainly as I do, and fall in love with her for Lily's +sake." + +The thought which now presented itself for the first time was startling +in its probability. She began to think that it was time for Ada to be +going back to school. It was dangerous to keep that fair flower-face in +Lancelot Darling's vicinity. + +"Ada," said she, abruptly, "how old are you?" + +"Sixteen," answered the girl sleepily, without lifting her drooping, +golden-brown lashes. + +"Almost old enough to come out in society," said the lady. "You will +have to hurry and finish your education--you mean to graduate, of +course. When are you going back to school?" + +"I do not expect to go back at all," was the startling reply. + +"Not go back," said Mrs. Vance, affecting extreme astonishment. + +"Papa is so lonely now that Lily is gone," said Ada, choking back a sob, +"that I have not the heart to leave him. I will stay with him and +comfort him." + +"But, my dear--you so young, so unformed in your manners--surely you +will not sacrifice yourself thus! Let me advise you to go back to +college another year at least," urged Mrs. Vance. + +A little annoyed at her persistence, Ada sat up and looked across at +her. + +"Mrs. Vance," said she, coldly, "do you happen to know that if I took +your advice and returned to my boarding-school this house could no +longer be a home for you?" + +"Why not?" asked the lady, a little fluttered. + +"Do you not see?" said Ada, pointedly. "You are not related to papa at +all. You are a young and handsome woman. If you and he were living here +alone together, with no one but the servants, people would couple your +names unpleasantly. So you comprehend that it is better for me to stay +and play propriety." + +"Ada, I do not believe you care whether I have a shelter over my head or +not," said the widow, stung into anger by the pointed speech of the +girl. + +"I should be sorry to see any one houseless," answered Ada, calmly; "but +to own the truth, Mrs. Vance, I must say that I am sorry that the same +roof has to shelter us both. I do not like you, and I am honest enough +to tell you so!" + +"Because I am poor and you are rich," said Mrs. Vance, affecting to +weep. + +"It is not that," said the young girl. "It is not that you are no +relation to papa, except by marriage, and that you forced yourself here +and claimed a support when you might have earned one for yourself, as +many another widow has done. No, it is not for these things, Mrs. Vance, +for I might still like you in spite of them, though I might pity your +lack of true independence. But I dislike you because I believe you are a +false, deceitful, unprincipled woman, scheming for some secret end of +your own." + +"What have I ever done to you, Ada, that you should denounce me thus?" +sobbed the widow. + +"Nothing--you would not dare to, for my papa would turn you out of the +house if you did," replied the girl, spiritedly. "But do you think, Mrs. +Vance, I cannot see your present drift? Do you think I do not see how +shamelessly you are courting Lance Darling, and trying to win him from +poor Lily who has been dead these four months scarcely?" + +"Perhaps you want him for yourself," Mrs. Vance was beginning to say +sarcastically, when they were interrupted by a slight rap on the door. + +"Enter," called out Ada. + +It was a servant with a message for the widow. + +"There's an old woman out in the hall, Mrs. Vance, who says she has +brought the samples of lace you desired." + +Ada, who was watching her curiously, wondered why the angry woman grew +so ghastly white under her rouge at the reception of so commonplace a +visitor. + +"Say that I am coming," said the widow to the domestic. + +In a moment she arose with a muttered apology and followed him into the +hall. Old Haidee stood there patiently waiting with her basket of laces +on her arm. + +"Bring the laces up to my apartment," said the lady, with as indifferent +an air as she could assume. + +When they were once safe within the locked room, Mrs. Vance turned +furiously on the old lace-vender. + +"Did I not tell you not to come here again?" she said. "I have nothing +else to give you." + +"Oh, Mrs. Vance, don't say that," whined the old crone, piteously; "I +did not mean to come back, I did not indeed, but I am so poor and the +gold you gave me is all gone." + +"Liar! there was enough to last you a year," said Mrs. Vance, angrily. + +"Oh, no, ma'am--not with my old man down with the rheumatism, and all my +starving children around me. The money all went for medicine, food and +clothes. It melted away like the new-fallen snow," whined Haidee. "So I +said to myself, I will go back, I will tell the kind lady how poor I am +and she will give me more money." + +"I told you I had no more to give," almost shrieked Mrs. Vance in her +desperation. "The money I gave you was presented to me by Mr. Lawrence, +and he expected it would last me a long while. I am a poor woman, living +here on the rich man's bounty, and I have nothing more for +you--absolutely nothing!" + +"Oh! but the pretty lady is mistaken," said Haidee, doggedly. "She has +money, or if not she has jewels." + +"Would you rob me of my few jewels, you base old wretch?" + +"Necessity knows no law," retorted the old creature, grinning hideously. +"I must have help for my sick husband and starving children. If you will +not help me I must go to Mr. Lawrence or to Mr. Darling." + +These sly words had their intended effect of frightening Mrs. Vance into +compliance. + +She went to her jewel box and began hurriedly to toss over its +glittering contents. + +"Here," she said, turning round with a handsome brooch in her hand, +"will this satisfy your cupidity?" + +But old Haidee's eyes roved greedily over the sparkling gems in the +casket. She shook her head. + +"I could not sell it for a quarter of its value," said she. "It would +not relieve my necessities. Add some other trifle to it, lady--that +bracelet for instance." + +The bracelet was a very handsome one in the form of a serpent with +glistening emerald eyes. With a groan Mrs. Vance put it into the greedy, +working fingers. + +"You will strip me of every valuable I possess," she said, "and then +when I have nothing else to give you will betray me to my enemies, for +the sake of gaining a reward from them." + +"Lady, you do me cruel injustice," was the hypocrite's meek reply. "I +will never betray you while you so generously divide your all with me." + +"But if you keep coming with such demands as this I shall soon have +nothing to divide with you," said Mrs. Vance. + +"Aye, but the rich man will soon supply you with more gold," said the +harpy, cunningly, as she turned to take leave. + +"It will be a good while before I get any more money from Mr. Lawrence, +so you need not be in a hurry to return for it," said the widow, letting +her unwelcome visitor out of the door, and shaking her fist after her +departing form. + +As soon as her heavy footsteps ceased lumbering on the stairs, she +hurriedly changed her house-dress for a walking costume of plain +material and simple make. She then put on a small, black hat, tied over +her face a thick, dark veil, and descended the steps, letting herself +quietly out at the front door. + +Once in the street, she paused and glanced hurriedly up and down. No one +was in sight but the crooked form of the old lace-vender going slowly +along a few blocks ahead of her. + +Mrs. Vance set out to follow the old woman, walking briskly a few +squares until she came within half a block of her. She then slackened +her pace and went on more slowly, keeping herself invisible, but never +losing sight of her prey. + +"I will track the beast to its lair," she said to herself, "and then we +will have our reckoning out." + +Mrs. Vance hurried on at a steady pace, keeping her enemy fairly in +sight, but aiming to keep too far in the background to be recognized +herself. She had a long walk ahead of her, but she did not mind it, for +her excitement was so great that she was insensible to bodily fatigue. +She was filled with a raging anger against Ada Lawrence, whose pure, +true instincts had so clearly fathomed her meanness and littleness of +spirit. Added to this was her hatred of old Haidee Leveret, mixed with +an abject fear of the old woman's power against her in the possession of +her guilty secret. As she turned corner after corner, and traversed +street after street, her mind was busy revolving vague schemes by which +to rid herself of the greedy and dangerous old creature who began to +hang upon her shoulders heavily as a veritable Sinbad. + +At length she began to see that she was coming out upon the outskirts of +the city. Old Haidee, a little ahead of her, kept on at a swinging pace, +hastening her footsteps as she found herself nearing home. Mrs. Vance +kept on steadily too, feeling determined to find out the old woman's +home if she had any. + +At last they reached the gloomy old stone house, with its high, +forbidding stone wall. Even Mrs. Vance, courageous as she felt herself +to be, was conscious of a pang resembling fear as she contemplated the +place. But when Haidee was entering the gate she felt a firm touch on +her shoulder, and turned to meet the smiling gaze of the beautiful +widow. + +"You see I have overtaken you," was her smooth salutation. + +"You have followed me!" exclaimed Haidee, with a savage scowl of rage +and surprise commingled. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Vance coolly. + +"Woman, woman! are you not afraid?" cried the old witch, pulling her +visitor in and letting the heavy gate fall shut between them and the +outer world. "Have you no dread of my vengeance? Remember, a word from +me can consign you at any moment to the prison cell. Yet you dare to +incur my wrath!" + +"I did not follow you to provoke you to anger," said Mrs. Vance, +deprecatingly. "Two motives prompted me to discover your residence. +First, I desired to see your sick husband and starving children in the +hope that I might do something to benefit them. And secondly, if you +intend to make periodical calls on me for hush-money it is better that I +should come here and bring it than for you to call on me. Your frequent +visits on the slight pretext of your laces will not continue to deceive +anyone, and may draw down suspicion upon me. Already Miss Lawrence +suspects me of something. She has plainly told me so. So I repeat what I +have already said--that it is much safer for me to come here than for +you to go there." + +"Come in, then, do," said Haidee, with a grim politeness that showed she +was not much imposed on by the lady's profuse explanations. "Come in, +and I will introduce you to my family. If you are really anxious to +benefit us you shall have the opportunity." + +She walked on down the grass-grown patch as she spoke and knocked at the +house door. There was the sound of a key grating in the lock; then the +door swung open and disclosed old Peter Leveret standing on the +threshold. + +Mrs. Vance, who kept close behind Haidee, started back with a cry of +fear as his huge, misshapen body and bristling red hair met her gaze. + +"That is my old man," said the lace vender, coolly. "I see you do not +like his looks. Well, he is not handsome, certainly; but he is very +useful in _other_ ways." + +Her malicious emphasis on the last words sent a shudder of fear through +the veins of the visitor, but she did not betray her alarm. She followed +the couple quietly into their rude and poorly furnished sitting-room and +sat down in the chair old Haidee placed for her. Old Peter retired from +their company at an almost imperceptible sign from his wife, and left +the two together. + +"Well, you have seen my husband," said the hostess, coolly. "You +perceive he is a very miserable object--one calculated to strike fear +into the heart of a fine lady with such delicate nerves as your own. My +children, I am sorry to say, are not at home to-day. They would have +remained if they had anticipated the honor of your visit; but they are +all out begging, as I have been." + +Old Haidee had thrown off the tone of whining meekness which she often +adopted with Mrs. Vance and showed herself now cool, impudent and +crafty. Mrs. Vance noted this change with alarm. She began to think she +had perhaps erred in risking her head in the lion's den. She now said +in a tone of meekness calculated to allay the spirit of defiance she had +raised in the old witch: + +"One word, Haidee, as I think you told me your name was--does that old +man, your husband, share the secret you hold against me?" + +"I told you once," was the answer, "that the secret belongs to me +alone." + +"Yes, but as a man and his wife are one," said Mrs. Vance, cajolingly, +"perhaps you would not count him as anyone but yourself--but you see it +would make much difference to me. So I ask you again, does he know that +secret?" + +"And I decline to answer that question," answered the old witch +craftily. + +Truth to tell, old Peter was not aware of the secret which his wife +assumed to hold against Mrs. Vance, for Haidee, in her miserly avarice, +had wished to share its golden fruits alone; but the cunning old +creature saw in the anxiety of the lady a menace of danger to herself, +and thought it as well to encourage Mrs. Vance's doubts in that +direction. + +"I decline to answer that question," she repeated, with a fearful scowl. + +"I may as well go then," said the visitor, rising. She was too much +frightened at the loneliness of the house and the murderous looks of its +inhabitants to remain longer. "But, Haidee, I wish you to understand +plainly that you are not to enter the house of Mr. Lawrence again. If +you must have more hush-money from me, you can send me a line through +the post-office, and I will come here myself and bring you what I can +raise. Will you promise to do this?" + +"I will promise to do as you say if you will keep your word," was the +sullen answer, "but if you fail to come with the money within +twenty-four hours after I write you, rest assured I shall come after it +at the grand house." + +"I will not fail you," was the firm answer, "and now unfasten the door +and let me go." + +"How do you know that I will let you go?" asked Haidee, tauntingly. +"This is a fine old house in which to hold you prisoner--it has old +stone dungeons, iron-barred windows." + +Mrs. Vance shuddered, but she answered in as fearless a tone as +possible: + +"You have no interest in making a prisoner of me, for in that case you +would get no profit out of your secret. You will not kill the goose that +lays the golden eggs." + +"No, no," chuckled Haidee, "but perhaps you are laying some plan against +me--you wish to have me arrested." + +"It is not likely. My safety depends on yours--no, no, you need fear +nothing from me. Come, come, it grows late. I am very thirsty. Give me a +drink of water and let me go." + +The water was procured, and the visitor drank and departed. + +She walked hastily over the lonely road, passed the scattered houses, +and then hailing an empty hack that was passing, entered it and was +driven rapidly homeward, her thoughts, if possible, being more gloomy +than before, for now the dread of old Peter Leveret was added to her +fears of his wife. + +She had started out to follow old Haidee with black murder in her heart. +She had not believed in the story of the sick husband and children, but +had expected to find the old crone alone. + +Heaven knows what would have happened if she had; but instead she found +the strong, hideous old man, whose leering looks had struck terror to +her heart, and she now believed that he also was cognizant of the fatal +secret which was fraught with such danger to her. + +Her thoughts and feelings were anything but enviable ones as she walked +up the steps of the brown-stone palace she called her home. + +As she passed through the hall she saw the drawing-room door ajar, and +heard voices. She tip-toed to the door and peeped cautiously in. + +Lancelot Darling was there, his handsome head bowed over the couch where +Ada half reclined, listening to a poem which Lancelot was reading aloud. +They looked cozy, comfortable, and supremely contented to the jealous +eyes that glared steadily upon them. + +She made no sign, however, but went on to her room, with a tempest in +her heart which, however, did not prevent her from subsequently +descending to the drawing-room, where she set herself to work by every +beguiling art of which she was mistress, to wile away the unconscious +young man from the side of the beautiful Ada. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +Haidee Leveret had scarcely returned from locking the door after her +despairing visitor when she was confronted by her husband. + +Old Peter's eyes snapped viciously, his hideous old face was flushed +crimson, and his shock of bristly red hair stood erect with indignation. + +"Now, then, madam," said he, with a snort of rage, "I have caught you at +your sly tricks, have I?" + +"What is the matter with you, old man?" inquired his spouse, affecting +serene unconsciousness. + +"Oh, you may well ask!" snapped her liege lord. "You haven't been and +gone and discovered a mine of wealth and worked it yourself in secret, +denying your poor honest old husband a share in the profits--oh, no, you +have not!" + +"Shut up your nonsense," said Haidee, witheringly. + +"You haven't got a secret against a great lady," pursued old Peter, +disregarding her adjuration. "A great lady who follows you home to +lavish gold upon you, and who wants to know if poor old Peter shares the +secret with you, that she may bestow some of her wealth upon him. You +have not got your pockets full of gold at this moment--oh, no, no, no!" + +"You have been eavesdropping, you devil," cried his wife in a rage. + +"Well, what if I have?" snapped he. "When a woman has secrets from her +husband--a kind, faithful old man like you have got, Haidee--it is his +right to find out all he can by hook or by crook. I have a mind to +search your pockets this minute, and see what hoards of wealth you have +hidden there now." + +"Have done with your foolishness, old man," said Haidee, with an uneasy +consciousness of the costly golden brooch and bracelet, lying _perdu_ in +her pocket that minute. + +"Will you turn your pocket inside out then, and let me see if it is +empty?" asked her husband threateningly. + +"No, I won't," was the sullen response. + +Inflamed with rage and cupidity the old man advanced fiercely upon her, +intending to carry out his threat. + +But the virago was ready for him. As he was about to pinion her arms +down to prevent her resistance, she suddenly thrust her hands into his +hair, and clutched its bushy red masses tightly in her long and +claw-like fingers. + +This done, with a quick and dexterous movement she flourished her arms +and brought her husband down groveling on his knees before her. + +"So you will pick my pocket, will you, you old villain!" she cried +triumphantly. + +But she cried victory a moment too soon. As she spoke the words old +Peter made a furious lunge forward with his immense head and succeeded +in throwing her backward upon the floor, where she lay kicking furiously +and waving her hands, in which were tangled great bunches of fiery hair. + +The old man immediately followed up his signal success by planting his +knees on her chest, and rifling her pocket of its costly contents, while +the vanquished wife sent forth wailing cries of rage and grief at the +spoliation of her property. + +"Oh! yes," cried the old man, holding aloft these spoils of war with one +hand, while he vigorously pummelled his wife with the other. "Oh! yes, +you have already stripped the woman of her money, and have now commenced +on her jewels! Where have you hidden the pile of money? Tell me this +minute, before I kill you!" + +Receiving no answer but a loud curse he began to rain blows thick and +fast on the head and shoulders of his powerless victim, and there is no +telling how this conjugal war might have ended had not a loud and +continued knocking on the door startled the furious belligerents. + +"Get up," shrieked the vanquished, rejoicing at this diversion in her +favor. "Get up and open the door! Someone has been knocking these ten +minutes past." + +Old Peter obeyed this mandate reluctantly, shambling off and carefully +pocketing the jewels as he went, while Haidee rose and straightened her +disordered dress, and picked up her cap, which had been torn off in the +furious _melee_. + +"Now, then," said Doctor Pratt, entering, attended by Harold Colville, +"what is the matter here? I never heard such a furious racket in my +life! Have you two been fighting?" + +"Only having a friendly knock-about by way of exercise, sir," answered +old Peter, with a hideous grin at his conquered opponent, who had +received a black eye and a swollen face for her portion of the friendly +contest, while he himself had not escaped scatheless, as he bore several +bloody scratches on his face, and sundry bites on his large red hands +that testified to the efficacy of her teeth and finger nails. + +"What was the cause of your quarrel?" inquired Mr. Colville, curiously. + +"It was of no moment," answered Haidee, with a warning glance at her old +man; but Peter's fighting blood was up and he did not heed her caution. +He proceeded to explain by way of revenge on his angry spouse. + +"It was all along of a fine lady, doctor, that Haidee is holding a +secret against, and getting lots of money from on account of it, which +she refuses to share, either the money or the secret, with her poor old +husband." + +"Who is the lady, and what secret have you got against her?" inquired +Doctor Pratt, looking sternly at her. + +"It is no concern of yours, doctor," was the sullen reply. + +"Her name was Mrs. Vance," said Peter, taking a malicious joy in +circumventing old Haidee. + +"Good Heavens," said Doctor Pratt, remembering how incautiously he had +talked to Colville about the widow in Haidee's presence. "Why, you +she-devil, is it possible you have been trading upon the suspicions you +heard me breathe about the woman?" + +The old witch would not answer, but Peter, taking on himself the role of +spokesman, replied for her: + +"I can't tell you where she got suspicions or her information, sir, but +she has certainly made a good bit by her knowledge, for she has gathered +in all the lady's money, and now begins to strip her of her jewels. Fine +ladies don't part with things like these until all their money has gone +the same gait," said he, holding up the brooch and the jeweled serpent +whose emerald eyes glared like living ones. + +"It's a lie--I've only had money of her once," said old Haidee fiercely. +"She is a poor woman, and has nothing to pay with." + +"How did you gain your information, Peter, if, as you say, your wife +would not share her secret with you?" inquired Doctor Pratt, trembling +with rage against Haidee. + +"The lady followed her home to-day to make arrangements for coming here +the next time to pay another installment of hush-money. Haidee had been +going there on some pretext of peddling lace, I think, but the lady was +afraid to have her come to her house again, and promised to meet her +here." + +"My God!" said the physician, growing white with fear and rage. "Mrs. +Vance here--in this house only to-day. Haidee, you shall repent this!" + +"I have not betrayed any of your secrets, doctor--I was only making a +little money for myself, and no harm done," said the old witch, +beginning to grow apologetic. + +"No matter, you must never go there again, nor suffer her to come here. +If you do I swear I will murder you! Do you understand me?" + +"Yes, sir," was the sulky answer. + +"And you promise to do as I bid you?" + +"I promise." + +"Very well, then. See that you keep your word. And you, Peter, let me +know if she dares to disobey my injunction. And let the matter rest also +yourself. If either of you approach Mrs. Vance again, I swear you shall +pay a heavy penalty for your temerity!" + +"Your prisoner, Haidee--is she safe?" inquired Harold Colville, growing +impatient of the delay. + +"She is, sir," was the answer. + +"The key then--we wish to visit her," said Colville; whereupon he and +Doctor Pratt both arose and made their way to Lily's room. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +Lily Lawrence sat alone in the same room in which she had first been +incarcerated when in her cataleptic state she had been brought to this +house of captivity. Peter Leveret had made the window secure again, and +she had been removed here the day after her recapture in her father's +hall by Colville. + +Consequently she had had no means of ascertaining whether or not the +miserable wife of Colville still survived. + +She thought it more than likely that the poor creature was dead and +beyond all suffering which the vindictive spirit of old Haidee might +still inflict upon her while a spark of life remained in her body. + +A profound sympathy and regret for poor Fanny's wretched fate, mixed up +with Lily's deep solicitude for herself, added to the melancholy air +which began to overshadow her like a cloud. + +It is a month since we have seen her and she has changed greatly since +that time. + +Her jailers have strictly carried out Colville's injunction to allow her +nothing but bread and water, and the result is plainly seen in an added +frailty of face and form. + +As she sits in the old arm-chair with her small head thrown wearily +back, she looks almost too transparently pale and pure for an inhabitant +of earth. + +The blue veins show plainly as they wander beneath the white skin, the +blue eyes look larger and darker by contrast with the purple shadows +beneath them, the once rounded cheeks are thin and hollow. + +Even the lips, once so rosy and smiling with their arch dimpled corners, +have taken on an expression of pain and endurance pitiful to see in one +so young and fair. + +The small white hands, growing thin and weak, are listlessly folded +across her lap, while she looks wearily at the smouldering ashes of a +fire that had been kindled on the hearth that morning, for the September +mornings are chilly and the girl's enfeebled frame feels cold keenly. + +Thus the two confederates found her when, after a premonitory rap, they +unlocked the door and entered. She looked up and her white face blanched +still whiter at their presence, but beyond that she took no notice save +in a fixed and slightly scornful curl of the lip. + +"I trust that I find you well, Miss Lawrence," said her suitor, with an +air of devotion. + +"Is it possible I should feel well after subsisting for a month on bread +and water?" asked the girl, in a languid voice of unutterable contempt. + +"Lily, forgive me, but you force me to adopt these stringent measures. +It is my love that drives me thus to extremes in hope of forcing your +consent at last. Oh! why will you not relent and make yourself +comfortable, and me the happiest of men?" cried Colville, imploringly, +as he tried to take her hand in his own. But she drew it away with a +gesture of contempt and repugnance to his touch and he desisted. Dr. +Pratt withdrew to the window and appeared to ignore the conversation. + +"Lily," continued Colville, seeing that she made no motion of replying, +"you have now had a month for contemplation and sober reflection. Surely +you have profited by the thoughts that must have assailed you in that +time. Do you now consent to become my wife?" + +"Mr. Colville, I have not changed my mind at all," replied Lily, coldly +and firmly. + +"But come, now, my dear girl," urged Colville, who had been persuaded by +Dr. Pratt to try a little kind persuasion instead of such violent +threatenings; "come, now, my dear girl, why should you persist in your +first ill-considered rejection of my suit? Look at the matter calmly and +dispassionately, and weigh all the advantages in my favor. I am not a +bad-looking man, nor an old man. I have a splendid income and I love you +to distraction. I would spend all my life in making you happy. This is +your one chance of happiness. On the other hand there is nothing but +captivity and starvation. Were it not better to become my wife?" + +"No!" answered Lily, firmly. + +"You are very candid, at least, if not very flattering," said Colville, +bitterly. + +Lily regarded him sadly and calmly. She could pity him when he showed +some sign of feeling. She only hated and feared him when he descended to +abuse and threatening. + +"Mr. Colville," said she, in her soft, flute-like voice, "I am very +sorry for you if you love me as you say you do. I pity you from my +heart, but if I yielded to your wish and became your wife I could bring +you no happiness. I do not love you, and I should hate you then for the +means you used to win me. Oh! believe me, your persistence is unwise and +foolish. Let me go away from here, I beg you, to my home and my friends. +I will not betray your complicity in my abduction. I will suffer you and +your friend there to invent whatever plausible tale you please, and I +will try to palm it off on my friends for the truth. See, I bear you no +malice for the cruelty and injustice I have suffered at your hands. I +am willing to forgive you everything if you will but restore my +freedom!" + +"You waste your breath in such appeals, Lily--I will never let you go!" +said Colville, inflexibly. + +"Oh! I beseech you do not kill me with such refusals," cried Lily, +wildly. She slipped from her chair and knelt before him, clasping her +fragile white hands in an agony of appeal, and lifting her wan, white +face imploringly. "See, I kneel to you. My spirit is broken, my pride is +humbled in the dust; I am starving, dying here. I beg you for the poor +boon of my liberty and life!" + +He stood still with folded arms regarding her as she knelt, while a cold +and cruel smile curled the corners of his thin lips. Her pitiful appeal +made no impression on him; he was not moved by the sight of her fragile +face and hands, wasted into pallor and wanness through his cruelty. His +answer fell on her quivering nerves as cruelly as the lash cuts into +human flesh. + +"Kneel, if it relieves your feelings, but do not suppose that your +humility can weaken my resolution, which is as fixed as adamant. And +hear me now, proud girl, and remember that I mean what I say. I shall +yet give you time to change your mind. I am merciful to you because I +love you. But if time does not weaken your perversity, so surely as I +live I will make you repent your obstinacy. The time will come when you +will kneel to me more prayerfully than you now do, and implore me to +marry you and save your honor!" + +"Never!" she cried, springing to her feet and waving her white hands +aloft like some beautiful, inspired prophetess. "Never! Before that day +comes I will die by my own hand! And, Harold Colville, while you exult +in your wickedness, remember that there is a God above who punishes the +guilty for their evil deeds. Nemesis shall yet overtake you--it is +written!" + +"Come, come, Miss Lawrence, you overrate your strength by this senseless +ranting," said Doctor Pratt, coming forward and reseating her with +gentle force. "Remember, you are very weak. You have never fully +recovered from the effects of your wound and your subsequent fast during +the cataleptic state that succeeded it. Illness and deprivation have +sapped your strength and dimmed your beauty until there will soon be +nothing left of the fairness that now holds Mr. Colville's heart. +Believe me, your wisest course is to yield now, marry Mr. Colville, and +set about the restoration of your health by travel, recreation and +generous living. A few more months of this reckless obstinacy will break +down your constitution irrevocably." + +"I thank you for that assurance," she answered, exultingly. "Perhaps +death will come to me of his own accord, and save me from the sin of +taking my own life and sending my soul, trembling and uncalled, before +its dread Creator!" + +"You do not mean what you say, Miss Lawrence. You are too young and +lovely to welcome death. Life holds many attractions for you even as the +wife of the despised Mr. Colville." + +"I do not think so," she answered, briefly. + +"Well, well, your mind will change perhaps; and in that laudable desire +we will take leave of you for awhile," said the doctor, turning off with +a sardonic bow. + +"And do me the favor of never returning," said Lily, angrily. "You can +never change my decision, and if I am doomed to wear out the remnant of +my days here, let me at least be spared the sight of your hated faces +again!" + +"You ask too much," said Colville, airily. "Captives are not permitted +to make their own conditions, or select their visitors. Adieu, obdurate +fair one." + +His gaze lingered on her a moment, noting her beauty and grace which +still shone pre-eminent, though her beautiful coloring was all faded and +gone, and she looked like a picture looked at by moonlight alone with +all the bright tints of daylight invisible. Loving her for her beauty, +and hating her for her scorn, he went away, but carried the picture in +his heart, at once a joy and a torment, for his conscience could not but +reproach him for the change that was so sadly visible in her fragile, +drooping form. + +Lily remained sitting motionless in her chair, lost in painful revery, +until twilight filled the room with shadows. The room grew chilly, and +she shivered now and then in her thin dress, but she never stirred until +old Haidee entered with a light and supper, the latter consisting of a +scanty portion of dry bread and a pitcher of water. Lily cast a glance +of loathing upon the food and turned away. Her weak appetite could not +relish the dry bread, and it often was taken away untasted. + +"Haidee, I wish you would light a fire," said she, shivering in the +chilly atmosphere. "The night is cool, and I am very thinly clad." + +"There will be no fire to-night," said Haidee, curtly. "If you are cold +go to bed and cover up under the bed-clothes." + +"At least bring me a shawl to wrap about my shoulders," pleaded the +girl. + +"Not a rag," retorted the old woman, whose sharp temper was even more +acid than usual to-night on account of her rencontre that evening. + +"Does Mr. Colville wish me to suffer from cold as well as hunger?" +inquired Lily, bitterly. + +"I wish it whether he does or not!" answered Haidee, viciously. + +"What noise was that I heard this evening?" inquired Lily, looking +curiously at the old woman. "I was very much frightened by a succession +of screams and oaths as if people were fighting--ah, and now that I look +at you, Haidee, I see that there is something the matter with your +face." + +"Old Peter whipped me, if you must know the truth," snapped the witch. + +"Whipped you!" said Lily, with an incredulous look; "oh, no, he would +not whip his wife, would he?" + +"Yes, he would, and did," retorted Haidee, with a grim sort of smile, as +if she took a certain sort of pride in Peter's ferocity. "Oh, we think +nothing of a rough-and-tumble fight now and then. Sometimes I get the +better of him, sometimes he overpowers me, but it's often an even thing. +Old Peter is a ferocious one, I can tell you. If you had knocked him +down as you did me the time you escaped, he would have killed you when +they brought you back." + +Lily shuddered at this intimation of Peter's cruelty. + +"Haidee, I did not mean to hurt you that day," said she, earnestly. "I +would not hurt the meanest thing that lives if I could help it. I only +pushed you to throw you off your balance, so that I might get away." + +"You had better eat your supper," said Haidee, not caring to recall that +day, for she still harbored a furious resentment against the girl on the +score of it, and often felt tempted to wreak revenge upon her. "You had +better eat your supper, for old Peter will be angry with you if you keep +him waiting outside the door so long." + +"Take the bread away. I cannot eat any to-night," answered Lily, with a +hopeless sigh. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +The autumn sunlight fell goldenly on the handsome face and form of +Lancelot Darling as he stood on the broad marble steps of the grand +hotel where he boarded, his glance roving carelessly up and down the +crowded street. + +Our hero was that _rara avis_ whose species is almost extinct at the +present day--a young man of wealth and fashion, yet totally unspoiled by +the flattery and adulation of the world. + +Carefully raised by judicious parents, whom he had unhappily lost by +death in the dawn of manhood, he had been shielded from many temptations +that would have assailed one less carefully guarded than this only and +beloved child of fond and doting parental care. + +Enjoying the possession of an almost princely fortune, which precluded +the need of work, one would have thought him liable to be whirled into +the maelstrom of vice and dissipation, and engulfed in its fatal +whirlpool forever. + +But such was not the case. He was only twenty-three when he met and +loved the beautiful Lily Lawrence, and her love had been to him a +talisman and safeguard against evil. + +Even now, amid the total wreck of all his hopes, and the despair that +filled his own being, he was no less the pure-hearted man and perfect +gentleman than when the happiness of Lily's love had crowned his life +with bliss. + +As he stood there on the marble steps he did not note the many admiring +glances that fell on him from passers-by--the appreciative looks of +women whose gaze lingered on the tall, elegant figure and handsome face, +nor the approving nod of men who, while they made no endeavor to reach +his lofty standard, could yet admire him as a gentleman "_sans peur et +sans reproche_." + +While he stood thus abstracted a boy approached, and placing in his hand +a delicate envelope, scented with heliotrope, turned away. + +Lancelot turned the envelope in his hand for a moment in some surprise, +for the writing was unfamiliar. In a moment he tore it open, however, +and read these few lines on the perfumed sheet: + + "MY DEAR FRIEND:--I enclose a list of some new songs which I wish + to try. Will you do me the favor to select them for me, and bring + them up this afternoon? + + "Yours faithfully, + + "ETHEL VANCE." + +This was a bold move on the part of the fascinating widow. She knew +perfectly well that she could have sent the boy to a music store and +secured the songs at less trouble than by entrusting the commission to +Lancelot Darling. + +The young man was aware of the fact also; but in the integrity of his +own heart he suspected no art in her, and made an excuse for her in his +mind. + +"How tender-hearted she is," he thought. "She knows how wretched and +forlorn I am, and charitably devises schemes for drawing me away from my +gloomy retrospections, and cheering me with her gentle society." + +Thus thinking Lancelot turned away and proceeded to execute the widow's +commission. And punctually he appeared at Mr. Lawrence's drawing-room +that afternoon. + +The artful woman was alone, and rose to greet him with a beaming smile +of welcome. + +She had laid aside her usual dress of half mourning, and appeared in a +becoming costume of costly black velvet and cream-colored brocade, +profusely trimmed with rich lace. Diamonds twinkled in her ears and on +her breast, and a bunch of vivid scarlet roses was fastened in the jetty +braids of her beautiful hair. + +"It is _so_ kind of you to come," she said, pressing his hand in her +soft, pink palm as he bowed before her. "Ada has gone riding with her +father, and I am very lonely." + +"It is not much kindness on my part," said he, bluntly: "for I am aware +that I am not very cheerful company for anyone these days. I only came +because you asked me." + +"And not at all that you wished to see me," said she, with a very +becoming pout of her rich, red lip. + +"Oh, pardon my rudeness," said Lance, contritely. "You know I did not +mean that. Of course I like to see you. You are very kind to me always. +I meant that I would not presume to inflict my sad countenance and heavy +heart upon you unless you insisted I should do so." + +"You are very sad, certainly," answered she, with a pensive air. +"Indeed, I sometimes wonder, Lance, that the natural light-heartedness +of youth does not begin to assert itself within you. It is almost five +months since your bereavement, and we do not grieve forever for the +dead." + +"Do we not?" he asked, with a heavy sigh. "Ah, Mrs. Vance, my grief does +not lessen with time. My love was deeper than a common love, and my +regret will be eternal!" + +"That is all romantic nonsense," she answered, impatiently. "It is not +the nature of any human creature to cherish the memory of one dead +forever. 'Men's hearts crave tangible, close tenderness; love's presence +warm and near.' You will be happy again, Lance, and you will love +again." + +"You judge me wrongly, Mrs. Vance, and under-rate the constancy of a +heart like mine. You used a quotation just now, Permit me to reply with +another one." + +In a voice like saddest music he repeated those exquisite lines from +Leigh Hunt: + + "The world buds every year, + But the heart, just once, and when + The blossom falls off sere, + No new blossom comes again. + Ah! the rose goes with the wind + But the thorns remain behind!" + +"Your poetry reminds me of the new songs," said she, dropping the +argument. "It was very kind of you to bring them. Will you come to the +piano and turn the leaves while I try them?" + +"Certainly," he answered, rising and attending her. + +It was the hardest thing she could have asked of him, but Lance was very +unselfish. He put down the throb of pain that rose at the remembrance of +the new songs he and Lily had been wont to practice at the same piano, +and turned the leaves with a steady hand while her fingers flew over the +keys. But one thing she had asked more than once. It was that he should +sing with her. This he always quietly declined to do. + +"That is rude of you," she would say, in a voice of chagrin. "Your tenor +is so perfectly splendid, why should you refuse?" + +"I shall never sing again," he would answer, quietly but firmly, and no +persuasion on her part could induce him to change his mind. + +It was agony for him to stand there and turn the leaves, looking down +upon that dark head instead of the golden one he had been wont to gaze +upon so fondly. When the face was lifted with a smile to his, and +instead of Lily's soft, blue eyes he met the gaze of the black ones, his +heart thrilled with pain. Perhaps she guessed it, but she kept him there +all the same, thinking that time would blunt the keenness of his +remembrance and teach him to adore the brunette as fondly as he had +loved the blonde. + +She played at him, she sung at him, lifting her passionate glance to his +whenever some appropriate sentiment in the song seemed to warrant such +expressiveness. Lance never dreamed of the reason for her pantomime. He +had seen the same thing practiced by ladies in society. He deemed it a +harmless kind of flirting, but never thought of responding to it. + +She kept him there perhaps an hour patiently waiting on her pleasure, +and passing his opinion only as it was called for on the various pieces +she was practicing. At last, to his great relief, she grew weary of her +amusement, and left the piano. + +"Come and read to me, Lance," said she, with a pretty tone of +proprietorship in him; "I am tired of the music, I do not like the +songs. There is not a passable one in the whole selection." + +She threw herself down half-reclining on a rich divan and settled +herself to listen. Lance selected a volume of Tennyson, and seating +himself near her, began to read quite at random the celebrated poem of +Lady Clara Vere De Vere. + + "Lady Clara Vere De Vere, + Of me you shall not win renown; + You thought to break a country heart + For pastime ere you went to town. + At me you smiled, but unbeguiled + I saw the snare, and I retired; + The daughter of a hundred Earls, + You are not one to be desired." + +"Oh! no more of that," she cried, as he paused after the first verse. "I +have never fancied that poem--try something else." + +Patiently he turned the leaves and came upon the exquisite little poem +of "Edward Gray"--a dainty bit of versification admired by all women. + +"This will please her fancy," he thought, and began again: + + "Sweet Emma Moreland of yonder town + Met me walking on yonder way, + 'And have you lost your heart?' she said; + 'And are you married yet, Edward Gray?' + Sweet Emma Moreland spoke to me; + Bitterly weeping I turned away: + 'Sweet Emma Moreland, love no more + Can touch the heart of Edward Gray.'" + +"You need not finish that one," said she, impatiently. "Pray excuse me, +Lance, but I do not think you make very pretty selections, or perhaps I +am not in the humor for listening. Put the book aside--let us talk +instead." + +"As you will, fair lady," said he, gallantly. "I shall listen to you +with pleasure; but I must warn you that my conversational powers are not +great." + +"Perhaps the will is wanting," said she, trying hard to repress all +signs of vexation. It was terribly hard to lead him on, this +frank-spoken young ideal of hers. + +"Oh, no," said he, smiling slightly. "It is a real inability for which I +ought to be excusable." + +"And so you are excusable," said she, with a tender glance. "There are +but few things I would not excuse in you, Lance." + +"You are very good to say so," he answered, quite gravely. "I am very +faulty, I know, and it needs the eyes of a true friend indeed to +overlook my manifold imperfections." + +"A true friend," she sighed, softly. "Ah! would that I might find such +an one." + +Lance was about to make some commonplace reply to this aspiration when +he suddenly observed that her face had dropped into her hands, and she +was crying softly, her graceful form heaving with deep emotion. + +"Mrs. Vance," said he in alarm, "what is the cause of your distress? +Have I said or done anything to wound you? If I have, pray forgive me. +It was unintentional, I assure you." + +There was no reply. She continued to sob violently for a few minutes +while Lancelot sat silent and perplexed at her unusual emotion. At +length the storm of grief ceased in low sighs, and she lifted her head +and carefully wiped off a few genuine tears that hung pendent on her +silky lashes and threatened to fall upon her cheek and wash off the +delicate rose-tint so carefully put on. Lance at once renewed his +apologies and regrets. + +"It is I who should beg your pardon, Lance, for this childish and +undignified outburst of mine," said she, with quivering lips, "But +indeed I could not help it. Our chance words struck a chord so tender +that it vibrated painfully. Oh! Lance, I am very unhappy!" + +"I should not have thought it," said he, quite surprised at her +admission. + +"No; because I mask my aching heart in deceitful smiles," was the +mournful answer. + +"But you have no present cause for unhappiness," said Lancelot, quite +perplexed as to the means of comforting her. "Your home is pleasant, +your friends are kind and loving." + +"Ah! you think so," said she, with a bitter smile, "but you do not know +what I have to endure. You could scarcely believe how bitterly Ada +Lawrence taunts me with my poverty and dependence. Were it not for Mr. +Lawrence, whom I will admit is kind in his way, I believe she would +drive me forth homeless and shelterless." + +"Surely you misjudge Ada," said he, warmly, "I am sure she has a tender +heart." + +"Ah! her sweet face is no index of her mind," answered Mrs. Vance, with +a gloomy shake of her head. "God knows what insolence I daily endure +from that ill-natured girl! Ah! Lance, this life of dependence is a +bitter one. I would leave here to-morrow and seek to earn my own bread +with my own weak hands were it not for one dear tie which holds me with +a power stronger than my woman's will." + +"And that tie?" asked the unconscious young man, in a voice of gentle +interest. + +"Is my passionate, uncontrollable, hopeless love for one whom I will not +name," she answered, in a broken voice, and drooping her eyes from his +earnest gaze. + +"You mean Mr. Lawrence?" Lance queried, in surprise. + +"Can you think so?" inquired the lady, in a low and meaning tone, +lifting her eyes with one swift glance to his face, then quickly letting +them droop again beneath their sweeping lashes. + +"It seems incredible," pursued Lancelot, quite oblivious of the meaning +she had so delicately conveyed. "Mr. Lawrence, though a very fine +looking man, is at least double your age, and is not at all the kind of +a man I should have supposed as likely to win your love, Mrs. Vance." + +"Heavens, what obtuseness!" thought the almost distracted woman. "He +_will_ not understand. I shall have to tell him plainly, and then see +what will become of his sublime unconsciousness!" + +"Oh! Lance," she cried, shading her burning cheek with her hand, "why +will you misunderstand my meaning? I did not mean to tell you the +truth, but your assumption of my love for that old dotard forces me to +vindicate the choice of my heart! Oh! Lance, do you not know, can you +not see what I am ashamed to put in these plain words, that it is _you_ +whom I love and no other?" + +If a bombshell had exploded at Lancelot Darling's feet he could not have +been more surprised and actually alarmed than he was at this avowal of +love from the woman whom he had honestly admired and reverenced as one +among the gentlest and loveliest of her sex. He sprang up and stood +looking down at her while a blush of honest shame for her burnt on his +cheek. + +"Oh, no," he stammered, finding breath after a long, embarrassed pause. +"You cannot mean what you say!" + +She arose at his words, and drawing near him laid a fluttering hand on +his coat-sleeve. Her dark eyes still drooped before his, and her shamed +yet imploring posture was the embodiment of grace. + +"Do not be angry," she pleaded. "I do mean it; how could I help it when +you are the only living creature that is kind to me? Oh, forgive me, +Lance, for my wild words, and let me love you a little." + +"Mrs. Vance, it is a shame for a woman to love unsought," said he, in a +low, rebuking tone. + +"Oh, do not say so!" she answered, wildly. "You men are too hard upon us +women. You tie us down and restrict us in everything, and if we let our +poor, clinging hearts go out to you ever so little before you give us +leave, then you cry out shame upon us. Oh, Lance, is it so strange that +I should love you? You have been kind to me, you are dangerously +handsome and winning, and a woman's heart must cling to something. I +have not a true friend on earth, Lance; I have no one to love and no one +to love me. I am lonely and wretched beyond expression. Let me love you +and say that you will love me in return." + +Her forlornness moved his generous heart to pity and sorrow for her. He +stood still as if rooted to the spot, listening to the wild torrent of +words she poured forth so eagerly. + +"Why should you be angry because a woman's heart lies at your feet, +Lance, to trample on or to cherish as you please? Am I not young, +beautiful, accomplished? If you chose me for your own before the world +what could any one say against me, save that I could bring you no wealth +but myself?" + +Still no word from the appalled listener. + +She raised her eyes beseechingly to him and drew a step nearer. + +"Lance, do speak to me--do tell me that I am not wasting the wealth of +my woman's heart in vain!" + +He gently removed her clinging hands and seated her in a low arm-chair, +standing beside her and looking down with visible embarrassment, yet +with a steady purpose. + +"Mrs. Vance," he said, gently, "words would fail me if I tried to +express the unutterable regret I feel for the revelation you have made. +You must know how hopeless your affection is, remembering all that I +have said on that subject this afternoon. There is no woman living, no +matter what her attractions may be, who could take the place of Lily +Lawrence in my heart." + +"But she did not love you--she died by her own hand rather than wed +you." + +"Perhaps so--we cannot tell. Be that as it may, I shall keep her image +in my heart forever, and no other woman shall come between us," +earnestly answered Lily's loyal lover. + +"Then there is no hope for me," she moaned, faintly. + +"None, Mrs. Vance--absolutely none. Pardon me that I have been forced to +wound you thus, and forget this madness if you can. No one shall ever +know of it from me," said he, gently, as he turned to go. + +"Are you going?" she asked, rising. + +"Yes," he asked, pausing reluctantly. + +"One word, Lance. I have been mad and blind in allowing my feelings to +find vent as I have done. I beg your pardon, and ask you as a priceless +boon to forgive and forget my madness. Will you try and do it?" + +"Gladly," he answered, with a sigh of relief. + +"And one thing more. You will not suffer this act of mine to alter your +pleasant relations with the household here. You will come and go as +usual that they may not suspect anything has occurred. I promise you +that I will not obtrude my company upon you," said she, humbly. + +"It were better that I should remain away," he said, hesitatingly. + +"But you will come sometimes," she said, and he did not answer nay, but +only said: "Good-bye." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +Mr. Shelton, the famous detective, was slowly but surely gaining ground +in his mysterious and interesting case. + +For a long time it had puzzled him and baffled his investigations, but +having at last obtained a single clew, he began to push on, slowly, to +be sure, but certainly, to eventual success. + +He had discovered, after patient and almost incredible labors, that +Doctor Pratt was the man who had bribed the sexton and obtained the key +of the Lawrence vault the night of Lily's interment there. He had also +learned that Harold Colville wore the missing half of the broken locket +found in Mr. Lawrence's hall the night on which the specter of the +banker's daughter had appeared to the assembled family. As yet he had +not thought of linking these separate facts together, but the day was +not far away when he would do so. + +He adopted quite a bold method of obtaining the desired knowledge +regarding Mr. Colville. + +He called upon that gentleman attired in a very plain business suit, and +still further disguised by a rather long wig of reddish hair, set off by +beard and eyebrows of the same ruddy hue. He sent up a card to the +gentleman of pleasure, simply engraved: "J. Styles." + +After some delay he was ushered into Mr. Colville's parlor. That +gentleman, attired in the extreme of fashion, merely nodded at his +visitor's entrance. He did not think it necessary to rise for such a +plain-looking personage. + +"I have not the honor of knowing you, sir," said he, stiffly. + +"J. Styles, under-clerk to the bankers, Lawrence and Co.," explained the +visitor, briskly. + +"Indeed!" said Mr. Colville, affecting nonchalance, but he started +violently and the keen eyes of "J. Styles" saw that he turned a trifle +paler. + +"You have met with a loss, I see," said the under clerk, abruptly +bending forward and taking hold of the broken locket that dangled among +the charms of the gentleman's watch-chain. + +"A personal affair that does not concern strangers," answered Mr. +Colville, haughtily, as he drew back. + +"I beg your pardon--it is the very business on which I called," replied +the visitor, imperturbably. As he spoke he slipped his fingers into his +breast pocket, produced the missing half of the locket, and deftly +fitted it to the broken part that dangled from the chain. "I have the +honor to return this to you, sir," said he, slipping the jewel into Mr. +Colville's hand. + +The gentleman's fingers closed over it mechanically. + +"Why, what--the devil--where did you find it?" asked he, thrown off his +guard by the unconcerned and business air of the under-clerk. + +"I did not find it at all," answered "J. Styles," calmly. "I was +commissioned to return it to you by Mr. Lawrence. It was found in the +hallway of his residence on the evening of the twenty-first instant." + +Mr. Colville started as if a bullet had struck him. He grew deathly +white even to the lips, and stared at the visitor a moment in silence. +At length he recovered himself with a powerful effort, and asked, +curtly: + +"Well, why did Lawrence think of sending it to me? I did not lose it +there. Lawrence is a friend of mine, certainly, but I have not called on +him for several months." + +"He recognized it as your property, and supposed that you might have +called on the ladies that day in his absence," returned the visitor, +fabricating this lie with bare-faced effrontery. + +"Yes, that seemed plausible," answered Colville, with evident relief. + +"I suppose now that you have no idea where you actually lost it?" +inquired the clerk, respectfully. + +"Not the slightest--indeed, it was but yesterday that I discovered the +loss. That must have been several days afterwards if, as you said, it +was found on the twenty-first," replied Colville, more affably than he +had yet spoken. "You will return my thanks to Mr. Lawrence for its +prompt return." + +"It appears strange that it should be found in the hallway of a house +which you have not entered for months--does it not, sir?" remarked the +clerk with a musing air. + +"Exceedingly strange," returned Colville, uneasily. "But perhaps it had +been found on the street by some person who might have lost it in Mr. +Lawrence's hall that day. That is the only explanation of the mystery I +can think of, for I assure you I have not been to the house for months. +Not since long before the--the tragic death of his daughter," said he, +growing pale as the words left his lips. + +"By the way, a most startling event occurred at the home of Mr. Lawrence +the same night on which your locket was found," said the clerk, who +seemed in no haste to leave. "Your mention of Miss Lily recalls it to my +mind." + +"Indeed, and what was that?" inquired Colville, with an affectation of +carelessness. + +"Why, the spirit of the deceased young lady actually appeared to the +family, who were all assembled in the drawing-room in company with the +gentleman to whom she was to have been married," replied the visitor in +a voice of awe. + +"Can it be possible?" inquired Mr. Colville in a tone of surprise and +interest. "In what manner did the apparition appear?" + +"She appeared in the doorway, sir, with her arms extended towards her +lover. She was heard to utter her father's name twice, then the whole +illusion faded out in the thick darkness." + +"Dear me, how very interesting," said Colville, shifting uneasily on his +chair as though it were set round with thorns. "I have heard of such +things, but never witnessed any manifestations myself. Miss Lawrence was +a charming girl. A pity she should have destroyed herself." + +"Yes, sir--a most lamentable affair--well, I must be going," said "J. +Styles," rising. + +"You will let me offer you a reward for your trouble in returning my +property?" inquired Mr. Colville. + +"Oh! no, I thank you, sir--but perhaps the housemaid who found it would +be glad of a trifle, sir!" + +Mr. Colville placed a bill in his hand, and the pair separated +courteously, the fine gentleman returning to his seat in a tremor of +anxiety and trepidation, while the detective took himself to the office +of Mr. Lawrence, and after revealing his identity (for his disguise +completely deceived that gentleman) he proceeded to detail the interview +with Mr. Colville and its result as we have already described it. + +"I took the liberty of borrowing the name of one of your under-clerks," +said he. "I suppose there is no harm done." + +"None at all, I should say," returned the banker, with a smile. + +"And here is the reward the gentleman gave me for the housemaid who +found the locket," continued the detective, producing the money. + +"Ah! he was generous," commented the banker, tucking the five-dollar +bill into his vest pocket. "Well, and what do you make of all this, +Shelton?" + +"Much, if I could guess at the meaning of it," returned the detective, +frankly. "At present I am all at sea, but from this day forward until I +get at the truth, Colville will be a shadowed man. I shall be on his +track like a bloodhound. His agitation and alarm at learning where his +locket had been found meant much, and his lying assertion that he had +not been at your house that night meant more. I assure you that Harold +Colville was in your house that night and with no good purpose. I will +yet give you proofs of my assertion." + +"You have done well so far," said Mr. Lawrence, approvingly; "I believe +you will succeed in ferreting out that mystery, and I will try and bide +the time patiently. And now about the man who had the key of my vault +the night of my daughter's interment. Have you tracked him yet?" + +"I have," answered Mr. Shelton, triumphantly. + +"You have?" cried the banker, eagerly. "His name?" + +"You remember the physician who was called in to examine your daughter's +body the morning she was found dead--the same man who testified at the +inquest? The man is one Doctor Pratt, a physician of fair repute in this +city and of some skill in his profession." + +"A physician, Shelton? My God! Then poor Lily's body was stolen for +purposes of dissection!" + +"I do not think so. They would not have run so great a risk to gain so +little. No, Mr. Lawrence, I still firmly believe that it was done for +the sake of a large ransom." + +"Then why do the thieves not return the body, since I have long ago +offered a ransom for it and no questions asked?" said the banker, +impatiently. + +"Perhaps you have not offered as much as they expected," answered +Shelton. + +"Would you advise me to increase the amount? I would willingly double +and treble it if necessary," said Mr. Lawrence, earnestly. + +"Do not do so at present, sir. I hope that we shall succeed in finding +the body and punishing the knaves for their unholy sacrilege. I am loth +to reward their treachery and suffer them to go scot-free," answered +Shelton, earnestly. + +"Well, you know best, Shelton. I will wait yet a little longer, +then--but, oh, Heavens, this suspense is very dreadful. I feel myself +growing old before my time with the pressure of my troubles," said Mr. +Lawrence, passing his hand wearily through his fast whitening hair. + +"Have patience yet a little longer. Indeed, Mr. Lawrence, I feel deeply +for your distress, and will do all I can to alleviate it," said the +detective, in a tone of respectful sympathy. + +"Thank you, Shelton. I believe that you will," said the banker, +gratefully. "And now about this rascally physician. You were very clever +in finding him out. How did you manage it?" + +"It would weary you if I went into details, Mr. Lawrence. I arrived at +my knowledge after much time and labor. But I will briefly explain that +I furnished the old sexton who helped on this trouble a deputy in his +business, and disguising the old fellow thoroughly, I took him about +with me night and day until he recognized his man and pointed him out to +me." + +"It seems incredible that a man with a good profession and of fair +repute should be found engaging in such a nefarious scheme," said Mr. +Lawrence, in amazement. + +Mr. Shelton smiled knowingly. + +"My dear sir," he said, "there is nothing incredible, nor even uncommon +about it. My experience in the detective line has made me familiar with +a hundred such cases. Men steeped in every iniquity are found concealed +under the guise of respectable professions or genteel business. Wolves +in lamb's clothing, you know." + +"It is shocking to think of," said the banker. "Well, can anything be +done with this Pratt? Should not he be arrested at once on the charge of +bribery?" + +"And thereby lose the chance of tracking him to the hiding-place where +he has the body concealed?" said Mr. Shelton. "Oh! no, Mr. Lawrence, we +will not molest him yet. I have my eye upon him. Like Mr. Colville, he +is a shadowed man; I have a colleague in this business, and we each have +our marked man to watch. Dr. Pratt's profession takes him abroad so much +and into so many houses that it will be difficult to track him, but +depend upon it we shall run him to earth at last." + +"I truly hope so; your recent discoveries have put new heart into me, +Shelton; may God prosper you in your undertaking," said the banker, +supplementing this aspiration with a very large roll of bank-bills which +he slipped into the detective's hand. + +"Thank you, sir," smiled Shelton. "That material way you have of +supplementing a prayer is not a bad thought. I may count upon your +silence about what I have disclosed--may I?" + +Mr. Lawrence placed his fingers on his lips with a nod and smile. + +"All right, I'll rely upon you," said the disguised detective, and with +a brief "good-day, sir," he went buoyantly away on the secret mission +that meant detection and ruin to Messrs. Pratt and Colville. + +The banker returned to his counting-room with renewed hope and vigor. +The impenetrable darkness that had hovered over Lily's disappearance so +long seemed to be lifting at last and a gleam of light shone through the +little rift in the clouds. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +Mr. Shelton spoke truly when he said to Mr. Lawrence that he would +shadow Harold Colville like a bloodhound. + +By day and by night, on foot or on horseback, in various disguises, he +kept himself on the track of the fine gentleman. + +For several weeks he kept up this close espionage, but at the end of +that time he seemed no nearer his object than when it was first begun. + +Mr. Colville's comings and goings seemed to be quite the same with those +of other gentlemen of his means and position. + +He frequented theaters and gaming-houses; he was a welcome and much +sought-for partner in ball-rooms, and was smiled upon by scheming +mothers with marriageable daughters. + +Thus far Mr. Shelton had seen nothing on which to seize as a possible +clew to Mr. Colville's mysterious presence in Mr. Lawrence's house the +night of Lily's appearance. + +Mr. Shelton had made one discovery, however, though he did not begin to +attach much importance to it. It was that Doctor Pratt and Harold +Colville were acquainted with each other, and, moreover, that they +sometimes "hunted in couples." + +That is to say, the worthy physician occasionally stopped his carriage +on meeting Colville, whereupon the latter would spring in and accompany +the doctor on his round of visits, seeming deeply interested in the +conversation they pursued together. + +Mr. Shelton was puzzled to decide whether there was any collusion +between the gay man of fashion and the busy physician, or whether it was +only one of those odd friendships that are sometimes observed to exist +between persons of totally different temperaments and pursuits. +Sometimes he was inclined to believe it was only the latter. + +But he noticed a fact at last that struck him as rather peculiar. +Following the pair closely on his stout, black horse, he had seen that +Colville always remained in the carriage while the physician went into +the houses to pay his visits to the sick. + +On this occasion, which struck him so forcibly, they drove quite out +upon the outskirts of the city, and stopped before a house standing +almost a half mile distant from any other. + +This house, the detective observed, had a gloomy and forbidding aspect, +being closely shuttered and surrounded by a very high stone wall. + +Here Dr. Pratt descended and fastened his horse. Mr. Colville also +sprang out, and they entered with a familiar air, the heavy gate closing +and shutting them in. + +"Now, that is rather strange," thought the detective as he walked his +horse slowly past the deserted-looking place. + +"What business has Colville in there? I can imagine that Pratt may have +a patient inside those gloomy walls; but what the deuce can Colville +have to do with it? I am almost positive that I heard shrieks issuing +thence when they went in at the gate. I wonder can it be a private +asylum for the insane?" + +He spurred his horse ahead and rode on for some distance, then paused, +and remained as erect and still as a statue while he watched and waited +for the pair of confederates to come forth. But at least an hour elapsed +before they emerged, and pursued the devious tenor of their guilty way. + +"Now, upon my word," thought the wary spy, "Doctor Pratt must have a +very interesting case inside of those gloomy, prison-like walls. I have +a mind to stop somewhere in the neighborhood and inquire about the +inhabitants thereof." + +He accordingly suffered Doctor Pratt's carriage to drive on out of +sight, and stopping before a cottage on the road with the ostensible +purpose of obtaining a drink of water, he inquired of the woman who gave +it to him as to the names of the people who inhabited the old house with +the stone wall. + +"And indade, it's mesilf that cannot tell ye, sor," said she, with a +very broad Hibernian accent, "for shure, Mickey and mesilf have but +lately moved intil the cot, and knows naught about the nayburs!" + +Mr. Shelton rode on and made the same inquiry at the next house, but +elicited no encouraging answer. People did not seem to know anything +about the deserted-looking old house in such close proximity to them. + +After several similar experiences he rode on quite disgusted with the +general stupidity of the neighborhood. + +Almost two miles from the old house that had so powerfully attracted his +interest, he came upon a little house standing close to the roadside. + +A kind-looking woman sat in the doorway, though the day was chilly, and +as she kept knitting away on the homely gray stocking, sang cheerily at +her work. + +"Now that is a pleasant-looking old soul," he thought. "Perhaps her +intellect is above the average of her neighbors. Perhaps she is better +informed than they are. At any rate, I will speak to her." + +He dismounted from his horse this time, fastened him at the gate-post, +and walked up the narrow path to the door. + +The good woman arose in quite a flutter. + +"Do not let me disturb you," said he, courteously. "I only wish to +trouble you for a drink of water. I have ridden far and feel very +thirsty." + +"Certainly, sir," said the woman, in a voice as pleasant as her face. +"Come in and have a seat, sir, and you shall have a draught fresh from +the spring." + +She hurried away on hospitable thoughts intent, and soon returned with a +glass of pure cold water. The guest sat still in his homely chair and +sipped at the water very slowly considering how thirsty he had professed +himself to be. + +The fact was, he had drank several glasses of water already while +prosecuting his inquiries, and began to feel himself almost unequal to +this latter one. + +"You do well to sip your water slowly, sir," said the woman, observing +him, "for the doctors do say that it is very imprudent to drink rapidly +when tired and overheated." + +"Bless the good, unsuspecting soul," thought the detective. Aloud he +said very politely: "Yes, madam, I am aware of that fact, and I believe +some very severe illnesses have resulted from injudicious gulping down +of cold water by thoughtless persons. I always make a point of sipping +mine very slowly." + +"And very right of you, too, sir," said the kind soul, approvingly. + +"Ah, by the way," said he, "I am a stranger in this neighborhood, and I +passed a house about two miles back that powerfully attracted my +curiosity. It was an old, deserted-looking building, inclosed by a high +stone wall. Its prison-like aspect repelled me. Do you know anything +about it?" + +"They do say it was a convent once, sir," answered the good woman, +readily. "I know the place you speak of, and as you say, sir, it has a +very repelling aspect." + +"Is it inhabited now?" inquired the wayfarer. + +The hearer shuddered. + +"That it is, sir," said she; "and by a wicked lot, I assure you." + +"Is it possible?" + +"It is quite true, sir. The place has been inhabited for many years by +an old couple of the name of Leveret. They have no family at all, and +live there alone, having no friends or neighbors, and it is said that +they keep a powerful bloodhound upon the place. Strange tales are told +of these people, but nothing is known certainly. Both of them are +hideously ugly, and many people declare that the old woman is a witch." + +"Is either of them sick, do you know?" inquired the detective. + +"That I cannot tell you, sir. They are all very reserved, and hold no +intercourse with people around them. I have heard that they are misers, +and have large quantities of gold buried in their garden, and guarded by +the great bloodhound. They might both sicken and die, and not a living +soul be the wiser. May I inquire why you asked that question, sir?" +asked she. + +"Certainly. I saw a doctor's carriage standing in front of the gate, and +concluded that someone must be sick, within." + +"Perhaps there may be, sir, but I would not have thought they would have +called in a doctor. These old witches, like Haidee Leveret, as they say +her name is, usually cure sickness with their own herbs and simples." + +"Perhaps they failed on this occasion. Well, I must be going," said the +detective. "Many thanks for your information. Permit me to offer you a +trifle for your kind entertainment," said he, politely tendering a piece +of silver. + +"Not a penny, sir. The water costs nothing, and as for changing a bit +word with you, why, that's a pleasure to a lonesome old lady like me, +with few neighbors and friends. Why, it was only last month that a young +thing in trouble, passing this way, offered me her fine diamond ring to +pay for a bit kindness I showed her. But I refused it, sir. I want +nothing for showing a little kindness to the wayfaring," said the good +woman, pausing to take breath. + +Shelton's attention had been caught unaccountably by the mention of the +diamond ring. + +"You stimulate my curiosity," said he, deliberately sitting down again. +"The young person must have felt your kindness very sensibly to have +offered such a costly reward as a diamond ring." + +"Aye, she was in sore trouble, sir, that I believe. But now I bethink +me," said the good creature, stopping short, "she charged me if any one +came here inquiring for her to say she had not been here, and here I am +blabbing away at this thoughtless rate." + +"But you see I am not inquiring for her," said the visitor briskly. "I +am a perfect stranger in these parts, and I am not looking for anyone, +so there is no harm done in relating this interesting story to me." + +"Why, that is very true, sir," said she, and thereupon followed a minute +and detailed account of the visit of Lily Lawrence, and the disguise +she had furnished her. Mr. Shelton listened to the story with very close +attention. + +"How long ago has it been since this happened?" he inquired when she had +finished her relation. + +"Several weeks, sir. Stay, let me see--I was so excited by it that I put +down the date in my little memorandum book," she said, as she began to +fumble in her pocket. Presently she produced the book in question, and +turning a leaf announced triumphantly, "it was fully two months ago, +sir. It was August--the 21st of August." + +"The very day that Lily Lawrence appeared to her friends," thought the +detective, with a start. "Can there be any connection between the two?" + +"She was young and beautiful, you say?" asked he. + +"Aye, she was, sir. Not more than seventeen or eighteen, and beautiful +as a white lily, sir. She put me in mind of that flower, she was so +delicate and pale, sir--not a tint of color in her poor lips and cheeks. +Her hair was pale golden too, sir, falling down upon her shoulders, and +her eyes of a beautiful deep blue." + +"I suppose no one came by to inquire for her?" said Shelton. + +"No one, sir; I did not see anyone passing that day except a doctor's +carriage that whirled past in a desperate hurry soon after she left +here." + +"Let us hope she made her escape from whatever evils menaced her," said +he, fervently. "Well, I must be going in earnest now. My kind friend, +will you tell me your name? I may call on you again." + +"My name is Mrs. Mason, sir," she answered. + +"Do you live here alone?" asked he, as he jotted it hastily down in his +note-book. + +"Quite alone, sir. My poor husband and my only child have been dead +these ten years--I am quite alone in the world," answered Mrs. Mason +with a sigh. + +"Good day, Mrs. Mason, and many thanks for your kindness to a wayfaring +man," said the detective as he went down the path, leaped into the +saddle and rode away. + +Mrs. Mason's revelation had thrown his mind into a chaos of doubt, +perplexity and suspicion. New light began to break in on him, startling +him with a wondrous possibility he had not suspected. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +Mrs. Vance had done herself more harm than good by the bold avowal of +her love for Lancelot Darling. The innate delicacy and almost womanly +refinement of his character revolted at the idea of her imprudent and +ill-considered step. He could not understand why she should have lowered +herself by declaring her love after all he had said regarding the +constancy of his affection for his loved and lost Lily. He pitied, and +yet the feeling of pity was more closely allied than he knew to a +feeling that bordered on contempt. + +The fair widow herself was not by any means cast down by Lancelot's +firm and resolute repulse. She thought, from her knowledge of masculine +character in general, that Lancelot's vanity would soon overcome his +first shocked repugnance to her unfeminine avowal, and cause him to +exult in the knowledge that he was so madly beloved by so beautiful and +accomplished a woman. + +From that there would be but a slight step to giving his love in return. +She had not driven him away from her, for he had not said he would not +come again. She would see him often, and work on his feelings by every +art of which she was mistress. Surely she could not fail to win him. He +was young, impressible, and youth is not prone to constancy to the dead. +True he had an idle, romantic fancy that "love is love forevermore," but +time and her artifice would cure him of that. + +"I will be very shy and humble when he first comes back again," she +thought. "No young maiden in her teens shall outdo me in coyness and +reserve. I will make him think that my wild outburst that day was +entirely unpremeditated and that I am thoroughly ashamed and repentant. +He will begin to excuse me to himself, then he will pity my hopeless +love, and then--ah, then, 'pity is akin to love!'" + +She was sitting in the drawing-room, rocking leisurely back and forth +while she trifled over a delicate bit of fancy-work. A fire burned +cheerily on the marble hearth, for the late October days were growing +chilly, and diffused an air of warmth and comfort in the large, +luxuriously appointed apartment. Mrs. Vance herself was quite in keeping +with the elegance of the room. Her house dress of delicate pink +cashmere, with trimmings of cream-white lace, made a beautiful spot of +color in the darker, more subdued coloring of the furnishings around +her. + +Ada came in from the conservatory with her arms full of flowers, and +sitting down opposite the lady, began to arrange them into tasteful +bouquets. + +"You need two roses to complete the harmony of your dress," said she +carelessly, selecting that number and tossing them over to her. Mrs. +Vance took the roses and fastened them in her breast and hair. "Now your +toilet is perfect," said the young girl in a tone of admiration that was +quite sincere, for though she believed Mrs. Vance to be a false and +scheming woman, she could not but admit the perfection of her beauty and +grace. + +There had been no more angry passages between Mrs. Vance and Ada, though +the pure-hearted and impulsive girl had in no-wise changed her opinion +of the lady. But on mature reflection she began to think that since Mrs. +Vance was her father's guest she had acted wrongly in thus declaring war +with her. Therefore she treated her as before her sudden outburst +against her, with outward politeness and respect. + +The young girl appeared very lovely that morning. Her deep mourning +dress, with its heavy crape folds, could not obscure her beauty, and set +off, like the somber setting of a jewel, her transcendant fairness. All +traces of her severe illness in the summer had disappeared. Her cheeks +were glowing with a faint, sea shell tint, deepening to glowing crimson +on her full and pouting lips. Her large, blue eyes had the serene, +innocent look of a child's tender orbs. Her golden hair, simply drawn +back and braided, allowed a soft, curly fringe to escape and flutter +caressingly over her low, white brow. Mrs. Vance hated her for the +beauty that recalled the image of the rival her jealous hand had +ruthlessly slain. + +While they sat thus engaged there was a ring at the door-bell, and +presently the beloved object of Mrs. Vance's secret thoughts was shown +in. He looked very handsome and distinguished as he replied to Ada's +unembarrassed and sisterly greeting, "Good morning, Lance," but his face +flushed slightly as he bowed distantly to her companion. Mrs. Vance +replied to his greeting with a bow that was quite as formal, and sinking +languidly back into her seat, fixed all her attention upon her work. Not +a single glance of her down-drooped eyes was allowed to wander toward +him. She preserved entire silence while the other two entered into a +simple and desultory chat with the easy familiarity of old friends. At +length, as though her embarrassment were becoming unendurable, she rose +with an incoherent apology, and heaving a deep sigh quitted the room +abruptly and did not appear again. Ada looked after her departing form +in amazement. + +"What is the matter with Mrs. Vance?" asked she. "You seem to have +frozen her into a statue." + +"I am sure I cannot tell," he answered with an assumption of +carelessness. + +"But you barely spoke to each other. I am sure I thought you two were +the best of friends--really intimate in fact. Yet you seemed on the most +indifferent terms just now," said she, incredulously. + +Lance smiled carelessly, and reached out for one of the roses in her +lap. + +"My dear little sister," said he, "who can answer for the vagaries of +woman? Mrs. Vance has always been exceedingly friendly with me, but she +seems to have taken an opposite whim just now. But it would not be fair +to question her motives, would it? Men have to bear the caprices of +women without complaint--do they not? I believe one of the best of the +female poets claims _caprice_ as a _right divine_ of the fair sex." + +"Oh, yes. Mrs. Osgood says: + + "''Tis helpless woman's right divine, + Her only right--caprice,'" + +returned Ada, repeating the quotation with a very pretty emphasis. + +"Then let us not question Mrs. Vance's right to exercise her divine +prerogative. I dare not rebel--I must only submit. And, by the way, +begging your pardon for changing the subject, will you ride with me this +evening? I came expressly to ask you. I have my new phaeton and +cream-white ponies--the ones I purchased for Lily's use," said he, with +a smothered sigh. + +She went to the window to look at them. + +How beautiful, how proud, how thoroughbred were the restive creatures +champing at their silver bits, impatient of the little groom's +restraint--how exquisite the costly little phaeton with its luxurious +cushions of azure satin, and the azure satin carriage-robe thickly +embroidered with white lilies. The equipage was dainty enough for Queen +Mab herself. Ada sighed as she thought of the beautiful form that had +chosen the rest of the coffin rather than these downy cushions to +recline upon. + +"It is beautiful," she said, "rarely beautiful. Yes, I will ride with +you in the park, Lance. Wait a minute until I get on my wrappings, for I +believe it is a little chilly to-day." + +She tripped away lightly. Lance looked after her with an affectionate +glance. + +"A dear, sweet girl," he thought to himself; "surely Mrs. Vance +misunderstands her, for I am sure she is true and sweet and kind. How +like she grows to Lily." + +She came back presently, cloaked and heavily veiled. + +"Are you ready?" he asked. + +"Not quite," she answered. "I had forgotten to put my bouquets into the +vases." + +She tripped around and disposed of her flowers in the various vases that +adorned the room, then came back to him. + +"Now, I am ready," said she. + +They went out, took their places in the dainty phaeton, the little groom +in blue and silver sprang into his place, and they were whirled swiftly +away. + +From an upper window Mrs. Vance was watching for the young man's +departure. She started as she saw him drive off with Ada beside him, and +a lurid fire of rage and jealousy blazed in her heart. + +"The fair-faced little devil!" she muttered, clenching her hands tightly +together. "Oh! that I dared to murder her as I did that other one who +came between me and him!" + +She paced up and down, wild with contending passions. + +"I was wrong to leave them together," she thought, in bitter anger with +herself. "He was glad, perhaps, that I came away and left them to an +uninterrupted _tete-a-tete_. I over-reached myself that time; but, ah! +Ada Lawrence, woe be unto you if you win him from me!" + +The postman's impatient rattling at the door-bell interrupted her angry +mood. In a moment a maid rapped at the door, delivered a letter to her +and went away. + +Mrs. Vance had no correspondents usually. She guessed, with a sharp +quiver of anger and fear, whence it came, and held it at arm's length a +moment as if it had been a noxious reptile. + +"The greedy old harpy," she muttered indignantly, tearing it open at +last. "Must she bleed me again so soon?" + +She tore the coarse, yellow envelope into a hundred little bits, then +angrily scanned the note in her hand. It was very brief, but amounted to +an imperative summons from Haidee Leveret to come to the old house +to-morrow and bring all the money she could raise. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +Old Peter Leveret and Haidee, his wife, after much bickering and mutual +recriminations, attended by more or less pummelling and hair pulling, +had at last made an amicable adjustment of their difficulty regarding +Mrs. Vance's secret. + +Old Haidee, termagant and spit-fire though she was, found herself no +match for the eternal reproaches and brutal usage of her thoroughly +enraged husband, and eventually confessed herself the weaker vessel by +yielding to the pressure of a stronger conjugal power and revealing the +secret of her influence over Mrs. Vance, at the same time dividing her +ill-gotten spoils with the incensed old ruffian. + +It is needless to say that old Peter's greedy soul was not content with +these ill-gotten gains. He felt that the beautiful widow had not paid, +so far, a tithe of what was due to himself and Haidee as the fortunate +possessors of so fatal a secret. + +"I tell you, Haidee," said he, "the woman has got to come down heavily +with the money, or I shall sell her secret to somebody who will pay a +better price for it--perhaps to Mr. Lawrence or that young Darling." + +"Yes, and get yourself into a fatal difficulty," retorted the wife +contemptuously. "Let me tell you, Peter Leveret, you have more brute +strength than I have, but all the sense we own between us is in the head +that rests on my shoulders. Suppose you try to sell this secret to +Lawrence or Darling, where is your evidence against Mrs. Vance? Did you +see her commit the murder? Did I see her commit it? Did Doctor Pratt see +her either? No; to all of these questions you have nothing to urge in +support of your assertion except the bare suspicion of Doctor Pratt. And +if you brought forward his name and got him into difficulty, why, he +knows enough evil of us both to send us to the gallows to-morrow. Ah! +that word frightens you, does it? Well, Doctor Pratt would do it +willingly if we got him into trouble. So I say to you be content with +what we can wring out of the woman's fears, and let all else alone. She +will prove a mine of wealth to us as long as we can make her believe +that there was an actual eye-witness to her crime." + +"Well, perhaps you are right, old woman," said Peter, dimly +comprehending the indubitable force of her statements. "You were always +more cautious than I was, Haidee. Now, don't understand me to imply that +you have more sense than I have, for I don't admit it at all. I am more +hasty than you, that is all. But I say, as I said before, Mrs. Vance has +got to plank the money down more freely." + +"But I have told you she has nothing of her own, stupid!" retorted +Haidee, impatiently. "She is dependent on Mr. Lawrence for every penny +she gets. We must be satisfied with our small gains now, and wait until +she gets the rich husband she is angling for. Then we shall reap our +golden harvest." + +"Aye, aye; but, Haidee, write to the lady and tell her to come here +to-morrow and bring all the gold she can lay her hands upon," said Peter +with dogged persistency. + +"So soon?" said Haidee, hesitatingly. Her greed was as great as her +husband's; but she had a fair modicum of caution and common sense. "It +is but a little while since she gave me the jewels, old man." + +"No matter. Write to her again, I say, or it will be the worse for you," +scowled Peter, wrinkling up his heavy brows ferociously. + +Accordingly, the note to Mrs. Vance was written and dispatched, and the +pair of plotters awaited her coming impatiently. But they little +anticipated what fatal results to themselves would follow that +imperative summons. + +That letter awoke in Mrs. Vance a burning desire to be rid of the old +couple, whose constant demands for money she would soon be entirely +unable to meet. + +She had a hundred dollars in gold that Mr. Lawrence had kindly presented +to her that morning, with a jesting reference to a "new fall suit." + +Her wardrobe needed no replenishing, and she could spare this sum to the +rapacity of the old people; but she felt that no sooner would this be +yielded to their greed than they would demand more. + +And where was the next hush-money to come from? It was not probable that +the banker would give her any more money before Christmas, and she could +not ask him for more than what his own generosity bestowed on her. + +She had no claim upon his beneficence whatever. These two old harpies +would be down upon her a dozen times before she would have another penny +to give them. + +And as soon as they learned her inability to bribe them further, they +would carry their fatal secret to Lancelot Darling or Mr. Lawrence. + +Mrs. Vance looked these difficulties in the face fairly, and could see +but one way out of them. The hideous old witch, and her still more +hideous old mate, must _die_. + +_Must die!_ No thrill of compunction or pity touched her heart as she +made this fatal avowal to herself. On the contrary, she experienced a +feeling of relief at the thought, mingled with a longing to consummate +the deed quickly that she might taste the sweetness of revenge. + +They must die. But how? + +Her fertile brain could suggest no feasible plan for the execution of +the dreadful deed she was determined upon. All through that night she +tossed on a sleepless pillow, revolving various schemes in her excited +mind. Morning found her haggard and pale, and all her paints and +cosmetics could not conceal her wretchedly ill appearance. She would not +present that agitated mien at the breakfast table, and had her morning +repast sent up to her room on the plea of a severe headache. + +At noon she dressed herself in a plain, dark walking dress, wrapped a +double veil about her head and face, and set forth upon her errand. She +walked some distance, carefully selecting the most secluded streets, and +shunning observation. At length she went into a small apothecary shop +and purchased from an inexperienced boy-clerk some strychnine which she +said she wanted for the purpose of destroying rats. She paid for it, +tucked the small parcel inside the palm of her dark kid glove, and +walked on steadily to her destination. + +Old Peter and his wife had just sat down to their frugal dinner when her +quick rap sounded on the hall door. They looked at each other +apprehensively. + +"It is she, no doubt," said he in a moment. "So the jade is come at +last." + +He had been swearing all the morning at her tardiness. + +Haidee got up and went to the door, unlocked it, admitted the visitor, +and turned the key again. + +"You see I keep my engagements punctually," said Mrs. Vance, pleasantly, +as she tripped in, "although I barely expected to be called on so soon." + +The hostess only grunted in reply to this as she ushered the visitor +into the low-ceiled, bare-looking room, where old Peter sat blowing his +cup of hot tea. + +He looked up and gave the new-comer a gruff nod. + +Mrs. Vance stood still a moment taking in all her surroundings with a +comprehensive glance, then she took the chair Haidee offered her, and +placing it in a position to suit herself she sat down. + +She had seated herself sidewise from the table, but in close proximity +to that corner of it on which sat the old brown tea-pot from whose +cracked nozzle issued the fragrant steam of the hot tea. By raising her +hand she could have poured out a cup of the refreshing beverage for +herself, but she smilingly declined the grim offer of the table's +hospitalities that was made by the hostess. + +"I thank you, I do not wish for a morsel of food, but I shall be glad of +a glass of a fresh, cold water. I have walked the whole distance and am +very tired and thirsty." + +Haidee arose, and taking a small white pitcher from the cupboard in the +corner, went out to the well. + +At the same moment old Peter arose, and taking his plate in hand, +hobbled to the stove for a portion of the mutton-chop that had been left +in the frying-pan for warmth. + +In that moment Mrs. Vance saw her opportunity. Her hand fluttered over +the lid of the tea-pot and raised it noiselessly, while a quantity of +white powder was poured from her other hand into the smoking-hot +beverage. It was but the work of a moment. When the host hobbled back to +his place she was leaning back in her chair, her hands folded over her +lap, and a look of bland unconsciousness on her handsome face. Her +nerves seemed steeled against emotion. + +Old Haidee entered and pouring a glass of water, offered it in silence. +She took it and drained it thirstily with profuse thanks. + +"Have you brought us any money?" asked old Peter, sharply, looking up +from his voracious feeding. + +"What if I have not?" she retorted, jestingly. + +"Then it will be the worse for you, my fine lady," he answered, +threateningly. + +Old Haidee had resumed her place at the head of the table. + +"Pray go on with your dinner," said the visitor, in a patronising tone. + +The old woman poured a fresh cup of tea for her husband, diluted it +plenteously with milk and coarse brown sugar, then replenished her own +cup. At the moment when the old man was greedily gulping his portion +down, Mrs. Vance put her hand into her pocket and drew out a netted +purse of shining gold coin. + +"Here is a hundred dollars I was fortunate enough to get for you," said +she, handing it reluctantly over to the woman; "and you must understand +that I cannot possibly get another penny for you before Christmas; so +try and economize it the best you can." + +Haidee gulped her tea down hurriedly as she clutched the purse, and the +old man hurried around to his wife's side. + +"Divide fair is my motto," said he. "Give me the purse, Haidee, and I +will count it for you." + +"No, you don't, old man," she answered, resolutely holding on to it +while her husband's fingers worked eagerly. "I will count it myself! Not +a coin will I ever see again if I trust this purse in your itching +fingers!" + +She poured out the shining mass upon the table and began to count it +over carefully, but the sight of it was too much for the grasping soul +of the old miser looking on. He thrust out his open claw-like fingers +and hastily gathered the whole pile into his greedy clutch, except for +one or two coins which escaped and rolled down upon the floor. + +In an instant his wife sprang up and bounded upon him like a wild-cat. + +There ensued a furious battle that defied description. Mrs. Vance +retreated hurriedly to the door, and stood at a safe distance watching +the couple as they fought over the gold that was clutched in Peter's +fingers, placing him somewhat at a disadvantage, for Haidee, with both +hands at liberty, pulled, and tore, and bit with the ferocity of a wild +animal. + +At length old Peter's tight grasp relaxed, the treasured gold fell from +his grasp and rolled here and there upon the floor. + +Haidee felt him writhing in her clasp and loosened the hold she had upon +his throat, and suffered him to fall upon the floor. + +He lay there, rolling and tossing, and uttering hideous groans, while +dreadful contortions passed over his features. + +"You have killed your husband, woman! Look at his throat, purple from +the clasp of your hands!" cried Mrs. Vance from the doorway, laughing +aloud at the shocked, incredulous stare of the woman as she gazed at her +writhing husband. + +At that moment the suffering man gave a furious plunge, rose to a +sitting posture, gave a hideous rattle from his throat, and fell +backward with a dull thud on the bare floor. He was dead! + +Old Haidee stooped over the still form like one dazed. + +"Is he really dead?" she said in wonder, feeling that it could not be +true. "Have I actually killed my old man?" + +"Yes, you have killed him," answered Mrs. Vance, with a fiendish laugh. +"Ha, ha, old woman, what is your fatal secret worth now? You, too, are a +murderess!" + +Old Haidee stood still for a moment, utterly stunned and bewildered by +the suddenness of the blow that had fallen upon her. But as she gazed at +the triumphant face of her enemy, her dazed senses seemed to clear and a +perception of the truth rushed upon her. + +"You lie!" she shrieked, in a voice of horrible rage and despair. +"Devil, you have poisoned him, and me, too; I see it all now! You sent +me out for the water while you drugged the tea! But I will have my +revenge before I die!" + +With a dreadful oath she sprang forward. The affrighted woman retreated +before her, but old Haidee was too quick for her. In a moment her +strong, claw-like fingers were fastened about the fair neck of the +beautiful woman. In another moment her sinful soul would have been sent +forth to its dread account with Heaven; but before that critical instant +arrived, the old witch fell backward on the hard floor, writhing in the +agonies that had destroyed her husband. + +The widow stepped a few paces back out of reach of her victim, and stood +regarding her with a smile of wicked triumph, while the witch, amid her +dying groans, hurled the most awful maledictions upon her destroyer. + +"Ha, ha!" laughed Mrs. Vance, enjoying her revenge to the utmost limit; +"did you think you could play with fire and not be burned? Did you think +I would destroy a beautiful and valued life like that of Lily Lawrence, +yet suffer two worn-out old hulks to stand between me and my cherished +purpose? Ha, ha! you realize your folly, now!" + +Her words fell on deaf ears. Old Haidee had expired in horrible agonies, +while the jeers and taunts of her destroyer yet echoed in her hearing. +She lay inside the door-way where she had fallen, a hideous spectacle of +death. + +Mrs. Vance lifted her foot and spurned the still body with all the +intensity of the hate that burned in her heart. + +"They are both dead," she said, aloud. "My evil genius has helped me. I +am safe now." + +She stepped across old Haidee's body with a slight thrill of repulsion, +and entering the room, picked up her purse and began to collect the +scattered gold coins. + +"I may as well have my money again," she thought to herself. "I need not +be in a hurry to get away. No one ever comes here, I am sure." + +She placed the last coin in the purse and paused to look around her. Old +Peter's ghastly dead face met her view. The wicked eyes, wide open and +staring, seemed to threaten her as in life. A shiver of deadly fear +thrilled along her veins, seeming to freeze them. + +"Great God!" she exclaimed. "What if my sins should find me out!" + +She lifted her slender, white hands and regarded them fixedly. + +"There is blood upon my hands," she said with an irrepressible shudder. +"They look fair and white, but they have sent three human souls into the +presence of their Creator. Pshaw! why do I pause to reflect here? Let me +cover up the traces of my crime and go." + +She took up the shovel, and opening the door of the stove, pulled out a +quantity of blazing fire-brands and scattered them recklessly upon the +bare floor, tossing one so close to the body of old Peter that his shock +of red hair was ignited and burned with a disagreeable stench. + +Mrs. Vance turned away with such a laugh as a fiend might have loved to +hear, and hurried from the house, leaving the door, which she hastily +unlocked, partly ajar. + +"It does not matter," she thought to herself. "No one will discover +them. The old shell of a house will ignite from the brands directly and +burn down to the ground." + +Drawing her veil tightly over her face she hurried away over the lonely +road. About half a mile from the old house she met a man riding on +horseback towards the route she was leaving. He scrutinized the solitary +woman keenly, but could make nothing of her thickly shrouded features, +and rode onward. + +"Some wayfarer," she thought carelessly, and hurried on, eager to leave +the hated vicinity of her double crime. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +Mr. Shelton's first impulse, after his interesting interview with Mrs. +Mason, had been to rush into town, secure a squad of police, and make an +immediate raid upon the house of which he had heard such suspicious +tales. + +Had he obeyed this hasty prompting of his mind, all would have gone +well, and this story of mine might have been concluded in a very few +more chapters. + +But the famous detective in his eventful career had usually found it +advantageous to think twice before he acted. + +He did so in this case, and his second thought resulted briefly in this: +He did not consider that he had as yet sufficient to warrant him in +taking the step he at first proposed to himself. + +He had no actual grounds for suspicion except the fact that Doctor Pratt +and Harold Colville had entered the house, and remained there a +seemingly rather long time for a professional call from a busy physician +whose time was limited. + +Mrs. Mason's information was all gained from the oftentimes worthless +gossip of a country neighborhood, and could scarcely be depended on as +reliable evidence. The mysterious case of the young girl who had been +befriended by the worthy woman might have no connection with the old +house and its inhabitants as he had hastily concluded at first. + +Considering all the circumstances, the cautious detective determined to +wait before taking any decided step, and in the meantime to learn more +of the mysterious house if possible. + +His pursuit of Pratt and Colville in the next few days took him in +entirely different directions, but resulted in nothing satisfactory. + +In the meantime Mrs. Mason's gossip about the old house and its wicked +inhabitants haunted him persistently. He could not rid himself of the +thought. It abode with him by day, and in his sleep assumed the guise of +night-mare. The old house actually preyed upon him. After a few days of +this troubled thinking he came to a firm determination. + +"I will go out there and make some plausible excuse for entering, if I +can possibly do so," he said, to himself, "and once inside, I will try +to find out whether there is ready ground for suspicion and inquiry." + +His mind was relieved when he had resolved upon his course. Accordingly, +he mounted his black horse and set out that very evening on his quest. +He felt disappointed when he passed the tiny cottage of Mrs. Mason and +saw the door closed. He missed the pleasant face from the doorway, but +the evening was quite cool, and the good soul was, no doubt, knitting +inside by her lonely hearthstone. + +Within half a mile of his destination he encountered a lady walking +rapidly in the dusty road. She was graceful in figure, fashionable in +dress, but her thickly-veiled face gave no hint of her identity. The +detective looked after her with no little curiosity. + +"That is not the sort of woman one expects to see walking alone in this +vicinity," he thought. "She has the proud air and step of a fashionable +New York lady. And she does not wish to be recognized, else why that +thick veil?" + +He turned in the saddle and looked after her again. The tall figure of +the graceful lady was rapidly receding from sight around the bend in the +road. + +"Some intrigue is on foot," he laughed to himself, as he rode on. "These +fashionable ladies sometimes find time hanging heavy on their hands, +and--well, 'Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.'" + +Thus soliloquizing, he found himself in front of the old house which had +lately occupied so many of his leisure moments of thought. + +He dismounted, fastened his horse, and laid his hand on the heavy gate, +peering cautiously inside before entering, being mindful of Mrs. Mason's +report of the bloodhound. + +"The hound is probably chained up," he thought, after a careful +reconnoissance. "Of course they would not allow such a dangerous beast +to run at large in the daytime. Now, I must bethink me of my excuse, for +I am about to storm the castle of the formidable ogres." + +He advanced up the path to the door which, greatly to his surprise, +stood slightly ajar. + +"I should have thought these reputed misers would keep a locked door to +their house," he said to himself, with unconscious disappointment. "I +dare say they will prove to be quite ordinary people after all." + +He proceeded to rap lightly on the door, then waited a little for a +response from within. + +No one came to answer his knock. He repeated it once or twice loudly +with a like result. + +"Are they all dead or asleep, or gone away?" said he, jestingly to +himself, as he pushed the door boldly open and looked into the hall. + +He saw nothing in the hall but a thin, blue volume of smoke that was +pouring out of an open doorway on the right. With a bound he sprang +inside and looked into the room. + +A horrible sight met his startled eyes as soon as they became accustomed +to the cloud of smoke that slowly rose over every thing. + +Inside the doorway, at his feet, lay the dead body of an old woman, her +aged features distorted and drawn as if by her dying agonies. Near the +stove lay another horrible corpse, that of an old and deformed man. + +The flooring in front of the stove had become ignited from the brands +scattered over it, and was slowly burning through. The clothing of the +man had caught fire and every shred was burned off of him, while his +charred and frying flesh sent forth a sickening smell. The table with +its unfinished repast stood in the center of the room. Several dishes +had been knocked off in the furious fight of the old couple, and lay +shattered in fragments on the floor. Chairs were overturned and gave +silent evidence of the struggle that had gone on so lately in the now +silent and deserted room. The detective stood as if rooted to the spot +in a trance of horror. + +He roused himself at last as he saw what headway the flames were making, +like one starting from a dreadful dream. + +"Heavens!" he cried out, "this is terrible. Murder and arson have both +been committed here!" + +He looked about him. Two buckets of water stood on a rude plank shelf. +He took them down and poured the water over the burning body of the man, +then dashed out into the yard where he remembered he had seen a well as +he came in. + +He filled the two buckets, carried them in, and poured the contents over +the fire. Again and again he repeated this operation till the smoldering +fire was quite extinguished, and he stood, weary and perspiring, looking +at the dismal scene. + +"Well, what next?" he asked himself. "I suppose I ought to go into town +and bring the coroner; but first I believe I will explore this horrible +den. What if the body I have sought so long should lie hidden in this +dreadful lazar house." + +He went out into the hall and looked down its narrow length. Three +doorways opened into as many rooms. The handles yielded to his touch, +and the door of each swung open readily, but the rooms were empty, dark +and cobwebbed. + +Dust lay thick upon the floor, showing that they had long been +untenanted. With a sigh of disappointment he closed them again, and +stood contemplating the stairway. + +"Better luck in the upper regions, perhaps," he thought. "I wonder if I +dare venture up there? Surely I can encounter nothing more fearful than +I have seen below." + +Slowly, and with some apprehension, he mounted the stairs, not knowing +what to expect, and thinking it possible that he might encounter some +further dreadful spectacle. + +At the top of the stairs he found himself in a narrow passage-way on +which three doors opened. He advanced to the first door and tried it. + +It yielded easily to his touch, and swung open. He entered and looked +about him. + +There was nothing suspicious here. It was evidently the sleeping +apartment of the two dead people below who would never need it more. + +A bed and two chairs constituted the sole furnishing. Some cheap +articles of feminine apparel hung upon pegs against the wall, together +with one or two rusty old coats and a pair of pants that doubtless +belonged to the man he had seen below. + +"There is nothing hidden here," thought Mr. Shelton, leaving it and +entering the next room. + +This room was similar to the first one. A bed and several chairs were +all it contained. A single article of feminine apparel hung against the +wall. + +It was a dress of summer blue, and made in a more fashionable style than +the one which he had seen in the adjoining room. + +Like a flash he remembered that Mrs. Mason had told him, when describing +the appearance of the girl she had befriended, that she wore a "morning +dress of a light-blue color, and fashionably made." + +"Great Heavens!" he thought, "is it possible that the poor creature +escaped from this very house? If so, then she was recaptured and brought +back, for here hangs the dress that Mrs. Mason described. My God! what +has become of the wearer! Has some fearful fate befallen her?" + +Echo only answered him as he sat down trembling with excitement. + +He was here in the room where sweet Lily Lawrence had dragged out weary +months of captivity, sickness and sorrow; where her pure cheeks had +burned at insult and wrong, where she had suffered the pangs of hunger +and cold until her weakened frame had almost succumbed to the grim +destroyer, death. + +But it was silent and deserted now. The dead ashes strewed the hearth, +the empty robe hung against the wall, and the cold October wind sighing +past the iron-barred window did not whisper of the tender heart that had +ached so drearily within. + +"This has been a prison for some poor soul," Mr. Shelton said aloud as +he noticed the iron bars that guarded the window. + +He went out shuddering as if with cold, and advanced to the next room. + +The door was locked, but the key had been left upon the outside. + +He turned it hastily and stepped over the threshold, half-expecting to +find some poor creature incarcerated within. + +But silence and gloom greeted him here also. + +The room was bare and dreary as the ones he had quitted. A bed and a +chair comprised its furniture, and heavy bars of iron secured the +solitary window. + +"What a horrible prison house," he exclaimed. "And what dreadful deeds +of darkness have perhaps been committed within these old walls." + +He went to the window and peered out through the heavy bars at the +tangled garden. It was faded and dying now, and the russet leaves of +autumn strewed the deserted paths. + +"My God, what was that?" he exclaimed with a violent start. + +A strange sound had grated upon his ears--the distinct clank of a heavy +chain and the smothered moan of a human voice. + +Involuntarily he looked downward and saw a trap-door in the middle of +the room. + +"Now some new discovery of human misery," thought the detective as he +advanced and pushed the sliding door backward. + +A dark and narrow stairway was disclosed. He descended it quickly and +entered the empty room beyond. + +A feeling of disappointment struck him as he entered the deserted, +cobwebbed dungeon, but guided by the sound of faint, low moans he +advanced across the floor and opened the opposite door to the one by +which he had entered. + +Here he paused and swept his hand across his brow, as though to dispel a +mist that had risen before his shrinking vision. + +There before his eyes, extended on her low cot bed, with the horrible +strap and chain about her waist fastened to the iron staple in the +floor, with her hungry black eyes glaring on him from her skeleton face, +lay poor Fanny Colville in all her abject wretchedness. + +"My God!" exclaimed Mr. Shelton, "horrors upon horrors accumulate!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +"Who are you?" asked the poor, wasted creature, looking up into the +strange face of the new-comer. + +"I am a friend, poor creature--one who will deliver you from your +dungeon, and give you liberty," said the detective, advancing into the +room. + +Joy beamed on the pale, shrunken features of the prisoner. For a moment +she could not speak, then she murmured brokenly: + +"Thank God for those words! I am starving and dying here. I have not +tasted food for two days!" + +Mr. Shelton in his frequent excursions had contracted a habit of +carrying a flask of wine and paper of crackers in his pocket for his own +occasional refreshment. + +He took a silver cup from his pocket, and pouring a small portion of +wine into it held it silently to the lips of the poor, famishing woman. + +She drank it thirstily. He then began to dip crackers into the wine and +fed her slowly and carefully. + +"You feel better now?" he inquired, after she had consumed a generous +portion of the food. + +"Oh! so much better," said she, fervently, laying her head back on its +hard pillow while the hungry, famished look died out of her eyes and a +softer light beamed in them. "I thank you very much, sir. I was on the +verge of expiring when you came to my relief!" + +"Perhaps you feel well enough to tell me your name now," said he, +smiling kindly. + +"My name is Fanny Colville," she answered, feebly. + +The detective started. + +"Are you any relation of Harold Colville, of New York?" he inquired. + +"I am his wife," said poor Fanny, simply. + +"His wife!" repeated the detective, a gleam of light breaking in on his +mind regarding Mr. Colville's visit to this place. "Then why does he +keep you chained up here like a dog?" he inquired indignantly. + +"He does not know of it," said Mrs. Colville. + +"He does not know of it," repeated Mr. Shelton in surprise; "you amaze +me, madam. Surely he visited you a few days ago. I saw him leaving the +house." + +"I do not doubt that he was here. It is more than probable he was, but +he did not come to see me. He believes me dead. He hired the old woman +here to kill me and my child. He was weary of me and sighed for a fairer +face," explained the deeply wronged wife. + +"Yet the old woman, more merciful than your husband, spared your life," +said he. + +"She killed my child and let me live because she loved to have something +about her that she might torture at will," said the poor woman bitterly. +"She has had me chained in here for two years, fed upon bread and water, +and an insufficient allowance of that. Oh! God, how I hate that woman, +and how I long to avenge my wrongs!" + +"She is beyond the reach of both your hatred and your vengeance, Mrs. +Colville. She is dead," said Mr. Shelton, solemnly. + +"Dead? Old Haidee Leveret dead? It cannot be true," said Haidee's poor +victim, with incredulous joy shining in her eyes. + +"I assure you, madam, it is perfectly true. When I came here a few +minutes ago I found both her and her husband lying dead upon the floor +down-stairs, and the room in flames. But for my opportune arrival in +time to extinguish the fire, the house must have soon burned down, and +you would inevitably have perished with it." + +Fanny trembled like a leaf in a storm. + +"It was a narrow escape," she murmured. "And so they both are dead. Did +they kill each other?" + +"I should say not," replied Mr. Shelton. "They both looked as though +they had been poisoned. They certainly died suddenly, for their +half-consumed dinner was upon the table. This fact, taken in conjunction +with the fire, leads me to think they were poisoned by some enemy who +then set fire to the house to cover up all traces of the crime." + +"They have met with a fearful punishment for their evil deeds," said +Fanny, solemnly. + +"And now I wish to ask you a question," said her deliverer, "Do you know +of any reason for Mr. Colville's visits here now, since he does not come +to see you?" + +"The villain," she uttered, indignantly. "Oh, yes, sir. I know full +well. He has a young girl imprisoned here whom he is trying to force +into a marriage with him." + +Mr. Shelton saw that she was growing weak and faint, and poured a little +wine between her lips. + +"That makes me feel stronger," she said, reviving. + +"Mrs. Colville," he said, "you must be mistaken. I have searched the +house carefully through, and there is not another living soul here +beside yourself." + +"Oh, then she has either escaped again or they have removed her to +another place," was the confident reply. + +"Are you quite sure the lady was ever imprisoned in this house, Mrs. +Colville?" + +"Oh, I am perfectly sure of that, sir. She occupied the room above me +for some time. My groans troubled her so that she sought for me and +found me here in my misery." + +"And she told you that she was your husband's prisoner?" + +"Yes, sir," answered poor Fanny, sighing. "I had her whole sad story +from her own sweet lips." + +"Was she a New York lady?" inquired the detective, evincing a deep +interest. + +"Yes, sir, and the daughter of a wealthy man." + +"If you feel equal to the task I wish you would tell me all you know +about the lady. I am deeply interested in her fate," said he very +gently, though he was burning with impatience to learn more of +Colville's mysterious prisoner. + +"I think I am strong enough. Your coming has put new life and hope into +me," answered the grateful creature. + +"Go on, then," said he. "Did the wicked Colville abduct her from her +home?" + +"Worse than that, sir. She was a young lady who was murdered by a +jealous woman. A Doctor Pratt, the friend and abettor of Colville in all +his sins, was called in to view the body of the murdered girl. He +pronounced her dead. In reality he discovered that she was in a curious +condition known to the medical profession as catalepsy. He suffered them +to bury her, then stole her body from the vault and sold it to Colville, +who was in love with her. They brought her here, used every means to +bring her to life, and at length succeeded. She revived after four days +and found herself the prisoner of my husband, dead to all the world +beside, and doomed never to see her friends again unless she consented +to become his wife." + +She paused, overcome by exhaustion. + +Mr. Shelton sat white and rigid on the foot of the cot regarding her +fixedly. He seemed frozen into a statue. At length he gasped rather than +spoke: + +"Her name?" + +Fanny Colville's wasted hand went up to her brow in painful perplexity. + +"I do not seem to recollect it. Strange that I should forget. I am sure +she told me," she murmured. + +"Try and think of it, Mrs. Colville. Much depends upon it," urged +Shelton, anxiously. + +She was silent a few moments, lost in troubled thought. At length she +said, timidly: + +"I am afraid I cannot recall it, sir. My poor brain is dazed by my +troubles, perhaps. But I am sure of one thing. She had the name of a +flower, sir--a beautiful flower. I remember that, because it seemed to +suit her so well." + +Shelton's eyes brightened. + +"Was her name--Lily?" he asked, impressively. + +Instantly a gleam of remembrance irradiated the listener's face. + +"Lily, Lily!" she said; "yes, that was indeed her name, sir. How could I +forget it when I remembered everything else so well? I recall it +distinctly now. It _was_ Lily--Lily Lawrence." + +Shelton sprang up with a cry that rang through the dungeon. + +He was like one dazzled by the flash of light that broke in upon his +mind. + +Here was the solution of the dreadful mystery that had baffled him for +weary months, the confirmation of the vague suspicion that had haunted +him for days. + +It was a living, breathing, beautiful woman he sought instead of a cold +and lifeless body! No wonder the banker's reward failed of its object! + +"She tried to escape from here, did she not?" he inquired abruptly. + +Fanny replied by relating the circumstances of Lily's two attempts at +escape, and how Colville had carried her off the second time from under +her father's own roof. + +"The villains! the fiends!" muttered Shelton, crushing an oath between +his clenched teeth. + +"After they brought her back again she was put into the room above me, +but only for a night. She came in to see me after midnight, and promised +to come again soon. But she never came, and I concluded that she had +been removed to another place. I am confident she has not escaped from +them, for had she done so she would have sent someone to liberate me at +once." + +"Colville and Pratt spent an hour here five days ago," said he, "so it +seems probable that she was still here up to that date." + +"No doubt of it. I suppose old Haidee put her into another room for fear +that she might discover me down here, and also because the trap-door in +that room is the only entrance which she had to bring my weekly dole of +bread and water through," said Fanny. + +It was getting on toward sunset, and just then they heard the loud +baying of the bloodhound. Shelton started. + +"It is the horrible hound that is chained up in a kennel in the garden," +exclaimed Fanny. "He has missed his dinner and is hungry, I suppose." + +"I will put a bullet in his brain before I go away from here," said +Shelton, curtly. + +"Now, Mrs. Colville," he continued, "I must leave you a little while. I +will go and report these dead bodies to the coroner, and I must secure +some easy vehicle to transport your poor aching body away from here to a +comfortable place. Do you think you can wait patiently? I shall be +absent but a few hours at farthest." + +"Oh, yes, I can wait. But you will be sure to come back again?" she +said, anxiously. + +He smiled at her pathetic tone. + +"Yes, I will certainly return," he answered, confidently. "And I will +take you to the house of a good woman who will feed you and nurse you +back to health again. I have one favor to ask you," said he, pausing. + +"You have only to name it," said she, "if it lies in my power to grant +it." + +"It is this. When I bring the officers here and they question you, will +you withhold the story you have told me--even your name? It will be very +easy to do so. Your emaciated condition and feebleness will easily +excuse you from giving any evidence at present." + +"I will do as you wish me, sir," she answered, in some surprise. + +"I do not mean you any harm, dear madam," he explained. "Far from it. My +reason is this. If this story gets into the papers (as it certainly must +if you relate it to the coroner), it will put those two villains on +their guard, and though we could arrest them on your evidence, they +might never reveal the place where they have hidden their unhappy +victim. But if they are still suffered to go at large, free and +unsuspecting, I can track them to their lair and rescue her. So I only +ask you to postpone your evidence until such time as I have delivered +Lily Lawrence and put these wretches inside of a prison." + +"Your reasoning is very clear," answered Fanny. "I will do just as you +have told me, sir." + +"Thanks; I will leave you my wine and biscuits for refreshment," said +he, smiling, and putting them by her side. "Keep up your spirits, Mrs. +Colville. I will soon return and remove you to a safe and comfortable +home." + +He hurried away, fastening the door carefully after him, and went out in +the garden in search of the howling, hungry brute. He found him tearing +madly at his chain in his rage to get away and seek for food. It made +abortive attempts to reach Mr. Shelton when he came in sight, but the +detective coolly drew a pistol from his pocket, and fired a bullet into +the brain of the dangerous creature, who instantly fell dead. He then +walked away, mounted his horse and galloped rapidly towards the city. + +At Mrs. Mason's gate he stopped and dismounted. The kind woman opened +the door and beamed on him smilingly as she invited him to enter. He did +so and soon made known the object of his visit. + +"My curiosity about the old house we spoke about when I first saw you," +said he, "induced me to visit it this afternoon. I did so, and to my +horror I found the old people lying dead in the house. While exploring +it I discovered a poor, imprisoned woman in a weak and starving +condition. She needs to be removed to a safe and quiet place where she +may be carefully tended, for she has enemies who would not scruple to +kill her if they discovered her whereabouts. Mrs. Mason, you are a kind +and motherly woman, and your home is quiet and secluded. Will you +receive that poor soul here and take care of her? I will pay you +generously for the trouble." + +Mrs. Mason promised to do all he asked, her kind eyes brimming with +sympathetic tears, and he resumed his journey to the city, reported the +case to the coroner, and secured a comfortable carriage for the use of +Fanny Colville. + +After the inquest the grateful creature was removed to the tiny cottage +of Mrs. Mason. + +The next day the generous detective took care to furnish wines and +jellies and every needful luxury for building up an exhausted frame, and +himself conveyed them to the new home of the invalid. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +My readers are wondering, perhaps, as to the fate of our beautiful and +unfortunate heroine. + +Let us go back a little in our story and take up the thread of her +adventures. + +It was the night previous to the day on which the two Leverets came to +their death at the hands of Mrs. Vance. Up to that night Lily Lawrence +had remained under the guardianship of the wicked old pair. + +It was nearly nine o'clock when Lily sat before the fire in her room, +her small hands resting on the arms of the chair, her eyes fixed sadly +on the glowing coals in the grate. Old Haidee had brought her supper in +and departed. She was alone for the night. + +The young girl was simply habited in a neat, dark woolen dress. Cuffs +and collar she had none, for Haidee, in providing her a winter dress, +had had no thought or care for those delicate feminine accessories of +the toilet. The thick, dark fabric fastened about her white throat and +wrists rendered her extreme pallor and delicacy doubly striking. The +earthly tabernacle seemed growing white and transparent enough for the +bruised and wounded young soul to glimmer through. + +She was thinking of Lancelot Darling--her betrothed husband--and now and +then hot tears welled from her eyes and rolled down upon her pale +cheeks. She wondered if he still remained faithful to her memory, or if, +indeed, the wily widow had won him from her, as Doctor Pratt and Harold +Colville had so confidently asserted. + +"It is false," she said to herself, through her fast falling tears. +"Lance loved me too truly to forget me so soon. What if I did see him +bending over that wicked woman, turning the leaves of her music as he +was wont to do for me? She had beguiled him to her side by the +fascinating arts which a true woman would disdain. It was to win him +that she tried to murder me. But though I never see my lover again I +will not believe he could love her after having loved me, even though +she might try to poison my memory with her false tale of suicide. No, +no; I will believe in the loyalty of my lover until my latest breath." + +She was sitting near the side of the fireplace, and on the other side +of the wall old Peter and Haidee, who had retired to their room for the +night, were sitting over their fire and talking earnestly together. She +could hear the sound of their voices quite distinctly, for on her side +of the room there was a large cracked place in the wall from which the +plaster had fallen out, leaving a thin aperture through which voices +were distinctly audible. Lily had never felt any desire before to hear +the conversation of the old couple, but at this moment a sudden +curiosity seized upon her as she heard the sound of her own name +distinctly repeated. + +Rising noiselessly from her chair she knelt upon the floor, and, placing +her ear against the broken place in the wall, listened intently. + +Their words and even the tone of their voices were plainly audible to +her trained and acute hearing. + +Words were being spoken by that wicked old pair that seemed to chill the +blood in her veins to an icy current as she knelt there listening to the +awful doom she had no power to avert. + +"Yes," said the woman's voice, sharply, "I hate the girl so that I could +strangle her with my own hands! Ever since the day she knocked me down +and escaped from me, I have hated her with the hate of hell!" + +"Aye, aye," said old Peter; "then why delay the deed we have long been +determined upon. I am in favor of getting it done and over with." + +"If I were not afraid of the vengeance of Pratt and Colville," said she, +hesitating. "It's a terrible risk to run." + +"Ten thousand dollars is worth running a considerable risk for," +answered the old miser. "Now, here is the way we are placed, Haidee: +Harold Colville will give us a few paltry hundreds for keeping the girl +here, but her father will pay ten thousand dollars to the person who +delivers her dead body, and no questions asked. How can you hesitate +which to choose?" + +"My God!" thought the wretched girl, with a wildly beating heart, "they +are planning to murder me." + +"I would not hesitate a moment--you know that, Peter--only that I see +the difficulties in the way more plainly than you do," said the cautious +Haidee. + +"Difficulties--now that is the way with women, the silly geese," snorted +Peter in angry contempt. "They always make mountains of mole-hills! What +difficulties can you see, I wonder." + +"How could we account to Pratt and Colville for her disappearance?" +answered she. + +"Easily enough; I have told you that twenty times before, old +dunder-head! Say that she has escaped from us again." + +"They would not believe it when they know that we both guard the +door--they would not believe such a tale in the face of our united +strength," returned she, rather shortly. + +"Say that I was ill--say that I was drunk--or that I fell down in a fit +before the door, and while you were assisting me she rushed past and +escaped. Say anything you please to account for it--only tell them that +she has given us the slip. They cannot help but believe it, knowing +that she has made two desperate attempts before." + +"That is true," she admitted; "still, when they find the body has been +returned to the banker, and the ransom paid, what will they think then?" + +"They will think that some designing person has palmed off a spurious +body on them at first, and before they learn better we can be off and +away to another city, Haidee. It all seems so plain and easy to me I +wonder why you hang back so." + +"My God! this is horrible," breathed poor Lily to herself, but a +dreadful fascination held her immovable to her post. + +"And then, the body itself," pursued Haidee. "It would have the look of +one lately dead. How could we account to her friends for that? Remember, +she is supposed to be dead these five months." + +"Haidee, you are an old fool! You are getting into your dotage--what +silly questions you ask, to be sure," panted the old man, in a furious +rage with his hesitating wife. + +"Oh, yes, I hear all that. But you have not answered my question yet," +returned she, pertinaciously. + +"I have answered it twenty times before--every time that we talked the +matter over. We can say that we had it embalmed so that her friends +might make sure of her identity when we claimed the ransom." + +The old witch sat silently pondering a few minutes. + +"Perhaps that would do," she said, rousing herself at last. "It may be +that I am over cautious; I confess that I wish the girl dead." + +"You consent then?" said Peter eagerly. + +"Yes, I consent," she answered, with a ring of fierce joy in her +unwomanly tones. + +"Now that's my sensible wife," said Peter, transported with joy. "I +thought you would come to your senses after a while. Well, since you +_are_ willing I say the sooner the better." + +"Yes, the sooner the better," his wife repeated after him. + +"Let it be to-night then," suggested Peter, who did not want to give +Haidee's cautious fears any time to change her resolution. He believed +in the old adage: "Strike while the iron is hot." + +"Yes," answered Haidee readily, "let it be to-night." + +The listener's heart gave a great fluttering bound and then sank like +lead in her bosom. + +Through all that she had suffered the desire of life, and the hope of +ultimate release had remained strong in her breast. How could it be +otherwise with one so young and lovely, and for whom life held so much? +Now all her hopes were blighted in the dreadful knowledge just come upon +her. Death in the horrible form of murder was about to blot out her +young and tender life forever from the earth. She clasped her hands +together, and repressing a strong desire to shriek aloud, lest that cry +of anguish should precipitate her fate, listened on. + +"Who will do the deed?" asked Peter, who was a coward in spite of his +braggadocio. + +"I will!" said Haidee, fiercely. "I will get my revenge upon her thus. +Presently, when she is asleep and dreaming perhaps of her home and her +lover, I will steal in upon her and clasp my hands around her white +little neck and strangle her to death." + +"It is settled, then," said old Peter, with a fiendish chuckle of +delight. "Get our pipes, now, Haidee, and let us sit up and wait till +the time comes." + +Lily Lawrence dropped down upon the floor and lay there like one already +smitten with death. + +"Oh, God!" she thought, "if I only had not listened I might indeed have +been asleep, and death might have stolen on me unconsciously. How +dreadful to lie here and wait for death each moment." + +She lay there shuddering and trying to pray as the fatal minutes crept +on, each one bearing away on its swift sands the brief span of precious +life yet left her. + +At each movement in the next room she shivered and started, thinking +that old Haidee was about to come forth to execute her murderous task. + +How long she lay there weeping and praying she never knew, but at length +she heard the clock in the lower hall strike ten. + +The next instant stealthy steps came gliding through the hall to her +door. + +Already she seemed to feel the horrible clutch of old Haidee's hands +about her warm, white throat, pressing out the life. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +"Oh, God spare me!" breathed Lily, clasping her hands in agony as she +heard the key grate in the lock, and the hand of the murderess turning +the knob of the door. + +At that instant, before the door opened, while but a moment intervened +between Lily and a horrible death, a loud and hurried knocking was +distinctly heard down-stairs. It was so startling, coming upon the +previous utter stillness, that old Haidee darted back to her own room in +a fright, and directly she and her husband were heard making a shuffling +descent of the stairs. Lily arose upon her feet in a tumult of hope. + +"Who can it be?" she murmured. "Can it be possible that rescue is at +hand?" + +The revulsion from despair and terror to instant hope was too great to +be borne. + +Her slight form wavered an instant, then unconsciousness stole upon her +and she fell prostrate on the floor. + +In the meantime the old couple down-stairs, after removing bolts and +bars, admitted, to their astonishment and dismay, the two conspirators, +Pratt and Colville. + +"You were not expecting me, eh?" said Doctor Pratt, with a laugh at +Haidee's astonished look as she blinked at him beneath the flaring +candle she held aloft. "Well, that cursed hound of yours was not +expecting me either. He had nearly taken a piece out of my throat before +he recognized my voice and became pacific. I had thought he must have +known me at once. Look you, I shall put a bullet in his head some day, +the blood-thirsty brute!" + +"If you do, you will destroy the best safeguard you have against the +escape of your prisoner," said Haidee, shortly. + +"Ah! well, let him live a little longer then, but you must teach him not +to forget his old friends," was the careless reply. + +"You come late, doctor. We did not expect you, and were about retiring," +said old Peter. + +"Yes, we thought it better to come by stealth," said Pratt, shortly. +"The fact is, Colville has taken it in his head that we are watched by +some fellow, and it suits us to be wary just now. We wish to see Miss +Lawrence at once. Is she safe and well?" + +"As safe and well as usual. Starvation does not seem to agree with her +very well," answered Haidee, leading the way up-stairs with her flaring +candle. + +"It will break her proud spirit all the sooner," said Colville, +brutally, as he followed them. + +Haidee stepped into the hall, opened Lily's door and entered, nearly +falling over the prostrate form of the girl. She started back in dismay. + +"Why, what--the devil!" cried Pratt, entering behind her. "What has +happened to the girl? Is she dead?" + +He knelt down, felt the pulse, and laid his ear over the heart as +Colville and Peter entered after him. + +"She is in a faint," he said, looking up into Colville's frightened +face. "Our arrival was most opportune. Haidee, bring wine or whatever +stimulants you have in the house. Her vitality is exhausted. The late +regimen has been too severe for her weak constitution, perhaps." + +He straightened the still form out upon the floor and applied a vial of +pungent smelling salts to her nostrils. In a moment life came fluttering +back, and Lily's languid gaze opened upon the faces of her enemies. The +white lids closed again and a heart-wrung sigh drifted over her lips. + +Doctor Pratt lifted the light form in his arms and laid her upon the bed +as Haidee entered, carrying a glass of wine. He took it from her hand +and held it to the lips of his patient. + +"Drink this, Miss Lawrence," he said, "you are weak and faint; it will +revive you." + +She drank it thirstily, and felt a momentary thrill of returning +strength. Rising on her elbow she looked at them all languidly. + +"You time your visit late, gentlemen," she said, with a slight +inflection of scorn on the concluding word. + +"We are obliged to consult our own convenience rather than yours, Lily. +Pardon our informal and ill-timed visit," said Mr. Colville, coming +forward to her side. + +She flashed a look of scorn upon him, but deigned no reply. He turned to +the two old people who stood waiting. + +"You may go," he said. "We will apprise you when we are about to leave." + +"No, let them remain," said Lily, imperiously. "I have something to say +to you, Mr. Colville, and I desire that these, _your friends_, may hear +it." + +Old Peter and Haidee looked at each other in some trepidation at her +words and manner, but stood still, curious and a little frightened. + +"My _friends_," muttered Colville, indignantly; "Miss Lawrence, I do not +choose my friends from among such rabble, I assure you!" + +"Do you not?" said she, contemptuously. "Yet if you had a precious +treasure, Mr. Colville, and desired to guard it very carefully, you +would entrust it to your best friends rather than your enemies--would +you not?" + +"Assuredly," he answered, wondering what she meant by her strange words +and manner. + +"You would? and yet you have professed to regard me as the thing most +precious upon earth to you while you have given the lie to the assertion +by leaving me here in the keeping of these wretches whom you disdain to +own as your friends. Is it not so?" + +He quailed before the scorn in her ringing voice, and the proud gesture +of her lifted finger. + +"You were safe with them," he muttered. "My dearest friends could not +have guarded you more faithfully than they have done." + +"It is false," she said, scornfully. "My life has been in constant +jeopardy at their hands ever since I first entered this house." + +"Miss Lawrence, you are raving," said Doctor Pratt. "These people have +been paid to keep you here: it is to their interest to do so. And why +should you fancy yourself in danger from them?" + +"It is no fancy," she answered, coldly, while her scathing glance fell +upon the cowering pair of interrupted murderers like lightning a moment, +then returned to the faces of those she addressed. "I assure you, Doctor +Pratt, and you, Mr. Colville, that your sudden coming interrupted her--I +was on the point of being _murdered_ by that woman there!" + +"She lies!" cried Haidee and Peter, simultaneously. + +"Silence, wretches!" thundered Dr. Pratt, furiously, reading guilt in +their very faces. "Let the lady tell her story, then deny it if you +can." + +"It is the wine that has got into her head," whined Peter, abjectly. + +"Silence, fellow! Now, go on with your story, Miss Lawrence," said the +physician, impatiently. + +Thus encouraged, Lily related every word of the frightful conversation +that was indelibly stamped on her memory. There was no discrediting her +assertions. The truth was unmistakable. + +"She was just opening the door," concluded Lily, "when your loud +knocking frightened her away. My relief from the pressure of +over-wrought feeling was so great that I fainted when I attempted to +stand up again!" + +Dr. Pratt was foaming at the mouth with such furious rage that he could +not speak. Colville, pale, trembling, with chattering teeth and staring +eyes, found his voice first. + +"Wretches! Devils!" he shouted, in a voice hoarse with passion, as he +pointed to the door. "Go hide yourselves from my sight before I rend you +limb from limb!" + +The craven wretches slunk away and locked themselves into their room in +wild fear lest the two infuriated men should put their threat into +execution. Colville came forward and stood by the bedside of the young +girl who had fallen back panting from weariness after her denunciation +of the would-be murderers. + +"Lily," he said abjectly, "I am so unnerved by the thought of the +horrible fate you have just escaped that I can scarcely speak: but, +believe me, my dearest girl, I thought you perfectly safe in this place, +I never dreamed of such perfidy in these hired servants of my will." + +"This is no time for apologies," interrupted the doctor abruptly. "Make +them hereafter when you have more leisure and better command of your +feelings. At present the most important thing is to remove Miss Lawrence +from this house immediately, and place her in a safer retreat." + +He drew Colville aside one moment. + +"I know of a place a few miles from here," he whispered, "to which I +have the _entree_. The place is a private mad-house, and is kept by a +doctor who is a very particular friend of mine. I know of no better +retreat at present for our fair little friend. He will receive her with +pleasure, and you can represent her as insane if it pleases you." + +"Let us take her there then," answered Colville. + +Doctor Pratt took down a dark cloak with a hood attached which hung +against the wall. + +"Miss Lawrence," he said, quite courteously, "my carriage is at the gate +and I find it necessary to remove you at once from the perils that +environ you here. Put on this cloak and let us go. I will find means +afterward to punish these wretches for their perfidy." + +Lily obeyed in silence, and was led down between them to the waiting +carriage. + +The Leverets did not appear again, nor did the hound offer to molest +them. + +Placing their prisoner in the carriage the two confederates drove +rapidly away over the country road. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +The inquest that was held over the dead bodies of Peter and Haidee +Leveret developed no information that could lead to the conviction of +their destroyer. + +An expert examined the bodies and declared that the cause of their death +was strychnine poison. + +Large quantities of this baneful drug was found in the tea pot and in +the partly emptied cups of the victims. + +Mr. Shelton testified to the accidental finding of the bodies, and to +his extinguishing the flames which had been lighted for their funeral +pyre--also to the finding of the chained prisoner in the gloomy dungeon. +His evidence threw no light on the subject. + +Fanny Colville testified to the names and general bad character of the +deceased, but knew nothing which was calculated to enlighten the jury as +to the mystery of their death. + +She had not seen Peter for two years. Haidee had been in the habit of +bringing her some bread and water once a week, but had neglected to +return the last time, and nine days had elapsed since Fanny had seen +her, two of which days she was entirely without food. + +She supposed that the old witch was putting into execution her +often-reiterated threat of starving her to death. + +This was all they learned of Fanny. She had given her evidence with many +pauses and turns of faintness. At length she became so ill and exhausted +that it seemed cruel to weaken her with farther questioning, and it was +decided to defer it until she became stronger and better. + +The jury, in accordance with the facts elicited, rendered a verdict that +the pair had come to their death by strychnine poisoning at the hands of +some person unknown. + +Search was made for the hidden treasure the misers were supposed to have +concealed about the house, but nothing of value was found, and the +bodies of the iniquitous pair were committed to burial at the expense of +the city. They had lived their evil life, and the world being rid of +them was better off. + +Mrs. Colville was removed to the home of Mrs. Mason, and the kind soul +was shocked at the spectacle of human misery thus presented to her view. + +She gave the poor creature a warm bath, clothed her skeleton limbs in +soft and comfortable apparel, and shingled her long, inextricably +tangled hair close to her head. + +This done she proceeded to put her to bed and feed her with warm and +nourishing food. + +The poor, starved woman could scarcely realize her good fortune. + +She lay looking about her at the pleasant little room with its neat +carpet and curtains, its comfortable bed and cheery fire, and feared it +was all a dream from which she would awaken to the horrors of her +lonely, fireless dungeon. + +But the gentle voice of her hostess soothed away her fears and lulled +her into profound and restful sleep. + +For several days the most of her time was spent in eating and sleeping. + +The warm room and nourishing food seemed to induce slumber, and she +began to improve very slowly, but still so perceptibly that when the +detective came to see her after the lapse of a week he was delighted at +the change. + +"Mrs. Mason, you must be a capital nurse," said he, smiling. "Your +patient looks very well, and begins to improve at a rate I hardly dared +hope for; I should scarcely have known her." + +"And, but for your timely help I should have been dead ere this," said +the invalid, giving him a grateful look from her large, hollow, dark +eyes. "I owe you my life. I do not know how to thank you." + +"Do not try," answered the detective, feeling shy under the gratitude +that was about to be showered upon him. "The revelation you made me when +I found you fully repays the debt." + +"Ah! that dear girl," sighed Fanny. "Have you learned anything further +about her, Mr. Shelton?" + +He shook his head sadly. + +"I am sorry to say I have not. The wretches have eluded me in some way, +and managed to remove her without my knowledge. But I do not despair of +catching up with them yet, and restoring the unfortunate young creature +to her friends." + +"God grant you may," she murmured, fervently. + +"There is one thing I wish to ask you," said he, suddenly. "When you +were telling me your story that day in the dungeon, you made an +assertion that threw a new light on the subject of Miss Lawrence's +supposed death." + +"Ah! what was that?" she inquired. + +"You know, or, perhaps, you do not know," said he, "that the jury's +verdict was suicide. Yet you made the assertion that she was murdered by +a jealous woman." + +"Miss Lawrence was my informant, sir," answered Mrs. Colville. "Perhaps +she knew all the circumstances better than the jury." + +"No doubt she did," he answered, smiling at her demure tone. "And the +woman?" + +"Was a beautiful widow who lives under the Lawrence roof, and is +dependent on the banker for the very means of existence. I cannot recall +her name, for I have a peculiar faculty for forgetting names, but +perhaps you have heard it." + +"I have," he answered, gravely. "And indeed it amazes me. It passes +belief that she should have struck a blow so terrible at the heart of +Mr. Lawrence, to whom she owes nothing but gratitude." + +"She was maddened by jealousy, sir. She loved the young man whom Lily +Lawrence was on the point of marrying. I heard this from the young +girl's own lips. She told me she had long before suspected her love, and +pitied her sincerely, without a thought of the cruel vengeance she was +about to take." + +"Cruel! It was fiendish," said Mr. Shelton. + +"Yes, sir, it was fiendish. She crept into the room while Miss Lawrence +was trying on her wedding-dress, caught up a dagger from the table, and +exclaimed, as she plunged it into her victim's heart: 'Girl, you shall +die because Lancelot Darling loves you!'" + +"Horrible!" exclaimed the detective. + +"Miss Lawrence became immediately unconscious," continued Mrs. Colville, +"and does not know how the woman left the room after locking her door on +the inside, but thinks it probable she slid down the long vine that runs +up to her chamber window." + +"It is very probable she did," said Mr. Shelton. "Heavens! what a tissue +of crime and villany has been woven about the innocent life of that +beautiful girl! But I will see her righted, I swear it by all that I +hold most sacred. And then let Mrs. Vance and Pratt and Colville look to +themselves. I hold the evidences of their crime in my hands now. They +only bide my time to see the inside of a prison cell!" + +Mrs. Mason, sitting with her knitting, had been an interested listener +to the above conversation. The detective turned to her now, saying +kindly: + +"We have been discussing secrets very freely in your presence, my kind +hostess, but I suppose you know how to keep silence regarding them." + +"Wild horses should not drag a word from me, sir, without permission," +replied she, earnestly. + +"I fully believe it," answered Mr. Shelton. "Therefore I shall +commission Mrs. Colville to take you fully into our confidence after I +leave here. You will thereby hear a very romantic story regarding the +young lady whom you so nobly befriended some time ago." + +"Bless her sweet face! I never shall forget her," said Mrs. Mason, on +whom indeed that little incident had made a deep and lasting impression. + +"I hope you may yet have the pleasure of meeting her under more +favorable auspices," said the detective, strong in the faith that he +should yet rescue Lily from her cruel and unrelenting captors. + +"Mr. Shelton," said the invalid, abruptly, "I have been thinking of +sending for my poor old mother from the country. I must tell you that I +ran away from home to marry that villain, Colville. I have never seen my +poor old mother since, but I sent her my marriage certificate to keep +for me, and to assure her that I was an honorable wife. I have never +seen or heard from her since. I would like to see her very much." + +"Well?" he said, as she paused, looking wistfully at him. + +"Would you advise me to send for her?" asked Fanny. + +Mr. Shelton took down a little mirror hanging over the small toilet +table and held it before her face. + +"Is it possible your mother would recognize you?" he inquired, gently. + +Poor Fanny did not know how sadly she was changed before. She looked at +herself and shuddered. + +"Oh! no, sir!" said she, mournfully; "I was a black-eyed, rosy-cheeked +young girl when I left home. I am a gray-headed skeleton now." + +"Then take my advice and wait a little while. In the meantime, let Mrs. +Mason feed you and nurse you until you get some flesh on your limbs, and +some color in your ghostly face. Then as soon as you get strong enough +to travel, I myself will take you home to your mother." + +"Oh! thank you, thank you; that will be best," she murmured, gratefully. + +"No thanks," he answered, and bidding them adieu, he went hurriedly +away. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +Lily Lawrence leaned back in the physician's carriage and wept silently +as she was whirled onward to her new prison. + +Her companions were very taciturn. Doctor Pratt was driving and gave +the most of his attention to his task. Beyond one or two questions as to +her comfort he did not address either Lily or Colville. The latter sat +entirely silent opposite the young girl through the whole time. + +At length, after several miles of rapid driving the carriage came to a +pause, and the young girl was lifted out in front of a large, frowning +brick edifice which loomed up gloomily in the darkness of the chilly +night. She was led up a flight of stone steps and Doctor Pratt rang the +bell. + +The summons was quickly answered by a small dark man, who showed +surprise at the visit, but welcomed Doctor Pratt with the cordiality of +an old friend. + +"Doctor Heath, this is Mr. Colville, a friend of mine," said Doctor +Pratt as they stepped into the hall. "We have brought you a patient in +the person of this young lady." + +"Indeed!" said the host, bowing gracefully to these two new +acquaintances, and ushering them into a small reception-room on the +right. "Pray take seats, my friends, and draw near the fire. The night +is raw and chilly." + +Mr. Colville placed a comfortable chair near the fire for Lily, and she +sat down and held out her numbed hands to the cheerful blaze that burned +on the hearth. + +Doctor Heath took a seat near her regarding her with looks of surprise +and admiration. Her colorless beauty shone out like a lily indeed from +the dark hood over her head. + +"She looks very ill," said he in an undertone to his colleague, and +unseen by Lily, he tapped his forehead significantly. + +Doctor Pratt gave a shy affirmative nod. + +"She has been very ill," he answered, "and has had a tiresome drive +to-night in addition. Perhaps it would be better to let her have some +refreshments and retire at once. I wish to have a private conversation +with you." + +Doctor Heath retired to give the necessary order. Lily's blue eyes +turned upon her captors with a look of dread in their soft depths. + +"Doctor Pratt," said she, "what new trials am I about to experience +here?" + +"None at all, I hope," said he, smoothly. "Your health is visibly +declining, Miss Lawrence, and I have concluded to place you under the +constant care of my friend, Doctor Heath. I think you will find this a +more comfortable place than old Haidee Leveret's and you will have +kinder treatment; I shall leave orders for a rather more generous diet +than has been lately allowed you, for I fear your constitution may be +ruined by your recent course of starvation. Yet I must say your own +obstinacy brought it upon you. One kind word from your lips to Mr. +Colville would have placed every luxury at your command." + +"And I would die rather than speak that word!" said Lily, with a +scornful curl of her beautiful lip. + +"You will change your mind, doubtless, before you have remained long in +this place," said Mr. Colville, in a tone so significant that she stared +and looked at him keenly, as if trying to fathom its hidden meaning, +but she could not read the expression on his face, and dropped her eyes +with a weary sigh. + +Doctor Heath came in, followed by a neat young woman with a large and +apparently very strong frame. She came in and stood behind Lily's chair. + +"This young woman will attend you to your room," said Doctor Heath, with +a polite bow. "I dare say you are tired and would like to seek repose." + +Mr. Colville approached Lily and bent down to say, softly: + +"I may not see you again for several weeks, Lily; but if you should +change your mind and wish to recall me sooner, you need only signify it +to Doctor Heath, and he will communicate with me at once." + +"I am not likely to change my mind," she answered, coldly, turning from +him and following the strong-limbed young woman out of the room. + +Her guide led her up a stairway and along a wide hall, with a number of +closed doors on each side. At length she paused and threw open the door, +saying, politely: + +"This will be your room for the present, miss." + +Thus addressed, Lily stepped reluctantly across the threshold and looked +around her. + +She found herself in a small and neatly-furnished room. The floor was +covered with a bright, warm carpet, a nicely-cushioned chair was drawn +before a comfortable fire, and a tray containing refreshments was placed +on a little stand in front of it. + +The attendant entered behind her and closed the door. + +"Allow me to assist you," said she, removing Lily's cloak, and seating +her in the easy-chair before the fire. + +Lily's lip quivered slightly at the gentle kindness of the woman's tone. +Poor girl! harshness and coldness and threatening had become the only +familiar sounds to her ears. This woman, though she looked young +herself, assumed a motherly tone like one talking to a sick child. + +"You would like a cup of tea, I reckon," said she, pouring out the +fragrant beverage, and putting in cream and sugar, "and a bit of this +toast and cold chicken? You look very cold and tired, my dear." + +"Thank you," answered Lily, taking the tea and drinking it thirstily. + +After her long fast upon bread and water the food tasted simply +delicious to her. She did not know how much its quality was sweetened by +the kind looks of her attendant, who sat by and watched her with a +good-natured smile on her round and rosy face. + +"Perhaps you would like me to help you to bed before I take away the +tray," said she, as Lily finished her tea and leaned back wearily in her +chair. + +"Thanks; presently I will avail myself of your kindness, but now I wish +to ask you some questions," said Lily, quietly. + +"Yes, miss," said the woman, kindly, but she looked at Lily with a great +deal of surprise at her tone. + +"What is your name?" inquired the young prisoner. + +"Mary Brown, if you please, miss," answered the woman in her kind, +soothing tone. + +"You live here, I suppose, Mary?" pursued the young girl. + +"Yes, miss." + +"Then, Mary, I wish you would tell me what kind of a house this is. I +have been fancying that it must be a hospital, as there seems to be a +resident physician. Am I right?" + +"Oh! yes, miss, certainly, this is a hospital. We have a number of sick +people here," said the woman, like one humoring an inquisitive child. +"But don't you wish to retire now, miss? It's about midnight I should +think." + +"In a minute, Mary. Tell me first, is it a public hospital?" + +"Oh! no, miss. It's perfectly private, and very select indeed. We +receive none but first-class people here--we don't indeed." + +She was turning down the covers of the bed as she spoke, and now she +said, persuasively: + +"Come, now, let me help you to bed, miss, I want to tuck you up warm and +comfortable before I leave you." + +Lily submitted patiently, but as she laid her tired head on the pillow, +she asked, suddenly: + +"Is Dr. Heath a good man, Mary?" + +"La, now, miss, you must judge of that yourself. You will see him often +enough before you get well," said Mary Brown. + +Lily was about to open her lips to refute the charge of her illness, +when she was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a wild and piercing +shriek which seemed to come from the room that was next her own. In her +alarm she sprang up and caught Mary Brown's arms in both hers, +shuddering with surprise and terror. + +"Oh! what is it?" she cried, as the wild shriek was repeated again and +again, mingled with frenzied shouts and peal after peal of frightful, +demoniacal laughter. + +"It's only one of the sick ones, miss," said Mary Brown, uneasily. +"Don't fret yourself, my dear. Lie down again. He will soon be quiet, +and then you can go to sleep." + +A horrible suspicion flashed into Lily's mind. + +"Mary Brown, you have been deceiving me with your kind face and friendly +talk. This is not a hospital for the sick. It is a private mad-house--is +it not?" + +"Well, it is for people who are sick in their heads," admitted Mary. + +"You mean for people who are insane," said she, holding tightly to the +woman's arm. + +Mary Brown nodded acquiescence. + +Lily was silent a moment, lost in painful thought. At length she said, +sadly: + +"I hope you do not think that I am insane, Mary Brown?" + +"Oh! dear, no, miss," said Mary, in her placid tone. "Of course not." + +"But you _do_ believe it. I can see that plainly," cried Lily, in an +anguished tone. "You have been humoring and petting me, taking me for +some insane creature. But I assure you I am not. I am perfectly sane, +though I have suffered cruelty and injustice enough to have driven me +mad long ago. I have been brought here by two wicked men to be made a +prisoner because I will not marry a man whom I hate." + +"You poor, injured dear," said the good nurse, affecting to believe the +young girl's story, though in her heart she set it down simply as one of +the vagaries of madness. + +"You do not believe me," cried Lily, passionately. "Oh! God, is this +crowning insult to be added to my sufferings? Must they represent me as +mad, and thus drive me into insanity indeed?" + +The attendant began to think that her beautiful and gentle patient was +becoming violent. She gently but forcibly released her arms from Lily's +clasp, and laid the moaning girl back on her pillow. + +"My dear," she said, "you must not excite yourself. You look too ill to +stand agitation. I must go now and help Doctor Heath to manage that poor +shrieking maniac in the next room. Try and go to sleep, my pretty dear." + +She drew the warm covers up carefully over the patient, brushed back the +disordered golden hair with a coarse but kindly hand, extinguished the +light, and, taking up the tray of dishes, went out, carefully locking +the door after her. + +In the hall she encountered Doctor Heath about entering the room of the +shrieking patient. He paused at sight of her. + +"How is your new patient?" he inquired, abruptly. + +"A little excited at present, sir. She appeared very quiet and sensible +at first, but after the violent patient began his shrieks she became +violent and wild, sir!" + +"Did she tell you her name?" he inquired. + +Mary Brown replied in the negative. + +"Her case is rather peculiar," said Doctor Heath. "She is the victim of +a strange hallucination. A wealthy young lady of New York committed +suicide last summer under very romantic circumstances. This young person +imagines herself to be the identical young lady who killed herself, and +asserts that she was resurrected by a physician and his friend, who +detain her in durance vile because the latter wishes to marry her. She +will tell you her story, of course. Do not contradict her, but gently +humor her. She will not give you much trouble, I think, as it is a mere +case of melancholy madness. The young lady she personates was named Miss +Lawrence. Be particular and call her by that name, Mary." + +"I will, sir," said Mary, passing on. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +Mrs. Vance read in the daily papers an account on the inquest that had +been held over the dead bodies of her two victims. + +She was surprised and troubled at first because her scheme for burning +the house down and destroying the bodies had failed, but as she saw that +no clew to the perpetrator of the poisoning had been discovered, her +courage rose in proportion. + +"I am free now," she thought, with a guilty thrill of triumph. "The two +old harpies who preyed upon me are dead, and their secret with them. No +one will ever discover my agency in their death. Suspicion would never +dream of fastening upon me. Who would believe that these white hands +could be stained with crime?" + +She held them up, admiring their delicate whiteness and the costly rings +that glittered upon them, then went to the mirror and looked at her +handsome reflection. + +"I am beautiful," she said to herself with a proud smile. "There is no +reason why I should not win Lancelot Darling. A woman can marry whom she +will when she is gifted with beauty and grace like mine. And I will yet +be Lancelot Darling's wife. I solemnly swear that I will!" + +In the exuberance of her triumph and her pride in herself, she ordered +the carriage and went out to spend the money she had rescued from Peter +and Haidee in some new feminine adornment wherewith to deck her beauty +for the eyes of the obdurate young millionaire. + +Time flew past and brought the cold and freezing days of November. The +latter part of it was exceedingly cold, and snow covered the ground with +a thick, white crust. + +Lancelot Darling came into the drawing-room one day where Ada and the +beautiful widow sat by the glowing fire, Mrs. Vance busy as usual with +some trifle of fancy work, and Ada yawning over the latest novel. They +welcomed him without surprise or formality, for he had fallen into a +habit of dropping in familiarly and with the freedom of a brother. Mrs. +Vance, after the first few weeks of affected shyness and prudence, had +resumed her old frank relations with Lance, though but feebly seconded +by that young man, who had not recovered from the shock of her unwomanly +avowal of love for himself. + +"Well, Ada, how does the novel please you?" he inquired, looking at the +book that she had laid aside. + +"Either the author is very dull, or I am out of spirits," she returned, +smiling, "for I have failed to become interested in the woes of the +heroine, this morning. Have you read it, Lance?" + +"Oh, yes, a week ago," he answered, carelessly. "I found it readable and +interesting. I dare say you are in fault to-day, not the author. You are +out of tune." + +"Perhaps so," said Ada, "but what am I to do about it? Can you suggest a +remedy?" + +"The sleighing is very fine just now," he returned. "It thrills one very +pleasurably. Have you tried it?" + +"Oh, yes, Mrs. Vance and myself have been out twice with papa this +week." + +"By daylight?" he queried. + +"Yes, by daylight," she answered. + +"The latest sensation, however, is sleigh-riding by moonlight," rejoined +Lance. "There is a full moon, you know, and the nights are superb. +Parties go out to Dabney's hotel--it is far out on the suburbs--and have +hot coffee and oysters by way of refreshment, you know--then they return +to the city, getting home near midnight usually. Altogether it is very +exhilarating." + +"You speak from experience, I presume?" said Ada. + +"Yes. I tried it myself last night, being induced thereto by the glowing +representations of two young friends of mine. I found the drive quite as +bracing and delightful as they described it. I should be tempted to try +it again to-night if I could persuade you, Ada, and Mrs. Vance to +accompany me." + +"Why, that would be delightful," said Ada, clapping her hands, with the +pleasure of a child over a new toy. "I think that is just what I am +needing--a new sensation." + +"You consent, then?" said he, smiling at her pretty enthusiasm. + +"Oh, yes, if Mrs. Vance will go, too. Will you do so?" inquired she, +turning to the lady, who had as yet taken no part in the conversation. + +"Do you wish to go very much?" inquired she, looking up from her work +with a very pleasant smile. + +"I think I should enjoy it very much." + +"I don't know that I care for it very much," said the widow, with a +light sigh; "but I will go to please you, Ada." + +"It is settled then," said Lance. "We will go, and I think I can promise +you both a very enjoyable evening." + +It could not fail to be otherwise, Mrs. Vance thought to herself, with a +thrill of pleasure at the knowledge that she would be seated beside him +for hours, hearing his musical voice and looking into his handsome face. + +"If it were not for that hateful Ada going, too," she said to herself, +"what a chance I could have to make an impression on his heart!" + +But regret it as she would she could not prevent Ada from going, for she +saw plainly enough that the excursion was planned for the young girl's +pleasure, not her own. She was merely secondary in the affair. A thrill +of jealous pain cut through her heart like a knife, and the furtive +glance of hatred she cast upon Ada boded no good to the lovely and +high-spirited young girl. + +Night came, and Lance appeared with his elegant little sleigh. The +ladies, comfortably arrayed in sealskin cloaks and hats, were helped +into the sleigh, the warm buffalo robes were tucked around them, and +taking the reins in hand, Lance started out at a dashing pace over the +smooth and shining crust of snow. + +The moon shone gloriously, making the ground look as if paved with +sparkling gems, the silver bells rang out a merry chime, and the hearts +of all three seemed to fill with pleasure at the joyous sound, and the +breath of winter seemed like a caress as it sighed past their warm and +glowing cheeks. + +Numbers of merry pleasure-seekers were out enjoying the fine sleighing +and the beautiful night. Gay words and happy laughter rang out from +youthful voices, and many a heart beat high with hope and love. + +Mrs. Vance and Ada enjoyed their moonlight ride very much, and found +their appetite sharpened for the delicious supper which was ready for +them when they arrived at their destination. + +They met several of their friends at Dabney's hotel on the same +pleasant mission as themselves, and enjoyed an hour of social converse +before starting on their homeward way. They were the last to leave. + +"It has been very pleasant," said Ada, impulsively, as Lance tucked the +buffalo robes around them preparatory to starting. + +"I am glad you have enjoyed it," answered the young man, touching up his +spirited horses and starting off in gallant style. + +They had gone about half a mile when, in turning a corner, the +mettlesome young horses became suddenly frightened at something, and +reared upward, nearly upsetting the sleigh and its occupants. With a +grasp of steel, Lance tried to bring them down upon their feet, but +succeeded only to see them start away at a maddened and furious pace, +entirely beyond his control, while shriek after shriek of terror burst +from the two ladies as they clung to Lance. + +Impeded by the clinging arms of the two, and distressed beyond measure +by their frightened screams, it was impossible for Lance to do anything +to help them. Though he held on to the reins so tightly that his hands +were wounded and bleeding, his utmost strength was insufficient to +arrest the speed of the horses. They ran faster and faster, as though +incited to greater speed by the screams of the women. At length, with a +frantic effort, they cleared themselves of the sleigh and bounded away, +leaving the dainty vehicle overturned and broken, and its occupants +reposing in a snow-drift. + +Lance was the first to lift himself up and look about. He felt as if +every bone in his body were broken, so swift had been the impetus that +hurled him out; but repressing his own pain he hastened to his two +companions. + +"Ada, Mrs. Vance, are either of you hurt?" he inquired, anxiously. + +Mrs. Vance was already on her feet, shaking the loose snow from her hair +and dress. + +"I believe I am quite uninjured beyond the shock of the fall," said she. +"Are you, Lance?" + +"Oh! I am all right," said he; "but, Ada, my dear girl, are you hurt?" + +Ada answered his query with a moan of pain, but made no effort to rise. +He bent over her and lifted the slight form in his strong arms. + +"Can you stand?" he inquired, anxiously. + +"Oh, no--no!" she moaned. "My ankle seems to be twisted or sprained, and +my head struck something hard like a rock in falling. It aches +dreadfully." + +She burst into tears, sobbing aloud in her pain. Lance looked about him +in despair. + +There he was in the road, several miles from the city, with two helpless +females to take care of, and his broken sleigh lying useless, the horses +quite out of sight. Worse than all, Ada lying helpless in his arms, +unable to stand or walk, and moaning like a child in her acute +suffering. + +"This is terrible," he said. "What can we do, Mrs. Vance?" + +"Nothing," said she, coldly, maddened by the sight of Ada's head +resting against his shoulder, "except to remain here and freeze to death +waiting for some other vehicle to happen along and take us home." + +"Something may happen along at any minute," he answered, encouragingly. +"There are numbers of people out to-night as well as ourselves." + +"It is quite probable that we are the last on the road," said she +doubtfully. "Indeed, I believe that we are. If Ada were unhurt I should +suggest that we walk home, or back to the hotel at least. Ada, my dear, +rouse yourself and do not weep so childishly. Do you not see what a +plight you are putting us in? I am quite sure you can walk a little if +you will only try to make an effort." + +Thus adjured, Ada lifted herself and tried to put her foot on the ground +and stand up. + +"It is useless," said she, falling back with a sharp cry. "My ankle is +too badly hurt. I cannot stand upon it." + +Ere she ceased to speak, the welcome tinkle of sleigh-bells in the +distance saluted their ears. + +"Thank Heaven!" ejaculated Lance, "we have but a moment to wait. Relief +is at hand." + +"How fortunate!" chimed in Mrs. Vance, recovering her good humor at the +prospect of help in their extremity. + +Directly a splendid little sleigh drove up to them, stopped, and the +single occupant, a handsome young man, jumped out. + +"What is the trouble here?" he inquired, in a genial, friendly voice. +"Why, upon my word," with a start of surprise, "it's you, Lance, is it +not?" + +"Yes, it is I, Phil, and I was never so glad to see you before in my +life," answered Lance, in a tone of relief. "Mrs. Vance, Miss Lawrence, +this is my best friend, Philip St. John." + +"You have met with an accident?" said Mr. St. John, after briefly +acknowledging this off-hand presentation to the ladies. + +"Yes, my horses ran off and overturned the sleigh, pitching us into the +road. Mrs. Vance and myself luckily escaped unhurt, but Miss Lawrence +has sustained an injury that incapacitates her for walking." + +"Perhaps I can help you," said the new-comer, cordially. "My sleigh is +very small, but it will be roomy enough to accommodate one of these +ladies, I am sure. Now, if Miss Lawrence will trust herself to my care, +I will take her home immediately. And, Lance, if you and Mrs. Vance can +stand a walk of a mile back to Dabney's hotel, you will find that they +keep a good trap there and you can get it to return in." + +"What do you say to my friend's plan, Ada?" asked Lance, looking down at +her as she leaned upon his arm. "Will you allow Mr. St. John to take you +home? I assure you he will take the kindest care of you." + +"I accept his offer with thanks," said Ada, gratefully, "but it seems +selfish to leave Mrs. Vance and you to trudge back to the hotel on +foot." + +"My dear child, pray do not distress yourself on that score," said Mrs. +Vance, in her kindest tone. "I feel so thankful for this timely +assistance in your behalf that I shall not mind the long walk at all." + +"It is the best thing they can do, Miss Lawrence," said Mr. St. John, +respectfully. "They would freeze if they remained here waiting till I +sent a conveyance out from the city, but if they walk back to the hotel +they can get Dabney's sleigh and follow us directly." + +Ada was accordingly lifted into the very small sleigh of Mr. St. John; +the robes from Lance's useless sleigh were brought and tucked around +her, and in a minute she was off like the wind for home, feeling in +spite of her pain a very shy consciousness of her proximity to the +handsome young stranger. + +Lancelot and his fair companion in distress set off rather soberly on +their return to Dabney's hotel. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + +It was rather an embarrassing position to be placed in both for Lancelot +and the handsome widow. After some little desultory conversation they +both relapsed into silence and walked soberly on their way. + +Mrs. Vance at length broke the silence in a low and very faltering +voice. + +"Lance," she murmured, "I must avail myself of this, the only +opportunity I have had, to crave your pardon and forgetfulness for a +confession which I too sadly remember with blushes of shame for my +madness and folly. Forgive me for recurring to that moment of frenzy and +shame. I only do so to entreat your pardon and crave your +forgetfulness." + +He felt the small hand trembling within his arm where it rested, like a +fluttering bird; looking down in the brilliant moonlight he saw tears +shining like drops of dew on her down-drooped lashes. + +He did not answer, and she continued, in a voice full of sadness and +shame: + +"Words cannot paint my grief and shame for that deeply deplored +confession. Not shame that I love you, Lance, but shame that in an hour +of impulsive and passionate abandonment, I showed you the secret of my +heart and gained in return your bitterest scorn." + +"No, no, you mistake me, dear madam," said he, struggling for words to +reassure her. "It was not scorn--it was grief that moved me to speak as +I did. I felt your words dimly as an outrage on the modesty of +womanhood--oh, forgive me, I do not know how to express myself," cried +he, feeling himself floundering into deeper depths with every effort he +made to extricate himself. + +"You express yourself only too clearly," she cried with inexpressible +bitterness; "I see that my fault will never be forgiven or forgotten." + +"Oh! indeed it will," cried Lance eagerly, trying to condone his +offensive words. "What I meant to say was this; I felt very badly over +your words at first, but since I have seen how much you regret your +rashness I have ceased to consider it anything but a momentary +indiscretion which I trust soon to wholly forget, when you will again be +reinstated in my whole confidence and respect." + +"Oh! thank you, thank you," she cried, chafing at the coldness of his +words, but trying to content herself since she could extract no kinder +speech from him. "Believe me, Lance, I will try to merit your +confidence, and no indiscretion of mine shall wound you again." + +"And we will drop that subject forever, will we not?" said he, leading +her up the hotel steps and into the warm, lighted parlor. + +"Forever!" she answered with a quivering sigh. + +He drew forward a chair before the glowing coal fire and led her to it. + +"You must feel tired and cold after your long walk," he said; "I will +have something warm sent in while I inquire about the sleigh." + +He went away and directly a neat serving-maid entered, bearing a tray of +warm refreshments. + +Mrs. Vance drank some coffee, but had no appetite for the viands, warm +and delicious as they appeared, so the maid, with a courtesy took the +tray and retired. + +She waited some time before Lance returned. He came in looking pale and +troubled. + +"It is too bad," he said in a tone of vexation, "but Dabney's sleigh +which I counted on confidently as being available was hired out in the +earlier part of the evening to a couple of young fellows off on a lark +into the country. They will not return until to-morrow evening." + +"Then what are we to do?" she asked. + +The young fellow smothered some sort of a vexed ejaculation between his +mustached lips. + +"We are to be patient," he answered, grimly. "Dabney knows a man a mile +away from here who keeps a sleigh. He has sent off on the mere chance of +its being at home to secure it for us." + +He went out and left her sitting before the fire gazing into the glowing +coals thoughtfully. + +After he had gone she took out her watch and looked at it. + +"Twelve o'clock," she repeated to herself, putting the watch quietly +back. + +Lance returned after an hour of patient waiting, accompanied by Mr. +Dabney himself. + +"We have been very unfortunate, indeed, in being unable to secure you a +conveyance of any sort to-night, madam," he said, courteously. "It is +now after one o'clock and all efforts have failed. Would it please you +to retire and wait until morning? We will then provide comfortable means +for your return." + +She looked at Lance timidly. + +"It is the only thing to be done," he answered, moodily. "I would walk +to the city myself if it were the slightest use; but I am an indifferent +walker, and could not possibly get back here till long after daylight; +so the only course I see open is to wait for a sleigh which is promised +me in the morning." + +"If that is the case," she answered, sadly, "I should be glad to retire. +I am very tired, and feel the shock of my accident painfully." + +The gentlemen retired, and a maid came in and showed Mrs. Vance to a +sleeping apartment. She locked the door, and threw herself wearily +across the bed. She was laboring under some strong excitement. No sleep +refreshed her burning eyelids that night. At daylight the little maid +knocked at the door with a tempting breakfast arranged on a tray. + +"The sleigh has arrived, and is waiting until you have your breakfast," +said she, politely. + +Mrs. Vance bathed her face and hands, re-arranged her disordered hair, +and after doing full justice to the tray of viands, descended to Lance, +who impatiently waited her coming. + +He helped her into the sleigh, took up the reins and set off homeward. + +"I hope you slept well?" he remarked, to break the awkward silence. + +She turned her dark eyes up to meet his questioning glance. He saw with +surprise they were hollow, languid and sleepless, while a glance of +ineffable anguish shone upon him. + +"Could I sleep well, do you think?" she inquired, in a voice full of +passionate reproach. "Could I sleep at all, knowing the dreadful fate +which awaits me?" + +"I fail to understand you," said he, in a voice of perplexity. + +"You cannot be so blind, Lance. You are only playing with me," she +murmured, sadly. + +"Pray explain yourself," he answered. "I give you my word of honor that +your speech and manner simply mystify me. What dreadful fate awaits you, +Mrs. Vance?" + +She turned upon him a moment with flashing eyes, then looked down again +as she answered in low, intense tones: + +"Do you not understand, Lance, what my pride shrinks from telling you in +plain terms?--the bitter truth that my stay with you last night at the +Dabney Hotel has irretrievably compromised my fair fame in the eyes of +the carping and censorious world?" + +She paused, and Lancelot Darling sat still and motionless like one +stricken with paralysis. + +"Oh! that is impossible," he said at last. "No one knows of our +accident." + +"All New York will know it to-morrow," she said, bitterly. "Ill news +flies apace. To-morrow the finger of scorn will be lifted against me on +every hand. Perhaps even Mr. Lawrence will turn me out of doors." + +The reproach and passion had died out of her voice. It was full of +pathetic pity for her own sorrow. + +"Surely it cannot be as bad as you fear," said Lance, startled and +troubled. + +"Alas! it is too sadly true!" she said, mournfully. + +"What can I do to remedy your trouble?" he inquired, his native +chivalry rising to the surface in defense of the woman he had +unwittingly injured. + +"What _can_ a man do in such cases?" she asked, in a low and meaning +tone. + +"Marry, I suppose?" he said, after a long hesitation. + +"Yes," she answered, quietly. + +Silence fell for the space of a few moments. Lance drove on +mechanically, drawing his breath hard like a hunted animal. + +He roused himself at last and spoke in a cold, constrained, unnatural +tone. + +"Then I will marry you, Mrs. Vance," he said. "I cannot promise to love +you, nay, I can hardly give you the respect I would think the natural +due of some other woman. But since I have injured your honor I will give +you the shelter of my name." + +"Thanks, a thousand thanks," she murmured. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + +Mr. Shelton did not think it expedient to communicate to Mr. Lawrence +the startling fact that the beloved daughter whom he mourned as dead was +yet numbered among the living. + +He had not the heart to give him this joyful assurance and then offset +it by the statement that she was immured somewhere in the walls of a +prison in the power of two wicked and unscrupulous men. + +He determined, if possible, to trace out her whereabouts and rescue her +before revealing the whole truth to the sorrowing father. + +He therefore compromised the matter by telling a portion only of the +truth to the banker. + +Namely, that he had traced the body of the young girl to a certain house +in the suburbs, but that it had been removed thence when he went to look +for it, and that he was following up a new clew which he confidently +hoped would soon lead to its recovery. + +He also added the fact that Doctor Pratt and Harold Colville were the +guilty parties in the matter. + +Mr. Lawrence was anxious at first to have these two men arrested and +forced to acknowledge their guilt and return the missing body, but he +yielded to Mr. Shelton's contrary persuasions on being assured that such +a proceeding might result in the disastrous failure of his plan. + +"For though we might imprison them, Mr. Lawrence," said he, "the rigor +of the law could not force them to divulge their dreadful secret unless +they chose to do so. It is only too probable that they would maintain +the most obstinate silence on the subject. Therefore let them go free a +little longer, and let us oppose cunning to cunning, and fraud to fraud +until we attain our end." + +The banker acquiesced, and the detective hurried away, for he was +resolved that the wily schemers should not elude him again as they had +certainly done on the occasion of the removal of Lily Lawrence from the +Leverets' house. + +Once more he and his faithful colleague took up their task of espionage, +but it was unavailing for weeks. Harold Colville had conceived a dim +suspicion that he was watched, and was therefore doubly vigilant and +wary. For more than a month he did not visit Lily, but contented himself +by receiving cautious bulletins of her welfare from Doctor Heath, +weekly. The messages went through the mails and were directed to a +fictitious address. + +In these careful weeks a new scheme was revolving in Colville's brain, +always fertile in evil. He was growing heartily tired and impatient at +Lily's obstinacy, and was frightened lest some unforeseen accident +should snatch his lovely prize from him. He began to realize that Lily +would never yield her consent to become his wife, yet he swore to +himself that he would never give her up. He determined, therefore, on a +forced marriage. + +"What do you think of it?" said he to his familiar, Pratt, after +detailing his fears and anxieties to that worthy, and stating his final +resolution. "Would that do?" + +"Excellently well," said Pratt, who began to feel as anxious as Colville +about the obstinacy of their prisoner. "It is the best thing we can do. +Our position is becoming environed with difficulties. If we had not +removed her from Leveret's just in the nick of time, that detective, +Shelton, who found the bodies of Haidee and Peter, must inevitably have +discovered her, and ere this hour we must both have seen the inside of a +prison. Yes, it would be infinitely wiser to force a marriage with the +perverse little jade and carry her off to Europe if need be. Seeing +herself thus irrevocably bound to you, she would understand that her +only hope of happiness lay in reconciliation and she would act +accordingly." + +"Marry it shall be then," said Colville, with a brightening face. "But +when, and by whom? Could we find a priest who would read the ceremony +over us under the peculiar circumstances of the case?" + +"Never fear for that," said Pratt, laughing. "I can find you a priest in +New York who would do the deed without any twinges of conscience for a +pocket full of money. Leave that to me, and when I have found him I will +report progress and you shall name the happy day." + +"It will be a speedy bridal if I am allowed to usurp the lady's usual +prerogative and name the day," returned Colville, in a fine humor with +himself at the near prospect of his union with the beautiful Lily. + +"It will be better to allow her the chance of doing so," replied Pratt, +sarcastically. "Ladies are great sticklers for these small points of +etiquette, you know. After we have settled the preliminaries we will +slip out there some dark night in disguise and acquaint her with the +good fortune in store for her, and give her a chance to yield +gracefully. Should she still refuse we will make no more ado about it, +but take the priest out there next day and marry the beauty +willy-nilly." + +"It is settled, then," said Colville, "and I shall write myself +'Benedick, the happy man.' But, apropos of that, Pratt, whom do you +imagine the chained prisoner found at Leveret's could be? I had no idea +the devils were carrying on such a double game." + +"Nor I," said Pratt. "I have indulged in a great many surmises +respecting that mysterious prisoner, but cannot arrive at anything +satisfactory." + +"Have you fancied it might be _Fanny_?" inquired Colville, fearfully, +while drops of perspiration broke out upon his brow. + +"Yes, I have fancied it might be she," answered Pratt, coolly. "Perhaps +old Peter and Haidee played us false, and did not kill her as you +desired. We were not strict enough with them. We should have demanded a +sight of the body for our assurance." + +"Where is the woman they found?" asked Colville. + +"I have tried to learn her whereabouts diligently," said Doctor Pratt, +"but only ended by asking myself the same question you asked now. It is +rather strange, too; I should have thought there would be no difficulty, +but there seems to be a mystery connected with her removal." + +"If I could find her, and it prove to be Fanny, I would kill her," +muttered Colville, with a fearful oath. + +"Perhaps she is dead already," replied the physician. "The papers +described her as being too far gone to give her name or any evidence +regarding herself. Probably she has succumbed to her great weakness and +died." + +"I hope so," replied the other, "for I have felt horribly afraid that +she might prove to be Fanny." + +"The killing of those two wretches was a most mysterious affair," +remarked Pratt, musingly. + +"Have you any suspicion as to the perpetrator?" asked Harold Colville. + +"Not the slightest. It is a most mysterious affair to me. The wildest +conjecture fails to fathom it." + +"Whoever the mysterious poisoner may be he has my sincere thanks and +best wishes," said Harold Colville, sardonically. "I owed the wretches a +grudge for their attempt on Lily's life!" + +"Yes, their death is eminently satisfactory to me," remarked Pratt. "I +was casting about in my mind for some safe way to punish their perfidy +without getting into trouble myself, when this opportune accident to +their health stepped in between me and my meditated revenge. A pious +person might almost call it an intervention of Providence. + +"I dare say we should have called it an intervention of the devil if we +had not been fortunate enough to carry my lady off safely the night +before it happened," laughed Colville. + +"After all, their plot to kill her was rather fortunate, since we came +in just in time to frustrate it," answered Pratt, "for if they had not +conspired against her life we should not have thought of removing her +that night and she must have fallen into the detective's hands on the +ensuing day." + +"The devil takes care of his own. I am certain his satanic majesty +helped us in that affair," was the laughing reply. + +The two villains continued to indulge in these pleasing retrospections +of the past for some minutes, then separated, the physician going off +on his medical duties, and the man about town to some of his familiar +haunts of dissipation. + +As they emerged from the hotel, each man, unconsciously to himself, was +followed by another man who stole forth from the corridors of the +building. + +One of those men--the same who now followed Pratt--had been outside of +Colville's door, with his ear glued to the keyhole during the progress +of their interesting conversation. It was Mr. Shelton, the detective. + +How little the two conspirators dreamed of what ears had listened to +their nefarious schemes of forcing their victim into a loathsome +marriage by the aid of some priest who disgraced the holy robe he wore +by such sacrilege. + +Fate was weaving her web silently but rapidly around the two wicked +plotters, and ere long they would receive their reward. + +Mr. Shelton had learned several facts unknown to him before while +listening to that private conversation. He resumed his weary task of +espionage, infused with new hope and courage, feeling within himself the +consciousness that he must and would succeed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + + +Lancelot Darling's unfortunate sleigh-riding accident had achieved for +Mrs. Vance a victory that all her previous arts and maneuvers had failed +to conquer. + +Lancelot's noble and chivalrous spirit could not brook the thought that +any woman's fair name should suffer through his fault or accident. + +He therefore fell an easy victim to her artful wiles, and prepared to +sacrifice himself on the altar of her imperious will, while deploring +with all the passion of his manly nature the cause that demanded it. + +"I thought myself the most miserable of all men on earth before this +happened," said he to Mr. Lawrence, after confiding to him his unhappy +position. "Life has held nothing but despair for me since Lily died. But +now that I must take to my heart, in place of my worshiped darling, this +mature woman, with her bold beauty and coquettish arts, I feel myself, +if possible, driven nearer than before to the verge of madness." + +"I believe you are sacrificing yourself unnecessarily, my boy," said the +banker, warmly, for he saw through the widow's arts directly, and +lamented the chivalrous nature that made Lance become her prey easily. +"I believe Mrs. Vance, in order to secure a rich husband, has +represented matters in a much stronger light than truth would sanction. +Your unfortunate accident is unknown save to a few, and by a timely +whisper to those who are cognizant of it, it need never transpire to the +world. And even if it should there is no harm in it." + +"It would be impossible to convince Mrs. Vance of that," said Lance, +with a heavy sigh. + +"Because she does not desire to be convinced of it," said the banker, +grimly. "In her eagerness to secure you she will make the most of her +small capital that she may delude you into becoming her husband." + +Lance felt that Mr. Lawrence spoke the truth; but he was too modest and +honorable to tell his friend of the previous attempt of the wily widow +to secure him by her bold declaration of love. He felt that he had +gotten into her toils, and that she would never allow him to extricate +himself; so he answered, sadly enough: + +"Be that as it may I have given her my word to make her my wife, and I +cannot now withdraw from it." + +"You would if you were of my mind, though," said his friend; "you are at +least ten years younger than she is, Lance, and the match is totally +unsuitable. Take my advice and withdraw from it. Make over to her a sum +of money. Perhaps that would heal her wounded honor." + +"I do not think she would release me on any terms were I brave enough to +propose it," said Lance; "and to tell you the truth," he added, with a +blush, "I actually believe that the woman really loves me." + +Mr. Lawrence laughed at the blush and the assertion. + +"Perhaps she does," he admitted. "I suppose that would not be difficult +for her to do. Women run mad over handsome faces, you know. But, +seriously, Lance, jesting aside, I would be off with the whole thing. If +you loved her it would be different. She is handsome enough to grace +your home and queen it royally there. But to burden yourself with an +unloved wife will be like hanging a mill-stone about your neck." + +"I wish I could take your advice, sir," said Lance; "but I think it +would be useless to try to get loose from Mrs. Vance. She is quite +determined to write her name Mrs. Darling." + +"How soon does she propose to immolate her victim on the altar of +sacrifice?" inquired the banker, grimly. + +"At a very early day," answered the young man. "The twenty-fourth of +December is her choice." + +"Shameful!" ejaculated the banker. "She is determined to push her power +to the utmost. And you permitted it?" + +"Naming the day is the lady's prerogative, you know, sir," said Lance, +bitterly. "I confess I did hint for a rather longer extension of my +bachelor freedom; but she asserted that the peculiar circumstances +attending our engagement would not admit of farther delay." + +"She was afraid you might possibly escape her toils if you were afforded +a longer time in which to reflect on your position," asserted Mr. +Lawrence. "Well, Lance, if you are determined to sacrifice yourself for +a scruple of overstrained chivalry I need not urge you further. It would +be useless. I am tempted to drive the deceitful jade forth from the +shelter of my roof within the hour." + +"Oh, pray do not," said Lance, earnestly. "It would only precipitate the +evil day of our union. She would claim my protection immediately then." + +"It is very probable she would. For your sake, then, Lance, I will let +her remain, and even allow her marriage to take place in my house; but +I can never like or respect her again, even as your wife." + +"I will leave you to make the truth known to Ada," continued Lancelot, +bitterly; "do not allow her to believe that I am faithless to Lily's +precious memory, Mr. Lawrence." + +"I will tell her the whole truth," answered Mr. Lawrence, deeply moved. + +Lance went away, and Mr. Lawrence hastened to communicate the +astonishing news to Ada, who was confined to her sofa with her sprained +ankle. + +"Papa, I am not so surprised as you expect me to be," said the young +girl, frankly. "I have long seen that Mrs. Vance was using every art in +her power to win poor Lance. Indeed, I incurred her everlasting +displeasure some time ago by boldly charging her with it. She did not +deny it, but retaliated by saying that I wanted him myself. She seized +upon the occurrence of last night as a pretext for winning what she has +long been angling for--the hand of our poor, unhappy Lance." + +"He will live to repent his boyish notion of chivalry, I am sure," he +added; changing the subject abruptly, "I called on young Philip St. John +to-day, and thanked him for his friendliness to you last night, and +invited him to dinner. I had to show him some attention, you know," he +said, observing the flush that colored Ada's cheek so suddenly. "You do +not object, I hope?" + +"Oh, no, no," she murmured; "he was exceedingly kind." + +"He is a very superior young man," said the banker, cordially. "Well +born, wealthy, and a lawyer by profession. He is a particular friend of +Lance, which in itself is a recommendation to any young man," continued +Mr. Lawrence, in whose eyes Lancelot Darling appeared the _beau ideal_ +of human perfection. + +If Mrs. Vance had expected to be congratulated by the banker and his +daughter upon her approaching marriage she was doomed to disappointment. +Neither one of them alluded to it at all, though she knew that Lance had +told them, and that they resented her conduct bitterly by the cold and +altered manner, almost amounting to contempt, with which they treated +her. + +She was obliged to broach the matter to Mr. Lawrence herself, coupled +with a modest request for the funds wherewith to purchase as elaborate a +_trousseau_ as could be gotten in the short time intervening between +then and Christmas. + +Mr. Lawrence, in the grimmest and coldest manner imaginable, presented +her with a check for a thousand dollars, and with profuse thanks she +hurried out to expend it in finery. + +She was very happy now in the coming fulfillment of her cherished +desire, and no coldness, not even the lowering shadow on Lance's face +when he came and went, had power to alter her imperious will. + +To win him she had steeped her hands in human blood and risked the +dangers of the scaffold. It was not likely she would relent now, when +the sin and sorrow lay behind her in the past, and the happy +consummation of all her efforts loomed brightly before her. + +She went on blithely with her task of preparation for the grand event, +seeing dressmakers and milliners daily, and leaving herself no time for +retrospection in her whirl of engagements. And time, that "waits for no +man," hurried on and brought the day of fate. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + + +Slowly and wearily passed the days to the poor captive girl immured in +the midst of Doctor Heath's insane patients. + +She was kept closely confined to her room, seeing no one at all except +the kind-hearted attendant, Mary Brown, and occasionally Doctor Heath. +Both these persons, in spite of her agonized assertions and +explanations, persisted in regarding her as a lunatic. + +Immured in a madhouse, startled and frightened daily by the insane +shrieks of the mad people about her, and regarded as insane herself, +Lily's heart sank within her, and she began to fear that her mind would +indeed give way under her trials, and she would become in reality the +melancholy maniac they pretended to believe her. + +But she had at least one comfort in the midst of her troubles. She had +been spared for nearly two months the odious visits of Harold Colville +and his confederate, Doctor Pratt. + +She could not conjecture why she had been thus highly favored, but +congratulated herself all the same upon the fact. + +If she had known the real truth of the matter, that they believed +themselves watched and were afraid to venture near her, she would have +felt her heart leap with new hope at the knowledge; but her long +imprisonment and many trials had worn out hope in her breast. She +believed that death was the only friend that would intervene to save her +from Harold Colville. + +She sat sadly musing before her fire one night, when the loud ringing of +the bell below startled her from her dreaming, and the thought that she +was about to receive a visit from her captors darted into her mind. + +Ten minutes elapsed and she began to feel relieved and believe herself +mistaken, when footsteps were heard upon the stairs, and presently the +two wretches entered her room. + +They had remained below long enough to remove their disguises, without +which they had been afraid to visit her. + +They would not have felt so secure if they had known that the lynx-eyed +detective, Mr. Shelton, was pacing up and down the road in front of the +house, laughing in his sleeve at the ineffectual trouble they had taken +in disguising themselves. + +Mr. Shelton had seen this house before, knew that it was a madhouse, was +acquainted with the name of the proprietor, and knew also that he was +suspected at the police headquarters of being engaged in a fraudulent +business, and that a descent upon the house for the purpose of verifying +suspicion was meditated. + +"Ah! Miss Lawrence, good-evening," said Doctor Pratt, airily. "I trust +you find yourself in better health and spirits than when we last met." + +Lily turned her head away without replying, while Colville, bending over +her, whispered gallantly: + +"Ah, my obdurate fair one, have you relented yet?" + +"No," answered Lily, briefly and coldly, withdrawing the hand he had +tried to take in his own. + +"I hoped your mind had changed in the long interval since we last met," +said he, taking a seat near her. + +Doctor Pratt had already taken a chair by the grated window. + +"You were mistaken," she answered, coldly, as before. + +"I think you will admit that I have waited long and patiently on your +pleasure, Lily," said he, in a tone of expostulation. + +Lily lifted her large blue eyes for a moment and looked at him with a +glance in which contempt and weariness were blended. + +"Mr. Colville," she said, quietly, "pray spare yourself the useless +discussion of that subject. You had my answer long ago. I assure you my +decision is unalterable." + +"But, Lily, reflect a moment. Would not a union with me be preferable to +a lifetime of isolation and weariness here?" + +"No," she answered, steadily. "Even the wretched existence I drag out +here among the insane inhabitants of this place is far more welcome to +me than the hated thought of a union with you!" + +"I am sorry you think so," he answered, in tones of bitter sarcasm, "as, +unfortunately, I do not propose to give you any choice in the matter." + +"What do you mean?" she inquired, with a thrill of indefinable fear +creeping coldly around her heart. + +He saw the look of terror that came into her eyes, and, villain though +he was, he hesitated before speaking out what was in his mind. He +glanced at Dr. Pratt and took courage from the gleam of that villain's +eyes. + +"I mean," he answered, in a low voice of concentrated rage and +bitterness, "that your obstinacy has at length worn out my patience, and +I have determined to take my own way in the matter regardless of your +will." + +"What are you going to do?" she asked, in a quivering voice, while her +young face blanched to a deathly hue. + +"I am going to make you my wife without your consent," he answered, +grimly. + +"You cannot!" she answered, with dilating eyes and a trembling voice. +"It would be no marriage if I refused to consent." + +"So much the worse for you, then," he answered, laughing harshly, "for +the marriage ceremony shall certainly be read over us, and that will be +entirely sufficient for me. I shall surely consider you my wife, then, +and take you to my heart without further scruples." + +"No holy man of God would perform such an unhallowed ceremony," said she +incredulously. + +"Do not delude yourself thus, my sweet girl," he laughed mockingly. "A +_bona fide_ priest is already engaged for the important occasion. Will +you be pleased to appoint the happy day?" + +"Never!" she flashed out bitterly. + +"You force me then to usurp your feminine privilege," he answered +coolly. "And in that case your womanly vanity can of course pardon the +impatient ardor of a lover who has waited humbly and patiently as I have +done. To-morrow, then, shall witness our bridal!" + +"To-morrow!" she cried, springing up and clasping her small hands +together in helpless agony. "To-morrow! Oh! no, you do not mean it! You +will not be so cruel?" + +"You will see!" he answered. "I have made every preparation for the +event, even to our bridal tour. To-morrow a steamer leaves her wharf for +Europe. I have secured our passage, and this morning sent aboard of her +a trunk well filled with feminine apparel for your use during the +voyage. Of course you will select your bridal _trousseau_ after we +arrive at Paris. I shall not deny my beautiful bride any luxury. It only +remains for me to inform you that I will bring a priest out here +to-morrow, and our marriage shall be duly celebrated before we take +passage for the Old World." + +Lily remained standing, gazing at the scheming villain with dilated blue +eyes, and lips and cheeks blanched to the pallid whiteness of death. + +Harold Colville laughed mockingly. + +"You may stare, fair one," he said. "To-morrow shall see you my wife. No +power can save you." + +"No power!" she repeated, gazing at him with flashing eyes. "No power! +Oh! blasphemer, do you forget that there is a God above who cares for +the innocent and punishes the guilty? Beware, lest His vengeance fall +upon you in the hour of your fancied triumph!" + +She looked like some beautiful, inspired prophetess as she faced him +with a lifted hand that seemed to menace him with evil. + +Her golden hair had become loosened from its fastenings and streamed +over her shoulders, gleaming around her lovely pallid features like a +halo of light. + +For a moment Harold Colville quailed before her with something like fear +of that dread tribunal with whose vengeance she threatened him. + +His heart sank strangely within him, while hers, for the moment, +thrilled with a presentiment of coming deliverance. + +Surely if "coming events cast their shadows before," both the guilty +Harold Colville and the wronged Lily Lawrence were gifted with a +momentary prescience of that which was hastening to them in the near +future. + +Doctor Pratt saw the subtle shadow settling over Colville's pale +features, and arose hastily. + +"Come, come, Miss Lawrence," he said harshly. "These tragedy airs would +be very fine on the stage, but they are out of place here. Spare +yourself so much unnecessary exertion; you will most certainly become +Mr. Colville's wife to-morrow. Instead of this useless defiance let me +advise you to cultivate a spirit of meekness and submission. It is +useless to threaten us with the punishment of God. We do not believe in +Him!" + +She was walking restlessly up and down the floor, and made him no +answer, save one scathing flash from her brilliant eyes. He turned away +with a laugh of derision. + +"Come, Colville, let us go," he said. "Other matters demand our +attention now. We must arrange matters with Dr. Heath before we go." + +Colville paused at the door and looked at the young girl restlessly +pacing the floor. + +"To-morrow, then, my fair and obdurate love," said he. "To-morrow! Until +then, adieu!" + +No word or motion betrayed that she heard him. + +He closed and locked the door, going away with the exultant thought that +this was his last parting from his beautiful captive. + +She heard the sound of the receding footsteps, and fell on her knees, +lifting up her convulsed face in a passionate appeal to God that He +would deliver her from the snares of these wicked men. + +They went down-stairs and were closeted some time with Doctor Heath. + +When they went away a large roll of bills was passed from the purse of +Harold Colville to the pocket of the complacent little insane-doctor. +Then resuming their disguises they took leave. + +"To-morrow, then," said Colville, as they descended the steps, speaking +thoughtlessly aloud. "To-morrow we shall return, and with the worthy +priest's assistance, I shall bear away my unwilling bride." + +"Hush! do not speak so loud," said Doctor Pratt, cautiously. "The very +stones have ears." + +They sprang into their carriage and drove rapidly away. + +Then a dark form that had been crouching beneath the steps came out and +straightened its cramped limbs. + +"To-morrow," he repeated, with a low, exultant laugh. "To-morrow! Ah! +what a happy day to-morrow will be to some sorrowing hearts that I know +of. Take courage, sweet Lily Lawrence! To-morrow shall see you restored +to the arms of your father and your lover! Let me see--to-morrow is the +twenty-fourth of December. What a triumphant Christmas eve it will be +for me!" + +He walked on some distance to where he had secured his horse, and +mounting him in haste, rode away full of plans for his next day's happy +mission to sorrowing hearts. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + + +It was the twenty-fourth of December and Mr. Lawrence sat alone in his +elegant office at the bank, musing sadly before the glowing fire in the +grate. + +The banker looked worn and sad, and now and then a heavy sigh parted his +well-cut lips, and a dimness crept over his fine blue eyes. + +He was thinking of his beautiful elder daughter whose tragic death had +well-nigh broken his fatherly heart. + +He brushed his handkerchief across his eyes and sighed heavily. + +There was a knock at the door and a clerk entered with Mr. Shelton's +card. + +"Ah!" said Mr. Lawrence. "Show the gentleman in, Mr. Styles." + +Mr. Shelton entered with suppressed excitement beaming from every +feature. His greeting ceremonies were brief and hurried. + +"Mr. Lawrence," he said directly, "I have a carriage in waiting outside. +Will you do me the honor to ride several miles with me this morning?" + +"You have made some important discovery?" exclaimed Mr. Lawrence, rising +excitedly. + +"Yes," answered the detective, "but I cannot explain until we are on our +way. We have not a minute to spare!" + +They hurried out and took their places in the carriage. + +"Driver, you have your directions," said the detective to the man on the +box. "Do not forget. Drive fast and overtake the other carriage if +possible--if not, try and get within sight of it at least." + +"Is there another carriage?" inquired the banker, bewildered. + +"Yes," said Mr. Shelton. "I have sent a carriage ahead of us containing +four policemen, and they are secretly following another carriage. The +first carriage contains Doctor Pratt, Harold Colville, and a priest. +They are on the way to the place where the body of your daughter is +concealed, and we are on our way to secure and arrest them." + +"You are perfectly certain, I hope," said Mr. Lawrence, trembling with +excitement. + +"Yes, success is assured," said Mr. Shelton, with a ring of triumph in +his clear tone. + +"Thank God!" exclaimed the banker fervently. "At last my poor Lily's +desecrated corpse may rest in a fitting sanctuary." + +He leaned over and wrung the detective's hand gratefully. + +"God bless you, my friend, for the patience and perseverance that have +brought this result at last," he said. + +The detective was deeply moved by the emotion of the elder man. + +"Mr. Lawrence," said he, bending forward and speaking in low, impressive +tones, "prepare yourself for a wonderful revelation! Are you strong +enough to bear tidings of great joy?" + +"What do you mean, Mr. Shelton?" inquired the banker with a start. +"Alas! what joyful tidings can come to me, broken-hearted as I am at the +loss of my daughter?" + +The detective leaned forward and laid his hand on the banker's arm. + +"Mr. Lawrence," he said, in a voice that vibrated with feeling, "it is +not the corpse of your daughter that I am about to restore to the +desecrated vault, but the _living_, beautiful Lily that will be given +back to your heart and your home!" + +Mr. Lawrence fell back against the cushion of the carriage like one +stricken with death, so great was the shock of the detective's +revelation. Mr. Shelton took a small flask from his pocket, and forced +some wine between his white and gasping lips. + +"I feared these joyful tidings would unnerve you," said he, gently. +"Calm yourself, my dear sir. Your daughter, whom you have mourned as +dead, yet lives. It was her own living self that you saw in your hall +that night, not her spirit!" + +"Oh! God be thanked! Lily lives!" repeated the banker in a low voice of +ecstasy. + +Shelton put his head out of the carriage window a moment. + +"We have caught up with the officers' hack," said he. "Now we are all +right. Driver, just keep on at your present pace. We do not need to go +faster." + +"Every moment seems an hour," exclaimed the banker, in a fever of +anxiety and impatience. "Oh, to think that my darling lives! And yet, +oh, God! what would be her feelings on learning that her betrothed will +wed another to-night!" + +"Do not distress yourself about that marriage, Mr. Lawrence," answered +the detective. "I assure you it shall never be consummated." + +"Ah! you think she will generously yield him to Lily when she finds that +she is still living?" said the banker; "but you do not know Mrs. Vance. +Nothing would induce her to release her victim from the toils she has +wound about him." + +"Perhaps I know more of Mrs. Vance than you suppose," said Mr. Shelton. +"For instance, Mr. Lawrence, you believe that your daughter committed +suicide--do you not?" + +"It was the jury's verdict," said the banker. + +"Mr. Lawrence, your daughter was as happy and as much in love with life +as you believed her to be. She never attempted to commit suicide," said +the detective, firmly. + +"She did not? Then who--what--?" began the banker, in a maze of +bewilderment. + +"The dagger that pierced her innocent breast was driven home by the +murderous hand of Mrs. Vance!" was the reply. + +Fear, horror and amazement were blended on the pale, excited features of +the listener. His gray head fell back against the cushions of the +carriage, and he struggled helplessly for speech in which to express his +feelings. Mr. Shelton again had recourse to his convenient flask of +wine. + +"I fear I am exciting you too much with my astonishing revelations," +said the detective, kindly. "I do not wonder at your emotion, for my own +agitation at learning these facts was great. How much more poignant must +your feelings be than mine were, under the circumstances that affect you +so closely." + +"The viper! The serpent that stung the hand that warmed and fed her!" +exclaimed the banker, bitterly. + +"You may well say so," said Mr. Shelton. "She has indeed proved herself +a monster of ingratitude! But to-day she will find herself foiled and +ruined. She has but a few hours remaining to her now of her fancied +security and happiness." + +"God be thanked!" said the banker; "and, oh! Mr. Shelton, are we almost +there? The time seems so long. Forgive a father's impatience, but you +cannot imagine what suspense I suffer, what longings overwhelm me at the +thought that I shall soon clasp my darling Lily to my heart again!" + +"We shall soon be there now. Patience, my friend," said the detective. +"Believe me, I sympathize in your impatience to behold your daughter +again." + +"You are a noble fellow, Mr. Shelton," said the banker. "You will not +find me ungrateful." + +The carriage slackened its pace, and Mr. Shelton put his head out of the +window. + +"We are there," he exclaimed in a voice that trembled with excitement +and triumph, while his manly, handsome features beamed with joy. + +The carriage stopped and Mr. Shelton descended, followed by the banker, +who trembled so that he could scarcely stand upon the ground. + +The four officers had already descended from their vehicle and stood +respectfully awaiting Mr. Shelton's approach. The empty carriage of +Pratt and Colville stood in waiting before the door. + +At a word from Mr. Shelton they all ascended the steps, and the +detective rang a furious peal upon the bell. + +The summons was unanswered. Mr. Shelton rang again and again with a like +result. + +"What will you do now?" asked Mr. Lawrence, in a perfect fever of dread +and impatience. + +"Burst in the door!" said the detective, in a ringing voice. + +At the word the four officers fell to furiously with their clubs upon +the door. A few moments of their impetuous battering sufficed to burst +it in, and they all bounded tumultuously into the hall. + +A neat-looking maid-servant stood at the bottom of the stairway, looking +frightened and indignant. It was none other than Mary Brown. + +"Woman," said Mr. Shelton, imperiously, "lead the way to Miss Lawrence's +room immediately!" + +"It's against orders, sir," said Mary, sullenly. + +"No matter, do as I bid you!" thundered the impatient detective. + +"Miss Lawrence has company, sir, and the orders are not to admit any +one." + +"Push her aside, men; we will hunt for Miss Lawrence ourselves," said +the detective sternly. + +Strong hands forced Mary aside from her position on the stairway. +Several domestics, attracted by the noise, had hastened up from the +regions of the basement and stood staring stupidly, but did not offer +any resistance to the officers' power. The men began to mount the stairs +rapidly, and Mary Brown rushed frantically after them. + +"Oh! for the Lord's sake, gentlemen," she panted, "don't burst in the +doors up-stairs, and let the poor crazy people out upon us. They will +murder us all." + +"Will you do as we told you, then?" asked the detective, sharply. + +"Oh! yes, yes," whimpered Mary, running along in front of them. "This +way, gentlemen." + +She stopped, at length, and indicated the door. It was locked, but the +officers' clubs demolished it directly, and not a moment too soon were +they for what was progressing within that room. + +The villanous priest who was desecrating his holy office by this +sacrilege, stood in the center of the floor with his prayer-book open at +the marriage service, from which he was slowly reading. Colville stood +in front of him, and the united efforts of the worthy doctors, Pratt and +Heath, were employed in holding up the form of Lily Lawrence beside him. + +With a scream of horror Mr. Lawrence rushed forward, and snatching his +daughter from their villanous hold, he folded her tightly to his heart. +She looked up an instant with a wild and piercing shriek, and seeing the +beloved face of her father, dropped unconscious in his loving arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + + +"Harold Colville, Doctor Pratt and Doctor Heath, you are under arrest," +cried the detective, in a ringing voice that fell on the ears of the +villanous trio like the trump of doom. "Officers, secure your men." + +There was a brief struggle, accompanied by loud cries and oaths, then +the superior power of the policemen triumphed, and each man had his +prisoner handcuffed and reduced to grim silence. The fourth officer had +collared the fat little priest, who was struggling in his grasp. + +In the meantime Mr. Lawrence had been vainly striving to restore the +consciousness of his fainting daughter. He had laid her upon the bed, +and was wildly chafing her cold hands, while he called her by every term +of love his fond affection could devise. + +"Here, woman," said Mr. Shelton to Mary Brown, who lingered in the hall +looking in at the scene, "come and lend a hand in reviving the young +lady. She has fainted." + +Mary hurried in with alacrity, and Lily was soon restored to partial +consciousness, to the great delight of her father. She lay quite still, +with half-open eyes, contemplating the banker's face with an expression +of languid ecstasy, though she trembled excessively. + +"I must get my prisoners away at once," said Mr. Shelton. "Do you think +you are strong enough to return to the city with us now, Miss Lawrence?" + +She looked up in languid inquiry at the strange yet kindly voice +addressing her so respectfully, and made an effort to rise, but fell +backward wearily. Doctor Pratt turned about sullenly. + +"In my character of a physician," said he, shortly, "I would advise you +not to remove the young lady for several hours. She needs complete rest +for a little while to recover from the shock she has sustained. You can +take my advice or not, as it pleases you." + +Mr. Shelton looked at the banker. He in turn looked inquiringly at the +pale face of his daughter. + +She answered in feeble tones: + +"Perhaps he is right. I feel completely exhausted now. Allow me an +interval of rest, and then, oh! how gladly I will leave this place with +you, dear papa." + +"I will take these men into the city, then," said the detective, "and +return for you, Mr. Lawrence, as we intend to search the house +thoroughly. It is strongly suspected that some persons as sane as you or +I are confined here through the wickedness of their relatives and the +connivance of this man, Dr. Heath. I will leave two officers on guard +here while I am away." + +He went out, followed by the officers with their prisoners. Mary Brown +followed after, and the banker was left alone with the daughter who had +been so strangely restored to him after he had mourned her as dead for +many months. He bent down and clasped her in his arms, and his joyful +tears rained upon her sweet, white face. + +A smile of heavenly sweetness beamed on her pale face. She lay still a +little while, nestling against her father's breast, trying to picture to +herself the ineffable sweetness of the re-union that awaited her. She +pictured to herself the happiness that would shine in the dark eyes of +her lover when she came back to him as one from the dead. Her heart +began to beat tumultuously, and a tinge of color crept into her wasted +cheeks. She closed her eyes to shut out the hateful sight of her prison +walls, and fancied herself at home with the loved ones instead. + +In the meantime Mr. Lawrence was gazing sadly on her pale and wasted +features, marking the mournful ravages privation and sorrow had worked +in that once blooming face. + +"My Lily," he said, in a tone of anguish, taking up one delicate hand +and looking at the blue veins wandering so clearly over its surface, +"you have grown to be a lily indeed. How white and wan you look." + +She trembled and clung closer to his breast. + +"Ah! papa," she murmured, "they tried to starve me into compliance with +their wishes. But though my strength failed and my beauty faded, I would +not give up, though I thought I should have died with the weakness and +the horror of it all." + +"The devils!" exclaimed Mr. Lawrence, smothering a stronger malediction +between his lips. + +"Papa," she said, in her weak tones, "you know all, do you not? How Mrs. +Vance hated me for Lancelot's sake? How she tried to murder me?" + +"Yes, my dear," he answered, gently. "Thank God, her wicked attempt did +not succeed. A terrible retribution awaits her." + +"Papa, I can forgive her now since I am restored to you all again," said +Lily, sweetly. "Cannot we let her go away and not punish her for her +cruelty? I hated her at first, but that is all over with now since she +has failed in her endeavor. You know it was all because she loved my +Lancelot." + +"My love," said the banker, "your sweet forgiveness is angelic; but the +secret of Mrs. Vance's crime is in other hands than mine. However much +we might wish to shield her from the consequences of her sin we could +not do so. The law will have to take its course." + +He did not tell her of the marriage that was to take place between her +lover and Mrs. Vance that night. In her weak state he feared to shock +her by the disclosure. He hoped that they would reach home before the +appointed time, and forestall the dreaded event, and he resolved that +the knowledge of it should never come to Lily's hearing. + +Mr. Shelton returned in a few hours and instituted a search. As he had +suspected, several sane persons were found confined in the house, and +these were set at liberty, swearing deadly vengeance against Dr. Heath +and sundry wicked relatives. The evening was far advanced, and the +detective began to see the necessity of his hastening Miss Lawrence away +if they were to reach Fifth avenue in time to stop the contemplated +marriage of Lancelot to Mrs. Vance. He accordingly stated the fact to +Mr. Lawrence. + +Lily was feeling stronger and better, and declared her desire to start +immediately. The carriage was made as comfortable as possible with +pillows and cushions, and the young girl was lifted tenderly into it. + +They then set forth rapidly on their journey, but the early winter +twilight had given place to night before they reached the banker's +house. + +Lily's heart beat rapidly as they reached home. She remembered the last +time she had glided up those steps, worn and weary, but, oh! so happy in +the prospect of reunion with her loved ones, and the cruel hand that had +snatched her away in the moment that she beheld the faces she had so +longed to behold. She clung convulsively to her father's arm as they +stepped upon the pavement. + +"Courage, dear," he whispered, feeling how she trembled, and how +nervously she glanced about her. "You are safe, love. No one can harm +you now." + +"Oh! papa," she whispered, after her first startled glance around her. +"What does all this mean? Is Ada giving a party?" + +Mr. Lawrence glanced up in dismay. He knew what to expect, but he had +fondly hoped to reach home before matters went so far. + +The mansion was brilliantly lighted from top to bottom. A silken awning +extended from the house out to the street to shelter the heads of the +guests from the few flying flakes of snow that whirled homelessly +through the bitter cold air. They stepped from the carriage upon an +elegant Turkey carpet that led to the marble steps. + +Every arrangement betokened a grand reception, and as they walked +through the wide hall, lined with staring servants, the notes of the +wedding march pealed forth from the grand organ in the music-room. + +"Oh, God, if we should be too late!" whispered Mr. Lawrence to the +detective. + +"It seems that we are just in time," whispered Mr. Shelton reassuringly. + +"Must we take Lily in with us?" asked the banker dubiously. + +"Yes," was the firm reply, and at the words all three stepped across the +threshold of the open drawing-room door. + +What a startling sight met the eyes of the fair young girl so strangely +restored to her home and loved ones! + +The room was crowded with guests, elegantly arrayed, the men in their +fine black reception suits, the women in their satins and laces and +sparkling jewels. Hot-house flowers were in profusion everywhere. A +beautiful horse-shoe, formed with white flowers, depended from the +ceiling, and beneath it Lily saw a group that seemed to freeze the blood +in her veins to solid ice. + +Brilliantly beautiful, flushed with love and triumph, Mrs. Vance stood +there in elaborate bridal robes, leaning on the arm of a splendidly +handsome young man. His face was slightly turned away, but Lily knew it +was none other than her own betrothed, Lancelot Darling, who was +listening so calmly there to the opening words of the beautiful marriage +service read by the lips of the white-haired and venerable clergyman. At +one glance she took in the whole appalling scene, and then a shriek of +agony, loud, piercing, horror-stricken, broke from the lips of the +stricken girl, thrilling every heart with terror. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + + +So wild and startling was that anguished scream that even the bride and +groom sprang apart and looked toward the door in terror. + +Lance saw his lost darling standing there, clinging to the arm of her +father, the dark hood thrown back from her head, and her golden hair +streaming over her shoulders and about her lovely face, now convulsed +with pain and grief. + +With a wild prescience of the truth, he rushed forward and with a +ringing cry of joy caught his darling to his heart. + +At the same moment the clear, full voice of the detective pealed through +the large apartment thronged with wedding guests, with the suddenness of +a trumpet call. + +"Mrs. Vance, I arrest you for the attempted murder of Lily Lawrence, and +that of Haidee and Peter Leveret!" + +The detective had instantly recognized her form as that of the woman he +had seen walking in the road near the Leveret house the day of the +murder, and the conviction rushed upon him with the suddenness of a +flash of lightning. + +None who were present ever forgot the look of the guilty woman as those +clarion tones fell upon her ears. + +Her brain was reeling with horror, her heart beat to suffocation's verge +as she beheld Lancelot clasping her rival to his heart. + +When the detective's ringing voice with its dreadful accusation reached +her hearing, she turned her face on him a moment, and its expression of +awful horror and black despair was fearful to behold. + +The next instant she threw up her arms with a wail of agony, and fell +down in a writhing heap upon the floor. + +The aged minister, who stood nearer to her than the rest of the guests, +hastened to lift her up, though he was trembling so perceptibly he could +hardly stand. + +As he raised the dark head on his arm and turned her face upward to the +light, a stream of blood gushed from her lips and poured its crimson +rain upon the stainless whiteness of her bridal robe and veil. + +"She has burst a blood vessel," said a physician in the crowd, now +coming forward. "She will die." + +The words reached her ears as they knelt around her trying to stanch the +life tide flowing thick and fast from her lips. Her dark eyes opened and +stared up into their faces with a mute despair awful to behold. + +She must die! That was the only triumph that was left her out of the +full cup of happiness pressed to her lips overflowingly but a moment +ago! She might cheat the scaffold of its prey--that was all! Life with +all its pleasures and luxuries lay before her just a moment before--now, +darkness and the grave! Like one in a dream she seemed to recall words +carelessly heard in the past that lay behind her forever beyond recall: + +"_The wages of sin is death!_" + +They gathered around her, the awe-stricken guests, with their pale, pale +faces and gala attire, and looked at her dying before them with the +awful stain of murder on her soul--that beautiful woman with the bridal +wreath crowning her coronal of dark hair, and her satin robe deluged +with her life-blood--such a beautiful, beautiful sinner! + +Her haunting eyes roved over their faces restlessly, seeking, seeking +for one face that was not there. _He_ stood apart with Mr. Lawrence and +Ada, showering caresses on the pale, almost fainting girl lying on a +sofa, with her dear ones clustered round her. Mrs. Vance could not see +them, but her quick intuition told her the truth, and the groan that +burst from her lips brought with it a fresh torrent of life-blood. + +"She wishes to see someone, I think," said the physician, interpreting +her yearning look. + +She gave him a glance of assent, and, with a violent effort, pronounced +almost unintelligibly the name of "Lance." + +Mr. Shelton, who had stood beside her, carried the message to Lancelot, +but in his passionate anger against her the young man refused to go, and +the detective went back without him. + +"He refuses to see you," he said, with a pitying glance at her ghastly +face. + +The streaming blood had ceased to flow for the moment, and as the +physician wiped the stains from her gasping lips, she whispered, +brokenly: + +"Bring Lily!" + +The gaping throng parted to admit Mr. Shelton, with Lily Lawrence +clinging to his arm. She knelt down, trembling, and took into her own +white, innocent hand the crimson-stained one that had thrust the dagger +into the gentle bosom. + +Her blue eyes beamed with the soft compassion of an angel's as she +looked down upon the fallen woman. + +"I am here, Mrs. Vance," she said, in her sweet, flute-like voice. "I +am not angry now. I forgive you everything--freely!" + +But Mrs. Vance pushed away the hand that held hers as if its soft clasp +hurt her. + +"I do not want forgiveness," she gasped, in broken, yet defiant tones. +"I want--Lance. Bring--him--to me." + +Silently the young girl turned away, followed by the wondering and +admiring glances of all. + +She came back at last, bringing with her the reluctant one for whom the +dying woman waited longingly. He bent down over her, trying to hide his +horror and aversion under a mask of calmness. + +The dark eyes, fast growing dim, lighted up with passion as she looked +upon his face. + +"I wanted--to tell you," she gasped, faintly, "that--that all +my--sin--was for--love of you, Lance!" + +He bowed in silence. He had no words with which to answer her passionate +avowal. + +"She is going very fast," said the physician, in a whisper. + +Mr. Shelton bent over her. + +"Do you confess your crimes?" he inquired, in a low voice. + +Her eyes left Lancelot Darling's face one moment, while she gazed into +that of the detective. + +"You are--my--accuser?" she faltered. + +"I am," he answered, briefly. "Do you confess?" + +She did not answer. Her gaze had gone back to Lancelot Darling's face, +searching its cold, immovable outlines longingly. The white-haired man +of God bent over her gently. + +"Do you confess your sins?" he inquired. + +No answer. Her dying gaze was fixed on the one beloved face to the +exclusion of all other earthly objects. The minister touched her arm +gently. + +"I pray you," he said, "do not suffer yourself to die with your +unconfessed sins lying heavy on your soul." + +She heard the words, and spoke faintly to her idol: + +"What is it they want--of me--Lance?" + +"To confess your crimes," he said, coldly. "Oh! Mrs. Vance, are you +indeed guilty of all with which you are accused?" + +"All, all!" she murmured, hollowly. "I tried--to kill Lily--first, you +see--then when I felt safe--from detection--old Haidee learned my +secret--and threatened to tell _you_--_you_, my darling! So I poisoned +her and the old man both--to save myself. But, Lance--it was all for +love of you!" + +There was neither regret nor repentance in her tone--nothing but +passionate love and despair. He did not answer, and she broke forth +wailingly: + +"Oh! Lance, do but say that--you--are sorry--that I must die! Say +that--you might have learned to love me--poor me--if you had not +learned--my fatal secret!" + +Lance turned his head away that he might not see the agonized pleading +of her eyes, and seeing that he could not answer her, the minister again +spoke gently: + +"Mrs. Vance, the time for human love is over with you now! Look rather +to the Divine love that is able to pardon your sins though they be as +scarlet. Do you repent?" + +"Repent!" she echoed, with a wild and chilling laugh. "Repent! No, +never! Were it all to do over again, and the prize the same, I would +wade through seas of blood to reach my darling's heart! All for _love_, +and--my soul--well--lost!" + +With the wild, defiant words, a fresh stream of blood poured forth from +her lips. + +There was a gasp, a spasmodic tremor of all the features, a convulsive +quiver of the limbs, and the soul of the guilty woman went wandering +forth into the vast arcana of eternity! + +"The wages of sin is death." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + + +On the day that Mr. Lawrence paid the reward of ten thousand dollars to +the detective, Lancelot Darling was present. + +He immediately wrote a check for fifteen thousand dollars and tendered +it to Mr. Shelton, saying gracefully: + +"Allow me also to testify some slight sense of my gratitude, although +money alone can never pay the great debt we owe you!" + +"Our hearty appreciation and faithful friendship shall unfailingly pay +the interest, at least," added the banker cordially. + +Mr. Shelton's fine features beamed with pride and joy. He felt a +pardonable elation at the wonders his skill and patience had +accomplished. + +He felt within himself the proud consciousness that his indefatigable +perseverance had nobly earned his success. + +Within a few weeks he had the pleasure of seeing Doctor Pratt and Harold +Colville sentenced to the penitentiary for a long term of years, and +Doctor Heath also was duly punished for his wickedness. + +The testimony of Lily Lawrence and Fanny Colville filled the thronged +court-room with horror on the day of the trial. + +Everyone felt that lynching would not be too bad for such villains; but +the sentence of the court was duly carried out, and the wretches were +incarcerated in the penitentiary. + +Doctor Pratt served out his sentence faithfully. When it was ended he +left the shores of America for a foreign land, not, as some may suppose, +to repent of his sins, but solely to hide his dishonored head from the +contempt of all who knew him, and begin again under new auspices a +second career of vice and crime. + +Harold Colville's patience could not uphold him, as it did his +colleague, the doctor. Solitude and confinement fairly maddened him. + +Within a few months after the trial he hung himself in his cell, and +sent his wicked soul forth into the darkness of eternity. + +Fanny Colville was thus left a widow, and on producing requisite +evidence that she had been the dead man's wife, inherited his handsome +property. + +She took possession of his wealth, feeling herself honestly entitled to +it, purchased a handsome house in the city, and brought her old mother +from the country to live with her, while the friendly Mrs. Mason was +duly installed as her housekeeper. + +In the meantime Fanny had paid several visits to Lily Lawrence, and the +two young creatures had exchanged numberless congratulations with each +other on the happy termination of their mutual trials. + +"I never should have recognized you, my dear," Lily said frankly at +their first meeting, "if Mr. Shelton had not informed me who was coming. +When I _first_ saw you I could not believe that you were not an old +woman. Now you have grown young and pretty." + +Fanny laughed and blushed at the compliment, and it only made her more +attractive. In truth, she deserved Lily's praise. + +Her clear, dark complexion began to glow with health and strength. Her +softly rounded cheeks had a soft tint glowing on them like the heart of +a sea-shell. + +She had beautiful eyes, large, dark and expressive, and her black hair, +which Mrs. Mason had shingled close to her head, now clustered in short, +silky rings about her brow, adding a charming piquancy to her pretty +face. + +Her dress, too, was always as perfectly elegant as wealth and taste +could make it, so that many more beside Lily Lawrence considered the +dark-eyed widow young and pretty. + +Mr. Shelton was among the number of those who agreed with Lily. + +The forlorn young creature whom he had rescued and cared for had begun +to twine herself about his heart. + +He was a bachelor, and forty years old, but his heart was not proof +against Cupid's darts. + +Now since Fanny Colville had come into his path of duty, pity and +kindness had grown into love, strong, fervent, and abiding. + +He strolled into her drawing-room one day a few months after her +husband's death, and found her sitting cosily before the fire with a bit +of fancy-work lying on her lap. + +"I hope I do not disturb you," he said, noting her dreamy look. "You +seemed to be thinking on some very absorbing subject when I entered." + +"I was thinking of you, Mr. Shelton," returned the young widow, with a +smile and a slight blush. + +"Of me!" exclaimed the detective, observing the blush with a thrill of +pleasure. "I hope your thoughts were agreeable ones." + +"They could not be otherwise when I think of my kind friend and +preserver," answered Fanny, giving him a gentle glance from her frank, +dark eyes. "Oh, Mr. Shelton, when I think of myself as I was when you +discovered me in that loathsome dungeon, starving and freezing in my +wretched rags, and delivered me from my bonds--when I remember that and +contrast it with my present happy lot, I feel that I can never repay the +great debt of gratitude I owe you." + +"I fear," he said, at length, "that you overestimate the value of the +service I did you, Mrs. Colville. It is true, I suppose that I saved +your life, but what then? Life to many is not as great a boon that they +would thank one for saving it." + +"Ah, but they are misanthropic," returned Fanny, brightly. "Life to me, +Mr. Shelton, is a great boon. I love to live! I love to feel the warm +blood rushing through my veins with the ardor of youth and hope. I love +to feel my pulses bounding with life's fitful fever. Oh, Mr. Shelton, +can I do nothing to show my gratitude for all you have done for me?" + +The detective drew nearer and took her soft, warm hand impulsively in +his own. + +"Yes, dear Fanny," he said, his deep, manly voice trembling with +emotion. "Give me the life I saved for my reward. Give me your own sweet +self for the day-star of my future. Be my wife!" + +Blushing and startled, Fanny looked up into his face, but her eyes +drooped swiftly before the great tenderness in his. + +The next moment she laid both hands in his and whispered, between April +smiles and tears: + +"Take me if I can make you happy. I ask no brighter fate." + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + + +It was the close of New Year's Day, and Lily and Ada Lawrence stood +together in the grand drawing-room, their arms fondly interlaced, the +glow of firelight and gaslight shining down like a blessing on their +golden heads. + +Ada was perfectly lovely in an elegant costume of white cashmere and +blue brocaded silk. The only ornaments of her fair girlish beauty were +knots of fragrant blue and white violets. + +"My darling sister," said the younger girl affectionately, "you look +very weary. Sit down here in this comfortable arm-chair and rest." + +She drew forward the chair as she spoke, but before Lily could seat +herself two more visitors were announced. They were Lancelot Darling and +Philip St. John. + +Lancelot's friend was duly presented to Lily, and after a little +friendly chatter Lance stole away with his darling to the quiet library. + +"My dearest, I am very selfish," he said to her fondly. "I want you all +to myself, that I may look at you, listen to you, and feel that my +happiness is real, and not a dream from which I may awaken to the pangs +of bereavement!" + +They sat down together on a low divan before the glowing fire. Lancelot +drew the golden head down upon his breast and pressed passionate, +lingering kisses on the sweet red lips of his long-lost darling. + +"My darling," he whispered, presently, "our wedding-day has been long +deferred, When shall I have the happiness of claiming you before all the +world?" + +"Papa and Ada could not bear to give me up yet," said Lily, smiling at +his eagerness. + +"I do not want to be selfish, love," he said; "I know you wish to stay +with them a little longer, and I know how hard it would be to them to +give you up now. But you must pity my loneliness and come to me soon." + +"I want to get my roses back first," she answered, demurely. "I am so +weak and weary from all that I have suffered that I should be a pale and +faded bride if I came to you now. You must wait, dear Lance, until I +grow strong and well again before I don the bridal veil." + +"How long must I wait, then?" he inquired. + +"Till the roses come again," she answered; "you know how I love the +summer, with its beautiful sunshine and fragrant flowers. I should like +for the happiest event of my life to be associated with the sweetest +month in the year. Let it be in June." + +Lance was beginning a passionate protest when the door opened and Mr. +Lawrence entered. + +The banker looked very bright and happy as his eyes fell on the handsome +pair before him. + +"Here, papa," said Lily, making room for him beside her; "I am very glad +you have come, for I think Lance was just about to find fault with me." + +"On what pretext?" inquired her father, kissing her sweet, upturned +lips. + +"For cruelty," said Lance, promptly. "She actually intends to defer our +marriage until June." + +"Soon enough," said the banker, laughing at the young man's impatience. +"You must leave us our darling yet awhile, Lance. Come and see her every +day if you choose, my boy, but do not persuade her to leave us yet. It +will be hard to give her up, even to you." + +When the beautiful "month of roses" came round again, Mr. Lawrence had +to lose both his lovely daughters. + +Philip St. John had wooed and won the beautiful, girlish Ada, and Lily's +bridal day was to be hers also. + +Once again Lily stood in her old familiar chamber, with the robes of +satin and lace trailing over the velvet carpet, and the snowy mist of +the bridal veil hiding the blushes that came and went on her lovely +face. + +"There is no one to envy your happiness now, Lily," said Ada, as she +clasped the pearl necklace around her sister's snowy neck. "That +dreadful woman is dead!" + +"It is so cruel a thing to remember, dear; let us try to forget the sin, +and forgive the sinner!" + +"Amen!" said Ada, solemnly. + +Mr. Lawrence came in, and kissed and blessed them with a sadness on his +face that he could not wholly hide. The only alleviation to the sorrow +of that hour was the knowledge that he was giving the happiness of his +beloved children into the keeping of "good men and true." + +"Papa, you must not forget what I told you once before," whispered Lily, +through April tears and smiles. "You will not lose your daughters; you +will only gain two sons." + +Lily was to go to a beautiful home on Fifth avenue, close to that of her +father. Lancelot had been busy for months preparing his splendid mansion +for the home-coming of his bride, and now it only awaited the sunshine +of her presence to become an earthly Eden. + +Ada and her husband were to live with the banker. His great house would +be so lonely, the old man pleaded, with both his darlings gone. So they +yielded to his wish and promised to make his house their home as long as +he lived. + +The grand portals of Trinity Church opened wide to admit the two lovely +brides. + +New York had never seen a grander marriage, nor brides so lovely, nor +bridegrooms more gallant and handsome. Trinity was thronged with their +friends, and the pavements outside were crowded with interested +spectators. No marriage had excited so much interest for years as that +of the lovely girl whose romantic story was known far and wide. + +"She is beautiful as a dream," they whispered, when the first bride +passed over the flower-strewn pavement to the church steps. "And the +sister is equally lovely," they cried, rapturously, when the trembling +Ada followed after her. + +"God bless them both!" whispered a good woman who had a prominent seat +in the church. + +It was Mrs. Mason, the kind soul whom Lily had not forgotten when her +wedding cards were issued to her friends. + +So amid good wishes and blessings the fair brides passed up the stately +aisle on the arms of their father, followed by a score of lovely +bridesmaids in snowy flower-bedecked robes. At the altar they were met +by Lancelot and Philip, and then, above the pealing notes of the wedding +march, the minister's voice arose in the beautiful words of the marriage +service. + +Silence brooded over the throng softly as the wings of a dove, while the +holy, reverent words filled the church. In the stillness the sweet +responses of the brides even were distinctly audible. The rings were +slipped upon their fingers, the solemn words of the benediction were +spoken, and then, with the sweet strains of music echoing above their +heads, the fragrance of flowers beneath their feet, and the tender +blessings of friends around them, the two beautiful brides, with their +chosen mates, went forth with smiles to the future that lay beaming in +the sunshine of love and happiness. + + +[THE END.] + +[Illustration] + + + + + QUEENIE'S TERRIBLE SECRET + + OR, + + _A Young Girl's Strange Fate_. + + By MRS. ALEX. McVEIGH MILLER. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +"There is positively not a dollar left to buy a dress for Queenie and +yet she _will_ insist upon going to the ball. Could you let me have your +old green silk to make over for her, Sydney?" + +The small figure perched on the top of a large Saratoga trunk sprang +down upon the floor, and stamped her foot so vehemently that the blue +satin bow flew off from her tiny slipper. + +"_Wear_ Sydney's old green silk to the ball!" cried Queenie, +indignantly. "Indeed I _won't_, mamma, I will stay at home first!" + +"The best place for you," said her sister, Sydney, calmly. "I see no use +in taking a child like you to Mrs. Kirk's grand ball." + +"A child, indeed," flashed the younger sister, with a pout of her +rosebud lips. "I am as tall as you, Syd, and I was seventeen yesterday. +It's real mean to call me a child and leave me at home every time I get +invited out. I know why it is, though. It's because mamma spends every +dollar papa gives her decking out you and Georgie, and there's never a +decent thing left for me to wear." + +"It is because you are too pretty, my dear," laughed her father, who had +entered the dressing-room unnoticed. "The girls keep you back because +they are afraid you will cut them out with their fine beaux." + +Sydney and Georgina flushed angrily and muttered that it wasn't so, and +that papa ought to be ashamed of himself--it was all his fault that +Queenie was setting herself up for a woman so fast when he couldn't +afford to dress the two that were already grown decently enough for the +position they had to fill in society. + +The poor, worried mother, having been so quickly snubbed on the subject +of the old green silk, looked on and said nothing. + +"I give you every cent I can spare from my business, girls," said Mr. +Lyle, in a vexed tone, "and this time I strained a point and pinched +myself in order that little Queenie might have a new dress and go to the +ball, too." + +"But they have spent every cent upon themselves!" cried pretty little +Queenie with the tears of vexation standing in her pansy-blue eyes. "The +dressing-room is littered all over with their finery yet they want me to +wear that horrid green silk of Syd's! A pretty fright I should look!" + +"Never mind, dear, you can stay at home with your old papa. Your time +will come after awhile when the girls are married and out of the way," +said her father kindly, as he drew his arm about her. "Maybe it is true +that I have spoiled you, dear, and that you are too young to go to such +a grand ball." + +"No, I am not, papa. I am quite old enough, and I know how to dance, and +I love to dance, and I _will_ go to the ball," exclaimed the pretty, +willful little creature, with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes. + +"But, Queenie, what on earth will you wear?" asked the poor, tired +mother, who was quite worn out with the worry of keeping herself and her +two elder girls well-dressed. "I have no money to give you a new dress." + +Queenie stood meditating, with her head perched on one side like a +little bird, her slender, arched brows puckered into a thoughtful frown. + +"I'll tell you," said she at length, "I shall sell my painted fan--the +white satin one that Uncle Rob sent me from Paris. It is worth fifteen +dollars at least, and I can certainly get five for it. Five dollars will +buy lots of white tarleton, and I can make the dress myself. There are +plenty of flowers in the garden, so you see I can make a toilet for the +ball," she added, half laughing. + +"Sell Uncle Rob's gift!" cried mamma and the girls in concert. + +"Necessity knows no law!" answered Queenie, dancing out of the room to +avoid their remonstrances. + +"Mr. Lyle, you really should not allow her to sell her uncle's beautiful +gift!" exclaimed Mrs. Lyle, in a vexed tone. + +"I certainly shall not try to prevent her," answered her husband, rather +shortly. "If you had acted fairly by her and divided the money I gave +you for the three girls she need not have been driven to such straits as +to sell her pretty fan. Why, I gave you a hundred dollars, and she only +wants five for her dress. You might have spared her that small +pittance!" + +"I did not think she would be contented with such a shabby dress," +muttered Mrs. Lyle. + +"Queenie only wants to enjoy herself," said the fond father. "She will +be as beautiful and as happy in her five-dollar tarleton as Georgie and +Sydney in their elegant silks." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +Full of her suddenly conceived purpose, Queenie Lyle went to her room, +attired herself in a neat walking-suit, and tied a blue tissue veil over +her luxuriant golden ringlets. + +Then carefully wrapping a paper about the box that held her painted fan, +she set forth upon her errand, feeling sorry that she must part with the +elegant trifle, yet determined to sacrifice it rather than forego the +ball, which to her young, imaginative fancy appeared like a promised +peep into fairy-land. + +In the large city where she lived there were plenty of stores that dealt +in fancy articles. + +She entered one of these stores, and presented her fan for the +merchant's inspection. + +"How much will you give me for it?" asked she, childishly, coming +straight to the point. + +"Did you paint it yourself?" asked the man; unfurling the beautiful fan, +and gazing admiringly at the delicate leaves and flowers painted upon it +by a skillful hand. + +Queenie laughed at the question, and the gay, musical chime attracted +the attention of a gentleman a little further down the counter--a tall, +dark, handsome man, who drew nearer as if fascinated, and glanced +furtively at the young girl, revealing a lovely face as fresh and fair +as a flower, the eyes as dark as pansies, the cheeks as pink as roses. + +She was smiling that moment, and the stranger saw two dazzling rows of +milk-white teeth between her parted crimson lips, and the loveliest +dimples in the world in her rounded cheeks and chin. + +"No, indeed," she said, in answer to the merchant. "My uncle sent it to +me from Paris. It is quite French, I assure you. I would not part with +it if I did not need the money very much." + +"We are overcrowded with such articles, miss," said the man, carelessly, +not wishing to show his anxiety to possess the elegant fan, "but to +oblige you, and because you need the money, I will give you five dollars +for it." + +"Very well, I will take it," said little Queenie, and as she spoke she +looked up carelessly and suddenly encountered the fixed gaze of a pair +of burning, dark eyes. + +Blushing crimson, she knew not why, Queenie dropped the sweeping lashes +over her eyes, and taking her money from the merchant, hurriedly left +the store. + +"A pretty trifle--what will you take for it?" said the handsome +stranger, stepping forward as Queenie went out. + +"Twenty dollars," answered the merchant, coolly. "It is a real Parisian +fan and worth more than that, but as I bought it so cheap I will let you +have it at a small profit." + +"Do you know the young lady from whom you bought it?" inquired the +gentleman, as he laid down a twenty-dollar bill on the counter. + +"No, I do not; but she was a little beauty," laughed the merchant, as he +wrapped up the fan and handed it to his customer. + +The handsome stranger bowed and hastily withdrew with his purchase. In +the street he paused, and looked up and down. + +Seeing Queenie's graceful little figure half a square ahead of him, he +slowly walked on after her. + +Little Queenie went into a dry goods store, and invested the price of +her fan in a nice quality of white tarleton. She told the obliging clerk +where to send the package, and dropping her veil over her sweet face, +hurried homeward. + +"Queenie, oh, Queenie, come in," called Georgina, as she was passing the +open door of the dressing-room. "Only think--something so perfectly +splendid has happened. Guess what it is." + +"You have been buying some more finery, I suppose," answered the young +girl, seeing a large box in the center of the floor. + +"Uncle Rob has sent us another box from Paris," announced Sydney, +triumphantly. + +"Dresses and jewelry both," added Mrs. Lyle, joyfully. + +"You can go to the ball as fine as a queen now," laughed Georgina, +diving down into the box and bringing out a parcel which she placed in +Queenie's hands. + +"It is for you," she said. + +Queenie unrolled the tissue paper from the bundle and shook out the +folds of a magnificent cream-colored brocade silk. + +"Oh, how exquisite!" she exclaimed. "What has he sent you, girls?" + +Sydney, who was a brilliant brunette, exhibited a rose-colored brocade +as handsome as Queenie's dress. Georgina, a plump blonde, rejoiced in +the possession of a costly azure satin. + +"Uncle Rob is a dear darling," exclaimed little Queenie, delightedly. + +"And only look here," said Mrs. Lyle, who held three jewel-cases in her +lap, "he has sent you each a lovely set of jewels--diamonds for Sydney, +opals for Georgina, pearls for you." + +Little Queenie looked and admired until she was almost wild with +delight. She clasped the pearls on her neck and arms, and held the rich +brocade up before her, admiring the sheeny richness of the creamy folds. + +"If you had only waited a little while you need not have sold your +painted fan," said Georgie. "You can have this lovely dress to wear to +Mrs. Kirk's ball." + +"No, I cannot," answered Queenie, with a sigh. "Madame Dufarge would +charge thirty dollars to make such a dress as this, and where could I +get thirty dollars? No, I'll wear my five-dollar tarleton and the pearls +to the ball, but I will put this lovely brocade away, and keep it for my +wedding-dress." + +"Only hear the child," exclaimed Sydney, who was twenty-five and +unmarried yet. "She talks of marrying as confidently as if husbands grew +on trees." + +"They do for pretty girls like me," answered Queenie, with a saucy nod +at her sister. "But, mamma, did Uncle Robbie write? Is he getting well? +Is he coming home soon?" + +"Ah, the best of the news is yet to come," exclaimed Georgina, who was +in brilliant spirits. "We are to go out to Uncle Robbie, you and I, and +Syd, and mamma, and have a continental tour with him. Isn't that +glorious news?" + +Little Queenie's bright eyes danced with joy. + +"Mamma, is it true?" she panted, breathlessly. + +"Yes, dear, it is quite true," said Mrs. Lyle, looking quite happy. "He +has sent us a check, and we are to go over in the _Europa_, which sails +three months from now. We are to employ ourselves in the interim +polishing up our French." + +"Hurrah for Uncle Rob!" exclaimed the delighted little Queenie, +boyishly waving her hat around her head, "he is a perfect fairy prince. +The dream of my life has been to go to Europe." + +"I think _you_ will need to polish more than your French, Queenie," +exclaimed Sydney, peevishly. "Your manners are as rude as a +school-boy's!" + +"And yours are as prim as an old maid's!" retorted Queenie, maliciously, +for Sydney's perpetual fault-finding was a thorn in the flesh to the +petted little creature. + +Sydney flushed crimson at the retort. Her years were verging so near to +the line of old-maidenhood that she was particularly sensitive on the +subject. She now said angrily: + +"Mamma, can you sit silently there and permit Queenie to address me so +disrespectfully?" + +Mrs. Lyle looked at her youngest daughter imploringly. + +"Queenie, how often have I scolded you for aggravating Sydney? Apologize +to her immediately." + +Queenie looked at Sydney's tearful eyes and flushed cheeks, and her +tender little heart melted at once. She crossed over and put her round, +white arms about Sydney's stately neck. + +"Sister, do forgive me," she said, sweetly. "I did not mean a word of +it. Your manners are simply perfection, and I only wish that mine were +half as polished!" + +"You should cultivate yourself," answered Sydney, coldly, as she put the +clinging arms away from her neck, "I am ashamed of your hoydenish +manners." + +"I _will_ try to cultivate myself, Sydney, indeed I will," answered +Queenie, innocently. "I am so young yet, you know; I have time to learn +a great many things!" + +Sydney bit her lip and made no reply. There was nothing she envied so +much as Queenie's tender youth, and to have it thrust upon her notice +like that, however innocently, was unendurable. The silence that fell +was becoming awkward, when a servant entered the room with a small +parcel which she laid in Queenie's hand. + +"A small boy left it at the door for you," she said, as she withdrew. + +Queenie stared at the parcel in bewilderment. It had a familiar look. + +"Open it, my dear," said Mrs. Lyle, curiously. + +Queenie tore off the paper and a box was revealed. She took off the lid +with a trembling hand. Within the box lay the painted fan she had sold +an hour ago to the dealer on ---- Street. + +"What is this?" said Georgina, stooping down. + +She picked up a card that had fallen from the box. Upon it was written +in a clear, bold, manly hand: + +"From an unknown admirer of Miss Queenie Lyle." + +"Someone has sent your painted fan back to you," exclaimed Mrs. Lyle. +"How kind! But who could it have been?" + +"Queenie has caught a beau!" said Georgina, laughing. + +Involuntarily Queenie's thoughts reverted to the dark-eyed stranger who +had looked at her in the store, but she said nothing. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +"Who is the young _debutante_, Miss Lyle?" + +Sydney Lyle, coming down the long ball-room on the arm of the most +distinguished man in the room, looked up with ill-concealed annoyance at +his words. + +She followed his glance, and saw little Queenie standing in the center +of a group of admirers, fluttering her satin fan with the grace of an +embryo coquette. The girl looked lovely as a dream in her thin, white +dress, with its multitudinous puffings and frillings. + +It was looped here and there with natural rosebuds, and she wore her set +of pearls clasped round her white throat and wrists, while her golden +hair rippled to her waist in a shower of natural ringlets. Anything more +sweetly fair and happy could scarcely be imagined than Queenie, as she +stood there, warm and flushed from the dance, and enjoying, with all the +keenness of youth and novelty, the honied flatteries of the little court +around her. An irrepressible pang of jealousy gave a touch of sharpness +to Sydney's voice, as she answered: + +"That is my sister Queenie, Captain Ernscliffe--a willful child who +ought to be in the school-room this moment, but who has persuaded mamma +to let her come here instead." + +"Ah! your sister," said Captain Ernscliffe. "I might have known it by +her beauty. She has lived near the _rose_," and he pointed the +compliment by a meaning glance that made Sydney blush. "You will +introduce me, Miss Lyle?" + +"Certainly." Sydney answered, and pausing beside Queenie, she said, +carelessly: + +"Captain Ernscliffe, this is my sister, Queenie. If she should shock you +by her _outre_ manners, please remember that she is but a child and +quite unaccustomed to appear in society." + +Captain Ernscliffe bowed low over the white-gloved hand of the +enchanting little beauty, and Queenie looked up at him and said, with a +flash of wrath against Sydney: + +"You need not believe Sydney, when she tells you I am nothing but a +child, Captain Ernscliffe. I am _seventeen_ years old, and I know how to +behave myself just as well as any young lady of my age, in spite of +Sydney's warning." + +The gentleman saw that the young heart was sorely wounded, despite her +quick assumption of dignity, and hastened to say, consolingly: + +"I can well believe you, Miss Queenie, for I see there is but one +unanimous opinion among the gentlemen. You are the belle of the ball." + +Sydney passed on with the words rankling in her heart, though she knew +that they were true. Among all the beautiful women present, in their +cosily dresses and splendid jewels, little Queenie, with her sunny smile +and her cheap, white tarleton dress, was the most admired and sought +after. + +The women who envied her fresh, young loveliness sneered at the simple +dress, but the men--bless their ignorant hearts--did not know whether +the snowy mist that floated about her cost a hundred dollars or five. +They only saw that her face was the fairest, her eyes the brightest, her +voice the sweetest of any in the room. Mrs. Lyle saw the sensation she +created, and straightway began to lay matrimonial plans for her. + +"Sydney and Georgina are both handsome and stylish, yet they are very +slow in marrying off well," she said to herself, with a sigh. "Perhaps I +shall have better luck with my willful Queenie. There is that rich +Ernscliffe with her now. He is a splendid catch, but then, Sydney has +had her heart set on him this long while. She would be very angry if +Queenie were to rival her." + +In the meantime little Queenie was clapping her tiny hands and saying, +in a voice full of girlish pleasure: + +"The belle of the ball, Captain Ernscliffe? Oh, how nice that is! I love +for people to like me, yet Syd and George said that no one would look at +me in this cheap dress, that I bought for five dollars and made with my +own hands." + +"It is the prettiest dress in the rooms. I had no idea but that it cost +at least a hundred dollars," said Captain Ernscliffe, regarding the +fairy-like puffs attentively. "And your bouquet, as the ladies say, is +too sweet for anything. Was it a tribute from some admirer?" + +She blushed and smiled, and lifted the fragrant triumph of the floral +art to her sweet face. + +"You have guessed right," she said. "It was handed in at our door this +evening, with the compliments of an unknown admirer." + +"The fellow had fine taste anyway," laughed the captain, "both in the +selection of the flowers and their recipient." + +"Thank you," answered Queenie, demurely, looking up with a smile, and +dropping her lashes very quickly a minute after, for something in the +glance of his dark eyes sent a blush to her cheek and made her silly +little heart thrill strangely. + +Captain Ernscliffe only smiled like one used to such effects. He was a +bachelor, and thirty years old, and women called him a flirt. Be that as +it may, he was as handsome as a prince, and knew how to make women's +lashes flutter down upon cheeks that blushed crimson under his glance. + +"What an innocent little darling she is," he thought, to himself. "How +different from her sisters, and from the girls one meets usually in +society! One might well resign all the liberties of bachelorhood to win +and wear so sweet a flower." "Doubtless you have woven a pretty web of +romance about the unknown giver of your flowers, Miss Lyle," he said, +jestingly. + +She had pressed the flowers to her lips unconsciously, and at his words +she started and smiled, and looked up to reply with the brightest face +he had ever looked upon. But suddenly, before a single word left her +lips, her aspect changed strangely and marvelously. Her cheeks and lips +grew white as death, her eyes grew wild with horror, and she swept her +hand across her brow as if to dispel some horrid vision. Her form +trembled like a leaf in a storm, and with a wild, inarticulate cry she +wavered and fell in a lifeless heap at Captain Ernscliffe's feet. + +It was all so sudden that Captain Ernscliffe lifted her up and carried +her through the low window out on the balcony before anyone had noticed +her fall. He laid her down on a rustic lounge, turned her white face up +to the air, and went and called her mother very quietly. + +"Oh! Captain Ernscliffe, is she dead?" exclaimed Mrs. Lyle, wringing her +hands in terror. + +"Oh! no, she has only fainted, I think. The rooms were too warm, +perhaps. See, she is already reviving in the cooler air out here." + +The girl's breath came fluttering back in a long, quivering sigh. She +caught Captain Ernscliffe's arm and half-lifted herself without seeming +to notice her mother. + +"Oh! Captain Ernscliffe, did you see _it_?" she gasped, rather than +spoke. + +"Did I see _what_?" he inquired, rather blankly. + +"The _horrid_ vision that came between me and the flowers and made me +faint," she answered, sitting up and looking at him in surprise. + +"My dear young lady, there was nothing to see, only the dancers. You +were tired and excited, and the heat overcame you. You are unaccustomed +to the crush and excitement of balls, you know." + +"And _you_ saw nothing but the _dancers_?" she said to him, shivering as +she spoke, like one in a chill, and passing her hand before her eyes. + +"Nothing, I assure you," he answered, gravely. + +"What did you see, Queenie?" inquired Mrs. Lyle, coming forward. + +"Oh! mamma, is that you?" Little Queenie reached out her white arms, +twined them about her mother's neck, and sank on her bosom trembling and +shivering, and moaning faintly: "Oh! mamma! mamma!" + +"My dear, my dear, compose yourself. You are nervous and hysterical," +remonstrated Mrs. Lyle. "See, you are distressing Captain Ernscliffe +very much." + +Little Queenie hushed her sobs and looked up at the gentleman, who did +indeed look anxious and distressed. + +"What was it you saw, Miss Lyle?" he inquired, gently. + +"Perhaps you will not credit it," she said, lifting her white, +awe-stricken face in the moonlight that flooded the balcony, "but, +Captain Ernscliffe, just as I looked up from my flowers to speak to you, +the whole scene of the ball faded out into _blackness_, and then I saw a +vision come before me in its place." + +She paused, shuddered visibly, then resumed: + +"I saw a thick, dark wood before me with the rain-drops falling down +through the leaves of the trees. I saw a tall man with his back to me, +and close by that man was a _grave_--a shallow grave, so shallow that it +could not hide the girl that lay within it, for the wind and the rain +had beaten away the earth and the dead leaves with which the man had +covered her. I saw her awfully white, dead face upturned to the light, +and there were cruel black marks around her throat as if someone had +choked her--and a purple wound on her brow." + +"My darling, it was only your excited imagination," said Mrs. Lyle, +soothingly. + +"Oh, no, I saw it quite plainly," answered little Queenie, with a sharp +wail of anguish; "and, oh, mamma, mamma, _the face of that dead girl was +just exactly like mine_!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +"I always knew you were a little simpleton, Queenie, but I never thought +you could be so foolish and ungrateful as this! No girl in her senses +would refuse the chance of spending Captain Ernscliffe's money!" + +Three months had elapsed since the grand ball at Mrs. Kirk's, and +Queenie Lyle was arraigned before the bar of maternal justice. Little +Queenie had spent those three months in a perfect whirl of excitement, +pleasure and conquest. And now Captain Ernscliffe, the irresistible, the +invincible, had surrendered at discretion, and actually proposed to +marry her! And little Queenie Lyle had had the audacity to refuse the +honor. + +"To think," went on Mrs. Lyle, reproachfully, "how we have humored and +indulged you the last three months, and all for this! You have been to +all the balls and parties worth going to--you have had nice dresses and +laces--and we all thought you would marry off well, and rid your papa of +one of his expensive daughters--yet last month you refused that rich old +Myddleton! I did not care as much for that, for I saw that Ernscliffe +was madly in love, and thought you would be sure to accept him. Yet now +you have actually refused him, too, you wicked, ungrateful girl!" + +"Mamma, mamma," pleaded Queenie, with a quivering lip, "do not be angry +with me. I could not marry Captain Ernscliffe, because I do not love +him." + +"Then if you do not love _him_ you can never love anyone," exclaimed +Mrs. Lyle. "He is handsome, accomplished, wealthy; and there's not a +girl I know but would jump at _your_ chance, Sydney not excepted." + +"Sydney _loves_ him, mamma--let her marry him." + +"She cannot get him--more's the pity. I wish he had fancied her instead +of you," said Mrs. Lyle, sharply. + +"I wish so too mamma. I am very sorry for Sydney, and for Captain +Ernscliffe, too," said Queenie, with a long, quivering sigh. + +"You had better be sorry for yourself, foolish girl; you have thrown +away the best chance for marrying that you ever will have!" exclaimed +Mrs. Lyle, angrily, for she was deeply chagrined at Queenie's willful +disregard of her best interests. + +To her surprise Queenie threw herself down at her feet and began to sob +wildly. + +"Mamma, I am sorry for myself," she moaned, faintly, "so sorry that I +wish I were dead!" + +"For shame, Queenie, to go into such a passion because I scolded you! +Get up and stop making a baby of yourself," said her mother severely. + +Little Queenie dried her eyes at that sharp reproof and went on with her +packing, which Mrs. Lyle's entrance had interrupted, for they were to +sail for Europe that week, and the house was "topsy-turvey" with their +preparations. + +Her mother sat moodily watching her as she folded silks and laces, and +packed them away securely in the great Saratoga trunk. + +"What have you in that box, Queenie?" she inquired, seeing the girl put +a box in the trunk with a half-conscious glance. "You look as if you +were smuggling something." + +Queenie blushed violently, and Mrs. Lyle saw that she trembled as she +answered falteringly: + +"Nothing of any importance, I assure you, mamma." + +"Let me see," said Mrs. Lyle, resolutely, and she took the box from the +trunk and lifted the lid. "Why, what have we here? Flowers--withered +flowers! Queenie, why upon earth are you keeping these dead, +ill-smelling things? Throw them out of the window." + +"Oh, no, mamma," cried Queenie, blushing very much and trying to take +the box from her mother's hand. + +But Mrs. Lyle held on to the box and took out three bouquets of withered +flowers, and three cards that lay in the bottom of the box. She read +aloud: + +"From an unknown admirer of Miss Queenie Lyle." + +"Oh dear, dear," said Mrs. Lyle, impatiently; "now I begin to +understand. These flowers, which were sent by some impudent fellow, have +made a fool of you, Queenie. You have been building a romance over him, +and that is why you have no eyes for better men. Tell me the truth now, +Queenie; do you know who sent you these flowers?" + +"How should I know, mamma?" asked the girl, evasively, and turning her +crimson face away from her mother's keen scrutiny. "You see he writes +himself unknown." + +"Well, known or unknown, here is an end to _that_ foolishness," said +Mrs. Lyle, crossing the room and tossing the luckless flowers out of the +window. "I did not know you were so silly and romantic, Queenie, as to +carry a bunch of dead flowers to Europe." + +Queenie stamped her little foot on the floor, and her eyes flashed fire. + +"Mamma, you had no right to throw my flowers away!" she passionately +exclaimed. "Papa would never have intermeddled with my affairs like +that!" + +Mrs. Lyle dropped into a chair and buried her face in her hands. + +"To think that I should have a child that would treat me so +disrespectfully," she sighed. + +"What has mamma been doing to my little pet?" asked Mr. Lyle, entering +quietly and unexpectedly, as he always did. + +There was an awkward silence for a moment; then Queenie said, with her +sweet face turned away: + +"Mamma has been scolding me because I would not marry Captain +Ernscliffe." + +"Your papa would do well to scold you also," flashed Mrs. Lyle. "After +all your father's goodness to you, and your pretense of loving him so +well, to think that you would throw away your chance of helping him in +his old age. I have no patience with such folly!" + +"Papa, _you_ are not angry with me, are you?" asked his daughter, +turning her soft, beseeching eyes, now swimming in tears, upon his kind +yet troubled face. "I could not marry Captain Ernscliffe, papa, because +I do not love him." + +"Love," sneered Mrs. Lyle, scornfully. "Love is the last thing to be +considered nowadays!" + +Papa drew the tearful pleader down by his side on the lounge, and +smoothed away the disheveled golden ringlets from the flushed little +face. + +"No, dear, I am not angry with you," he said. "It is true that my +business affairs are tottering on the verge of failure, and if you had +accepted the captain he might have helped me to tide over the crisis, +but I would not have you sacrifice yourself, my pet, for I would be loth +to part from you even if you went willingly and happily to another home. +But let us hope for the best. Now that your Uncle Rob is about to take +my expensive family off my hands for a year, I may be able to save some +money and get straight again." + + * * * * * + +Three days later Mrs. Lyle and her three fair and charming daughters +stood on the deck of the _Europa_ bound for their long and anxiously +anticipated continental tour. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +"How I miss them all," Mr. Lyle said to himself often and often in the +long year while his family were absent, and he went home every night to +his solitary supper and lonely newspaper. "I would give anything to see +my little Queenie, or even to get a letter from her. Strange that she +does not write to me. And mamma, too, in her brief letters never says a +word about Queenie, though she must know that I want to hear something +about my little one. She always says that the girls are well and +enjoying themselves, but she never goes into particulars." + +It was quite true. The Lyles were traveling from place to place, and +Mrs. Lyle, never fond of writing, always dropped the briefest of notes +to her husband, and invariably informed him that he need not reply, for +they were constantly on the wing and could not tell him where to direct +his letter so that it would reach them. She spoke of the girls casually, +never naming them in particular save once in her first letter when she +said that "Robert was much disappointed, and even vexed at Queenie's +defection." + +Mr. Lyle puzzled a great deal over those words at first, and at last +concluded that Mrs. Lyle referred to Queenie's rejection of Captain +Ernscliffe. + +Robert Lyle was a younger brother of Mr. Lyle, and had inherited a +large fortune from a deceased uncle. He was an invalid, and spent most +of his time abroad from whence many fine presents found their way to his +elder brother's family in America. + +Mr. Lyle felt rather vexed that Robert should have blamed little Queenie +for her course in regard to Captain Ernscliffe. + +"The child is too young to be forced into a loveless marriage," he said +to himself. "I hope she will marry money some day, for I know how sad +the lack of it is, but I hope it may be a love-match, too." + +The longing for his little girl was very strong upon him one night as he +sat in his quiet library trying to interest himself in the daily +paper--so strong that he laid the paper down, and rested his head a +little wearily on his hands. + +"It is six months since they went away," he said. "How long it seems, +and how much I want to see my little Queenie. It is strange, but ever +since she was born I have loved her better than the other children." + +Something like a quivering sigh sounded faintly through the room. He +looked up quickly, but he was quite alone. + +"I am growing fanciful in my old age and solitude," he thought, and +dropped his head again upon his hands. + +Again that soft, low sigh went trembling through the room. + +This time some strange instinct drew his eyes to the window, and he +sprang to his feet with a smothered cry. A sweet, white face, framed in +golden hair, was pressed against the window-pane looking at him, with +dark eyes full of love and sorrow--the beautiful face of his absent +daughter, Queenie. + +"She has come home--my darling!" he cried joyfully, and rushed to the +window and threw up the sash. + +But in that moment the lovely young face had disappeared. + +"Queenie, my love--where are you?" he called. "Do not tease your poor +old papa!" + +But silence and darkness answered him only. He went out into the garden +and wandered about in the shrubbery, calling, softly. + +"Queenie, Queenie!" + +But echo only answered him. + +He went back sadly into the house and thought over the perplexing +mystery. + +"She is dead," he said, at last; "I have seen her spirit. She has come +to me from far-off foreign lands to bid me an eternal farewell. Oh, +Queenie, Queenie, my lost darling!" + +And from that night Mr. Lyle began to grow old and broken. He could +neither eat, nor sleep, nor rest until he heard from his wife again. + +In a month one of her short, careless epistles came to hand. She said, +as usual, that the girls were well and enjoying themselves very much, +and added that Georgina had caught a beau, and was apt to make a +splendid match. + +"She is living, then, my little pet!" exclaimed the doting old father, +in delighted surprise, "and yet I surely saw her spirit face looking in +upon me that night. It was a warning--or a token of sorrow." + +And the burden of heaviness still clung about his heart, and the shadow +brooded in his kindly blue eyes until Mrs. Lyle wrote at last that they +were coming home on the _Europa_ the next month. + + * * * * * + +It was a dark and stormy night when the Lyles came home again. Mr. Lyle +had not known when the _Europa_ would be in, so they took him by +surprise when they drove up to the door that night. It was verging on to +midnight and the domestics were all asleep, but Mr. Lyle was still up, +poring over an account book. + +"This is a joyful surprise!" he exclaimed, as he led the way to the +drawing-room and turned up the gas that he might look at their sweet +faces clearly. + +Mrs. Lyle fell on his neck and embraced him, and Sydney, then Georgina, +glided forward and touched his cheek with their lips. He looked behind +them for the little one whom he had thought would be first to embrace +him. + +"Queenie--where is Queenie?" he asked. + +Mrs. Lyle, slowly drawing off her gray kid gloves, looked at him in some +surprise. + +"Bless the darling--is she not asleep?" she said. "It was so late and +stormy that we expected you would all be in bed and asleep." + +The rain beat dismally outside, the wind howled like a demon in despair. +Something of the chill and coldness outside seemed to strike to the +man's heart as he said quickly: + +"The servants are all asleep--but Queenie--she is with you, of course?" + +"Why do you say _of course_, papa?" said Sydney. "Did Queenie come down +to the steamer to meet us in this dreadful storm?" + +Mr. Lyle looked bewildered. + +"Sydney," he exclaimed hoarsely, "did not Queenie come home with you +from Europe?" + +"Why, Papa, Queenie did not go with us, you know," said Georgina, coming +forward, and laying her hand on his arm. "She came back to stay with +you. Is she not at home?" + +Mr. Lyle dropped back into a chair, and wrung his hands like one +distracted. + +"My God!" he exclaimed. "You torture me with your inexplicable words. I +tell you I have never laid eyes on Queenie, living, since I bade her +good-bye on the deck of the _Europa_ a year ago." + +"My God!" screamed Mrs. Lyle, falling down upon the floor, while Sydney +and Georgina looked like statues of horror, "what has become of my +little Queenie?" + +"Papa," said Sydney, in a trembling voice, "there is some dreadful +mystery here. Queenie did not go to Europe with us. After you bade us +good-bye that day on the steamer, she cried and wept, and almost went +into hysterics, begging mamma to let her go back and stay with you, +instead of going to Europe. She was so unmanageable that mamma consented +at last, and she and her trunks were put on shore, and we went aboard +without her. Did she not come home to you?" + +"No, never," groaned the wretched father, like one demented. "I have +never seen her since that day. Oh, Queenie, my lost darling, where are +you?" + +For a moment there came no answer to the question. They stood around +spellbound with horror, while a peal of awful thunder reverberated +outside and seemed to shake the house from its foundations. The next +moment the door was burst violently open, and the dripping figure of a +woman rushed into the room. + +"_Queenie!_" burst from the quivering lips of the unhappy father. + +Yes, it was Queenie, but oh, how terribly changed! Her streaming golden +hair, matted with mold and dead leaves, hung wet and cold over her +shoulders. Her dress of dark silk was stained with great patches and +wisps of dead autumn leaves. The tight bodice, open at the top, exposed +her throat, which--oh, Heaven!--was marked round and round with the +purple and red print of finger-marks as though she had been strangled. + +Her face was white as death, showing the plainer for its whiteness a +mark upon her brow above her eyes--the horrible purple print of a man's +boot heel on the tender flesh, from which a thin stream of blood +trickled down on her ghastly face. A fearful--fearful apparition, +strangely unlike little Queenie of other days. Yet it was Queenie, for +she staggered blindly forward, and panting out: "Papa, papa, forgive!" +fell in a lifeless heap at his feet. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +At little Queenie's sudden and terrible appearance Mrs. Lyle and the two +elder sisters screamed aloud in fright and horror, and even the agonized +father recoiled a moment from the dreadful-looking creature that lay at +his feet to all appearances dead. + +Directly, however, with a strong revulsion of feeling from dismay and +terror to pity and tenderness, he bent down and lifted the white face of +his daughter on his arm. + +Her head fell back helplessly, and the wet and matted locks of gold +trailed over the velvet carpet, drenching it with rain-drops. The long, +dark lashes lay close upon the marble-white cheeks and no breath +fluttered over the pale, parted lips to show that life still dwelt in +the frame of the hapless girl. + +A cry of agony broke from the lips of the poor father whose fondest +affections had been concentrated on the daughter now lying lifeless in +his arms. + +"Oh, God! oh, God! what fearful mystery is here? Queenie is _dead_; and +oh! those _horrible_ marks upon her throat and brow! Someone has +_murdered_ my little darling!" + +Again the frightened shrieks of the women rose above the dreadful tumult +of the storm outside. They huddled together by the marble hearth, +shuddering as though afraid to approach that dreadful-looking object +that had come upon them with the face of the little Queenie they had +alternately scolded and petted in the past. Mr. Lyle looked at them +with a keen reproach and pain in his heavy eyes. + +"Queenie is _dead_," he said to them, in a hollow, broken voice. "Why do +you stand aloof from her?" + +His lips were white, and he trembled so that he could scarcely hold the +still form that lay so helpless in his arms. But even as he spoke, her +lips parted in a faint and scarce audible sigh, the eyelids fluttered +slightly and grew still again. + +"No, no, she _lives_!" he cried, rapturously. "Quick, quick! let us take +her to her room and apply restoratives." + +He lifted her in his arms and the women mechanically followed him as he +bore her to her room and laid her down upon her little white bed. Then +he turned around with the dazed look gone from his white face and a +gleam of resolution there instead. + +"There is some dreadful mystery here," he said, in deep, low tones. "The +servants must not know of this. Let them think that she came back with +you from Europe. Sydney and Georgie, you may retire to your rooms. Your +mamma and I will do all that is necessary." + +Frightened and weeping the girls went away to their rooms and the +fearfully stricken parents went to work to restore life in the exhausted +frame of poor little Queenie. + +They bathed and dressed the wound upon her brow, laved the fearfully +discolored throat with arnica, wrung and dried the dripping golden +tresses, and lastly Mrs. Lyle removed her soiled, wet garments and robed +her in a pretty nightdress. All the while the hapless girl lay still and +motionless, without a sign of life save an occasional quiver of the +eyelids, and a faint, scarce perceptible throbbing in her wrist. + +"My dear, you are tired and overcome," Mr. Lyle said to his wife when +they had done all that was possible. "Go to your room and rest. I will +stay here and watch by our little girl." + +Mrs. Lyle leaned her head on his shoulder and burst into hysterical +weeping. + +"Oh! what does it mean?" she moaned, wringing her hands. "_Where_, oh! +_where_, has Queenie been this past year?" + +"My dear, we shall know when she revives, if she ever does. Go now and +rest," he answered, pushing her gently from the room. + +He went back to his lonely vigil and watched the weary night through by +that silent form upon the bed. Now and then he rose and poured a few +drops of wine between the pale, unconscious lips and sat down again with +his finger upon the fluttering, thread-like pulse. At length, between +the dark and the dawn, Queenie opened her eyes upon his face, sighed, +and murmured: + +"Papa!" + +He bent over her anxiously. + +"You are better, darling?" he said. + +"I am better," she answered faintly. + +There was silence a little while after that. She lay quite still with +her large, hollow eyes fixed wistfully on her father's pale and troubled +face as he bent over her, holding her white and wasted hand in both his +own. Everything was very still about the house. The storm outside had +spent itself, and only now and then the fitful muttering of the +"homeless wind" reminded one of the war of the elements that had raged +so fiercely a few hours ago. + +Mr. Lyle's voice, hoarse, trembling, agonized, broke strangely upon the +utter stillness: + +"_Queenie, where have you been all this long, dreadful year?_" + +Queenie turned her face and buried it in the pillow, and a low sob of +utter agony answered him only. + +Again he repeated the question, this time more firmly and resolutely. + +"Oh! papa, _must_ I tell you?" she moaned, without lifting her face from +its friendly refuge. + +"Yes, Queenie, I must have a full explanation of your mysterious +absence, for I fear it covers wrong or guilt. Secrecy is seldom without +sin," he answered, in a firm but heart-wrung voice. + +His daughter wrung her white hands, moaning and weeping. + +"Oh! papa, I _cannot, cannot_ tell you," she exclaimed. + +Mr. Lyle took the white hands that were wildly beating the air, and held +them firmly in both his own. + +"Be calm, Queenie," he said, "and listen to me. There can be no question +of _cannot_ between you and me! You have deceived us all and spent a +year away from us. You return to us wretched and alone, with the marks +of cruel violence upon your person. What are we to think of you, +Queenie, if you refuse to explain the mystery? How can we receive you +back with a secret, perhaps a shameful one, in your life? I must have +your vindication from your own lips, my poor child. Answer me, Queenie, +where have you spent this missing year of your life?" + +She wrenched her hands away and looked about her wildly. + +"Let me go--I cannot stay here! Oh! why did I ever come?" she wailed. "I +was mad, mad!" + +He laid her forcibly back upon the bed. She was too weak to resist him, +and lay panting and moaning in wild despair. + +"Queenie, you torture me," he said, hoarsely; "I must have the truth +from you. Tell me, dear, has anyone wronged you? If it is so, I will +have the villain's heart's blood!" + +She shivered and trembled where she lay held down by his strong hands. + +"Too late," she moaned, in a voice half-triumphant, half-despairing. "I +have taken vengeance into my own hands--I have," she broke off shivering +and sobbing, with a look of awful horror in the white face with the +terrible, purple print of a boot-heel on the marble brow. + +"Tell me all, dear," he said, his voice sharp with anxiety and +foreboding. + +She looked up, trembling and shivering, and wailed out: + +"Papa, be merciful--spare me, spare me!" + +He made no answer. His head was bowed on his hands, his face hidden. +Queenie looked at him and saw with a sudden sharp pang how strangely his +clustering locks had whitened in the past year. She raised herself up +and threw her arms around him, laying her cheek against his shoulder. + +"Papa," she whispered, mournfully, "look up--I will tell you all--but +only to _you, you alone_, dearest and best of fathers--can I reveal the +_terrible_ secret that has ruined my life!" + +With her cheek against his shoulder and her hand locked in his, Queenie +Lyle poured forth in burning words the story of that missing year--the +saddest story to which her father had ever listened--yet he made no +comment, uttered no word, until she had finished and thrown herself down +at his feet with the wailing cry: + +"Papa, can you _ever_ forgive me?" + +He did not try to lift her up as she lay there. He only said in a deep, +intense voice, with a lightning flash in his deep eyes: + +"Queenie, you have forgotten to tell me one thing--_his name_." + +She shuddered from head to foot. + +"Papa, it is the only thing I must keep from you--that hated name! What +matters it? Is he not beyond the reach of your vengeance?" + +"True, true," he answered with a strong shudder. "Oh, Queenie, my poor +child, would to God I had died before this terrible thing came upon me!" + +She crept nearer him and rested her bowed head on his knee, all her +glorious, golden tresses sweeping to the floor. + +His heart ached as he saw that bright head lying there bowed low with +shame and disgrace. + +"Papa," she whispered, in a voice like saddest music, "papa, do you +_condemn_ me?" + +He was silent a moment, struggling with the keenest agony he had ever +known. Then he answered very gently: + +"My poor Queenie, I forgive you." Then added in the words of the great +Teacher of men: "Let him that is without sin cast the first stone." + +And the first beams of the newly risen day shone into the room and +crowned his gray head like a halo of light. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +"Yes, Queenie was quite sick for more than a month after we returned +from abroad. She is not strong yet, but she has promised to come down +into the drawing-room for a little while this evening." + +It was Mrs. Lyle who spoke, in the calmest, most composed tone in the +world. She was leaning back in her chair, richly dressed in silk and +lace and fluttering her fan as she talked to Captain Ernscliffe who +leaned over the back of her chair, tall, handsome and stately, the most +distinguished-looking man in the room. + +Mrs. Lyle was giving a small reception after her return, and had bidden +the _creme de la creme_ of society only, to welcome her home. + +There were beautiful women in plenty present, and none but had a +flattering smile for Captain Ernscliffe, but though he smiled and +chatted with all, he still kept looking over even the fairest heads +toward the door for one absent face while his heart thrilled with +anxiety and expectation. + +She came at last, and though he had been watching for her so long he +scarcely knew her when she entered. He had expected to see a little, +fairy-like creature, with a sunny smile and falling ringlets, and cheeks +like pinkest rose leaves. Instead, there entered a tall, pale, graceful +girl, clad in a dress of white lace ornamented with knots of purple, +golden-hearted pansies. The crimson lips were set in a proud curve +instead of a smile, and the dark fringe of her lashes swept so low that +they almost shadowed her cheeks. Her golden hair was confined in a thick +braid and wound about her head like a coronet, making her seem as +stately as a young princess. + +She was changed, greatly changed, from a year ago, and yet none who +looked at the fair, calm face, with pride sitting regnant on the broad, +white brow, would have dreamed that the pathos and pain of a terrible +tragedy had been wrought into her life and had seared her heart and soul +as with fire. + +Friends and acquaintances crowded around her and it was many minutes +before she found her way to her mother's chair where Captain Ernscliffe +still stood with his heart beating so fast that he thought she must have +heard it. It seemed to him as if everyone in the room must read in his +face the secret of his love for Queenie Lyle who had rejected him a year +ago with all the thoughtless lightness of girlhood. But no, his face was +perfectly calm to all appearance, and as the girl gave one timid, upward +glance at him she thought he had forgotten or outlived the pain of his +rejection. + +"I scarcely dared hope that you would return home as you went," he said +after the first formal greeting. "I feared some French count or English +lord would claim you as his own." + +She blushed, and her eyes fell until the dark lashes rested on her +burning cheeks. + +"I was not so fortunate as to claim the admiration of any of the +nobility," she answered carelessly. "Georgie outshone us all. She is to +be married to an English lord in a month from now." + +"I am very glad it is not you who are to be married to him," he answered +laughing, but with an undertone of sincerity. + +Other friends claimed her for awhile, but by-and-bye his restless glance +found her out sitting by a window alone for the moment, and looking +tired and a little sad. + +"You are not strong enough to stand the heat of the rooms," he said +kindly. "Come out in the garden and walk in the moonlight with me." + +She took his arm and they went out in the garden. It was summer, and the +flowers were blooming in profuse sweetness. The air was heavy with the +odor of the roses and honeysuckle. They sat down upon a rustic seat with +the full flood of brilliant moonlight falling on Queenie's uncovered +head and lovely white face. + +"You have grown more beautiful than ever, Queenie," said her companion +admiringly. + +She did not answer, but he fancied that he heard a faint, quickly +smothered sigh. + +Impulsively he took into his own the small hand lying cold and listless +in her lap. + +"It has been a year since I saw you, Queenie," he exclaimed, "but I find +the old love rising in my heart as passionately as if we had only parted +yesterday. Dearest, have you ever repented of your cruelty to me?" + +She looked up at him, and her eyes were full of a fathomless sadness and +vague regret. + +"Ah! yes," she said, and her voice was almost a wail of pain. "I have +repented, Captain Ernscliffe, I have been sorry often and often for my +blind mistake!" + +He held out his arms, drawing he scarcely knew what hope from her +agitated words. + +"Queenie, come to me," he cried. "Let atonement follow repentance." + +But she drew back, trembling and frightened. + +"I--oh, I did not mean that," she said, "I cannot--_it is too late!_" + +"Queenie, do not be cruel to me again," he pleaded, carried away by the +rush of his wild passion. "If you knew how I have wearied for you since +you went away, how blank my life has been, you could not be so cruel! +You would give yourself to me out of sheer pity and tenderness." + +"But I do not love you," she said. + +"I will teach you to love me, Queenie. I love you so well that I could +not help winning your love in return if you only gave me the privilege +to try. Say yes, my beautiful darling, and make me the happiest of men!" + +She sat still with her head bowed and her hands locked together in her +lap like one thinking intently. At length she said, without lifting her +head to look at him: + +"I do not believe I can make you happy, Captain Ernscliffe, but I will +be your wife if you want me." + + * * * * * + +When the reception was over and the guests all gone, Queenie sought her +father and found him alone in the library. + +"Papa," she said, abruptly, laying her hand on his arm. "Captain +Ernscliffe has proposed to me again!" + +"You refused him, of course, Queenie," he answered, looking at her with +the grave sadness that always rested on his features now. + +Her eyes fell, and a crimson flush crept slowly over her features, but +she answered steadily: + +"_Au contraire_, papa, I have accepted him." + +"Queenie!" + +"Papa!" + +"Why have you acted thus? You do not love him?" + +"No, papa, but it will be a fine match for me!" she answered, with a +hard little laugh, and a slight ring of sarcasm in her voice. + +He looked at her almost angrily. + +"Queenie, I have never intended--never contemplated the possibility of a +marriage for you--since--since you came back home. I took you back and +forgave you, kept your secret, and forced your mother and sisters to +receive you and overlook that dreadful blank year whose secret I would +not reveal to them. But I cannot--you must not expect it--allow you to +deceive an honest man." + +"Oh, papa! papa!" she fell on her knees and looked up at him +imploringly, "for sweet pity's sake, have mercy on me! Keep my secret +and let me marry Captain Ernscliffe! I need another home--mamma and the +girls are so cold and hard to me--I will be a good wife to him--I will +indeed! He shall never know." + +"Ah, Queenie, if your sin should find you out!" he said. + +"It will not, it _cannot_," she said, with a shudder; "it is buried _too +deep_. And I have prayed--oh, how I have prayed, papa--and God has +forgiven me!" + +"God has forgiven you, but _men_ would not," he said. + +"_You_ forgave me, papa." + +"Because you had been sinned against, and because I love you so dearly, +and pitied you also. But, Queenie, Captain Ernscliffe would recoil from +you in horror if he knew what I know." + +"Papa, he shall _never_ know," she cried, clasping his knees with her +round, white arms, and lifting her wild, streaming eyes to his face. "I +will try to make him happy; and he wants me so very much. You will only +make him unhappy if you come between us." + +A gleam of relenting came into his eyes. He had loved her so dearly even +since her innocent babyhood, and now, despite her fault, despite the +hidden tragedy in her young life, the father's heart bled for her, and +sweet pity stood sentinel over her past. + +"Queenie, do you think you are doing right?" he said, appealing to her +honor. + +Alas! her terrible wrongs and deep despair had steeled her heart against +all appeals. + +"Right or wrong," she said, almost defiantly, "I shall marry him, unless +you tell him my secret, papa. And if you do, what good will you +accomplish! You will only break his heart." + +"Go, then, unhappy, willful child," he answered, sternly, "go; but if +shame and sorrow come of your folly, remember the fault is on your own +head." + +"I accept the responsibility," she answered, with a hard, steely ring in +her voice. + +He turned away with a groan and went abruptly out of the room. + +"She is changed almost beyond belief," he said to himself. "That +dreadful tragedy has warped her whole nature and made her reckless and +heartless. Unless some softening influence is brought to bear upon her +she will be lost forever!" + + * * * * * + +Queenie was about to leave the library, when a rustling noise made her +look around, and the next moment Sydney Lyle stepped from behind the +heavy curtains at the window, where she had been an unsuspected listener +to the conversation. + +Sydney looked brilliantly beautiful in a ruby-colored satin, trimmed +with Spanish lace. A cluster of rich, scarlet roses were fastened in the +dark braids of her hair, and diamonds blazed on her neck and arms, but +they were scarcely brighter than the fire in her dark eyes as she seized +Queenie by the white shoulder and shook her roughly. + +"Queenie Lyle, you little wretch!" she exclaimed, in a low voice of +concentrated rage and passion, "how dare you promise to marry Captain +Ernscliffe?" + +Queenie shook herself loose from the cruel grasp that had left ugly red +marks on her smooth, white shoulder, and answered defiantly: + +"What business is that of yours, Sydney?" + +"You shall not marry him!" Sydney continued, passionately. "You are not +fit to marry any man; but I care not whom you wed so that it be not +Captain Ernscliffe." + +"I shall marry no other," answered Queenie, stung into defiance by +Sydney's overbearing look and manner. "I shall marry Captain Ernscliffe +as surely as I live, Sydney, and you cannot prevent it." + +"Can I not?" hissed Sydney, furiously. "What if I tell him to ask you +for the secret of that _missing year_ of your life?" + +Queenie looked back at her calmly and quietly. + +"You will not dare to do it," she said. "If you did I would tell him +that you wanted him for yourself." + +"He would not believe you," flashed Sydney. + +"You dare not risk it, Sydney," said Queenie, defiantly. "As for me, I +have promised to marry Captain Ernscliffe at the same hour that Georgina +marries Lord Valentine, and I shall surely keep my word." + +She swept from the room without pausing to listen to the reply of her +infuriated sister. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +Whether Sydney Lyle was frightened or not by her sister's threat she +made no effort to interfere with the marriage, whose appointed day was +swiftly approaching. Captain Ernscliffe was a daily visitor at Mr. +Lyle's, but Sydney kept her room, or was constantly absorbed in +fashionable gayeties, so that she saw but little of Queenie and her +lover. + +But though Sydney had apparently given up the contest, she still +preserved a tacit feud with Queenie, refusing to speak to or notice her +in any way, and haughtily repelling the questions and remonstrances of +the family on the subject. + +Lord Valentine, the lover of the fair Georgina, at length arrived, and +the cards of invitation were issued for the double wedding, which Mrs. +Lyle had determined should be quite a brilliant affair. + +Mrs. Lyle was jubilant over the prospect of marrying off two of her +girls so advantageously; and Mr. Lyle, in the midst of his trouble and +anxiety over Queenie, was still conscious of a certain sense of relief, +for there had been a coldness and estrangement between Queenie and the +other members of the family ever since her return, and the atmosphere of +home had seemed charged with electricity that threatened at any moment +to burst into storm. So that none, except, perhaps, Sydney, were sorry +when the eventful night arrived, and the two brides were dressing in +their respective rooms, Georgina attended by her mother and Sydney, and +the single maid employed by the family waiting on Queenie. + +The unhappy girl was keenly conscious of the tacit slight, but she did +not seem to notice it by word or sign, and after her toilet was +completed she sent the maid away, saying that she wished to be alone a +little while. + +"Everything is perfect," she said, surveying herself critically in the +mirror. "I am a shade too pale, but then they allow that to brides, I +believe. Ah, me!" + +She walked up and down the room, her small hands locked before her, her +beautiful face as white as death, a look of deep unrest in her large, +violet eyes. + +There was a slight tap at the door. She knew it at once for her father's +familiar knock. + +"Enter, papa," she said. + +He turned the door-handle softly and came in. + +"I have come to see if the bride looks pretty," he said, veiling his +emotion under an affectation of lightness. + +"You are the only one who cares to know," she answered, with a ring of +bitterness in her sweet voice. + +He stood silent, surveying her with sad yet admiring eyes. + +She wore the rich brocaded silk that her uncle had sent her a year ago +from Paris, and which she had laughingly declared then should be her +wedding-dress. Its rich shining folds trailed far behind her, and the +soft folds of the bridal veil fell over it like a mist. Her wreath and +the knots of flowers that looped up her dress were of natural orange +blossoms, the gift of her lover. Their fragrance pervaded the room +deliciously. She wore a magnificent set of diamonds, the bridal gift of +Captain Ernscliffe. + +Young, beautiful, elegantly attired, she made a picture on which the +eyes might feast and never grow weary, and none would have guessed how +heavy was the heart beating under the satin corsage, or that the fearful +elements of a tragedy had been woven into that life that seemed yet in +its earliest spring. + +Her father looked at her a moment, then silently opened his arms, and +she as silently glided into them, heedless that the bridal veil was +disarranged as she laid her fair head down upon his breast. + +"Papa," she murmured, with quivering lips, "_you_ love me, you are kind +to me in spite of--of--all." + +"God bless you, my little daughter," he said, solemnly, and touched his +lips lightly to her brow. + +It was the first time he had kissed her since she had come back. He had +forgiven her, and been kind to her, but the loving caresses that had +been showered on the little Queenie who went away had never been given +to the Queenie who returned. This silent, gentle kiss seemed to have all +the solemnity of a farewell. + +"Papa, I feel strangely," she said, putting her hands to her brow; "my +head whirls, my--oh! oh! God, oh, God, what is that?" + +With a wild and ringing shriek of horror she tore herself from his arms, +and stood pointing at the window with one jeweled finger, her blue eyes +dark and dilated, her face transfigured with terror. + +That frightened shriek penetrated to Georgina's room across the hall. +The bride and her mother and sister all made a rush for Queenie's room, +apprehending some dire calamity. + +They found her standing in the centre of the floor, her face +transfigured with terror, her shaking finger pointed at the window, +while she wailed aloud in accents of remorse and despair: + +"_The dead! The dead!_" + +"Queenie, Queenie, you rave!" her father exclaimed, catching her arm as +she held it forward, still pointing at the window. + +She turned around and clung to him, sobbing wildly: + +"A ghost was there, papa--a horrible ghost!" + +"No, no, dear, there was nothing--I saw nothing. Queenie. There is no +one at the window," he answered soothingly. + +She gave a fearful, shuddering look at the window. + +"It is gone, now, papa; but I tell you I saw a ghost at the window--one +from the dead came and looked at me--_his_ ghost, papa," she moaned, +hiding her face on his shoulder. + +"Whose ghost was it, Queenie?" asked Georgina, curiously, as she stepped +forward in her elegant bridal robe. "Whom did you see?" + +"Do not tease her, Georgie--stand back and give her air--see, she is +about to faint!" exclaimed her father, a little shortly. + +The bride stepped back with a murmur of discontent. She thought it +exceedingly rude in her father to snub the prospective Lady Valentine. + +"Oh! for mercy's sake, Queenie," exclaimed Mrs. Lyle, rushing forward +with a bottle of _eau de cologne_, "don't give way to hysterical fancies +now when it is almost time for the ceremony to begin! You saw nothing at +the window but the moonlight; come, come, compose yourself! Your toilet +will be totally disarranged!" + +She fell to work bathing the limp, nerveless hands and cold brow of the +girl, while Sydney and Georgina stood coldly aloof--the bride because +she was afraid of ruffling her delicate plumage, and Sydney because she +would not have lifted a finger to save Queenie if she had lain dying +before her. + +In the midst of the tumult the maid rushed in. + +"Oh! Mrs. Lyle," she exclaimed, "the company is arriving. Mrs. Preston's +carriage is at the door, and Mrs. Alden's and Mrs. Howe's." + +"Oh! dear," exclaimed Mrs. Lyle, "was there ever such a _contre temps_? +Not a soul in the drawing-room to receive them! Sydney, you must go +down, I cannot leave Queenie in this state." + +Sydney curled her lip in a disdainful smile and went. + +The marriage was to take place at home, and the drawing-room was +profusely decorated with flowers. A beautiful arch of white flowers was +arranged where the bridal couples were to stand, and wreaths and +bouquets were variously disposed about the room. + +Sydney in the white heat of anger that filled her heart felt sick and +faint as the overpowering fragrance pervaded her senses. + +Yet she had to stand up and receive the guests and smile and talk as if +it were the happiest evening she had ever known. + +She had refused to become one of the bridesmaids, so when the bridal +party with their long string of lovely attendants entered the room and +stood before the bishop, she drew back into an obscure corner that no +one might see the jealous pain and hatred in her heart disfiguring her +handsome face. + +Georgina was married first, taking precedence of Queenie by virtue of +her own four years seniority, and her betrothed's superior rank. Then +the newly-wedded couple stepped quietly back, and Captain Ernscliffe and +his radiantly-beautiful bride took their place; the solemn words were +spoken, the ring slipped over her slim finger, and they turned to +receive the congratulations of their friends. + +One of the servants came bowing and smiling into the group carrying a +magnificent bouquet of white flowers. + +"For Mrs. Ernscliffe," he said, presenting it, "with the compliments of +a friend." + +She took it into her white hand with a faint smile. + +"It is rarely beautiful," she said, and lifted it to her face and +inhaled the strong, sweet odor of the costly flowers. + +Something more pungent than the innocent breath of the flowers entered +into her brain as she inhaled the fragrant incense. She threw up her +hands, and without a word or cry, the smiling bride fell lifeless at her +husband's feet. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +No one suspected the agency of the beautiful and odorous bouquet in the +sudden and tragical death of the fair young bride. It lay upon the floor +where it had fallen when she fell, and in the grief and excitement of +the moment no one thought of picking it up. Who would have thought that +death could lurk in the fragrant breath of so beautiful an offering? So +the lovely destroyer lay unheeded where it had fallen, and in the +morning it was removed by the servants, who saw in it only a withered +bouquet that littered the rich carpet. + +But its mission was accomplished, and when Lawrence Ernscliffe lifting +the drooping head of his new-made bride, he saw only the marble mask of +death on that peerless face that a moment ago was wreathed in smiles. +But he could not believe it, and when the physician who was hastily +summoned gave the verdict so often wrongly given in cases of sudden +death, that heart-disease had caused the calamity, the groan of agony +that broke from the strong man's lips was heart-rending. + +"She cannot be _dead_!" he cried, falling on his knees and clasping the +beautiful form to his wildly-beating heart. "Oh! God, give her back to +me, my darling, my own!" + +"Queenie, my little pet, my precious child, speak to me," cried the +gray-headed old father, bending over her in agony. + +"My daughter, oh, my daughter!" shrieked the mother, and Georgina wailed +aloud, both of them forgetting their coldness and estrangement, and +remembering only the little Queenie they had loved and petted and teased +so long ago, and who now was dead. + +Alas! they might have stood aloof as silent and as cold as Sydney stood, +for all the answer they won from those pale lips that the bridegroom +kissed so passionately, as though those agonized caresses could have +beguiled her back to life and love again. + +One by one the bridal guests stole away and left them alone with their +dead, the silent domestics crept about closing windows and doors, and +dimming the brilliant lights; the banquet stood untasted under the +glitter of flowers and lights and silver, the music was hushed, the +garlands drooped low, and the house of feasting was turned into the +house of mourning. The fairest daughter of the house of Lyle lay dead. + +Mr. Lyle fell down in a fit after the dreadful certainty of his loss +became manifest to him. He was removed to his chamber, attended by +skillful physicians, but their potent art was of no avail. Entire +consciousness never returned to him again. He lay through the long hours +of the night tossing restlessly on his pillow, and babbling of the dead +girl who lay in the chamber above, deaf to his agonized appeals as to +those of her lover-husband. They thought he was delirious, he talked so +strangely. + +"I knew she would die," he said. "Her spirit face came and looked at me +through the window one night--it was when she was away"--a shudder shook +him from head to foot--"I knew it was a token of her death! Ah! but I +forget--did she not tell me it was herself that came, full of love, and +pity, and sorrow, and looked at her poor papa, sitting lonely for lack +of his little girl? Queenie, Queenie, where are you? Come back, dear! +Papa forgives you! He will take you home again out of the cold and wet, +and the dark, stormy night." + +He started up and held out his arms to clasp her to his heart, but +instead he encountered the form of the bereaved bridegroom who sat by +the side of his bed. They had persuaded, nay, almost forced him away +from the side of the dead bride to the relief of the suffering living. +He sat there half dazed with grief and horror, hearing dreamily the +strange ravings of his father-in-law--ravings that he scarcely heeded +then, but which burned themselves into his memory, and were recalled in +after years with inexpressible pain. + +"Ah, Ernscliffe, it is you," said the poor father, when the yearning +arms that sought for Queenie touched him instead. "Are you waiting for +her, too! You must not blame her very much. She was very young and +temptation found her an innocent victim. You remember the woman in the +Bible who was forgiven much--because she loved much? Ernscliffe, you +will not be hard upon little Queenie--you will forgive her--for she +also loved much!" + +The physician tapped his forehead significantly with his forefinger. + +"Do not heed him--he raves," he said. + +"Queenie, Queenie," called the poor sufferer, "come back, dear, I +forgive you, but you must ask God to forgive you, too. Get your Bible, +pet--read what Christ said." + +Sydney, standing near the foot of the bed, looked strangely at her +mother. The dying man, as his restless glance roved about, saw that +look, and beckoned her with a warning finger. + +"Come nearer, Sydney--you were cold and hard to her when she came +home--you, and mamma, and Georgie. Women are always hard to each other. +How could you be so cruel to the little one?" + +He paused a moment, as if for reply, but Sydney turned her pale, +changeless face aside, and Mrs. Lyle was sobbing too wildly for words. +He went on babbling to himself on the one theme that held his thoughts: + +"She was such a sweet child--was she not, mamma? So lovely, and so +loving! I can see her now with her golden curls flying on the breeze and +her light feet dancing over the turf! Little Goldilocks, we used to call +her sometimes. Goldilocks, Goldilocks, come, and kiss me. Papa forgives +you!" + +Georgina, who had stood apart weeping against Lord Valentine's shoulder, +came forward and fell on her knees by the bed, thrilled to the heart by +the tender recollections his words awoke. + +"Oh, papa, papa," she sobbed, "poor, little Queenie!" + +He reached out and laid one trembling hand on the fair head still +crowned with the orange wreath. His words, though they seemed to the +physicians but the purposeless ravings of a disordered fancy, burnt +themselves upon her memory as if written in fire. + +"Georgie, forgive her--she was more sinned against than sinning--and she +went mad and avenged the wrongs--remember that when she comes back." + +"Queenie is _dead_, papa," sobbed Lady Valentine. + +"Dead--who said that Queenie is dead?" he asked, looking vacantly about +him. + +The physician came forward and forced a composing draught upon him. + +"Do the vagaries of illness often assume such forms as this?" inquired +Sydney's clear voice from the foot of the bed, where she stood +supporting the form of her hysterical mother. + +"As what, miss?" inquired the physician, politely. + +"These strange and dreadful fancies about--about my sister," she +answered, flushing slightly. "His words, if _rational_, would imply so +much." + +"But taken as the ravings of a disordered fancy they imply nothing," +answered he, quickly. "He is not conscious of what he says. The shock of +your sister's sudden death has simply assumed some other form to his +delirious brain. Who can fathom the mysterious workings of a mind +diseased?" + +Sydney glanced furtively across at Captain Ernscliffe. He was listening, +and his heavy, grief-filled gaze met her strange, inscrutable one. + +"Do not distress yourself, Sydney," he said, very gently, "it is only +the raving of a mind distraught. Of course we know that our lost +darling"--his voice broke and quivered over the words and he paused a +moment and repeated them--"of course we know that our lost darling was +as pure as the snow. She never could have sinned." + +"Who says that she sinned?" exclaimed Mr. Lyle, rousing slightly from +the stupor stealing over him. "Who says that she sinned? Let him among +you that is without sin, cast the first stone!" + +He fell back exhausted on his pillow, and never spoke again. With the +first faint glimmer of the dawn the flickering spark of his life went +out--went out so gently that they could scarcely tell what moment the +soul was released from its earthly tabernacle. + +His heart had been a tender one, more tender than is often found in man, +and his youngest daughter had been his idol all her life long. Her +protracted absence and her terrible return had strained the chords of +his heart almost to breaking--her sudden death had snapped them asunder. +Two days later they buried the two who had been so fondly united in +life, side by side, in a green and quiet graveyard, away from the noise +and tumult of the great, crowded city, and Lawrence Ernscliffe, as he +stood by the grave, calm to all outward appearance, though pale as +sculptured marble, when he turned away left all the heart he ever had to +give buried in the low mound that held his lost little Queenie. + +And night fell, chilly, moonless and starless. The "homeless winds" +sighed over the two graves new-made in the green churchyard, and the +summer rain wept over them in the darkness, as though + + "The heart of Heaven were breaking + In tears o'er the fallen earth." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +But, hark! who are those that disturb the peace that broods like the +wing of an angel over the city of the dead? + +Under cover of the darkness and the rain, two dark, cloaked forms steal +along the graveled walk and pause beside the spot where the dark, +fresh-smelling earth is heaped in swelling mounds over the hapless +father and daughter. + +The light of a bull's-eye lantern, flashing transiently over the form +and face of one, shows a tall, straight form, and features as handsome +as those of a Greek god. He speaks: + +"To your work, Perkins! They were so cursed long putting her into the +ground that I feared my plot would fail! Hasten now. There is not a +minute to lose. As it is, we may be too late!" + +The man called Perkins produced a spade from under his cloak, and set to +work, cautiously but rapidly throwing the earth off of one of the new +graves. + +"Are you sure you are right now, Perkins? I believe I should kill you if +you made a mistake!" said the handsome man with the lantern, grinding a +terrible oath between his white teeth. + +"You'll not have the chance to wreak your dev'lish temper on me," said +Perkins, in a familiar tone, as if addressing one with whom he was +thoroughly acquainted. "I'm sure of what I'm doing. I saw them put her +into this very hole this evening." + +"Hurry up, then. What do you stop to talk for? Make your strokes as +light as possible. You might be heard!" said the lantern-bearer, +irascibly. + +Perkins redoubled his exertions, but it seemed an age to his impatient +employer before the dull, horrible thud of the spade announced that the +coffin was reached. + +"You'll have to help me git the coffin out," said Perkins. "It will be +no easy job in this darkness and the pouring rain." + +It was no easy job, as he had said, but their united efforts, with the +usual appliances for such work, at length enabled them to raise it out +of the grave and set it on the ground beside them. Even as they did so, +a dreadful sound mingled with the sob of the wind and the putter of the +rain. It was a low and smothered moan from within the coffin! + +"Great God, Perkins, wrench the lid off!" exclaimed the other, +excitedly. "She revives!" + +Again and again the low moan echoed within the coffin, having a horrible +sound from within that prison-house of death, and fevering the blood of +the waiting man who swore audibly at Perkins, whose swiftest efforts +seemed like the progress of a snail to his impatient mood. + +"Now, sir," said Perkins, at last, as panting, and perspiring, he threw +off the lid of the elegant casket, "now, sir, there's your game!" + +The man flashed the lantern light forward. It shone on a beautiful white +face, fixed in unconsciousness, now, the dews of horror standing thick +and wet on the brow, the lips bleeding where the pearly teeth had bitten +them in anguish, the small, dimpled white hands clenched in the lace +upon her breast that was frayed and torn with her frantic struggles at +finding herself in that awful prison. But blessed unconsciousness had +supervened, and she looked death-like indeed to the eyes that beheld +her. + +"Looks like she might be gone, sure enough, this time sir," said +Perkins, uneasily. + +"If she _is_, I'll kill _you_, d--n you!" cried the man. "I'll not be +balked of my revenge like that. I'll glut it on somebody!" + +Even while speaking he bent down and laid his hand upon her heart. + +"No, she lives; I feel her heart beat faintly," he said. "Quick, +Perkins, the cloak! It rains on her." + +"The rain will revive her," said Perkins, as he unfolded a long, dark +waterproof cloak and handed it to his companion. + +The man lifted Queenie's slight form, and wrapped the long cloak over +the bridal robe in which she had been buried. + +"Now, then," he said, putting a thick roll of bank-notes into the man's +hand, "cover up the grave, and remove every trace of this night's work. +And--_remember_, one word of _this_ to a living soul, and I'll send your +black soul to the devil!" + +"Mum's the word, sir!" answered the man, beginning to lower the empty +coffin back into the grave. + +His employer turned without another word and passed swiftly away through +the rain and the darkness to the carriage that waited for him near the +gates, bearing the unconscious girl in his arms. + +He entered the carriage, deposited the still unconscious Queenie on a +seat in a recumbent attitude, and holding her head in his arms, was +whirled rapidly away through the murky night. For an hour or more he +rode thus, and the carriage stopped at length before a cottage embowered +in trees on the banks of a broad, dark river. He lifted his burden, +stepped through the gate, and the carriage whirled away. + +Hurrying up the steps, he paused on the low, ornate piazza that ran +around the house, and rang the bell. + +The door was opened by a neat-looking woman of middle age, who held a +lamp above her head. + +"Ah! it is you," was all she said. + +"Yes, it is I; and I have brought back your mistress, Mrs. Bowers, as I +said I would, though you _did_ have the impudence to insinuate that I +had made way with her," he answered, in a tone of rough pleasantry. + +"You are none too good to have done it," she answered, with a certain +cool and familiar impertinence. + +"Confound your impudence--lead the way to her room," he said, +carelessly. "She is ill and needs attention." + +Mrs. Bowers went up the stairway and opened the door into a large, airy +room, exquisitely furnished and draped with hangings of white lace over +rose-colored silk. Costly pictures and statuettes adorned the walls, and +all the appointments were of elegant design, and evidently selected +regardless of expense. + +Mrs. Bowers held back the sweeping lace canopy of the low French bed, +and the man laid his fair burden down upon it, after removing the dark +cloak. + +"What ails her?" asked the woman, starting as a low moan broke from the +lips of the only half-conscious girl. + +"I told you she was ill," he said, curtly. "She has been in a swoon. Get +restoratives." + +Mrs. Bowers obeyed him, and was soon bathing the pale face and limp, +nerveless hands, with refreshing perfume. + +Directly Queenie started up, passed her hand across her brow and looked +about her. An expression of loathing swept across her face. + +"Are you glad to find yourself in your old quarters, my dear?" asked the +man, sardonically, from the window to which he had retreated. + +She started as if someone had struck her a terrible blow, and looked +across the room. Fear, horror, despair, were all blended in the look she +cast upon his handsome, satanically smiling face. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +Mrs. Bowers, seeing that her mistress had revived, lighted a brilliant +jet of gas and went out. Queenie did not even notice her departure so +intently was her gaze fixed on the man at the window, who stood there +calm, _nonchalant_, even smiling, standing the scathing fire of her +beautiful eyes like a soldier. + +"So," she said, at last, and there was surprise and regret both +commingled in her tone, "so you are not _dead_!" + +"No thanks to you, little tigress," he answered, with a fierce, yellow +light flaring into his black eyes. "You did your best to further that +end." + +"I might have forseen how vain was the endeavor," she retorted, in +passionate anger, and quoted an old saying: "They cannot be drowned who +are born to be _hung_." + +He laughed in mockery at the bitter insinuation, but years after, when +the light of Heaven shone on him through the grated bars of a prison +cell, and he heard outside the horrible sound of the hammers driving the +nails into his scaffold, he remembered the words with wonder, and +thought she must have been gifted with "second-sight," as the Scotch +called the gift of prophecy. + +"Now I know it was you that sent me the flowers," she said. "Why did you +do it? They were poisoned!" + +"No, only drugged! It was a subtle drug I bought in the east long ago--a +drug warranted to produce a long and sudden sleep perfectly resembling +death." + +"Again I ask you, why did you do it?" she said, and her voice was full +of wonder. + +"I wanted to get you into my power once more. That was the safest plan +to effect it. I let them bury you, and then I resurrected you." + +"What did you want of me? You wearied of me before. Why not have let me +go in peace?" + +She tried to speak calmly, but her voice trembled with some inward +resentment, and there was a passion of hatred in her dusky eyes that +might have killed him where he stood. A rage as deadly as hers leaped up +in his eyes in answer. + +"Because I _hate_ you!" he said, wickedly. + +"We always hate those whom we have wronged," she replied, and her whole +form trembled with her passionate indignation. + +"I hate you because of that cowardly blow in the dark," he said angrily. +"But for that I might have let you go free, though I pitied Captain +Ernscliffe for being deceived by you." + +"Villain!" she exclaimed, "I have not deceived him!" + +"You have not?" he sneered. "Did you not withhold from him the story of +that year which he supposed you to have spent in Europe? Did you not +allow him to think you an innocent woman?" + +She sprang to her feet and stood facing him, her dark-blue eyes +dilating, her cheeks flushing, her small hands clenched tightly in her +breathless anger. An artist's pencil might have handed his name down to +immortal fame could he have put on canvas that striking scene--the +beautiful room, and the man in his splendid, insolent, satanic beauty, +standing before that lovely incarnation of pride and passion, with her +glorious veil of golden hair falling loosely about her superb form, and +the shining folds of her costly bridal robe sweeping far behind her on +the rich velvet carpet. + +"I _am_ an innocent woman," she said, proudly, and the light shone on +her lifted face and the earnest fire in her eyes. "I _am_ an innocent +woman! I have done no wrong, though I am a betrayed, unhappy, and +insulted victim! I have been sinned against, but I have not sinned!" + +He laughed, cruelly, mockingly, insultingly. + +"Why do you laugh?" she said. "_You_ know that it is true. You deceived +me and betrayed me, but was I to blame? I carried the marriage +certificate in my breast as a precious thing! I thought it was true as +Heaven, I thought I was pure as the snow! And I _am_! How could _your_ +sin touch me?" + +Again he laughed mockingly. + +"Your mind is strangely warped," he said. "But if you were innocent in +the one thing, how about the blow in the dark? Was there no sin in +that?" + +"I deny that there was sin!" she said, with passionate defiance in her +look and tone. "It was simple justice--'a blow for a blow.' You drove me +mad with the horror and cruelty of all I learned! It seemed to me that I +was given back from the grave to rid the world of a monster!" + +"You failed," he said, derisively. + +"Yes, to my sorrow," she answered. "But, ah! Leon Vinton, surely a day +of reckoning will come to you. The justice of God will not always sleep. +I was not permitted to take your punishment out of His hands who has +said 'Vengeance is mine; I will repay.' It will come, it will come!" + +"You prate of God's vengeance," he said, sneeringly, "but it suits you +to forget that the preachers call him also a God of mercy, and love, and +forgiveness!" + +"Forgiveness!" she echoed, wildly. "Neither God nor man could forgive +you, Leon Vinton! You have committed an unpardonable sin. You have +broken my heart, you have tried to kill my soul, you murdered me! Can I +ever forgive _this_?" + +She swept back the golden waves of hair that shaded her white brow and +showed him the livid scar of a deep wound beneath them. + +"It is your hellish work!" she said. "You ground your cruel boot-heel +into the brow your false lips had kissed a thousand times; you strangled +my life out with the hands that had caressed me uncounted times! Oh, my +God, can I ever forgive or forget my wrongs?" + +"I will kill you the next time more surely, curse you!" he hissed, in +ungovernable rage, and striding forward, he caught her white arm rudely, +almost crushing it in his iron grasp. "Cease, girl, not another word!" + +She wrenched herself out of his grasp and answered, defiantly: + +"Let me go, then, if you cannot bear my reproaches. Let me return to my +husband." + +A sneer curled his thin lips as she spoke with an unconscious accent of +tenderness on the words "my husband." + +"Your husband, as you call him, shall never know that you are not +mouldering yonder in Rose Hill Cemetery. You shall never look upon his +face again, Queenie Lyle." + +"Mrs. Ernscliffe, if you please," she said, drawing her graceful form +erect with a defiant dignity. + +"Mrs. Ernscliffe, then, if it pleases you better," he answered, +mockingly. "Though why you care for the name I do not know. You do not +love the man." + +"I _do_ love him," she answered, firmly, her fair head slightly drooped, +and a burning blush crimsoning her cheeks. + +"Since when?" he queried, sneeringly. "You did not love him when he +asked you to marry him. I heard you tell him so." + +"You heard me!" she exclaimed, in surprise. + +"Yes, I was a witness to that moonlight wooing. I have seldom lost sight +of you since you returned to your father's house, and resumed the _role_ +of innocent maidenhood." + +"A spy!" she said, scornfully. + +"Yes, if you put it so," he answered, coolly. "We need not be particular +about terms." + +She looked at him as if he were something wonderful. The effrontery of +his wickedness almost paralyzed her. She clasped her hands and lifted +her blue eyes. + +"Oh, just Heaven," she said, "why does thy vengeance tarry in smiting +this monster?" + +"Permit me to commend your dramatic ability," he said, with a +mock-courtly bow. "Your tones and gestures would make your fortune on +the tragic stage." + +She sank into a chair and dropped her face into her hands. She was very +weary and physically exhausted, having eaten nothing since the day of +her supposed death, but she felt no hunger now, though she was faint and +thirsty. + +"Your tirade appears to be over," he remarked, with his evil sneer. + +She looked up. + +"Tell me one thing," she said, trying to speak calmly. "What do you want +of me? Why did you care to get me back, when we both hate each other?" + +The glare of that hatred of which she spoke flamed luridly up in his +dark eyes. + +"That is the very reason that I brought you back," he answered; "because +I hated you, and because I intended to make your life one long, +insufferable weariness to you until you die." + +Again she looked at him with wonder. Her gentler nature could not fathom +the cruel vindictiveness of his. + +"Oh, Leon," she gasped, "you would not be so cruel? Think of all that I +have suffered at your hands already. Let me go, I beg you! I am so +young, I may make something of my life yet, if I can only go back to the +good, true man I have already learned to love and honor." + +The words seemed to madden him. + +"Never!" he shouted, hoarsely, with a terrible oath. "Never! I hate +Lawrence Ernscliffe--I have an old grudge against him. I will have my +revenge on you both. You shall stay here, locked in these four walls, a +hated prisoner, as long as you live. Mrs. Bowers shall be your jailer, +and here you shall dwell, eating your heart out in abject wretchedness +and misery unutterable. Do you like the picture? _Au revoir, Mrs. +Ernscliffe!_" + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +Queenie heard the key grate in the lock and sprang up, uttering wild +shrieks of passion and despair, almost beside herself with the horror of +her new situation. + +But no response came to her frenzied screams and cries. Perhaps those +gilded walls had echoed such wails of agony before, and the hearts of +those who heard them had grown callous with long familiarity. + +She ran up and down the room like one mad, alternately skrieking and +beating upon the locked door, until she fell upon the floor, conquered +by sheer exhaustion. + +She lay there awhile, then sprang up restlessly again. + +"I will endure it no longer," she said, passionately; "I will throw +myself down from the window and kill myself!" + +Full of that wild, suicidal resolve, she ran to the window and pushed up +the sash. + +The night was far spent, and that awful darkness that comes just before +dawn obscured everything, its blackness intensified by the drizzling +rain that still poured steadily down. + +Queenie fell upon her knees with the rain beating in upon her white face +and long, flowing hair, and clasped her little hands together as her +father had taught her to do when she was but a toddling baby-girl. + +"Oh, God!" she prayed, lifting her lovely, despairing face to the dark +sky as if to catch a glimpse of the all-merciful Father to whom she +appealed. "Oh, God, pity and forgive me for sending my soul uncalled for +before its divine Maker. And, Heavenly Father, whatever of wrong I have +committed, do Thou pity and pardon it. That sin with which I stand +charged Thou knowest I would have died a thousand deaths rather than +willfully commit it, and----" + +She paused, overcome by agonized recollections, and rising, peered out +into the darkness below. + +"In the morning when he comes out into the garden," she said, "he will +find my poor, crushed, bleeding body lying beneath this window. Surely, +then, when his murderous hate has driven me to self-destruction, his +revenge will be complete!" + +She placed her hand on the sill of the window, and leaned forward for +the fatal spring that was to end her earthly sorrows. + +How slight a thing can distract our attention even in the most absorbing +moments of our lives. + +Queenie's hands fell upon a cold, wet mass of leaves, and a gust of +intoxicating perfume blew into her face. She immediately drew back. + +She had suddenly remembered that some thickly twisted vines of ivy and +sweet-scented honeysuckle were trained up to her window in the second +story. + +A thought, as sudden as an inspiration, darted into her mind. + +Instead of dashing her brains out on the hard ground below, why not +escape down this ladder of vines to love and happiness again? + +"I will do it," she said to herself. "I will go back to my husband. I +will tell him I was stolen from my grave, and that I revived in the +fresh air, and life came back to me in its full tide. Oh! how glad he +will be to see me--my poor Lawrence. He loved me so dearly!" + +In the swift revulsion of feeling from despair and desperation to love +and hope again she gave way to a burst of hysterical tears. + +"I must not stay here to weep," she said, at length, brushing the +crystal drops away from her cheeks. "I must be far on my way to my +husband before he discovers my escape." + +She took up the thick, hooded waterproof cloak that lay on a chair, and +wrapped it around her. + +"This will never do," she said, seeing the long train of her splendid +dress sweeping from beneath the hem of the cloak. "I must not be seen +going into the city in this plight." + +She took off the cloak and tucked up the long train and pinned it +securely around her, resumed the waterproof, and climbed up into the +window. + +"Farewell, Leon Vinton," she said. "Pray God I may never look on your +evil face again!" + +She took a firm hold of the thick body of the vine with both hands, and +with a slight shudder swung herself forward into the darkness. + +The vine swayed and creaked with her weight, and for one dreadful moment +she thought she should be precipitated to the ground to the death which +a moment before she had courted, but which now, in the new dawn of hope, +she shunned. The shower of rain-drops, shaken down from the leaves into +her face, almost took her breath away. The wild wind tossed her from +side to side like a feather as she clung to her frail support. + +"I shall surely be killed," she said to herself in terror. + +But no--the delicate reed to which she had trusted her existence did not +fail her. She waited breathlessly a moment, then feeling that it still +held secure, she cautiously slipped one hand and then the other down to +a lower hold on the body of the vine. In that way, with many frightened +heart-beats, with sore and bleeding hands, and at infinite pains, she at +length accomplished the descent, and stood upon the ground enfolded like +a mantle by the thick darkness and pouring rain. + +At the gate she paused again, and looked up at one window in a wing of +the house where a night-light glimmered faintly. + +"Farewell, Leon Vinton," she said, again. "May the vengeance of God be +swift to overtake and punish you for your awful sins!" + +She opened the gate softly and stepped out into the wet and slushy +road, wetting her thin, white satin slippers and silk stockings through +and through at the first step. She did not care for it, she scarcely +felt it, her heart was beating so quick and fast with joy. + +"I am free!" was the exultant cry of her heart. "I am free--I am going +back to my husband. I shall tell him how fondly I have learned to love +him since I promised to be his wife. I will cling so closely to his side +that Leon's vindictive rage can never touch me!" + +She pushed on steadily through the mud and water, her long garments +speedily becoming soaked with the watery elements and greatly impeding +her ease and rapidity of motion, while her heart began to beat wildly +with terror at the darkness, the desolation and loneliness of the +country road. + +"I am very tired," she moaned, after traveling what seemed to her a long +distance. "It is five miles to the city. I must have come two miles at +least. I wonder if I can hold out to get there. My feet are so heavy +with the mud and the water that I can scarcely lift them. I must sit +down here and rest myself one minute--only _one little minute_!" + +She dropped down like a log on the grass by the side of the road, and +the first pale beams of the watery dawn just breaking in the east, +showed her deathly-white face just fading into unconsciousness. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +When Queenie threw herself down upon the wet grass in a weariness so +utter that she could no longer hold her aching limbs upright, she had +thought that a minute of rest would put new strength into her exhausted +frame, and enable her to pursue her journey. + +But exhausted nature could bear no more. Her unbroken fast of nearly +three days, and her wet and draggled condition combined to weaken and +depress her. Her limbs trembled under her, and when she fell down for +one minute's rest, a deep unconsciousness stole upon her, wrapping her +senses in lethargy. Her last conscious thought was one of agonized +terror, lest ere she revived her enemy should discover her escape, and +set out to trace her. + +While she lay there mute and still, the dawn began to grow brighter in +the east, the rain slackened, and a few pale beams of sunshine striking +upon the scene, showed that she had fallen almost at the gate of a +little farm-house from whose chimneys the blue smoke curled cheerfully +up, showing that the inhabitants were already up and about their daily +labors. + +Presently a middle-aged man, in the rough, coarse garb of a farmer came +out of the house and strode down to the gate, whistling a merry tune, +and snapping and cracking the great leathern whip he carried in his +hand. + +As he stepped outside the gate his cheerful whistle suddenly ended in an +exclamation of terror. + +His glance had fallen on the still form lying just outside the gate, +with its lovely, white face and closed eyes upturned to the light. + +He stood still a moment, looking down at her in awe and consternation. + +"What a pretty young un," he said, aloud, "And she's dead, I +mistrust--stone dead!" + +The next moment he leaned over the gate and called loudly: + +"Wife, wife, come out!" + +The door opened and a middle-aged, pleasant-looking woman appeared. She +was flushed as if she had been over the fire, and held some small +cooking utensil in her hand. + +"Well, Jerry," she said, "what do you want now?" + +"Come out and see," he answered. + +"Well, but I can't leave the cakes," said she, intent on her housewifely +cares; "they will burn." + +"Tell Jennie to mind the gridiron," he said, "and do you come out to +me." + +She went in and reappeared after a minute, coming down the path with her +homely check apron thrown over her head. + +"What now, Jerry?" she said, half-pettishly, half good-naturedly. "What +is lost this morning? A pity I have to mind the farm-tools as well as +the frying-pans!" + +Jerry, whom this home thrust betrayed to be a good-natured, shiftless +fellow, dependent on his better-half's more orderly ways, looked up to +laugh, then checked himself, awed by the presence of that still form at +his feet. + +"There's naught misplaced this time, my dear," he said; "you shouldn't +be forever twitting a poor, careless fellow with his faults." + +"What is't amiss, then?" she said, as she came up to the gate. + +"Look _there_!" he answered, pointing down. "A poor tramp dead in the +road!" + +The good woman looked, started, and her healthy, red cheeks turned +white. + +"Oh, my Heavenly Father!" she ejaculated. "Who is't, Jerry?" + +"How should I know, woman?" asked her husband. "I've but just stepped +outside the gate and found her." + +"And is she really, truly _dead_, Jerry?" + +"She looks like it," he said. "But stoop down and feel of her heart, +Jane. See if it beats." + +The woman came out of the gate, and bending down, put her hand +half-timorously inside of Queenie's cloak and felt her heart. + +"Yes--no--yes, it does beat just the leastest bit," she said. "Poor +creature! Take her up and carry her into the kitchen, Jerry. Perhaps we +may revive her." + +"That's like your good heart, Jane," said the farmer, as he lifted up +the limp form and conveyed it into the kitchen. + +A rosy, exceedingly pretty, dark-eyed girl who was busily frying +corn-cakes over the fire came forward with an exclamation of surprise as +he laid his burden down upon the lounge that stood in one corner. + +"Never mind the cakes, Jennie," said her mother. "Come and lend a hand +to save a poor creetur as your father found perishin' in the road." + +"What can I do, mother?" asked the girl. + +"Take them muddy things off her feet, and rub the poor creetur's limbs +dry," said the good woman, busying herself in removing the wet cloak, "I +declare to gracious!" she said, after a moment. "How blind men are. +Jerry called her a tramp. Look at them rings on her fingers! Look at +that dress, fine enough for the finest bride! Is that the way tramps +dress, Mr. Thorn?" + +"She's of the finest quality, mother," said the girl called Jennie. "Her +slippers are white satin, her stockings pure silk, and worked all over +with flowers." + +"Never mind the shoes and the stockings, Jennie," said her father, "but +rub the little un's feet. See how cold and blue they are." + +Thus adjured, Jennie brought a warm flannel cloth, and began to rub the +icy little feet of the wayfarer, while her mother brought strong camphor +and bathed the pale face; now and then applying a bottle of ammonia to +her nostrils. + +Under this vigorous treatment, and the revivifying heat of the room, the +patient's heart began to beat quicker, and a faint, thread-like pulse to +flutter in her blue-veined wrist. + +"Poor soul!" exclaimed Mrs. Thorn. "I _do_ wonder how she came to be out +in such a storm? All in her party dress, too! She'd be as pretty as a +pink, with her eyes open, and a bit more color in her cheeks." + +The farmer now approached with a cup of warm coffee and a teaspoon. + +"Belike she needs summat to warm her up," he said. "Take the spoon, +Jane, and force a wee bit of coffee between her lips." + +Mrs. Thorn did as requested, but with no visible result for the better. +The patient still lay with closed eyes and lips, showing no sign of +life, save in the tremulous beat of her heart and the faint, faint pulse +of her wrist. + +Mrs. Thorn still worked patiently over her, but at the end of an hour +looked disheartened. + +"I mistrust that this is a case for the doctor," she said; "we have done +what we could, but all to no use." + +"I could bring a doctor, but who's to pay him?" said the farmer. "We +have no money, Jane, and Jennie's out of work." + +"The lady could pay him, herself," suggested Jennie. "There's them rings +on her fingers worth a mint of money." + +"Yea, that's so," said the mother. "Go and get the doctor, Jennie. The +lady will die, I'm afraid, if she lays in this state much longer." + +"I'll go and bring Dr. Pillsbury, then," said the farmer, going out, +followed by repeated injunctions from his wife to hurry. + +"There's not a minute to lose," she said. "Even now it may be too late +to raise the poor creetur to life again, so low as she has sunk." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +Farmer Thorn stepped out of the gate, and was about to proceed on his +way, when his attention was arrested by the rather unusual sight of a +gentleman tearing madly along the road on a fine black horse. + +The farmer was so impressed with the parting injunction of his wife as +to the necessity of a physician's immediate presence, that a wild fancy +that this hurrying horseman might belong to the medical fraternity +darted directly into his mind. + +He accordingly lifted his hand as a signal for the impetuous rider to +pause. + +The gentleman checked his impatient steed, and inquired with a smothered +oath. + +"What the deuce is your business with me? I'm in a devil of a hurry!" + +"I mistrusted you might be a doctor?" said the farmer, inquiringly. + +"The devil! Who's sick?" was the exceedingly civil rejoinder. + +"A strange lady that we found in the road this morning. She's like to +die," said Mr. Thorn. + +In the twinkling of an eye the rider was off his horse, with the bridle +thrown over his arm. + +"Yes, I'm a doctor," he said, briskly. "Here, tie up my horse, and let +me see the patient at once." + +Mr. Thorn was so impressed by the confident air of the man that he +readily obeyed the somewhat arrogant command, and Mrs. Thorn and Jennie +were somewhat surprised at his quick return, accompanied by an utter +stranger. + +"I met a doctor right at the gate, wife," he explained; "so I did not go +for Dr. Pillsbury." + +"Here's your patient, sir," said Mrs. Thorn, turning back the gay +patchwork counterpane, in which she had carefully enveloped the +unconscious Queenie. + +What was her surprise to see him fall upon his knees and clasp his +hands, while his dark, handsome features became luminous with mingled +joy and sorrow. + +"Oh, my dear sister, my sweet, unhappy girl!" he exclaimed, "is it thus +I find you. Oh! madam, is she indeed dead?" he inquired, turning sadly +to Mrs. Thorn. + +"Her heart beats just a little, sir," said Mrs. Thorn, looking at him in +surprise. + +"Do you know the lady, sir?" asked Jennie Thorn, a little timidly. + +The man turned around, and looked at the farmer's exceedingly pretty +daughter with a furtive look of admiration. Instead of answering her he +spoke to the farmer. + +"Your daughter, I suppose, sir?" + +"Yes, sir, my daughter Jennie," said the farmer, with a glance of pride +at his pretty daughter. "She's been out at service this three years, +sir, but at present she's out of a place." + +"Ah!" he said, politely; then turning back to the motionless form before +him, he said: "Yes, Miss Jennie, I know this lady. She is my own +sister. Unfortunately she is insane--driven mad by an unhappy love +affair. She persists in dressing herself in white and calling herself a +bride. This morning, just before daybreak, she escaped from us, and I +have been seeking her everywhere. It was a fortunate chance that led me +here. + +"Do you think that she will revive, sir?" inquired Mrs. Thorn, who was +watching the patient anxiously. + +He turned and laid his hand over the girl's heart, knitting his brows +with an air of medical wisdom. + +"Oh, yes," he said, confidently. "There is life here yet. She is weak +and exhausted, having eaten but little for several days. Have you tried +forcing a little wine between her lips?" + +"No; we had none," apologized the farmer; "we are but poor folks." + +Pretty Jennie Thorn blushed and looked away at her father's frank +admission. She felt ashamed of their poverty before the haughty glance +of the handsome stranger. + +The man took a little cut-glass flask with a golden stopper from his +pocket. It was full of wine, and he lifted Queenie's head on his arm, +poured a few drops between her pale lips and suffered them to trickle +down her throat. He repeated the operation several times, then laid her +head gently back on the pillow. + +"You will soon see her rally now," he said, looking at Jennie with a +smile. "And now I must be making arrangements to take my poor little +sister home again." + +A startled cry came from the lips of the invalid. + +The man's last words had penetrated her reviving senses. + +She raised herself on her arm and looked about her at the unfamiliar +room and the strange faces around her. + +"Leon Vinton, _you_ here?" she exclaimed in a piteous tone. "Oh, Heaven, +where am I?" + +"We are all friends, miss," said Mrs. Thorn, soothingly. "You fell +exhausted by the roadside, and we took you in and cared for you until +your brother came along and found you here." + +Queenie's eyes flashed scornfully into Leon Vinton's face. + +"Does _he_ say that he is my brother?" she demanded, pointing her finger +at him and looking at Mrs. Thorn. + +"Yes, miss," answered the woman. + +"He lies!" exclaimed Queenie, passionately, gaining strength with her +anger. "I am nothing to him, nothing! He is trying to deceive you that +he may get me into his power!" + +Leon Vinton sighed mournfully, and shook his head as he looked around at +the girl's auditors. + +"Ah, my friends, I told you she was mad," he said, sadly. "You see she +denies her own brother!" + +"You are _not_ my brother, villain!" exclaimed Queenie, angrily; and +looking round at the others, she said: "My good friends, do not believe +this man--I am no relative of his, and he is trying to deceive you, and +get me into his power to torture my life out! Oh, sir, I appeal to you, +and to you, madam, also, to protect me from this villain. Drive him +forth this moment from this honest house whose pure air he pollutes with +his foul presence!" + +The farmer and his wife began to cast dark looks at Leon Vinton, so +impressed were they with the earnestness of the girl's words and looks. +They began to think it was the truth she spoke instead of the ravings of +madness. The arch villain soon saw that they were inclined to doubt his +word, and threw fresh earnestness and eloquence into his dramatic +manner. + +"Oh, my darling, unfortunate little sister," he cried, dropping on one +knee beside her, and trying to take her hands in his, "how it grieves me +that your distraught mind should take me for the accursed villain who +has destroyed your happiness forever--me, your devoted brother, whose +whole life is devoted to your service!" + +"Villain! wretch!" exclaimed Queenie, "out of my sight before I try to +kill you! Oh, will no one drive the monster away?" she wildly cried. + +"She grows violent," said Vinton, looking sadly around him. "I must +remove her from here before her frenzy leads her to harm some of you. +Have you any kind of a comfortable trap that I could take her home in?" +he inquired, looking at the farmer. + +"I will not go with you!" exclaimed the unhappy girl. "I am going home +to my husband. You shall not prevent me! Oh, sir," she cried, turning +her streaming eyes on Mr. Thorn's face, "you will not suffer this man to +take me away from here! I assure you, I am no kin of his, and that he is +seeking my destruction. Grant me the shelter of your roof, and your +manly protection against this villain's arts, till I can send word to my +father and my husband to come for me." + +Mr. Thorn looked at the agonized face of the beautiful girl, and he +could not believe that she was insane. There seemed too much "method in +her madness." He cast a suspicious look on Vinton, and answered firmly: + +"Be calm, lady. He shall not take you away without proof of what he says +about you. I will protect you!" + +"Oh, father! how can you presume to doubt the gentleman's word?" +exclaimed Jennie Thorn impulsively, for the man's handsome face and +consummate acting had quite won her young, impressionable heart over to +his side. + +Leon Vinton cast a grateful look upon her, throwing so much +impressiveness into his look that she dropped her eyes and blushed +deeply. In that moment the villain saw the impression he had made upon +her innocent heart, and the simple, trusting girl was from that instant +marked as his victim. + +"Sir," he said, turning to the farmer, and speaking in an imperious +tone, "do not you know that I can take legal means to punish you for +thus depriving me of the custody of my insane sister?" + +"I do not believe she is insane," said the farmer, doggedly. "Neither do +I believe that she is your sister. And you can't take her away from here +without proving your right." + +"Well said, husband!" exclaimed Mrs. Thorn, approvingly, for her +motherly heart was full of sympathy for the distressed girl, who had so +touchingly implored her protection. + +Queenie cast a look of heartfelt gratitude upon these homely friends, +who had espoused her cause in so outspoken a way; but simple Jennie +Thorn exclaimed quickly: + +"Oh, mother! oh, father! I'm sure the gent speaks the truth. The lady +_must_ be crazy; for how else could she be wandering in the night and +the storm, in her white dress and thin satin slippers?" + +"Hold your peace, girl. This is a matter for wiser heads than yours!" +answered her father, rather shortly; and Jennie subsided into silence, +not, however, without receiving the reward in another beaming look of +gratitude from the dark eyes of the man whom she was defending. + +Mr. Vinton tried another tack. Finding the farmer's sense of justice +impregnable to threats, he put his hand in his pocket, and withdrew it +filled with gold pieces. He held them toward the man with a significant +look. + +"Put your gold back, sir," said the farmer, sturdily. "We are poor folks +enough, but gold can't buy our honor!" and though he was but a poor +tiller of the soil, his mien was princely as he thus defended his honor. + +Leon Vinton's brow grew black as night. He muttered some inaudible +curses between his teeth. Only his sense of policy restrained him from +knocking Mr. Thorn down. + +"What am I to do?" he said, with an air of great perplexity. "Here is my +poor sister lying here needing the care of her friends, and the comforts +and luxuries of her home. Yet you will not permit me to exercise my +right to remove her." + +"Prove your right, sir," said the farmer, firmly; "that's all I want you +to do." + +"And if I prove my right to remove her you will suffer me to do so?" +asked Leon, after a moment's earnest thought. + +"Why, of course, sir. I'd have no right to detain her after that." + +"He cannot prove his right!" exclaimed Queenie, who had lain silent for +some minutes. + +"Have you an errand boy?" asked Vinton, disregarding the interruption. + +Mr. Thorn went to the door, and called "Jotham," and the boy-of-all-work +shambled in. + +"Do you know a cottage on the banks of the river, two miles from here, +Jotham?" + +"Ya'as, sur," said the boy, broadly. + +Leon Vinton wrote these words on a slip of paper: + +"_Take the carriage and come here immediately._" + +He directed the note to Mrs. Bowers, and gave it to the boy, with +instructions to deliver it at the cottage by the river. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +The time passed slowly enough to the impatient Vinton while the +boy-of-all-work was gone on his mission to Mrs. Bowers. He paced up and +down impatiently, now and then casting surly looks of hatred and revenge +upon the honest farmer who had dared to defy him and protect his +trembling victim. + +Mrs. Thorn, seeing that Queenie was better and did not need her +attention, busied herself in setting the neglected breakfast upon the +table. She put on the smoking coffee, the hot corn-cakes, the fried +bacon and eggs, the fresh butter and milk, and invited her visitors to +partake of the homely fare. + +Leon Vinton declined the invitation by a surly nod, but Queenie, who had +been watching her movements eagerly, readily signified her consent. + +"I am very hungry," she declared, "for owing to the wickedness of yonder +man, I have not tasted food for several days." + +"Oh, my poor, demented little sister," exclaimed the hypocritical +Vinton, "would to God your reason might be restored!" + +Queenie only cast a look of scorn upon him as she took her place at the +breakfast-table. Her heart was infused with fresh courage owing to the +noble conduct of the farmer and his wife in repelling the persecutions +of Leon Vinton. + +She determined to get the farmer to go into town for her father, and she +resolved that these kind people should be most liberally rewarded for +the resolute course by which they had secured her happiness. So inspired +was she by this brilliant hope, and so strengthened by the warm coffee, +that a faint flush came into her cheek, and her blue eyes sparkled with +excitement and animation. + +"Your breakfast has set you up quite a bit, ma'am," exclaimed Mrs. +Thorn, admiringly. "You don't hardly look like the same woman we took up +for dead in the road." + +"Your kindness has put new life in me, madam," answered Queenie, +gratefully. "It is the hope of escape from this man that fills me with +joy and lights up my face with gladness." + +"Poor dear!" exclaimed the woman, turning a look of scorn on Vinton as +he still moodily paced the floor. + +"Ah, madam," exclaimed he, catching that look, "in a little while, when +my sister arrives and corroborates my story, you will see how much you +have wronged me in giving credence to the senseless ravings of this poor +lunatic." + +Even as he spoke there was a stir and a bustle at the door. The farmer +hastened to open it, and Mrs. Bowers, elegantly dressed and visibly +excited, rushed in. Leon Vinton sprang to meet her. + +"Oh, my dear sister!" he exclaimed, "I have found our poor little one!" + +Mrs. Bowers took the cue at once. + +"Oh, brother!" she cried, theatrically, "you fill me with joy! What +tortures, what agonies I have endured in the fear that she was dead!" + +She rolled her eyes around the room, and seeing Queenie sitting near the +fire, ran up and vigorously embraced her. + +"Oh, my poor, unhappy darling," she cried, "how could you grieve your +poor old sister so?" + +Queenie pushed her off frantically like the mad creature they accused +her of being. + +"You are not my sister," she cried, angrily. "Go away Mrs. Bowers. You +cannot impose on these good people with your shameless lies! They would +not believe Leon Vinton and they will not believe you. They are friends +to me, and they will help me back to my husband." + +Mrs. Bowers threw up her hands and looked at her coadjutor in villainy +sadly. + +"You see she is still as mad as a March hare," he answered, "and would +you believe it, Alice, dear, our little sister has so imposed on these +good people with her cunning insanity, that they actually believe her +stories, and look upon me, her devoted brother, as a perjured villain +seeking her destruction. They will not even permit me to remove my poor, +demented sister home without proof of my assertion." + +Mrs. Bowers looked around at the farmer and his wife with an air of +indulgent pity. + +"Oh, my good people, is it possible that you have been so weak as to let +this cunning maniac deceive you? But no wonder--for insanity has baffled +wiser heads than yours or mine. It is quite natural she should deceive +you, as I do not suppose you ever saw a crazy person before. But now let +me assure you that my brother has told you the simple truth. This is our +own sister, and she has been a year insane. She escaped from us this +morning before daylight, and he has been seeking her everywhere. I have +come in the carriage, and I suppose you will not now raise any further +objection to our removing her to her home." + +"I will not go with you!" exclaimed Queenie, filled with terror lest the +woman's specious acting should deceive the simple country people. "Every +word you have uttered is a base falsehood! I am nothing to either of +you--nothing! Go away and leave me in peace!" + +In her wild excitement she sprang up and shook her hands violently at +Mrs. Bowers. Her loose, disheveled hair, her flashing eyes, her waving +hands made her look like a wild creature. Mrs. Bowers pointed at her +triumphantly. + +"You see for yourselves that she is mad," she said. "She is going off +into one of her violent and dangerous fits, and she is just as apt as +not to catch up a knife from the table there and kill one of you. Oh, +for God's sake, brother, take her and put her in the carriage!" + +Leon Vinton advanced to do her bidding, but Queenie fought him off like +a young lioness at bay. + +"Oh, good people!" she cried, "help me, for Heaven's sake! Do not suffer +this villain to take me!" + +"I have given you full proof now that this is my sister," exclaimed Leon +Vinton to the farmer. "I warn you if you interfere with me further it +will be at your peril!" + +The farmer and his wife had been completely deceived by the spirited and +natural acting of Mrs. Bowers. They began to believe that they had +indeed been deceived into believing the artful ravings of a violent +maniac. + +Therefore, when Queenie called on them for help they only stood aloof, +regarding her frightened, excited aspect with newly-awakened fear. + +"Ha! so you are now convinced of the truth," exclaimed Leon Vinton, +triumphantly, seeing that they made no effort to molest him. + +"Yes, sir, we are," said the farmer, in a conciliatory tone; "and I wish +to make my apology to you for the trouble I've put you to. The young +girl's acting was very nat'ral, but I see now that you told the truth +about her." + +"I told you so, father!" exclaimed Jennie, triumphantly. + +"Tut, tut, Jen--hold your tongue, you impudent girl!" exclaimed Mrs. +Thorn, sharply. + +Queenie had dropped into a chair at the farmer's renunciation of her +claims, and, hiding her face in her hands, burst into a passionate fit +of weeping. Mrs. Bowers stood by her making a pretended effort at +consoling her, but her pretended brother paid no heed to the wretched +girl. He looked at Jennie's bright, pretty face, and then turned to her +father. + +"I think you said your daughter was out of a place, at present," he +said, blandly. "Do you wish to secure another one for her?" + +"Yes, we do," was the ready answer. "We have to put her out to service, +for we cannot afford to keep her at home. She must earn her clothes and +a bit more to help us along at home." + +"I think my sister needs just such a girl about the house, to help her +with the housekeeping," said Leon Vinton; and, turning to Mrs. Bowers, +he said: "Do you think Miss Jennie would suit you?" + +The woman stared at him in surprise for a moment, but he gave her a +significant glance, and she answered with apparent frankness: + +"Yes, I think I should like to have her very much." + +"Very well, then," and, turning to the farmer he inquired if his sister +could have Jennie, naming a liberal, but not too large compensation, for +fear of exciting suspicion. He did not ask the girl, herself, for he had +already read her consent in her beaming eyes. She was perfectly +fascinated by the handsome stranger, and was ready to go anywhere that +she might daily see him and hear his voice. + +Before the farmer could speak, Queenie sprang to his side, and laid her +delicate white hand, all sparkling with jewels, on his coarse sleeve, +lifting her blue eyes pleadingly to his face. + +"Oh! sir," she said, "you think me mad, but for Heaven's sake be warned +by me! Do not suffer your pretty, simple girl to stray into the snare +this man and woman are setting for her. If you give your consent you +will rue it in dust and ashes, when you see her innocence betrayed and +her virtue lost." + +Leon Vinton glared at her fiercely as the farmer hesitated. + +"Come, decide, at once," he said. "The carriage is waiting, and she can +accompany us if you are willing. Of course you need pay no attention to +the ravings of that poor maniac." + +Mr. Thorn looked at his daughter. Her face was bright with smiles, for +the artful villain, with his tender glances, had made her believe that +he was deeply enamored of her charms. + +"Do you want to go, Jennie?" he asked, doubtfully. + +"Oh, yes, father, if you'll let me," she said. + +"She may go for a month, then, and if she don't like the place she may +come home again," said the farmer. + +Queenie said no more. She saw that her enemies had triumphed over her +this time, and her heart was almost broken. She made an ineffectual +struggle to escape through the door, but was captured and borne +struggling to the carriage, followed by her pretended sister and the +pretty Jennie, who was falling so unconsciously into the pit spread for +her unwary feet. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +Jennie Thorn was delighted with the beautiful furnishing and elegant +ease of the cottage by the river. + +Mrs. Bowers proved to be one of the most indulgent of mistresses, and +the girl's position speedily became a sinecure as far as work was +concerned. + +At first she was given a few light tasks to avert suspicions, and lead +her to think that everything was right. Then Mrs. Bowers began to +flatter her, and one day she said: + +"You are too pretty and refined, Jennie, to stay in the kitchen with +that vulgar cook. You shall stay in the parlor and be my companion." + +Nothing could have pleased the vain little creature better, for she +thought that her master would respect her more in her new situation, and +also that she would have more frequent opportunities of seeing him than +had fallen to her lot in her menial position. She accordingly consented +with ill-concealed delight. + +Leon Vinton had played his cards very cleverly to win the farmer's +pretty daughter. + +She saw him very seldom at first, as he spent the greater part of his +time in town, only visiting the cottage two or three times in the space +of a week. + +On the occasion of these visits Jennie saw but little of him, but some +glance of his eye or tender smile made her heart beat fast and kept him +in her thoughts when he was away. + +But when the little maid was promoted to the parlor, Leon Vinton began +to appear at home more frequently. + +He lounged about the parlor with his cigar and newspaper, and chatted a +great deal with his pretended sister and her pretty little companion. + +Very often Mrs. Bowers would leave the room, and remain away for hours, +leaving the handsome man and susceptible girl alone together. + +On one of these occasions he threw away his cigar, and took a seat by +Jennie. She looked up from a trifle of sewing in her hand, and then, +with a deep blush, let her glance fall to the rich velvet carpet. + +Mr. Vinton looked at her admiringly. Mrs. Bowers had presented her with +a fine dark-blue cashmere dress, and with soft, white laces at throat +and wrists, and a few bright-colored ribbons, the little country girl +looked quite the lady. Leon Vinton confessed to himself that she was +wonderfully pretty in her new surroundings. They suited her beauty much +better than the homely, humble farm-house had done. + +"Jennie," he said abruptly, "do you know that the probationary month +which your father allowed you with us is at an end to-day?" + +She started, and looked at him, the pretty pink color fading from her +cheeks, a look of alarm in her dark eyes. + +"Yes, I know," she faltered, "and you--you're not pleased with me, and +you're going to send me home to father, I suppose." + +He smiled at the piteous quiver in the girl's voice. + +"I'll send you if you want to go," he said, laughing. + +"I don't want to go. I like to stay here with--with your sister," she +answered, quickly. + +"Well, I don't blame you," he said. "This kind of life is better suited +to you than that. You're too pretty and dainty, by George, to be working +around in people's kitchens!" + +She did not answer, save by a blush and a smile of gratified vanity. + +"Little Jennie," he said after a moment, "how would you like to live +here always, and never have any work to do--nothing to do but adorn your +beauty with silks and laces, and jewels, and ride and walk and amuse +yourself!" + +She clasped her toil-worn little hands, and looked at him with beaming +eyes, and a happy smile on her red lips. + +"Oh, I should like it above anything!" she breathed, gladly. + +He took her hand in his, then dropped it with a slight frown. It was +hardened and enlarged by honest toil, and not pretty like her face. He +was used to velvet hands, white as the lily, for he seldom descended to +women in her station of life. She did not see the slight curl of his +lip, for he turned his head away, and when he looked back he was +smiling, and there was a beam of tenderness in his eyes. + +"Jennie, dearest," he said, "you can have all that, and what is better, +you can have one fond, devoted heart to adore you if you will only speak +the word." + +She looked up blushing and smiling. + +"You mean," she said, and then paused. + +"I mean," he answered, "that I will lavish every luxury and pleasure +upon you if you will only accept my love." + +The simple, untutored country girl did not for a moment comprehend his +meaning. She turned to him with clasped hands and a face full of joyful +emotion. + +"Oh, sir," she said, fervently, "you know that I shall only be too happy +and thankful to be your wife!" + +"The devil!" exclaimed the villain to himself. "The little simpleton +thinks I meant marriage." + +It suddenly dawned on him that there could be no question of love with +this honest little country girl without marriage. + +He determined to humor her fancy. + +"So you will be my wife, my sweet one?" he inquired. + +"Yes," she replied, "I will marry you if father is willing." + +Mr. Vinton suddenly assumed an expression of deep concern. + +"Ah! my little darling," he said, as he bent down and kissed her ruby +lips, "that is just where the trouble comes in. If I marry you now, as +my ardent love prompts me to do, I cannot ask your father to give you to +me, for our marriage must be a secret, unknown to any but ourselves." + +"Why so?" she inquired, looking disappointed. + +"I cannot tell you the reason now, Jennie," he replied, evasively. +"There are several things which would prevent our marriage if I declared +our intention beforehand; but there is one reason I can give you. My +sister, though she is fond of you in her way would never consent to it. +She is very proud, and she wishes me to marry a rich woman of her +choosing. If I openly defy her she has the power to keep me out of my +fortune and make me a poor man." + +Jennie was too simple and innocent to be undeceived by that transparent +lie. + +"Darling, after this explanation you will surely consent to a private +marriage--will you not? Remember how well I love you," pleaded the +wretch. + +"How could we manage a secret marriage?" asked Jennie, blushing with +delight at his fond words. + +"Easily enough. You can tell my sister that you wish to go home and +spend a week with your parents. Then I can take you to the city right +away and marry you. We can spend a week traveling about and enjoying our +honeymoon, after which I can send you back here, and Mrs. Bowers will +think that you have been at the farm the whole time. By-and-bye, when my +affairs get straight, we will declare our marriage to everybody. By +George, how surprised they will be then! Now, my dear little wife that +is to be, will you consent to my plan?" + +Jennie hesitated a moment, then murmured a timid and joyful "yes." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +The summer sunshine waned, the summer roses faded, and the "melancholy +days--the saddest of the year," hurried swiftly on. The chilling winds +howled drearily about the river cottage, but long ere the last autumn +leaf was whirled from the tall trees standing round about like giant +sentinels, the fickle fancy that Leon Vinton had felt for the farmer's +dark-eyed daughter had perished like the frailest flower of the summer. + +"The illusion was soon over," he said to himself. "It was the briefest +fancy I ever had. But that was her own fault. She was too easily won. +The game was not worth the candle." + +Simple little Jennie had been living in a "Fool's Paradise" ever since +the mock-marriage which the deceiver had duly caused to be celebrated. +Ostensibly she remained as the companion of Mrs. Bowers, and that kind +lady appeared to be perfectly blind and deaf to all the strange things +that went on around her. + +If Jennie had not been the most innocent of women she could not have +failed to know that Mrs. Bowers was perfectly cognizant of her secret, +and was only laughing in her sleeve all the while that she appeared so +stupid and good-natured to the new victim of her employer. + +"I am heartily tired of the little fool," he said to her one day in +confidence, when the autumn days had given place to the freezing ones of +winter; "I wish I could get rid of her." + +"Your fancy was soon over this time," remarked Mrs. Bowers. + +"Her own fault," grumbled the wretch. "In the first place she was too +lightly won. In love more than half the pleasure lies in the pursuit, +and 'lightly won is lightly lost.' She is changed now, also. How rosy +and bright she was at first--how pale, how altered, how plain she is +now!" + +"She is _ill_," said Mrs. Bowers, in a significant tone. + +"The deuce!" exclaimed Leon Vinton, angrily. "Why, then, I surely _must_ +get rid of her. But how to do it--that's the question!" + +"Tell her the truth--that she is not married at all--and send her home +to her parents," said the woman, heartlessly. + +He did not reply for a moment, but paused to light a cigar and place it +between his lips. Then he threw himself back on the lounge where he sat, +and remarked indifferently: + +"Yes; I suppose I shall have to do that. There will be a scene, I +suppose." + +Mrs. Bowers merely laughed in reply, as if he had uttered the most +harmless jest. She was thoroughly wicked and heartless, and cared not a +jot for the miseries of the whole world. + +"Well, the sooner the better," went on Vinton, heartlessly. "I believe +I'll go and have it out with her now." + +He arose as heartlessly and indifferently as if he were going about a +mission of happiness instead of being about to strike the cold steel of +despair into the young heart that trusted him so fondly. + +Jennie was sitting by a window in the parlor looking out at the great, +blinding flakes of snow that whirled through the air and covered the +ground with a pure white carpet. + +She looked pale, but very pretty in a black dress with scarlet +trimmings, and a scarlet shawl was draped about her shoulders, partly +concealing her form. + +As Mr. Vinton entered the room her dark eyes turned from the window and +rested on him with a very fond and loving smile. + +"You've come at last," she said, in a tone of joy and relief. "Where +have you been all this long week?" + +"In town," he answered, laconically, as he dropped into a chair near +her. + +A look of disappointment came into her eyes. She rose and went to his +side, winding her arms about his neck, and pressing her lips on his +brow. + +"I've missed you so much," she said, lovingly. "I sha'n't let you leave +me so long again." + +"I shall not ask your leave!" he answered, sharply, and muttering an +oath between his teeth as he rudely pushed her off. + +The movement was so sudden that she nearly fell. It was only by catching +the back of a convenient chair that she steadied herself. She turned a +white, frightened face toward him. + +"What's the matter?" she said. "Are you angry with me, Leon?" + +"I'm sick of your baby fondness," he answered brutally. "Have done with +it." + +Jennie fell back into her chair as if shot, and looked at him with +reproachful eyes. + +"You're angry with me," she said, plaintively; "and I had something to +tell you--something very particular." + +"Tell it, then," he answered, with a frown as black as night on his +handsome face. + +The trembling young creature before him remained silent for a few +minutes, so utterly confounded was she by the unaccountable change in +her husband. His manner had always been the perfection of gentlemanly +refinement before. This sudden change to coarse brutality amazed and +frightened her. When she spoke her voice was low and broken, and her +eyes rested on the carpet. + +"I waited to tell you, Leon," she said, with a scarlet blush, +"that--that we will have to make some change soon. You'll be obliged to +tell Mrs. Bowers that we are married, or take me to some other place. If +you don't she'll find out our secret pretty soon. We are compelled to +make a change!" + +"I have been thinking so myself," he answered, coolly. + +"You have," she said, with an accent of gladness. "Then what do you +think we had better do?" + +"I think you had better go home to your mother," he answered, brutally. + +She looked up at him in surprise and doubt. + +"You mean to own our marriage, then, do you?" she asked, and there was a +faint suggestion of hope in her tone. + +"No, by George! I don't," he answered quickly. + +"You don't," she exclaimed. "Then how can I go home? They would--they +would think I had disgraced myself. Father would turn me out of doors!" + +"I'm very sorry for you, then," he answered, coolly. "I see no other +resource for you." + +"Leon, I don't know what you mean!" exclaimed Jennie, in surprise and +pain at his careless words and utterly indifferent manner; "you are not +one bit like yourself. What makes you talk so strange to your own wife?" + +She looked up at the handsome man with the tears of wounded feeling +starting into her eyes, but all unconscious of the terrible blow that +was to fall upon her defenseless head. + +"You are not my wife!" he replied, with a dark and threatening frown. + +"_Not your wife!_" she cried, turning as white as death. "Oh, Leon, you +surely are going mad! What do you mean?" + +"I mean what I say," he answered, curtly. "It's time you knew the truth, +Jennie. You are not my wife--never have been! The marriage ceremony was +read over us, to be sure, but it was only a mock-marriage to quiet your +scruples. The pretended preacher was a friend of mine--the wickedest +blade in town--with a soul as black as the devil!" + +She sat still and looked at him, her eyes wild and frightened, her face +as white as the snow which whirled past the window. At last she spoke, +but her voice was low and thick, and did not seem like her own. + +"You're joking with me, Leon--you _can't_ mean it?" + +"I _do_ mean it--it's the truth," he replied, coolly; "come, now, +Jennie, don't take it hard. We've had a pleasant time--have we not? And +now you can go home to your mother. I am tired of you, I confess it; and +I'm going away myself--to Europe, I think. So of course you can't stay +here. My sister would turn you out of doors as soon as she found you +out. Go home to the farm, and there's a hundred dollars to help you +through your trouble." + +He tossed a roll of bank-notes into her lap with a complacent air as if +his munificent generosity condoned everything. + +The girl had been sitting quite still, looking at him with a terrible +pain frozen on her pretty young face, but at his concluding words she +sprang up and tossed the roll of notes into the fire as if it had been a +serpent. Her dark eyes blazed with passion and her voice shook with rage +as she wildly confronted her base betrayer. + +"Oh, you devil!" she cried, "I would not touch one cent of that money to +save your soul from the torments of hell! My curses be upon your head! +May the Lord _never_ forgive you for this cruel sin! May you die by the +hangman's rope!" + +The handsome villain laughed mockingly, and turning on his heel walked +out of the room. + +As he passed through the hallway he heard the sound of a heavy fall. +Glancing over his shoulder he saw that his victim had fallen senseless +upon the floor. + +He walked on and entered the room of Mrs. Bowers, his housekeeper, and +not his sister, as he had pretended. + +"I have told her," he said, "and she has fainted--as they mostly do. I +am going away now, and I shall be absent a week. You must try and get +her away from here before I come back!" + +"Oh! you wicked man," said Mrs. Bowers, laughing, and shaking a finger +at him. "Where shall I send her?" + +"To the devil for aught I care!" said the gentleman, smarting with the +recollection of Jennie's curse and the burning of his hundred dollars. +"I care not where she goes so that I am rid of her. But take good care +of the other one. Do not suffer her to escape." + +He tossed a roll of bills into her lap and walked away humming a tune. +In a few minutes after she heard him riding off down the road to the +city. She locked her money carefully away in a drawer, then went up to +the parlor where poor Jennie lay insensible upon the floor, and sitting +down in an easy-chair, carelessly regarded the poor girl whom she had +pitilessly helped to ruin. + +It was a long time before the unhappy girl revived from her deep swoon, +but the housekeeper made no effort to restore her to life though the +thought crossed her mind more than once as she sat there that she might +die without assistance. + +"And no matter if she does," said the heartless woman to herself. "It +would be all the better for her and for all parties concerned." + +But it was not to be as Mrs. Bowers thought and almost wished. Life came +back to the poor girl with a long, fluttering sigh, and the first thing +she saw when she looked up was the angry face of the woman glaring down +upon her. + +"So you're alive, are you?" she said fiercely. "Why didn't you die and +hide your shame and disgrace in the grave?" + +"Ma'am?" faltered poor Jane, blankly. + +"I say why didn't you die and hide your shame and disgrace in the +grave?" repeated the housekeeper, angrily. "Ah! I've found you out, +Jennie Thorn! I took you in my house for an honest girl, but you've +ruined yourself and disgraced your poor old parents; I'll not keep such +trash in my respectable home. Out of my house you go before night!" + +The poor girl rose and looked out of the window. The cold winter +twilight was already falling and the great, white flakes of snow still +filled the air. + +"Oh! Mrs. Bowers," she said, piteously, "it is night already, and where +could I go?" + +"You should have thought of that sooner," said the pitiless woman. "It's +too late now. Go get your cloak and hat and put them on." + +Almost stunned by her sorrow Jennie mechanically obeyed her imperious +command. + +"Now, leave here!" said the housekeeper. + +"Oh! Mrs. Bowers," cried the wretched girl, "let me stay at least until +morning! Indeed I am not what you think me! I was deceived by a +mock-marriage, and I thought myself an honest wife until Mr. Vinton told +me just now how cruelly he had betrayed me. Oh! for God's sake have pity +on me, and don't turn me out to-night in the cold and the darkness!" + +For all answer Mrs. Bowers caught her by the arm and rudely dragged her +along the hall to the front door. + +"You can't deceive me with your trumped up lies, you shameless thing!" +she said. "Go now, and never let me see your face here again." + +She opened the door and pushing the poor, weeping, betrayed and deserted +girl out into the blinding storm, slammed and locked the door. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +Over the broad, dark river, and the snow-covered earth the cold winter +moonlight lay in great, silvery bars of light. + +The terrible snowstorm of two days before was over. The sky was clear +and starry, and no trace remained of the storm save the deep, white +carpeting of the beautiful snow. + +Midnight was tolling from the great bell in the city, but Queenie +Ernscliffe sat at her window staring out at the night with wide, +sleepless eyes. + +On a couch at the opposite side of the room lay Mrs. Bowers snoring +audibly. She had slept in Queenie's room ever since the night she had +effected her escape and her constant vigilance had entirely frustrated +any other attempt of the kind. + +While Jennie Thorn had been dwelling in her Fool's Paradise, our heroine +had been suffering all the horrors of imprisonment and despair. + +She had heard very little of the farmer's pretty daughter since the day +she came to live there, but she knew she had remained with them, for she +had seen her a few times walking in the garden beneath her window, +prettily, even richly dressed, and she knew too well what that meant. +She felt very sorry for the poor girl who had been so deaf to her words +of friendly warning. + +Queenie was sadly altered for the worse since these long months of +imprisonment and wretchedness. Her garments hung loosely about her +attenuated form, her cheeks were thin and hollow, and her once bright +eyes were dim with weeping, and looked too wild and large for her small, +pathetic, white face. Her days and nights were passed in sleepless +wretchedness, much to the annoyance of the housekeeper, who declared +that she could not rest well while her refractory charge kept the light +burning as she did the long nights through, for she could not bear to +have darkness add its additional gloom to the horror of her thoughts. + +While she sat and stared wearily out at the midnight scene, the +housekeeper snored herself awake and began to complain. + +"Mercy's sake, girl, go to bed, and put the light out. I declare I +cannot sleep a wink with the gas shining in my eyes!" + +"You have been _snoring_ uninterruptedly for several hours!" answered +Queenie, coldly. "How do you suppose I can sleep when you keep up such a +noise with your breathing?" + +"Well, I never!" exclaimed Mrs. Bowers. "This is the first time I was +ever accused of snoring!" + +Queenie did not speak for a moment. Presently she turned her head around +and said, abruptly: + +"Mrs. Bowers!" + +Mrs. Bowers, who was falling asleep again, gave a grunt in token that +she heard. + +"What has become of that pretty girl you brought home from Farmer +Thorn's?" + +"She went away two days ago," was the sleepy reply. + +"With Leon Vinton, I presume," said Queenie, scornfully. + +"No, she went alone." + +"Betrayed and abandoned, no doubt," said Queenie, bitterly. + +"Something like that, certainly," answered the housekeeper, carelessly, +and with that she turned over and went to sleep again, leaving Queenie +to her own reflections. + +They were not pleasant ones, certainly. The room was chilly, and she +took up a shawl, wrapped it about her shoulders, and went back to her +lonely vigil, pressing her forehead against the pane while she looked +out into the cold winter night. + +"Oh, to be out there in the night, and the cold, and the darkness," she +murmured. "Oh, to feel the breath of freedom on my brow once more, and +hope within my heart! + +"How lonely, how dreary everything seems," she went on. "How dark and +dreary the river looks except where the bars of moonlight touch it with +brightness; how ghostly and skeleton-like the trees appear, tossing +their naked arms in the breeze; how weird and melancholy the silent, +deserted earth looks at midnight!" + +Suddenly she started and uttered a low cry. + +She fancied that she had seen a dark form darting cautiously about the +garden beneath the windows. + +She looked out again, and for a moment she thought herself mistaken, but +directly the dark form of a man appeared from behind a tree, and +skirting a strip of moonlight with cautious footsteps, disappeared in +the shadows. + +"What can that man be after?" she thought. "It is not Leon Vinton. Whom, +then, can it be? Perhaps a burglar." + +She continued to watch for him, and presently she saw him take up his +station under a tree near the gate as if watching or waiting for +someone. + +"It must be a burglar," she said to herself. "He is waiting for his +accomplice to come that they may rob the house. Shall I wake Mrs. Bowers +and tell her?" + +She mused a moment, still watching the dark, mysterious form lurking +under the shadow of the trees near the gate. + +"No, I will not tell her," she concluded. "What does it matter to me? I +care not what they do. Perhaps they may enter this room, and by some +means I may effect my escape." + +Her heart began to beat at the thought, and the light of hope came into +her beautiful eyes, brightening her whole face. + +She continued to watch the mysterious figure, expecting every minute to +see his accomplice appear on the scene; but the hours passed slowly by +and the man still remained at his post alone. + +At the first peep of dawn he went away, leaving Queenie perplexed and +doubtful. + +"Who can it be?" she asked herself. "It seems quite evident that he is +not here for the purpose of robbery. What, then, is he after? Can it be +some friend of mine?" + +The thought overpowered her with joy. + +"Oh, why did I not raise the window and give him some signal?" she +thought. + +Then she remembered that the windows had been tightly fastened down by +Leon Vinton's orders, so that she could not raise them. + +"I have suffered my hopes to lead my reason astray," she thought then, +with sudden despair. "Of course it is not anyone to help me. No one +knows that I am living except Leon Vinton and the wicked woman sleeping +yonder. Papa, Lawrence--all of them, think my body lies at this moment +moldering in the grave. Oh, Lawrence--oh, papa! what would I not give to +see you again!" + +She little dreamed that the father she loved so fondly had died of a +broken heart over her loss. + +She thought of him every day and longed to see him almost as she longed +to see the husband from whose side she had been torn at the very altar +by the vindictive malice of Leon Vinton. + +The next day from her position at the window she saw the same dark +figure of a man pass up and down before the cottage at intervals at +least a dozen times. A broad, slouch hat was pulled over his brows, +effectually concealing his features from Queenie's sight. + +"The mystery deepens," she thought, "the man, whoever he is, evidently +is watching this house. But with what object, I wonder?" + +At night he appeared again, and passed the long, cold hours pacing up +and down the garden until dawn. + +Every day for four days the man kept up this restless espionage. It +seemed to Queenie that he neither ate nor slept, so constantly did he +appear at his post. She became greatly interested in the mysterious +watcher. + +"Mrs. Bowers," she said one night, "where is Leon Vinton?" + +"In town, I suppose," said the housekeeper. + +"When is he coming back?" + +"To-morrow, I suppose. He has been gone a week and he said that he would +return in that time. Do you want to see him?" + +"No, indeed--I hope I shall never see him again!" said Queenie, shortly, +turning back to the window. + +The next day while she was watching the mysterious man as he paced up +and down the snowy road opposite the house, she saw Leon Vinton ride up +to the gate, dismount and tie up his horse. + +Involuntarily she looked over at the mysterious stranger. He was rapidly +crossing the road toward Leon Vinton. + +A gust of wind blew off his broad, slouch hat, and a startled cry broke +from Queenie's lips. + +She had instantly recognized the man! + +It was Farmer Thorn! + +She instantly comprehended the object of his daily and nightly +espionage. + +He was watching for Leon Vinton that he might avenge the wrongs of his +daughter. + +Clasping her hands in breathless agitation, Queenie waited for the +_denouement_. + +Leon Vinton opened the gate and passed inside. Farmer Thorn, having +replaced his hat, walked in behind him. + +The next moment Leon Vinton felt a grasp of steel upon his arm. + +He was whirled violently around face to face with the enraged man whom +he had wronged, and felt the muzzle of a pistol pressed against his +breast. + +"Accursed villain!" shouted the farmer, in a voice of thunder, "thus do +I avenge a daughter's wrongs!" + +Queenie heard the terrible words, followed by a loud report, saw a +wreath of blue smoke curling upward, and Leon Vinton fell like a log on +the snowy path. With a terrible shudder she saw his life-blood spurting +out, dyeing the pure snow with a terrible scarlet stain. + +Farmer Thorn looked down at his victim, spurned him with his foot, and +replacing the pistol in his breast, walked rapidly away. At the same +moment the front door opened hurriedly, and Mrs. Bowers ran out, +followed by a servant. Both of them ran screaming down the path to the +side of their master. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +Weakened and shocked by the terrible scene she had witnessed, Queenie +hid her face in her hands and fell back on her sofa. She lay there +trembling and agitated, and musing on the sudden end of the wicked Leon +Vinton. + +Presently the door was pushed open and Mrs. Bowers entered in such high +excitement that she forgot to lock the door behind her. + +"Oh!" she cried out, "did you hear the pistol shot? Leon Vinton is +dead!" + +A sudden impulse decided Queenie to conceal her knowledge of the fact. + +She sprang up in apparent wild excitement. + +"Is it possible?" she cried. "I heard a pistol-shot a moment ago. Who +killed him?" + +"I cannot tell you," said Mrs. Bowers. "I heard a shot, and ran to the +window just in time to see a man going out of the gate. He had a wide +hat on, and I couldn't make out his features." + +"You shall never learn his name from me," thought Queenie to herself, +for her whole sympathies were with the wronged father of the poor, +betrayed Jennie. + +"But there laid poor Mr. Vinton, stone dead, in the path," continued +Mrs. Bowers, excitedly. "Look out of the window there, and you can see +it all for yourself." + +Queenie glanced out of the window and drew back with a shudder. + +"Oh! it is horrible," she said. "What are you going to do?" + +"I'm going to send for the coroner," said Mrs. Bowers. "That's the +proper thing to do. I must go right away and do it. Dear, dear, who was +that murderous man, I'd like to know? I'd have followed after him, and, +mayhap, caught him, only I was so flustrated I didn't know what to do +first. The mean, murderous villain!" + +She bustled out so full of excitement that she forgot to lock her +prisoner's door. + +Queenie started up full of joyful emotion. + +"Now is my chance!" she exclaimed, "Leon Vinton is dead, and Mrs. Bowers +has no right to detain me. I will leave this dreadful place at once." + +She opened the wardrobe and took out a long waterproof cloak and hood, +putting them on with trembling hands. + +Then she exchanged her thin shoes for thick walking boots, and doubled a +dark-brown barege veil over her face. + +Thus equipped she opened the door and ran down the steps to the hall +with her heart beating almost to suffocation. + +In the doorway she paused. Mrs. Bowers was standing in the path by the +side of the dead man, and Queenie was afraid she would attempt to detain +her. + +"I must make a run for it," she thought, and suiting the action to the +word, she flitted down the steps and ran at break-neck speed down the +path, past her living and dead persecutors, and sprang through the gate +and out into the road. + +Mrs. Bowers heard the patter of her feet and the rustle of her garments +as she rushed past her, and looking up she recognized the girl, and +recollected instantly that she had forgotten to lock the door after her. + +"Come back, you jade!" she screamed, "come back this instant!" + +But the fugitive hurried on without looking back, and Mrs. Bowers in a +rage set out in a headlong pace after her. + +But the good lady was not as young as she had once been, and she found +herself rather heavy on her feet. But panting and blowing she raced on +in the useless pursuit, until suddenly both her feet slipped from under +her, and she measured her length on the icy ground. + +Muttering some words rather spirited in their meaning, and not often +heard on feminine lips, the wicked woman rose from the cold earth, and +shaking her fist after the fast retreating figure of her whilom +prisoner, began to retrace her steps to the house, rubbing sundry +bruises on her person as she went. + +"The keen-witted little wretch!" she thought, "how quick she was to take +advantage of my momentary forgetfulness. But after all, Vinton is dead, +and what do I want to keep her for? I shall have to leave here, anyway. +Mayhap, it's better as it is." + +Thus consoling herself, she returned to her watch over the dead man who +lay in a crimson pool of his life-blood across the snowy path, his eyes +glaring glassily, his handsome face set in the expression of fear and +horror that had settled on it when Mr. Thorn's terrible denunciation had +been thundered in his ears. + +Meanwhile Queenie ran on in her headlong flight until her limbs began to +tremble beneath her. Throwing a glance over her shoulder, she saw that +she had outrun her pursuer so far that she was no longer visible. She +slackened her pace then, and began to walk at a slower and more +reasonable gait. + +"I may take my time now," she thought. "Mrs. Bowers is too old and slow +to overtake me. Besides she can have no interest in keeping me a +prisoner since Leon Vinton is dead. She will have enough to do to take +care of herself." + +She pushed back her veil, showing a face so bright with hope and +happiness, that it was hardly recognizable for the pale and dejected +countenance that had looked from the window of the river cottage an hour +ago. Joy had fairly transfigured it. + +She walked along unconscious of the keen, cold, wintery air in the rush +of happy thoughts that crowded over her. + +She would go home to her father first. She would tell him everything--he +should break the news of her return to her husband. + +"I cannot tell Lawrence the _whole_ truth," she said, shuddering. "I +would rather die than that he should know the terrible secret! He is so +proud and he told me once he would not marry a woman with the faintest +shadow of disgrace upon her name. I have deceived him, and I must never +let him know now, for I love him, and it would kill me to have him put +me away! I will tell him something plausible, though I will not tell a +direct lie if I can help." + +Poor little Queenie!--once so innocent and transparent that her very +thoughts could be read in her eyes--her terrible misfortunes had taught +her strange subterfuges and deceit. + +"I wonder if there will be any trouble about proving my identity," she +thought; "I have heard of such things, and it _will_ appear very strange +to them at first. Papa will take me for a ghost, as he did the night I +went and looked at him through the window when he thought I was +traveling in Europe. Poor Uncle Rob! I wonder if he was sorry much when +he heard I was dead." + +She passed the farm-house where the Thorns lived, but the doors and +windows were both closed, and the only sign of life was a faint blue +smoke curling up from the chimney. + +"I should like to stop and see what has become of that poor, willful +girl," she said to herself, "but I am so impatient I cannot spare the +time." + +She walked on faster as she neared the great city. Her impatience +redoubled by the thought that every step brought her nearer to her loved +ones. + +"I wonder if they will be glad to see me," she thought wistfully; "I +know papa _will_! Poor old darling, I could never doubt _him_! I do not +know about Georgie and mamma. _They_, perhaps, were relieved that I and +my terrible secret were buried together--they may be sorry to see me +resurrected. But of one thing I am certain. Sydney was glad when she +thought I was dead. She will hate me more than ever when I go back. But +I shall not trouble any of them, I shall have my husband--he is all I +want. He shall take me away from here to some other place where I can +forget all the terrible past in my new happiness." + +All the while she was thinking she was walking quickly on, buoyed up by +the joyous anticipations. At last, foot-sore and weary, she entered the +great city and walked on until she stood in front of her father's +handsome residence. + +Trembling with passionate joy, and with her heart beating so that she +could hear it in her ears, she went up the steps and rang the bell. + +The door was opened to her by a strange man in livery instead of the +female servant who had formerly answered the bell. + +Her first sensation of surprise and disappointment was succeeded by an +amusing thought. + +"Mamma and Sydney are grander than ever. They have set up a +man-servant." + +"Is Mr. Lyle at home?" she timidly inquired. + +The man stared at her a moment in blank surprise; then getting his wits +together, replied respectfully: + +"The Lyles don't live here now, miss." + +"Where have they removed? Can you tell me?" she inquired, thinking that +perhaps her mother's and sister's extravagance had caused her father's +failure at last, and that they had taken a cheaper house. + +"Mrs. Lyle and Miss Lyle, and Lady Valentine are all in Europe, ma'am," +he answered, wondering what made the bright, pretty face turn so pale as +he gave her the information. + +"And Mr. Lyle--you can tell me where I can find _him_?" she inquired, +eagerly. + +The polite servant looked as if he thought the girl was out of her mind. +After a blank stare into her lovely, eager face, he said, surprisedly: + +"Mr. Lyle--why, ma'am--_he's dead_, you know!" + +If the man had struck her the cruelest blow in the face she could not +have recoiled more suddenly. She stepped backward so quickly, and with +such a wild, low cry of pain that she would have fallen down the steps +if the man had not thrown out his arm and caught her. + +"Oh, ma'am, don't take it hard," he said, in a voice of respectful +sympathy. "Was he any relation of yours?" + +She turned her beautiful face toward him with the whiteness of death +upon it. + +"When did he die?" she asked, unheeding his question. + +"The same night that his daughter died--you've heard of that, ma'am, +have you?" asked the man, who seemed rather of a gossiping turn. + +"Yes, I've heard of that," she said, in a hollow voice totally unlike +her own. + +"Well, Mr. Lyle, he died that same night of a broken heart, folk said. +She was his youngest daughter, and his favorite. They were both buried +the same day." + +"Dead, dead!" she murmured. + +"What did you say, ma'am?" asked the man, not hearing the low words. + +"Nothing," she answered. "I thank you for your information," and +staggered down the steps into the street again. + +"Dead, dead!" she kept moaning to herself as she staggered along the +street in white, tearless despair. "Papa is dead! and died of a broken +heart for me. Oh, I was not worth such devotion!" + +Her mind was so full of this terrible blow that had fallen upon her that +she could think of nothing else, until suddenly she saw that the brief +winter twilight was settling fast over everything. Then a terror of the +night and cold took hold of her. She thought of her husband. + +"They are all gone--papa and the rest," she murmured; "I have no one but +Lawrence now. I will go to him." + +The thought seemed to invest him with added tenderness and dearness. She +hastened her footsteps, and before long she stood in front of the +splendid mansion where Captain Ernscliffe lived, and which he had +refurnished in splendid style for his fair young bride. The windows were +closed as if the house was deserted, but she went up the steps and rang +the bell. A woman servant answered the summons. + +"Is Captain Ernscliffe at home?" asked Queenie, in a faint and trembling +voice. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +The woman whom Queenie had addressed, and who had the appearance of +being the housekeeper, stood still and looked at the young girl a moment +without replying. + +"Is Captain Ernscliffe at home?" repeated Queenie, in a tone of wistful +eagerness. + +"What do you want of Captain Ernscliffe?" asked the woman, rudely, as +she stared suspiciously into the troubled, white face of the beautiful +questioner. + +Queenie drew her slight figure haughtily erect. + +"My business is with Captain Ernscliffe," she said, in a cool, firm tone +that rebuked the woman's impertinent curiosity. "Can I see him?" + +"Oh, yes, certainly," said the housekeeper, with a palpable sneer. She +was offended because Queenie had failed to gratify her curiosity. + +"Show me in at once, then," said Queenie, making a motion to step across +the threshold. + +But the woman held the door in her hand and placed herself in front of +it. + +"You'll have to travel many a mile from this to see him," she said, +maliciously. + +"What do you mean?" exclaimed Queenie, turning pale. "Is he not at home? +I will wait here until he comes then." + +"You'll wait many a month then," was the grim reply of the offended +woman. + +"I do not understand you," Queenie answered, passing her small hand +across her brow with a dim presentiment of coming evil. "Will you please +tell me where I can find Captain Ernscliffe?" + +"You'll find him across the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere in Europe, ma'am!" + +She fired the words off like a final shot and looked at Queenie, +prepared to enjoy her chagrin and amazement, but she was almost +frightened by the expression of terrible despair that came over the +beautiful, young face. + +"In Europe," she said in a voice so low and heart-broken the woman could +scarcely hear it. "Are you _quite_ sure?" + +"Quite sure, ma'am. He went away to travel a week after his wife's +death, and may not return for years." + +She made a motion to shut the door, intimating that the conference was +ended, but Queenie leaned up against it so that she was compelled to +desist. + +"Can you give me his address that I may write to him?" she said. + +"Well, I never!" ejaculated the housekeeper, staring at her in +amazement. + +Queenie only repeated her words more plainly. + +"I know no more of his whereabouts than the dead!" was the answer. "He +expected to be traveling all the time." + +A smothered moan of pain came from the white lips of the listener. + +"Have you done with me?" asked the woman, impatiently. + +Queenie looked out into the street. It was almost dark, and a sleety +mist was beginning to fall. The lamp-lighters were going their rounds +lighting up the gas-lamps at the corners of the streets, and belated +pedestrians were hurrying homeward. + +With a shiver she turned back to the portly, comfortable figure of the +woman rustling on the door-sill in her black silk dress, quite +unconscious that she was holding the door against her mistress, and the +mistress of that elegant brown stone mansion on whose threshold she +stood. + +"You are Captain Ernscliffe's housekeeper?" said Queenie. + +"Yes, and I am left in charge of the house during his absence," answered +the woman, bridling with a sense of her importance. + +"I am a friend of Captain Ernscliffe," said Queenie, timidly. "Will you +let me stay here to-night? I am homeless and penniless!" + +The housekeeper favored her with a stare of scornful incredulity. + +"Captain Ernscliffe's friends are all rich people," she said, with a +toss of the head. "He don't have any acquaintance with _tramps_!" + +"I assure you that I am not a tramp," answered the young girl, quickly. +"I have been very unfortunate in arriving in this city and finding my +friends all dead or away. If your master were here he would certainly +give me shelter this wintery night." + +"It's more than I'll do, then," said the housekeeper sharply; "come, +young woman, don't tell no more lies! Captain Ernscliffe don't know you, +but I _do_! You're a burglar's accomplice, and you want to get into the +house that you may open it to your friends in the night and rob the +house." + +"Indeed you are mistaken," said Queenie earnestly. "Oh! _do_ let me +stay! If you don't I shall perish of cold in the streets to-night and my +death will be on your hands. You may lock me into a room if you are +afraid of me--only give me shelter." + +It had been on her mind to declare herself the wife of Captain +Ernscliffe, and force the woman to admit her into the house that was +virtually her own. But a moment's reflection showed the utter futility +of such a course. No one except those who loved her would give credence +to such a wild, improbable tale; no one would believe that the grave had +given back its dead unless she could offer more substantial proof than +she had at command. This woman before her would have laughed such an +assertion to scorn. + +"Come, move on," she said roughly, at the same time seizing the girl by +the shoulder and pushing her from her position against the door. "I +can't shelter the likes of you, and I won't stand here in the cold +wasting breath on you a minute longer." + +Queenie turned as the woman pushed her toward the steps and looked her +in the eyes. + +"You may be sorry for this some day," she said. + +"Ha, ha," laughed the heartless housekeeper, "sorry indeed! Sorry that I +didn't take a tramp into the house to rob my master." + +"Will you let me stay?" said Queenie, once more looking over her +shoulder as she was wearily descending the marble steps. + +If the woman's heart had not been made of stone it must have melted at +the anguish in that sweet, white face, but she only reiterated her +refusal more angrily. + +"I am friendless and penniless," pleaded Queenie, still hoping to melt +that icy heart. "Think what may happen to me in the streets at night!" + +"Go! go!" exclaimed the hard-hearted creature, fiercely. + +"I will go," said Queenie, drawing her cloak about her, and preparing to +breast the wintery storm. "I will go, but remember, madam, that you may +one day repent this! It is quite, quite possible that I may one day turn +you from these doors as you have turned me to-night." + +For all answer the woman slammed the door in her face, and fiercely +locked it. + +Queenie was left alone standing on the wet pavement in the wintery +night, locked out of her husband's house like a thief, a waif and a +stray by night, while over her loomed the great brown-stone palace that +a few months ago had been splendidly refitted and furnished in velvets, +tapestries, gildings and bronzes, for her pleasure. It was hers--her +husband's--therefore her own. Yet she turned away from its inhospitable +doors, homeless, friendless, penniless--worse than all, _hopeless_! + + "Where the lamps quiver + So far in the river, + With many a light + From window and casement, + From garret to basement, + She stood with amazement + Houseless by night." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +It is some time since we have seen Mrs. Lyle and her elder daughter. + +We must seek them now in one of "the stately homes of England." + +They are the guests of Lady Valentine at her elegant residence in the +most fashionable quarter of London. + +Nearly four years have elapsed since we first met the Lyles and heard +the spirited discussion over little Queenie's first ball and Sydney's +old green silk dress. + +Sydney and Georgina would not need to scrimp little Queenie's share of +finery to bedeck themselves now were she living. + +Georgina's husband is wealthy and indulgent, and "Uncle Robert," the +beneficent friend of their earlier days, has charged himself with +Sydney's support ever since her father died until recently, when she has +married a wealthy man. + +Mrs. Lyle lives with Georgina, and still enjoys the whirl of fashionable +life as much as ever--indeed more than ever, for now there is no vexing +question relative to the girls' finery disturbing her placid mind. + +It is a chilly morning in mid-winter, and the three ladies are sitting +in a pleasant morning-room, Georgina, grown plump and indolent, idly +reclining in an easy-chair, with her dimpled white hands lazily folded +over her silken lap, Mrs. Lyle perusing a morning paper, and Sydney +gazing restlessly out of the window--watching, perhaps, for her +husband--the honeymoon is not a month old yet, and she is naturally +impatient at his absence. + +Into this quiet scene enters Lord Valentine and tosses some cards into +his wife's lap. + +"Tickets for La Reine Blanche to-night," he says. + +All three ladies utter a cry of delight. + +"At last," exclaims Mrs. Lyle, in a spasm of anticipation. + +"Yes, at last," laughs my Lord Valentine. "The great American actress +will play at the theater to-night, and we shall have a chance to see if +she is really as great an _artiste_ as Madame Rumor reports." + +"Here is a paragraph regarding her now," says Mrs. Lyle, and taking up +the paper, she reads aloud: + +"The beautiful and gifted young American actress, Madame Reine De Lisle, +will make her _debut_ before a London audience to-night in the great +emotional play of 'Romeo and Juliet.' The fame of this wonderful +_artiste_ has preceded her to England, and all lovers of the drama are +on the _qui vive_ for the first appearance of La Reine Blanche, as her +admirers call her." + +"La Reine Blanche," said Lord Valentine's little sister, looking up from +her volume of history as she sat in a corner by the fire. "La Reine +Blanche--that means 'the white queen.' They used to call Mary Queen of +Scots La Reine Blanche, because she was so fair and lovely, and because +she wore a white dress when she was in mourning. I have just been +reading about her in my history. I wonder if this great actress is +beautiful also?" + +"She is said to be the most beautiful blonde in the world, Alice," said +Lord Valentine, smiling down at the little school-girl. + +A slight cloud has shadowed the brightness of Lady Valentine's face +while little Lady Alice is speaking. She leans toward her mother, and +says in a slightly lowered voice, but one which is distinctly audible to +Sydney: + +"Alice's French recalls my own, mamma. Have you ever thought what the +name of this great tragedy _queen_, if rendered into English, would be?" + +"_Reine De Lisle_," repeated Mrs. Lyle, musingly. + +Then she gives a great start. + +"It would be--ah, it would be Queen Lyle!" + +"Exactly," says Georgina. "Quite an odd coincidence. Is it not?" + +She leans back in her seat with a thoughtful look on her pretty pink and +white face. + +Old times and old interests crowd into her mind with the memory of her +younger sister. Time has thrown a veil over Queenie's faults and +follies, and Georgina recalls her now with a softening remembrance, and +half regrets the scorn she cast upon her when she returned to them so +strangely. + +"But ah! that missing year," she asks herself, as she has done many +times before. "Where was it spent?" + +Sydney had risen at the first mention of Queenie's name and swept out of +the room. Neither time nor change had softened her hatred and resentment +against poor little Queenie. + +She had hated her beautiful sister while living, and she hated her, even +in her grave, so bitterly that she could not endure the mention of her +name even now when years had come and gone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +"Let us go home, mother, I am tired already. The play is sickening; I +always thought so." + +It is Sydney who speaks, and her voice is full of restless discontent. + +She is in a box at the theater, looking brilliantly beautiful in black +velvet and diamonds. + +The place is packed from pit to dome; but in the dazzling rows of fair +faces, there is not one handsomer than hers, even now when it is marred +by that look of impatience, almost anger, that rests upon it like a +threatening cloud upon a summer sky. + +Mrs. Lyle, a passionate lover of the drama, turns a look of dismay upon +her handsome daughter. + +"Oh, not yet," she said quickly. "I would not miss seeing the play +through for anything!" + +"You have seen it often enough before," objects Sydney. "But if you are +determined to stay I will go alone, if Lord Valentine will put me into +the carriage." + +"Don't go yet," says Lord Valentine, turning his eyes a moment from the +stage to glance at his sister-in-law a trifle impatiently. "At least +wait until Ernscliffe comes." + +"He does not appear to be coming at all. I will not wait for him," +Sydney answers, and the look of discontent deepens into downright +vexation. + +At that moment the box door opens and a gentleman comes up behind her +chair. + +Georgina turns quickly. + +"Ah, Captain Ernscliffe, you are just in time," she says. "Here is +Sydney trying to persuade us to go home before the play is half over. +Perhaps you can induce her to wait." + +Sydney looks up to him and a tender smile curves her crimson lips. + +"You are late," she murmurs. + +"I was detained," he answers, carelessly. "How are you enjoying the +performance of the great actress?" + +Her lip curls scornfully. + +"Not at all. I am tired of the whole sickening thing. Will you take me +home?" + +"Is the balcony scene over yet?" he asks. + +"Oh, no," Lady Valentine answers; "only the first act." + +"Do you really want to go, Sydney?" he asks. + +"I really want to go," she answers, rising and drawing her opera cloak +about her white shoulders. + +He gives her his arm in silence, and leads her away, puts her into the +carriage, and they are whirled rapidly homeward; but when he sees her +safely inside Lord Valentine's handsome house he turns to go back. + +"You will not leave me?" Sydney says, pleadingly, and laying her white, +jeweled hand on his black coat sleeve. + +"I wish to see the play out," he answers, with a touch of impatience in +his voice. + +"I assure you it is not worth seeing. The acting is merely mediocre. +Madame De Lisle has been greatly over-rated," she urges, with a tone of +anxiety in her voice, as she looks down, almost afraid that he will +detect the falsehood she is telling in her eager face. + +"You make me more curious than ever," he answers, lightly. "I must +certainly see her and judge for myself. Perhaps the wonderful beauty +over which men rave so much has blinded the judgment of the critics. _Au +revoir!_" + +He frees himself from her clasp gently but firmly, and runs down the +steps. + +Sydney stands as he has left her, the rich cloak falling from her +shoulders, her hands clasped before her, a tearless misery looking forth +from her dark eyes. + +"I have lied to him and gained nothing by it," she murmurs, in a +passionate undertone. "He will go back there, he will see that terrible +resemblance that shocked us all, and he will be reminded of the one whom +I wish him to forget. Oh, it is a dreadful coincidence! The same name, +the same face, the same voice! If we had lost her in any way save by +death, I could have sworn that it was Queenie herself that I saw +to-night dancing on the stage at _Lady Capulet's_ ball." + +Captain Ernscliffe hastened back to the theater, anxious to be in time +for the second act, which is a favorite with all admirers of "Romeo and +Juliet." + +Lord Valentine glances around as he enters the box and drops into a +chair. + +"Ah, Ernscliffe," he says; "just in time. The balcony scene is on." + +Ernscliffe leans forward, scanning the stage eagerly, and quite +unconscious that his three companions in the box are regarding him with +curious eyes, anxious to note what impression the great actress would +produce upon him. + +He sees the sighing _Romeo_ walking about and soliloquizing in the +garden of the hostile _Capulet_, the gentle _Juliet_ in the balcony +above him. His dark eyes rest on her for a moment; then he gives a +violent start. + +"Heaven!" he mutters under his breath, and grows pale beneath his olive +skin. + +"He can see the likeness, too," Lady Valentine whispered to her mother. + +Rapt, spellbound, like one in a bewildering dream, Captain Ernscliffe +bends forward, the deep pallor of painful emotion on his dusk, handsome +face, his dark eyes fixed on the hapless young _Juliet_ in a wild, +astonished, incredulous gaze as she leans upon the balcony, murmuring +words of love to handsome young _Romeo_ in the garden beneath. It was no +wonder, for _Juliet_, in her fair, young beauty, her misty, white robe, +looped with rosebuds, her floating curls of gold, is the exact and +perfect counterpart of Queenie Lyle when he first met her at Mrs. Kirk's +grand ball. Not a tone of her voice, not a curve of her lip, not the +fall of a ringlet differs from the lovely girl who had won his heart +that never-to-be-forgotten night--the peerless bride that death had torn +from his arms in the very moment that he claimed her as his own! + +Like one in a dream he listened and looked. He heard _Romeo_ exclaim in +deep and passionate accents: + + "'Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear, + That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops--'" + +And _Juliet_ interrupted in those silver-sweet tones so strangely +familiar to his ear: + + "'Oh! swear not by the moon, th' inconstant moon, + That monthly changes in her circled orb, + Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.'" + +With those words: + + "Oh! swear not by the moon, th' inconstant moon," + +_Juliet_ raised her eyes that had been downcast and fixed on her lover, +and looked upward as if to gaze upon the fair orb of which she spoke. + +In that moment her dark-blue eyes, shining like stars of the night, +encountered the fixed and passionate gaze of the handsome man in the box +above her. She started--it was not his dreaming fancy--it was too +palpable to all--recovered herself with an effort, and went on in a +voice that trembled in spite of her brave endeavor: + + "'That monthly changes in her circled orb, + Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.'" + +"Great God! It is Queenie herself! Do the dead come back from the grave? +I must see her, speak to her!" exclaimed Captain Ernscliffe, in a +passionate undertone, as he sprang up and turned toward the box door. + +Lord Valentine, who had watched him attentively, caught him by the arm. + +"Ernscliffe, are you mad? We all see the resemblance. It is accidental, +of course. What would you do?" + +Ernscliffe shook off his grasp roughly. + +"Yes, I am mad!" he exclaimed, "for I believe that the dead is alive, +and that yonder _Juliet_ is my lost bride, Queenie Lyle!" + +He opened the box door with a shaking hand and rushed wildly out. + +La Reine Blanche went on with her part and acted more brilliantly than +ever. She surpassed herself. She seemed under the influence of some +strong excitement that lent new power and force to her superb rendition +of _Juliet_. The vast and brilliant audience was fairly carried away. + +At the close of the second act flowers fairly rained upon her. She was +called back before the curtain and the thunders of applause shook the +building. + +Then the manager came to her with a little bit of pasteboard in his +hand. + +"Madame De Lisle," he said, "there is a gentleman outside who is so +opportune in his desire to see you that I was forced to bring you his +card, although I know you always refuse to make men acquaintances." + +She took the card and read the name: + +"Lawrence Ernscliffe." + +"Will you see him?" asked the manager, seeing that she stood silent as +if hesitating. + +"No, no," she answered. "Tell him he must excuse me--I have to dress for +my part in the third act." + +The manager turned away and the beautiful actress pressed her lips +passionately upon the insensible little bit of pasteboard she held in +her white and jeweled hand. + +"At last, at last!" she murmured, "yet I must not meet him to-night. I +could not go on with my part--it would unfit me for anything. I must +postpone my long-sought happiness yet a little longer. To-morrow--ah, +_to-morrow_!" + +She walked up and down, pressing her hands on her wildly beating heart +as if to still its convulsive throbs. + +"They say that happiness never kills," she said. "If it were otherwise I +should feel afraid--my heart aches with joy--it seems as if it would +burst, it is so full of happy emotion!" + +She went back on the stage and a timid glance showed her Lawrence +Ernscliffe back in the box looking terribly restless and disappointed. +She was afraid to meet his eyes again, but she knew that he watched her +through every scene, devouring every movement with passionate, yearning +eyes. + +At the close of the act she saw a lovely bouquet thrown from his hand, +and picking it up she discovered a tiny note among the flowers. + +When the curtain fell she read the hastily penciled lines: + + "MADAME DE LISLE:--For God's sake let me see you, if only for a + moment. I _must_ speak to you; I shall go mad if you don't take + pity on my anxiety and grant an interview to + + "LAWRENCE ERNSCLIFFE." + +Tears came into the eyes of the beautiful actress as she read those +lines; but when after another act the same card was handed her, she +again refused to see the writer on pretence of dressing for her next +appearance. + +"To-morrow," she murmured to herself, "I will see him. To-night I +cannot, I am utterly exhausted, I _must_ have rest." + +When the play was over she came out on the arm of the manager, her maid +on the other side of her. As she stepped into her carriage she saw a +dark, handsome face regarding her earnestly and a little reproachfully. +The closing door sent it from sight, and she was whirled away to her +hotel. She did not know that Captain Ernscliffe had sprung into a cab +and followed her. + +Neither did Captain Ernscliffe know that a mysterious-looking lady, +heavily cloaked and veiled, had gotten into another cab and followed +him. + +It was Sydney, driven to desperation by her jealous misery. + +She had returned to the theater _sub rosa_, and been a witness to +Captain Ernscliffe's agitated recognition of the actress, and his +subsequent persistent attempt to secure an interview with her. Heedless +of everything, and rendered reckless by her indefinable dread of some +impending evil, she determined to follow him and prevent, if possible, +an interview between him and the brilliant actress who so strikingly +resembled his lost and lamented bride. + +It was midnight when the three vehicles drew up before the grand +entrance of the hotel where La Reine Blanche had her elegant suite of +apartments. She was crossing the pavement on the arm of her elderly +duenna when a light touch arrested her footsteps. She turned and looked +into the face of Captain Ernscliffe. It was white, wild, eager. + +"One word, if you please, Madame De Lisle," he exclaimed, in an eager, +agitated voice. + +She paused a moment and clung tremblingly to the arm of her attendant. + +"That is impossible to-night, sir," she answered in a low, constrained +voice. "Call on me to-morrow at noon. I will hear you then." + +Without another word she turned and fled up the steps. He stood looking +at her blankly a moment, then re-entered his cab and was driven away. He +did not notice the heavily-draped figure of a woman that had stood +almost at his elbow, and that now ran lightly up the hotel steps, into +the wide, lighted hall. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +La Reine Blanche went directly to her dressing-room, where her maid +divested her of her heavy wrappings and out-door costume, and +substituted a dressing-gown of white Turkish silk confined at the waist +by gold cord and tassels. Then she took down the burnished golden hair, +and prepared to brush and plait it for the night. + +As she took up the pearl-handled brush there came a timid, hesitating rap +at the outer door. Madame De Lisle started and trembled. + +"Admit no one to-night, Elsie," she said, nervously, as the maid turned +toward the door. + +Elsie came back in a minute with a penciled slip of paper. Her mistress +took it, and read these words: + +"Will Madame De Lisle accord the favor of a brief interview to a lady +who calls on important business?" + +"A lady--at this time of the night!" said La Reine Blanche, lifting her +arched brows very slightly. + +"Yes, madam, a real lady--at least she spoke and moved like one," +replied Elsie, respectfully. + +"Tell her I can see no one to-night. I am too weary; she must call +another time," said the actress, in an agitated voice. + +Elsie turned away with the message, but before she reached the door she +was confronted by the lady, who had heard the refusal and entered in +spite of it. + +She advanced into the room, and stood before the actress, who had risen +from her seat and leaned against a chair, her golden hair falling about +her like a misty veil. + +"Madame De Lisle," said the intruder, in a slightly tremulous voice, "I +entreat you to pardon this untimely intrusion. Will you send your maid +away, that I may plead my justifiable excuse?" + +La Reine Blanche motioned to the maid to withdraw into an inner room at +the pleasure of her visitor. Then she looked wistfully at the lady, who +had thrown off her concealing hood and cloak, and stood revealed in all +her majestic beauty, clothed splendidly in black velvet and sparkling +diamonds. + +"You are surprised to see me here?" said Sydney, interrogatively. + +The actress bowed silently. She seemed like one stricken dumb and +incapable of speech. + +"You were annoyed this evening by the persistent attempts of a gentleman +to obtain speech with you," went on Sydney. + +Again Madame De Lisle bowed silently. She seemed like one dazed, and +stood regarding her visitor without remembering that courtesy required +her to offer her a seat. + +"It is of that I wish to speak, madam. I heard you tell him he might +call on you to-morrow at noon. I beg you, Madame De Lisle, to recall +that permission, and to utterly decline the acquaintance of Lawrence +Ernscliffe now and forever." + +The failing senses of La Reine Blanche seemed to return to her with a +gasp. She straightened her drooping figure and looked haughtily at the +speaker. + +"May I inquire why you proffer such a singular request?" she asked, +coldly. + +"Is it necessary that I should explain my motive for the request? If I +do so, it will be at the expense of some humiliation to myself," said +the visitor, and a faint flush colored her handsome, high-bred face. + +For a moment they stood regarding each other fixedly--the handsome +brunette in her velvet and diamonds, the lily-white blonde in her +sweeping robe and veil of golden hair, looking like a "white queen" +indeed. + +Then the actress said, in a voice full of veiled passion and almost +defiance: + +"It would take a strong motive indeed to cause me to decline the +acquaintance of Lawrence Ernscliffe. Let me know your reason that I may +judge if it be potent enough to secure your wish." + +With a swift rush forward Sydney fell on her knees before the beautiful +woman. + +"Madame De Lisle," she said, pleadingly, "I humble myself before you to +beg for my happiness! I love Lawrence Ernscliffe; I hoped I was winning +his love in return until he saw you on the stage to-night. Your beauty, +your splendid acting, above all, your striking resemblance to one he has +loved and lost, took his heart by storm. He is carried away by this mad +and wicked infatuation. Nothing but a studied coldness from you can +check this mad passion. Will you, now that I have told you all, do as I +have begged you?" + +Something pathetic in the woman's humility touched a pitying chord in +the heart of La Reine Blanche. She took her gently by the hand and +placed her in a chair. + +"You say that I resemble one whom he has loved and lost," she said. "Who +was she?" + +"She was his bride," answered Sydney, "his bride and my sister. She died +at the altar. But I had the better claim upon him. He admired me and I +believe he would have loved and married me if he had not inopportunely +met her. But, as I have told you, she died. Now, after years, I had +almost won his love again when you came here with _her_ face and won him +from me! It is almost as if the dead had come back." + +La Reine Blanche looked at her with a strange smile. + +"I have heard it said," she remarked, "that if the dead could come back +after a few years they would find their places filled, their names +forgotten, and themselves unwelcome." + +Sydney gave her a keen glance, half-frightened, half-defiant. + +"Madam, that is true," she said. "If my sister could come back to us we +could not help being sorry. She was a trouble and disgrace to us while +living, and we cannot help feeling relieved that the grass is growing +over all her faults and follies." + +"You did not love your sister?" said the actress, with her blue eyes +blazing like stars. + +Sydney looked at her with a flash of hatred in her dusky orbs. + +"Madam," she said, "could you love the thing that stood between you and +your happiness?" + +They looked at each other a moment in silence, and the flashing eyes of +the beautiful actress seemed to burn into Sydney's heart. A sudden +horrible fear darted into her mind. + +"_Has_ the dead come back?" she asked herself. "Oh! no, it _cannot_ be!" + +"You will not answer me," she said, wildly. "Oh, Madame De Lisle, be +generous! You have lovers by the score; they tell me you have refused to +marry a duke. One heart more or less cannot matter to you. You must not +take my Lawrence from me! He is my all!" + +"Your _all_!" exclaimed La Reine Blanche, with a curling lip. "Lady, you +prate of your love for Lawrence Ernscliffe, you tell me that he is your +_all_! You tell me what he is to _you_--will you tell me what you are to +_him_?" + +There was a tone of triumph in her sweet, incisive voice as she +confronted her visitor. + +"Madam," said Sydney, proudly and haughtily, "_he is my husband--I am +his wife!_" + +"His wife! Oh! my God!" + +It was the cry of a breaking heart that cleft the midnight air. The +actress staggered backward, tried to catch at a chair to save herself +from falling, and then dropped heavily to the floor and laid there +without a sign of life. + +Elsie came rushing in from the next room, frightened at the sound. + +"Oh, my poor mistress--you have killed her!" she cried. + +"It is nothing but a swoon--she will soon revive," was the contemptuous +answer. + +But in her heart Sydney prayed, "Oh, that it might be death!" + +But the impious prayer was not answered thus. Elsie's energetic efforts +soon restored her mistress to consciousness, and lying languidly on a +silken divan, she turned her beautiful eyes back to Sydney's face. + +"You may retire again," Sydney said to the maid. "We have much still to +say to each other." + +The maid was about to refuse, but an imperative command from her +mistress caused her to retire at once. Then the two beautiful women +looked at each other with ominous glances. + +"So you _are_ Queenie herself? I thought as much," exclaimed Sydney, in +a hissing tone of hate. + +"Yes, I am Queenie," answered the actress, coolly. "I have come back +from the grave, Sydney; but it seems that I have neither name nor place +in the hearts that once were mine!" + +"No, and _never_ shall have!" exclaimed Sydney, passionately, to +herself, but aloud she said, in a voice that she strove to render calm +and controlled: + +"Will you tell me why you are here?" + +"I am here to claim my husband!" answered Queenie, promptly and firmly. + +If a look could have killed, Queenie Ernscliffe would have been stricken +dead at her sister's feet. + +"You will have to prove a few things before you accomplish your +purpose," she retorted. + +"I can prove all that is necessary," was the calm reply. + +"Can you justify yourself in the matter of that shameful hidden year in +your life of which I shall surely inform Captain Ernscliffe?" asked +Sydney, malevolently. + +"Sydney, forbear," exclaimed the actress, lifting her hand as if to ward +off some cruel blow. "I have borne all that I can bear to-night! You +must leave me now. Come and lunch with me to-morrow, and you shall hear +the story of that missing year--you shall judge whether I can justify +myself in the eyes of my husband." + +"Will you promise not to see him until after that?" asked Sydney, +anxiously, as she turned to go. + +"Yes, I will promise," answered Queenie. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +Sydney could not wait until the hour for luncheon next day. She was +terribly afraid that Captain Ernscliffe might by some means secure a +meeting with La Reine Blanche, and that the fatal truth might be +revealed, to the utter destruction of the frail superstructure of her +own happiness. + +He had not been back to the house since he had left her to return to the +theater the night before, and the most dreadful fancies continually +darted through her mind. + +It was impossible for her to wait until the hour her sister had +specified. As early as ten o'clock she entered the hotel and was shown +into the parlor of the great actress. + +Queenie was at home. She had just returned from an early rehearsal at +the theater, and lay resting on a low divan of cushioned blue satin. + +She wore a trained dress of black velvet and satin, with creamy-hued +laces at the wrists, and a fichu of the rarest old lace fastened at her +throat by a brooch of dead gold. A single cluster of white hyacinth was +fastened in with the lace, and filled the room with its subtle, +delicious fragrance. + +Her abundant, golden hair was braided into a coronet and confined with a +comb of pearl. In spite of an almost marble pallor, and a look of +terrible suffering, she appeared as lovely as Sydney had ever seen her. + +At the entrance of her rival she lifted her head, and with a faint sigh +motioned her to a seat near her. + +"You come early," she said. + +"I could not wait," Sydney answered. "I was too impatient. You have not +spoken with--with----" + +"_Our_ husband!" said the actress, filling up the embarrassed pause with +a faint and mirthless laugh. "No, Sydney, I have not spoken with him. I +saw him on the pavement this morning when I left the theater, but I drew +down my veil and looked another way." + +The look of dread in Sydney's dark eyes softened into relief. + +"Oh, Queenie," she exclaimed, "if you only _would_ go away from here +without speaking to him! Think of the consequences that would follow +such a revelation--the nine days' wonder over you, the shame, the +despair, the utter desolation for me! Oh, Queenie, if you would but go +away with your secret untold, and leave my husband." + +Queenie's red lips curled scornfully. + +"Ah! Sydney," she said, "you were always selfish. You think only of +yourself. You would sacrifice my happiness to your own." + +"_Your_ happiness, Queenie? Ah! what happiness could it give you to be +re-united to Lawrence Ernscliffe? You never professed to love him!" + +A crimson blush rose into Queenie's cheek. She put up her small hand to +hide it; but when it fell to her side again the warm color had not +faded. It seemed but to burn the brighter as she said in a low and +earnest voice: + +"No, Sydney, I never professed to love him. I do not think I loved him +when I promised to marry him. And yet, in the few weeks that intervened +before he led me to the altar, I learned to love him with as deep and +fond a love as the most exacting heart could have asked for. Time, +silence and suffering have but deepened and intensified that passion, +until it has become like the very pulse of my heart. He is the one dear +thing to me, yet you ask me to give him to you." + +"You have your art--your profession. Surely you love that," said Sydney, +anxiously. + +"It has been but the means to an end," replied Queenie. "It has never +filled but half my heart. The other half has never been at rest. It has +always been seeking its lost mate. How could I give him up now that I +have found him?" + +"You mean to take him from me, then?" said Sydney, with a dangerous +gleam of hatred firing into her black eyes. + +La Reine Blanche did not answer. The blush had faded from her cheeks, +and left them deathly pale. + +Sydney could read nothing of her thoughts in the blue eyes, half veiled +by the sweeping lashes. She moved restlessly in her chair. + +"You promised to tell me your story," she said, coldly and sharply. "I +am here to listen." + +The faded color rushed back in crimson waves to Queenie's face. She +looked up into the proud, scornful features of her sister. + +"I am going to keep my word," she said, "and yet, Sydney, will you +believe me when I tell you that I would rather tell my story to any +other person on earth than you? Yes, I think I could sooner tell +Lawrence Ernscliffe himself. I do not believe that anyone else would +judge me as harshly and unpityingly as you will do--not even a +stranger." + +She was silent a moment, and lay still, shading her face with one small, +white hand that sparkled with diamonds; then, as Sydney made no answer, +she said, with a visible effort: + +"Where shall I begin, Sydney?" + +"At the beginning," answered Sydney, curtly. + +"I must go back four years, then," said Queenie. "Sydney, do you +remember the day that I sold my painted fan that Uncle Robert gave me to +buy a tarleton dress to wear to Mrs. Kirk's grand ball?" + +"Yes, I remember." + +"_That_ was the beginning, Sydney. I saw a gentleman in the store where +I sold my fan--the handsomest man I ever saw in my life--tall, dark, +elegant. He looked me straight in the face as I left the store, and my +foolish heart fluttered into my mouth. You know I was very young and +romantic at that time--both things of which I cannot accuse myself now," +added Queenie, thinking sagely that her present twenty-one years made +her quite elderly. + +"Yes," said Sydney, curtly. + +"The man bought my fan as soon as I left the store; then he followed me. +I did not know these things then, but I learned them afterward. Perhaps +you remember that 'an unknown admirer' sent the fan back to me?" + +"Yes," said Sydney, curtly. + +"You remember also, Sydney, that every day an elegant bouquet, formed of +the choicest hot-house flowers, came to me from the same unknown +source?" + +Sydney nodded an affirmative answer. + +"I was very young and foolish in those days," said Queenie, with a sigh. +"I do not suppose that any girl ever lived more silly and romantic than +I was. I brooded day and night over the mysterious donor of the fan and +flowers. All my secret thoughts were of him. I felt quite sure in my own +mind that the handsome man who had looked at me so admiringly in the +fancy store was my unknown admirer. I expected daily to meet him +somewhere in the haunts of the gay society in which I had become +somewhat of a belle. You remember, Sydney?" + +Sydney did not answer, and she went on, slowly: + +"I did not meet him in society; but after a time we met in a public +park. I was walking there alone. I slipped and fell, spraining my ankle +severely. A gentleman rushed to my assistance. It was the handsome +stranger of whom I had dreamed so much that I had become perfectly +infatuated with him. He placed me in a carriage and took me home. You +were all out that day, and I never told of that event in my life through +some undefined fear of censure. That was where my fault began--in that +first act of secrecy." + +She paused a moment, and a heart-wrung sigh drifted over her pale and +quivering lips. + +Sydney sat perfectly still, regarding her with stern, unpitying eyes, as +though they were strangers instead of sisters whom the same mother had +nursed on her breast. + +"We met again and again," said Queenie, slowly. "Always by accident, it +seemed at first, Sydney, and I am quite sure it _was_ accident on my +part; but I know now that it was by design on the part of Mr. Vinton. He +wooed me in the most romantic fashion. Flowers and poetry were the +vehicles through which he conveyed his sentiments, until at last grown +bolder, he openly avowed his love for me." + +"You must have been very forward to have encouraged him to a declaration +so soon," said Sydney, with a sneer. + +"Sydney, I declare to you I was not. Oh! if you knew Leon Vinton as I do +now, you would know that I was not--you would know that the more timid +and shrinking the dove the more fierce and unrelenting would be his +pursuit," exclaimed Queenie, with a scarlet blush at her sister's cruel +charge. + +"I knew, of course," she continued, after a moment's thoughtful pause, +"home was the proper place for my lover to woo me. I said as much to +him. His ready excuse appeared perfectly sufficient in my silly eyes. He +told me that he was a foreigner of high birth and rank, exiled from his +native land through a political offense and that he had heard that my +father was bitterly opposed to all foreigners. He, therefore, felt it to +be quite hopeless to seek for the _entree_ to my father's house. Little +simpleton that I was, I swallowed the whole stupendous lie because it +was baited with the one single grain of truth--namely, the well-known +fact that my father was bitterly prejudiced against all persons of +foreign birth. I believed all he told me, and, worse than all, I +believed that I was deeply and devotedly in love with him. That was the +blind mistake of my life, Sydney. _Now_ I know that I was not in love +with the _man_. It was the romance and poetry of his manner of wooing +me, the mystery that surrounded him with an atmosphere of ideality that +fascinated and infatuated me. I was very young and romantic, as he well +knew when he set his artful trap for me. He knew too well how to bait +it. It was only the wooing that I loved when I thought it was the +wooer." + +Her voice broke a moment, and she buried her face in her hands. + +Sydney offered no comment, but sat as still and silent as a statue, +regarding her intently. + +"Yet, why do I linger over those fatal hours?" resumed Queenie, with a +heavy sigh. "They can have but little interest for you. I will briefly +relate what came after. You remember, Sydney, how I left you all the day +we started to Europe on the pretense of returning to remain with papa?" + +"Yes," Sydney answered, in a tone of scorn. + +"It was a preconcerted plan," said the actress, dropping her eyes in +shame and remorse. "In less than an hour after I left you, Sydney, I met +Leon Vinton and was married to him." + +"Married to him!" exclaimed Sydney, incredulously. + +The blue eyes and the black ones met for a moment--one pair cold and +incredulous, the others full of raging scorn. + +"Sydney, you are cruel!" exclaimed Queenie, indignantly. "How else +should I have gone away with him? I was as pure and innocent as a little +child. There was not a thought of evil in my heart. I would have died +the most horrible death that could be conceived of before I would have +willfully sinned." + +"Why, then, did you not confess the truth when you came home?" asked +Sydney. "If you were married, where was your husband? Why did you suffer +us to think worse things of you?" + +"Wait until I have finished my story, Sydney, then you will understand +why," answered Queenie, mournfully. "We were married, as I told you," +she continued. "We went to live in a beautiful cottage on the banks of +the river, about five miles from the city where we lived. My husband +appeared to be a man of wealth and taste. My home was splendidly +furnished. I had servants to wait upon me, the best of everything to eat +and wear. He appeared to be perfectly devoted to me. I had but two +things to complain of. One was the utter seclusion in which we lived. He +went into no society, and we saw no company--not a single person ever +visited us. I rode out in a carriage with Mr. Vinton sometimes. Once we +went to the theater near my old home, and an irresistible desire seized +upon me to look upon the face of my father once more. Mr. Vinton had +always sternly forbidden me to venture near my home, but I eluded him +somehow in the crush coming out of the theater, and ran homeward with +flying footsteps. I looked into the window, Sydney. It was late, but I +saw papa. He was sitting, sad and alone, thinking, perhaps, of his +absent dear ones. He looked so old and broken it almost broke my heart." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +Queenie paused a moment, and Sydney saw that warm, passionate tears were +streaming down her cheeks. The sight awoke no pity in the heart of the +elder sister. It seemed to her that her hatred was simply measureless +for the beautiful young sister who, living or dead, held Lawrence +Ernscliffe's heart. + +"Papa looked up and saw me," continued Queenie, brushing away the +crystal drops with her perfumed handkerchief. "He took me for a ghost, I +think. I ran away and met Mr. Vinton coming after me. He was very angry +with me, and I promised him I would not venture near the place again. +Poor papa! As I went away I heard him wandering in the garden, calling +my name. I longed to turn back and throw my arms about his neck. I often +begged Mr. Vinton to allow me to make known our marriage to papa and +trust to his kind heart to forgive us, but he always refused angrily. He +had a terrible temper--a sleeping devil coiled within his heart." + +"You said that you had but two things to complain of," suggested Sydney. +"You have named but one." + +"The other was Mr. Vinton's frequent absence from me. He spent more than +half his time in the city, and I passed more than half my time alone, +save for the company of his housekeeper, a wicked woman, whom I +cordially detested. When I complained of his long absence, he +represented that business detained him from my side, but when I ventured +to inquire into the nature of his business, he almost rudely informed me +that it was no part of my province to inquire into his affairs. I asked +him no more questions, and I do not know to this day what engaged his +time and attention, nor what was the source of his apparent wealth. + +"We had been married almost a year," she continued, after a slight +pause, "when I began to notice that Mr. Vinton grew cold and careless to +me, and his mysterious absences became longer and more frequent. In my +loneliness and isolation I began to pine more and more for papa, whose +sad and troubled face, as I saw it last, when I looked into the window +that night, haunted me persistently. To my surprise, Mr. Vinton ceased +to chide me for indulging in my grief, and pretended to be willing to +reveal our marriage to papa and beg his forgiveness. In my joy at this +assurance, I threw my arms around his neck, and kissed him as fondly as +I had ever done in the first days of our union. That evening he ordered +out the phaeton to take me home to papa. You know how fond I was of +papa, Sydney--you can imagine my happiness." + +Sydney only bowed coldly in reply. + +"'I am going to take you home by a new route,' Mr. Vinton said to me, +turning the phaeton into a lonely, unfrequented road. In my joy at going +back to papa, I consented without a thought of the oddity of the words. +I only said to him: 'Do not make it a longer route, dear Leon. I am so +impatient to see papa again.'" + +She was growing more excited now. She rose from her reclining position, +and sitting upright, looked at Sydney with scarlet cheeks and burning, +violet eyes. She was dazzlingly beautiful in this new phase. + +Her fair, expressive face, and graceful, white throat rose from the rich +and somber setting of black velvet like some rare flower. Her voice +sounded like a wail of the saddest music. + +"It was the cruelest lie a man ever told a woman, Sydney!" she went on, +clasping and unclasping her white hands together in passionate +excitement. "We never went near home. He never intended it. It began to +rain soon, and we had no cover to the phaeton. We were passing through a +thick wood, and he forced me to get out and stand under the trees under +pretense of seeking shelter. Then, oh, Sydney, Sydney, with the chilly +rain beating down upon us, and our feet half buried in the thick drifts +of autumn leaves, he told me--oh, Sydney, can you guess what horrible +thing that villain told me?" + +The tears were falling down her cheeks like rain as she looked at her +sister, but she, conjecturing the truth at once, answered, promptly and +coldly: + +"He told you that he had deceived you--that you were not his wife!" + +"Yes, Sydney, that was what he told me," answered Queenie, with burning +cheeks. "He said that the minister who united us was no more a minister +than he was, and had only done it for a lark! He said he was tired of me +and did not intend to charge himself with my support any longer, and +that I might return to my father." + +She stopped a moment and brushed away the tears that were coursing down +her cheeks. + +"Oh! how can I go on?" she exclaimed. + +"I am impatient," remarked Sydney. + +"I was fairly maddened by that cruel revelation," continued Queenie. +"Oh, Sydney, may the dear Lord spare you from such suffering as was mine +in that terrible hour! I went mad! All the softness of womanhood died +out of me in the face of that cruel wrong! The instinct of the tigress +sprang into my heart. I thirsted for Leon Vinton's blood. I cursed him. +I rushed upon him and fastened my little, white fingers in his throat +and tried to kill the wretch who had betrayed me." + +"A murderess!" exclaimed Sydney, recoiling. + +"My hands were all too weak and frail to wreak justice upon the +villain," Queenie went on, heedless of her sister's ejaculation. "He +pushed me off, he swore at me, he strangled me with his strong, white +fingers, threw me down upon the earth and spurned me with his foot--aye, +trampled upon me! You saw the purple print of his boot-heel on my brow, +Sydney. It is here yet," she said, pushing back the fluffy waves of +golden hair from her brow and showing the livid scar. + +"After that I remember nothing more for several hours," she went on, +seeing that Sydney made no answer, "and he must have thought that he +had killed me, for when I came to myself I was lying in a grave, a very +shallow grave. I was covered with fresh earth and dead leaves, which the +hard and steady rain had partly beaten aside, leaving my face exposed. +My murderer had not buried me deep enough. I sprang up out of the +shallow hole in which he had laid me, my heart beating wildly with +hatred and the thirst for revenge. All the hours of unconsciousness, all +the rain and cold that had chilled my body had not cooled the fire of +hate, the murderous instinct that possessed me. It seemed to me that +nothing could wipe out my wrongs except Leon Vinton's blood." + +"And this is the innocent little child that used to be my father's pet!" +exclaimed the listener, with a shudder. + +"Yes," said Queenie, mournfully. "It seems strange, does it not? I, who +only four years ago was the petted child of my father's heart--now I am +dead to all that once knew and loved me. I have gone wrong. I have +wandered into strange paths. I have buried peace and joy. I have broken +my father's heart--all for the sin of one man--_man_ did I say? Nay, +rather a devil in the guise of an angel of light!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +If Sydney's heart had been less hard than marble she must have pitied +the beautiful, unfortunate young sister so sadly rehearsing the story of +her terrible wrongs. + +But she uttered no word of sympathy or pity, she did not take the golden +head upon her breast and weep over it as a loving sister would have +done. She only said, in her cold, hard, jealous voice: + +"Go on, Queenie. You went home to papa then?" + +"No, I did not. I went back to the beautiful cottage where I had lived +in a fool's Paradise one fatal year. Before I reached there I saw _him_ +standing alone on the banks of the river. I told you I thirsted for his +blood. Nothing could have cooled the fire of my terrible hate but his +life-blood poured out in a free libation. His back was turned to me, he +neither saw nor heard me. I crept up behind him, I--oh, Sydney, do not +look at me so! Remember it was not little Queenie, but a woman gone mad +over her terrible wrongs. I could not help it. I put my hand on his +shoulder and pushed him down into the river!" + +"You are even worse than I thought you, Queenie," exclaimed her sister; +"yet you--a Magdalen, a murderess--you dared to come back to us and to +marry Captain Ernscliffe!" + +"I disclaim either of the hard names you have called me, Sydney," her +sister answered, defiantly. "I have been deeply sinned against, but I +have not sinned. I had no intention of evil when I eloped with Leon +Vinton. I thought I was his wife when I lived with him. When I pushed +him into the river it was a simple act of justice. If I had gone home to +papa and told him my wrongs, and he had killed Leon Vinton, society +would have applauded the act and any jury would have acquitted him. It +was right for me to punish him. I gloried in the deed." + +Sydney made a gesture of abhorrence. + +"The only pity," continued the actress, passionately, "is that I did not +succeed in my revenge. He rose upon the water once after I pushed him +in, and saw me on the bank. Then he shook his fist at me and shouted, +with his mouth full of water: 'If I live I will have revenge for this!' +Then he went under again, and I ran away and went home to papa." + +"Then he was not drowned, after all?" said Sydney. + +"No, he was saved from a watery grave, and forthwith began to dog my +footsteps again, though so cautiously that I never dreamed but that he +was dead. The night I was married I saw him looking in the window at me, +but I took him for a ghost or an illusion of fancy, never for a moment +as a living creature. But in the moment that I was made a bride he sent +me a bouquet. I inhaled the perfume and fell senseless. It was drugged +with a powerful sleeping potion. I was not dead, only asleep and +unconscious, when they buried me. Leon Vinton resurrected me that night, +and confined me as a hated prisoner at the cottage to which he had taken +me a happy, thoughtless young bride. That was his diabolical revenge. He +knew where I was all the time, but he waited until the full cup of +happiness was pressed to my lips, then dashed it away, and spilled the +precious wine forever." + +She looked at her elder sister with a tearless agony in her pansy-blue +eyes, but Sydney only said, impatiently: + +"I am anxious to hear how you happened to become such a noted actress." + +"A few months after my supposed death, Leon Vinton was killed by the +outraged father of a young girl whom he had basely betrayed. In the +consequent excitement my prison door was left open, and I escaped and +went back to the city, toiling on through the stormy, winter weather as +though it was summer time, in my joy at the thought of going back to my +home again." + +She wrung her jeweled hands and groaned aloud. + +"Oh, Heaven! how little I dreamed of the changes that awaited me in the +home from which I had been carried a seeming corpse but a few months +before. Papa was dead, the rest of you were gone to Europe; there were +strangers in the house. Staggering blindly along, almost overwhelmed by +the shock of my father's loss, I went to my husband's home. Alas! he, +too, was traveling abroad. My last prop was swept from under me. I was +homeless, friendless, penniless and forsaken in the great, heartless +city, alone in the streets at night, beaten and tossed about by the wind +and storm." + +"Oh, if she had but died then!" breathed Sydney, inaudibly. + +"Sydney, try to put yourself in my place for a moment. You who have lain +in luxury's silken lap all your life--who have never known a sorrow. +Think of your wronged little sister alone and friendless in the dark and +dangerous streets of the city, buffeted by the wintery storms. Surely, +then, you will feel some pity for all that I have endured." + +Sydney would not even look at the sorrowful face; her ears were deaf to +the tremulous, appealing voice. + +"Go on with your story," she said, coldly. "These digressions are +wearisome. What happened to you then?" + +But Queenie had thrown herself back on the divan, with her white hands +over her face, and for a moment a profound silence reigned throughout +the room. The little French pendule on the mantel was ticking the hours +toward noon, but neither of the two women, in their all-absorbing +interest in the present, seemed to remember that the actress had made an +appointment with Captain Ernscliffe at that hour. Presently Queenie +spoke in a faint and mournful voice. + +"Sydney, I cannot go on now; I am too faint and exhausted. These painful +recollections have wearied and depressed me. Wait a little. I must +rest." + +"You have come so near to the end of the story, surely you can finish it +now," objected Sydney, unfeelingly. + +The actress did not speak for a moment; the small hands dropped away +from her face, and she lay still, with her long-fringed lashes resting +on her white cheek, a look of pain and exhaustion on her delicate lips. + +Sydney rose and walked impatiently up and down the floor. + +"Sydney," said her sister presently, "there is some wine and glasses on +the cabinet there. Will you give me a few drops? Perhaps it may rally my +fainting strength." + +Sydney went to the cabinet and found a flask of port wine and delicate +little crystal glasses. + +She poured a little into a glass and looked over at her sister. + +Her eyes were still closed, and she looked death-like and pallid as she +lay there in her velvet dress and rich surroundings. + +A terrible look came into Sydney's face. She put her hand into her bosom +and drew out a little vial, unstoppered it, and poured a few drops into +the wine. + +Then she crossed the room to Queenie's side. Her eyes were burning with +some inward fire. + +"Here, Queenie," she said, "drink your wine." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +"Drink your wine, Queenie," repeated Sydney, in a slightly impatient +voice. + +The beautiful actress struggled up to a sitting posture and looked into +her sister's face. + +"Good Heaven, Sydney, what ails you?" she said. "You look positively +ghastly. This interview has been too much for you. I entreat you to +drink the wine yourself." + +But Sydney shook her head, although she was trembling like a leaf and +her face was ashen white. She could scarcely keep from spilling the +wine, the glass wavered so unsteadily in her hand. + +"I insist upon it," said Queenie. "You need a restorative as much as I +do. Drink that yourself and give me another glass." + +A frightened look came into Sydney's eyes. Was it possible that Queenie +had been watching her from under the hands that covered her face? + +"I--I assure you I do not need it in the least," she faltered; "you +looked so ghastly yourself, lying there, that I was frightened, but my +nervousness is quite over now. Pray drink it yourself. I am anxious to +see you revive enough to continue your story." + +Queenie took the wine-glass in her hand and raised it to her lips. + +Sydney watched her with parted lips and burning eyes. Her heart gave a +bound of joy as her unfortunate sister touched the fatal draught with +her beautiful lips. + +They were so absorbed that they had not heard a rapping at the door. +Both were quite unconscious that the person seeking admittance had grown +impatient and recklessly turned the handle. + +But little as they dreamed of such a thing, it was true. Sydney's +dreadful crime had had an unthought-of spectator. A man had stood just +inside the room and watched her with wild, astonished, horrified eyes. + +As Queenie was about to drink the wine he rushed forward and violently +struck the glass from her hand. It fell to the floor, shattered into a +hundred fragments, the ruby wine splashing over the rich carpet. + +The actress sprang to her feet and confronted the daring intruder. + +"Lawrence Ernscliffe!" she gasped. + +"Lawrence Ernscliffe!" echoed Sydney, in a voice of horror. + +"Yes, Lawrence Ernscliffe," he answered, looking at Queenie. + +He seemed to have no eyes for anyone but her, although his second wife +stood just at his elbow. + +"Why are you here?" demanded the actress, haughtily. + +The tall, handsome man looked at her in astonishment. + +"Madam, you permitted me to call," he said, "and this is the hour you +specified. I knocked, but no one came; then I opened the door and +entered." + +The pride and anger on the lovely face before him softened strangely. + +"That is true, I had quite forgotten it," she said. "But then your +rudeness in striking the glass from my hand--how do you account for +that? What did you mean by it?" + +Her beautiful eyes were looking straight into his--the dusky, pansy-blue +eyes of the lost bride whom he had worshiped so madly. + +His reason seemed to reel before that wonderful resemblance, his heart +was on fire with the passion she roused within him; yet through it all +he had a vague feeling that he must shield Sydney, that he must not +betray her to the beautiful woman whom she had wronged. + +His dark eyes fell before her steady gaze, his cheek reddened, his +tongue felt thick when he tried to speak. + +Sydney's heart was beating almost to suffocation, while he stood thus +hesitating. She knew when he struck the glass from Queenie's hand that +he had witnessed her dastardly crime. + +She wondered if his mad passion for the beautiful actress would lead him +to betray _her_--his wife! + +In her terror and desperation she grasped his arm and looked up +pleadingly into his face. + +Captain Ernscliffe looked down at her--oh! the withering scorn, the just +horror of that look. + +She shrank back abashed before it, but he slowly shook his head. + +She was safe--he could not forget that she bore his name, however +unworthily. + +"I ask you again, sir," said the actress, in a voice that demanded +reply, "why did you strike the glass from my hand?" + +"Madam, I--I--pardon me, I was excited, I knew not what I did!" he +stammered, not daring to meet her searching gaze. + +Suddenly Queenie uttered a cry of grief and terror. A little pet dog had +left his cushion in the corner and lapped up the spilled wine from the +floor with its tiny, pointed tongue. + +Now, after a few, unsteady motions, and two or three whining moans of +pain, it uttered one sharp, despairing yelp, rolled over upon the carpet +and expired. + +After Queenie's one terrified cry a dead silence reigned throughout the +room. + +Sydney dropped into a chair, trembling so that she could not stand, and +put her hands before her face. Her sin had found her out. + +Queenie would certainly revenge herself now by revealing her identity. +What mercy could she expect from the sister she had hated and tried to +murder? + +"I understand your reluctance to explain yourself now, sir," said the +voice of the actress, falling on her ears like the knell of doom. "You +would shield your wife!" + +He did not answer. His head was bowed on his breast, his handsome, +high-bred face was pale with emotion. She went on coldly after a +moment's pause: + +"I thank you, Captain Ernscliffe, for the ready hand that struck the +poisoned wine from my lips, although my life is so valueless to me that +it was scarcely worth the saving. But now will you withdraw and leave me +to deal with this lady?" + +Sydney glanced up through the fingers that hid her shamed face. What did +Queenie mean to do? Was it possible that she would not reveal her +identity to her husband? + +"Madam," he remonstrated, "you were willing to accord me an interview. +Surely you will not send me away like this. I cannot go until I have +told you why I am here!" + +The resolution in his voice alarmed her. She stepped back a pace and +stood looking at him with parted lips and burning eyes, her face as +white as marble against the background of her rich but somber velvet +robe, her loosened, golden hair falling around her like a veil of light. + +"We--I--that is--you can have nothing to say to me that I wish to hear!" +she panted. "Pray go--let us part as we met--strangers!" + +He looked at her with a strange light in his dark eyes, a warm flush +creeping into his face. + +Sydney watched him with wild, fascinated eyes. What would he say to this +speech of the actress? + +"We have not met as strangers--we cannot part thus!" he answered firmly. +"Surely my eyes and my heart cannot both deceive me! La Reine Blanche, +you are my lost wife, Queenie!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +You might have heard a pin drop in the room, so utter was the silence +that followed Captain Ernscliffe's bold declaration. + +Sydney remained crouching in her chair, watching the two chief actors in +this drama in real life, with wild, fascinated eyes, feeling that her +whole future hung trembling in the balance on the answer that must fall +from her sister's lips. + +Queenie seemed stricken dumb by the words of Captain Ernscliffe. She +stared at him speechlessly, her white teeth buried in her crimson lips, +her hands clenched tightly together. + +"Queenie, you cannot deny it," he went on passionately, seeing that she +could not, or would not speak. "Although I thought you dead, although +the last time I beheld your sweet face it was under the shadow of the +coffin-lid, yet I could swear that the lost bride whom I deemed an angel +in Heaven, still walks the earth under the name of Reine De Lisle!" + +Still she did not answer, still she stood there pale and statue-like, +all the life that was left in her seeming concentrated in the burning +gaze she fixed upon his face. + +He ventured to come a little nearer, he touched the white, jeweled hands +that were locked so tightly together. He altogether forgot Sydney +crouching silently in the great arm-chair. He took up a long, curling +tress of the golden hair and pressed it to his lips. + +"My darling!" he cried, "speak to me! Tell me by what strange mystery +you were resurrected and restored to my heart! Why have you remained so +long away from me?" + +The touch of his hands and lips seemed to galvanize her into life. She +pushed him away and sprang to Sydney's side. + +"Madam," she cried indignantly, "what ails your husband? Is he mad? Why +does he claim me as his wife?" + +Sydney's heart gave one wild, passionate throb of joy. Queenie had +declared herself. She would renounce her husband! Taking the cue +instantly, she sprang up and fixed a pleading gaze on the beautiful +white face of the actress. + +"Oh! Madame De Lisle, forgive him," she cried. "You are the living image +of his first wife, whom he adored, and who died at the altar. Your +perfect resemblance to her has driven him mad!" + +He looked from one to the other--the dark, radiant brunette, the +lily-white blonde, each so perfect in her type--and his heart sank +heavily. + +Had they conspired to deceive him, or was this wonderful resemblance to +his lost bride but a mere coincidence--a will-o'-the-wisp, an _ignis +fatuus_, to lead his heart and his reason astray? + +"Cease, Sydney!" he said sternly. "She cannot deny it, she will not +utter such a stupendous falsehood. My heart is too true a monitor to +lead me astray! It never throbbed as it does now in the presence of any +woman on earth but Queenie Lyle!" + +How noble and handsome he looked as he stood there, pleading for his +love with all his tender, passionate heart shining in his dark eyes. + +The actress gave one look at him, then turned away and walked to the +further end of the room. + +She could not bear the mute, agonizing appeal in his beautiful, +troubled, dark eyes. Sydney sprang to his side and clasped her hands +about his arm. + +"Oh! Lawrence," she cried. "You break my heart! I tremble for your +reason. Oh! pray, pray, come away from here! Madame De Lisle is very +angry with you for your persistence in your strange mistake. You intrude +upon her hours for study and practice. Will you not come away with me?" + +He looked down at her suspiciously, without stirring from the spot. + +"Sydney, if indeed I am mistaken," he said, "why are _you_ here? If this +lady is not your sister, what have you to do with her? Why," he lowered +his voice slightly, "why did you seek to remove her from your path?" + +Sydney dropped her eyes and turned crimson. + +"Oh, Lawrence," she said, "she is not my sister, but she is my rival. I +know all that passed last night, I know that she has won your heart from +me." + +"It was never yours, Sydney," he answered firmly. "I married you because +you loved me, and were unhappy without me; but you never held my heart. +I have never loved but one woman on earth. I told you that before I made +you my wife." + +The listener's heart gave one great bound of joy. He loved her still--he +had never loved but her. Why should she sacrifice herself and him for +the doubtful good of Sydney's happiness? + +A great wave of pity for herself and for her true, loyal husband swept +over her heart. + +She made a quick step toward him as if to throw herself upon his breast, +then shrank back into herself, deterred by the agonised appeal in the +eyes of Sydney, who seemed to divine her purpose. + +"Oh! Lawrence," entreated Sydney, "pray go away from here. Madame De +Lisle grows impatient." + +The actress swept across the room, turned the handle of the door, and +held it open. + +"Mrs. Ernscliffe is right," she said in a cold, hard tone, "I am both +weary and impatient. I can bear no more. This trespass on my time and +patience is inexcusable. Will it please you to go now, sir?" + +Lawrence Ernscliffe advanced and stood before her in the doorway. She +could not bear the passionate pain and reproach in the beautiful eyes he +fastened on her face. Her gaze wavered and fell before his. + +"Queenie," he said, slowly and sadly, "you have not deceived me! You +cannot deny that you are my own! Your soul is too white and pure to +suffer such a falsehood to stain your lips! Yet you will not let me +claim you, you are sacrificing your happiness and mine for a mere +chimera! I understand it all. Sydney has asked for the sacrifice and you +have made it. It is for _her sake_!" + +He bent down, lifted a spray of white hyacinth that had fallen from the +lace on her breast to the floor, pressed it to his lips, and silently +withdrew. + +Queenie closed the door upon his retreating form and turned back to her +sister. + +"He was right," she said slowly, "I have sacrificed my happiness and his +for your sake, Sydney." + +Sydney lifted her heavy eyes and looked at her without speaking. Queenie +went on slowly: "This is my revenge, Sydney: you have scorned and +insulted me, you have branded me with a cruel name, you have tried to +poison me--me, the little sister you loved and petted when we were +children at our mother's knee! Yet, for the sake of those old days, and +the love we had for each other then, I forgive you--nay, more, I make +the sacrifice you were cruel enough to ask of me. I resign the one being +whom I have sought for years--the one thing dear to me upon earth. I +give you the pulse of my heart, the life of my life, the soul of my +soul!" + +Cold and white as marble in her sublime self-abnegation, she pointed to +the door. + +"Go," she said, "I can bear no more!" + +Sydney obeyed her without a word. + +Then the beautiful queen of tragedy, the lovely woman who counted her +admirers by the hundreds, knelt down upon the floor, and lifted her +white, despairing face to Heaven. + +"Oh! God," she moaned, "If indeed I am a sinner, as she said, surely +this great and bitter sacrifice for another's sake must win for me the +pity and pardon of Heaven!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +The three weeks of La Reine Blanche's London engagement were drawing to +a close. + +She had achieved a brilliant success. Her beauty and her genius were the +themes of every tongue. + +Her admirers were legion. She had a score of wealthy and titled lovers. +It was even said that a noble and well-known duke had proposed to marry +her, and met with a cold and haughty refusal. + +The managers of the theater where she was playing tried to secure her +for another month. It would be worth a fortune to them, they said, and +they allowed her to make her own terms. + +To their consternation she utterly declined a longer engagement and +announced her intention to retire from the stage. + +The managers were astounded. What! retire from the stage in the zenith +of her fame, with all her gifts of youth, beauty and genius. It was too +dreadful. Yet in spite of their remonstrances she persevered. She +canceled at a tremendous cost an engagement she had made with a Parisian +manager. A whisper was circulated and began to gain credence that the +beautiful _tragedienne_ was about to enter a convent and take the veil +for life. + +She did not deny it when people questioned her, but she would not tell +the reason why she was about to take such a strange step. + +She only smiled sadly when they remonstrated with her, but she would +never tell why she was about to immure herself, with all her gifts of +beauty, youth and genius, in a living tomb. + +But there was one thing that was palpable to all who saw her off the +stage and divested of the trickery of paint and cosmetics. La Reine +Blanche was fading like the frailest summer flower. The lily bloomed on +her cheek instead of the rose. + +Under her large, blue eyes lay purple shadows, darker and deeper than +those cast by the drooping lashes. A look of patient suffering crept +about the corners of her lips and hid in her eyes. Her smiles were +sadder and more pathetic than sighs, her form grew slighter and more +ethereal in its perfect grace, her step lost its lightness and +elasticity. Some said that the beautiful actress was dying of a broken +heart, others said that she was falling into a consumption. + +She heard these things and made no outward sign, but inwardly she said +to herself: + +"They are both right and wrong. I am dying because I have nothing left +to live for. I have toiled and hoped for years. I have studied and +practiced to get money to carry me over the wide world in search of the +one true heart that was mine only, and now that I have found it I have +had to give it away. I cannot endure it; I am not strong enough. There +is nothing left me but to die!" + +She thought of some sorrowful lines she had somewhere read and +mournfully repeated them: + + "Much must be borne which is hard to bear, + Much given away which it were sweet to keep. + God helps us all! who need indeed His care; + And yet I know the Shepherd loves His sheep." + +Those flying rumors and reports only served to make Madame De Lisle more +popular. She was the rage. She played to densely packed houses every +night. + +Flowers rained upon her. The costliest gifts of jewels and rare +_bric-a-brac_ were sent to her from such unknown sources that she could +neither refuse nor send them back as she would otherwise have done. +There was always a great throng of people waiting to see her step into +the carriage every night. + +But in all that throng La Reine Blanche never saw but one face. There +was one man who always held the same position beside her carriage door. +He never spoke to her, he never touched her, but stood there patiently +every night, thrilled to the depths of his soul if the hem of her +perfumed robe but brushed him in passing. + +Some weird fascination utterly beyond her power of resistance always +impelled her to meet his glance, and the fire in his beautiful, dark +eyes; the passionate love, the terrible pain, the bitter reproach were +killing her slowly but surely. + +And Lawrence Ernscliffe was going mad. He had no life, no thought, no +hope outside the beautiful woman whom he had claimed for his wife, and +who had so coldly denied him. + +He haunted her like her own shadow. Go where she would she saw him, look +where she would she met only the eyes of the man she loved and to whom +she belonged by the dearest tie on earth. + +He forgot Sydney utterly, or if he ever remembered her it was only with +scorn. Her terrible sin had placed her beyond the pale of his tenderness +forever. No reasoning, no sophistry could have convinced him that the +beautiful actress was not his own wife whom he had lost in the very +moment that made her his bride. + +He could not have explained himself. He did not understand at all the +mysterious chance which had brought it about, yet he knew in his own +heart that the woman whom he had seen in her coffin once had been +restored to life again, and that the only bar to their happiness now was +Sydney, whom he had married through a simple impulse of pity. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +It was the last night of Madame De Lisle's engagement. She would make +her final appearance before the world in the beautiful tragedy of "King +Lear." To-morrow she would retire to the conventional cloister forever. + +The theater was so densely packed that there was scarcely standing-room +on this her farewell night. + +Lord Valentine and his wife and mother-in-law were in his box from which +they had scarcely missed a night of the three weeks. + +Besides Mrs. Lyle's passionate love of the drama there was a subtle +fascination in Madame De Lisle's strange resemblance to her youngest +daughter that impelled her thither every night to gaze upon her with +eyes that never wearied in looking on her loveliness. She could not have +told why it was, but she was vaguely conscious of a troubled tenderness +about her heart whenever she looked at the fair young creature and heard +the talk of her going into a convent. + +"She makes me think of poor Queenie," she whispered to Georgina that +night. "I cannot help feeling sorry for her, she is so like what she +was." + +"The resemblance is startling, indeed," Lady Valentine whispered back, +"but don't let Sydney hear you, mamma. She does not like to hear about +it." + +Sydney made no sign, but she knew very well what they were talking of. + +She came to the theater every night, though she hated to be there. +Jealousy drove her to look on her rival's face every night that she +might also watch her husband. + +Poor Sydney! She sat there pale and haggard, and wretched in her white +satin and diamonds, looking with jealous, suspicious eyes at the +beautiful and gentle "Cordelia," hating her for the fairness that +Lawrence Ernscliffe loved. + +Queenie's sacrifice, made at so costly a price to herself, had utterly +failed to purchase her sister's happiness. + +Captain Ernscliffe had a seat in another part of the house where Sydney +could watch his every movement. Her heart swelled with bitter pain and +passionate anger as she looked at him. He did not even seem to know that +she was there. His dark, melancholy eyes never once moved from the +graceful form of the unhappy "Cordelia" as she acted her part on the +stage. When the curtain fell he dropped his eyes and never looked up +again until his beautiful idol reappeared. + +La Reine Blanche had never acted better. She gave her whole attention to +her part. She did not seem to see that one pair of eyes had watched her +with such wild entreaty and passionate love in their beautiful depths. + +There was one box at which she never looked but once, and it was when, +in obedience to her husband's command, "Bid farewell to your sisters," +she slowly repeated: + + "'Ye jewels of our father, with washed eyes + Cordelia leaves you: I know you what you are; + And, like a sister, am most loth to call + Your faults as they are named. Love well our father: + To your professed bosoms I commit him; + But yet, alas! stood I within his grace, + I would prefer him to a better place. + So farewell to you both.'" + +Everyone in the house saw her brilliant eyes fixed on Lord Valentine's +box as she repeated those words, but perhaps no one but the actress +herself saw that Sydney's eyes drooped in shame and confusion, while a +scarlet blush stained her cheek. + +Ah, she, and no other, comprehended the bitter meaning of Queenie's +words as she fixed her blue eyes mournfully on the sister who had +wronged her so deeply. + +"This is her last night," Sydney murmured to herself, "but is it true +that she will go into a convent? I must see her, I must know the truth +for certain. I will go round to her dressing-room and ask her." + +When the act was over she complained of sickness and asked Lord +Valentine to take her down to the carriage. + +Lord Valentine complied and left her sitting in the carriage, the +coachman mounting to his box. + +But in a moment, before the two prancing horses had started, Sydney +slipped out of the carriage so noiselessly that the man drove on never +dreaming but that she was shut up within. + +Then she ran round breathlessly to the private entrance of the theater. +She told the man who kept the door that she had an engagement with +Madame De Lisle and desired him to show her to that lady's +dressing-room. + +Two minutes later she found herself alone in the small apartment where +the actress changed her costumes for the different acts and scenes. + +Queenie had not yet come in. The manager had detained her a few minutes +and Sydney had time to draw breath and look about her while she waited +for her sister. + +There was not much to see. The room was dingy and sparely furnished, as +the dressing-room of a theater is apt to be. + +Costumes were laid over the backs of chairs, and the maid who should +have been guarding them was "off duty," gossiping, no doubt, with some +humble _attache_ of the place. There was little to interest one, and +Sydney grew impatient. + +Suddenly she saw a letter lying carelessly on the toilet table. She took +it up and looked at it. + +It was addressed to Madame De Lisle, and had never been unsealed. + +"It has been left here during the first act, and Queenie has never seen +it," she said to herself. "It looks like my husband's writing. I will +see what he has to say to her." + +Recklessly, desperately, she tore it open, and drew out the sheet of +note paper. + + "MY DARLING," it said simply, "meet me at the western door after + the first act is over. I _must_ see you a moment." + +No name was signed to the mysterious note, but Sydney felt sure that it +was her husband's writing. + +"Queenie has deceived me," she said to herself, angrily. "She is in +collusion with Lawrence. I might have known she would play me false!" + +She looked about her hurriedly. A long, black silk circular, lined with +fur, hung over a chair. She put it on over her white dress, caught up a +thick veil, winding it about her head and face, and hurried out to the +retired western door. + +Outside in the darkness stood a tall, muffled form. + +"Queenie, is it you?" he said in unfamiliar tones. + +In a moment she realized her mistake. It was not her husband, but in the +hope of unearthing some fatal mystery, she said softly: + +"Yes, it is Queenie." + +These words sealed her doom. The man sprang forward and caught her by +the arm. + +Something bright and slender gleamed an instant in his upraised hand and +then was sheathed in her heart. + +As her terrible scream of agony divided the shuddering air, he turned +and fled from the scene of his crime. + +But poor Sydney, the victim of her own misguided passion lay there +dying, with the deadly steel of the assassin sheathed in her jealous +breast. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +That wild and piercing cry penetrated to many ears. The manager and the +actress heard it where they stood conversing together, and though +Queenie did not know that it was Sydney's voice, still she grew pale as +death, and an indefinable fear crept coldly around her heart. The +manager put her into a chair, for he saw that she could not stand. + +"Stay here until I return," he said, "I will go and see what has +happened." + +He hurried round to the western door from which the sound had seemed to +proceed. + +A little knot of theater _attaches_ had preceded him. They were gathered +round the prostrate form, and one had unwound the shrouding veil from +her pale face and exposed it to the air and light. Her dark eyes were +staring upward with a look of pain and horror in their starry depths, +her face was ashen white, her lips quivered with faint, anguished moans, +and her white, jeweled hands worked convulsively at the hilt of the +dagger whose deadly blade was buried in her breast. + +She looked up at the manager as he bent over her. A gleam of recognition +came into her eyes. + +"I am dying," she said, in a faint, gasping voice. "Let someone go into +the theater and bring Captain Ernscliffe! Don't let anyone else know I +am here! Queenie--I mean--Madame De Lisle--must not know! Let the play +go on." + +At that moment they brought a physician, summoned in haste from his seat +in the theater. He knelt down and tried to draw the dagger from her +breast, but desisted in a moment and shook his head ominously. + +"Tell me the truth," she moaned. "How many minutes have I to live?" + +The physician looked down at her with a grave pity in his kindly eyes. + +"Only as long as the dagger remains in the wound," he answered, gently. +"When that is removed you will bleed to death in a minute." + +She clasped both hands around the murderous steel as if to drive it +deeper into her heart. + +"Let it remain there, then," she gasped, "I have something to say +before--I go hence!" + +"Great Heaven! who has done this?" exclaimed a shocked voice. + +They all looked around. It was Captain Ernscliffe who spoke. He knelt +down by his wife and looked at the murderous dagger whose hilt she +grasped, with eyes full of horror. The pain in her face softened. She +put out one hand to him, and he clasped it in his own. + +"Lawrence--I have been--cruelly murdered!" she moaned. "Let someone take +my dying deposition." + +The manager hurriedly produced pencil and paper. + +"I went into Madame De Lisle's dressing-room," she began. "She had not +come in, and I waited a little while, wishing to speak to her. Have you +put that down?" + +The manager replied in the affirmative. + +"I saw a sealed letter lying on the table," she went on slowly and +painfully; "I was jealous of Madame De Lisle, to whom it was addressed. +I thought my husband had written it. I opened it--I--read it." + +The physician stopped her a minute to pour a few drops of something +between her panting lips. Then she went on: + +"It was only a line imploring her to meet him for a moment at the +western door. No name was signed, but I was foolish enough to believe it +was--my husband." + +Her dark eyes lifted to his a moment with a mute appeal for forgiveness +in their dusky depths. He pressed her hand and murmured: + +"My poor Sydney!" + +She lay still a moment while great drops of dew beaded her white brow, +forced out by her terrible suffering. + +"Can we do nothing to help her?" Captain Ernscliffe inquired anxiously, +as he pillowed the dark head gently on his arm. + +The physician shook his head gravely. + +"No--nothing," Sydney answered him herself. "Only stay by me--till the +last. Let me finish my story." + +Captain Ernscliffe wiped the cold dews of death from her brow and she +continued: + +"I took Madame De Lisle's cloak and put it over my dress, I tied her +veil about my head and face, and--and--went to the western door--myself! +Oh! God, this dagger, how it hurts my side!" + +A few moans of terrible agony, then she went on, gaspingly: + +"There was a tall, dark man outside the door--he said: 'Is it you, +Queenie?' Then I saw my mistake--it was not my husband! But +I--thought--I might learn--some fatal secret of hers--so I answered +yes." + +She shuddered from head to foot and a groan of mortal agony broke from +her white lips. + +"That falsehood sealed my doom! He sprang forward without a word, buried +this dagger in my breast, and fled. It was Madame De Lisle's enemy. I +know now. I received in my heart the stroke that was meant for hers." + +She paused, then repressing a groan of pain, said feebly: + +"Have you written it all down?" + +"Yes, madam," the manager answered. + +"Very well. I want you all to go away now--I want to be alone--with my +husband. Don't let anyone else know I am here. The play must not be +stopped. Let him be all mine a little longer!" + +They turned away in wonder at her strange words, and left her lying +there supported on her husband's arm--the beautiful woman with the +diamonds in her dark hair, and the dagger's hilt above her heart, her +white hand grasping it convulsively while she panted forth to him her +strange story in the briefest words she could find, for her strength was +ebbing fast, and her pain was becoming almost unendurable. + +The manager went back to the actress and told her some plausible tale to +allay her fears, and, as Sydney had wished, "the play went on." The +foolish, fond old "Lear" ranted and raved his little hour, the cruel +sisters of "Cordelia"--even poor "Cordelia" herself--all died their +mimic deaths upon the stage--little dreaming that a tragedy in real life +had been enacted so close and so near, and that poor, erring Sydney lay +dead beneath the same roof where the vast throng of people wept and +applauded at the superb rendition of Shakespeare's grand creation, "King +Lear." + +Yet so it was, for when Sydney had faltered out her mournful story, she +looked up at Captain Ernscliffe and said with a quivering sigh: + +"I have done now, Lawrence, and the pain is so great I cannot bear it +any longer! Will you draw the dagger from my wound and let me die?" + +But he shrank back aghast at her words. + +"Oh, Sydney, don't ask me! Will you not see them all first, and say +good-bye--your mother, your sisters?' + +"No, no, I want--none--but you," she moaned, "and, oh, my God, how +terrible the pain is! Yet, Lawrence--I will stay yet a little longer--I +will try to bear it still, if you will kneel down there and pray for me! +I am such a sinner, I am almost _afraid to die_!" + +"Do you repent, Sydney?" he asked, gently. + +"Do I?" she wailed; "oh, my God, _yes_! I am sorry for it all, now! Tell +her I tried to make atonement at the last. She will forgive me. Little +Queenie was always very tender-hearted. Pray for me now--ask God to +forgive me, too." + +He bowed his head and prayed fervently for the welfare of the soul about +to be launched upon the shoreless waters of eternity. + +When the low "amen" vibrated on the night air, she looked up and said +moaningly: + +"Have you forgiven me, too, Lawrence?" + +He bent and kissed the poor, pale, quivering lips. + +"All is forgiven, Sydney," he answered, gently. + +"Then call the physician," she moaned. "Let him draw this cruel steel +from--my breast! I cannot--bear it--any longer!" + +But the physician recoiled as Captain Ernscliffe had done when she told +him what she wished him to do. + +"I should feel like a murderer," he gasped. "You could not live a minute +after the blade was drawn out of your breast." + +She turned away from him and put out her hand to the man she loved so +madly. + +"Farewell, Lawrence," she said. "Think of me sometimes as of one +who--loved you--'not wisely, but too well!'" + +Then, before they even guessed what she was about to do, she clasped +both hands about the dagger's hilt, and with a terrible effort wrenched +it from her breast and threw it far from her. Her heart's blood spurted +out in a great, warm, crimson tide over the bodice of her white satin +dress, she quivered from head to foot, and died with her dim eyes fixed +in a long, last look of love on Lawrence Ernscliffe's handsome face. + + * * * * * + +When the play was over, and the beautiful actress was leaving the +theater for the last time, someone touched her arm and detained her. She +looked up into the pale face of Captain Ernscliffe. + +"Nay, Queenie," he said gently, "you need not shrink from me now. Sydney +has confessed all." + +She looked up at him in wonder as he drew her hand lovingly within his +arm. + +"She has given you up to me, and you know _all_?" she repeated, like one +dazed. + +"Yes, Queenie, I know all, and I am yours alone now, for--prepare +yourself for a great shock, my darling--your sister, Sydney, is dead!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + +"Dead!" exclaimed Queenie, with a start of horror; "oh, no, that cannot +be! It is but a little while since I saw her living and beautiful under +this roof!" + +"Her body is here still, Queenie, but her soul has fled to the God who +gave it," he answered solemnly. + +She trembled like a leaf in a storm at that grave assurance. + +"Queenie, let me take you back to your dressing-room," he said. "Stay +there a little while until I come for you." + +Utterly unnerved by the shock of his revelation, she suffered him to +lead her back. He left her at the door of her room and went out to seek +Lord Valentine. + +He had just put his wife and mother-in-law into the carriage, and stood +talking with the driver on the pavement. + +"Yes sir," the man was saying, "you know you brought her out and put her +into the carriage yourself, and I jumped up on the box and drove right +off. But when I got to Valentine House, my lord, the carriage was empty. +Yet I could swear to you, my lord, that the carriage was never stopped +an instant between here and home." + +"Come with me, my lord," said Captain Ernscliffe, in a whisper, as he +touched his arm, "I will explain the mystery." + +"Very well. Let the carriage wait until I return," he said to the man as +he walked away with his brother-in-law. + +Captain Ernscliffe led him back into the theater where Sydney lay still +and cold in death, watched by the manager and several of the theater +employes. They had lifted the body and laid it on a pile of silken +cushions, to remain until it had been viewed by the coroner, who had +been immediately notified of the terrible event. + +At a whispered request the manager gave the paper containing the dying +deposition of Sydney into Ernscliffe's hands, and he in turn passed it +over to Lord Valentine. + +"Great Heaven! this is terrible," he exclaimed, looking down at the +rigid form of his sister-in-law. "What is to be done? Who will break the +news to her mother and sister?" + +They walked apart, and Captain Ernscliffe briefly told him the +truth--that Madame Reine De Lisle was his lost wife, Queenie, and that +Sydney's knowledge of that fact had maddened her with suspicion and +jealousy, and driven her into the fatal error that had cost her her +life. + +"It is too wonderful to be true," said Lord Valentine. "I cannot believe +that the woman I saw lying dead in her coffin has been so strangely +resurrected. Surely, Ernscliffe, this beautiful actress has but traded +on her wonderful resemblance to your lost bride, and deceived you and +Sydney both. Have nothing to do with this beautiful siren." + +Captain Ernscliffe looked at him half angrily. + +"My Lord Valentine," he answered haughtily, "you charge her with that of +which she is not guilty. She has not deceived us. She did not seek us; +we sought her, and as long as Sydney lived she evaded the truth and +would not acknowledge her identity to me, because my second wife had +begged her to sacrifice herself for her sake. But come with me. Since +you doubt her identity let us see if she will recognize you. If you +appear as a stranger to her we may then afford to doubt her." + +They went to Queenie's dressing-room and knocked on the door. She opened +it and bade them enter in a faltering voice, with her cheeks bathed in +tears, her blue eyes downcast and troubled. + +"Queenie, look up," said Captain Ernscliffe. "Do you recognize this +gentleman?" + +The actress lifted her lovely eyes, dimmed with bitter weeping and +looked at him. A gleam of recognition shone in her face. + +"Yes," she answered, in her sweet, low voice. "It is Lord Valentine, who +was married to my sister Georgina the night you married me." + +Captain Ernscliffe flashed a triumphant look upon his brother-in-law. + +"You see she knows all about us," he said. "Now you cannot but admit her +identity. You must believe that she is my wife!" + +Lord Valentine grew white and red by turns as he gazed upon the +beautiful, queenly woman. + +"I admit madam's wonderful beauty, her grace and her talent," he said, +slowly, "and I will not deny her astonishing resemblance to your lost +bride; but, Ernscliffe, I will not believe this trumped-up story of poor +Queenie's resurrection. You are the victim of a monstrous fraud!" + +Captain Ernscliffe's eyes blazed with anger. + +"You deny that this is my wife?" he exclaimed, passionately. + +Lord Valentine was silent a moment. After that brief pause for thought +he answered, firmly: + +"Yes, I utterly deny it. I will not believe in so stupendous a fraud as +this one which is being perpetrated upon you. Madame De Lisle is a +beautiful woman, and a great actress; but she is not the wife you buried +years ago in Rose Hill Cemetery." + +Queenie lifted her head and looked at him proudly, but she did not speak +one word in her own defense. She did not need to do so. She had an +eloquent defender by her side. + +"Since you think thus," said Captain Ernscliffe, repressing his anger +and excitement by a powerful effort of his will, "pray go to your wife +and break the news of Sydney's tragic death to her and her mother. You +may tell them also all that I have told you, and we will see if they +will decide as you have done." + +Lord Valentine bowed coldly and went away. + +Captain Ernscliffe turned to the beautiful woman, who had fallen into a +seat and buried her face in her jeweled hands. + +"Queenie," he murmured. + +She looked up at his inquiringly. + +"Can you bear to hear the circumstances of your poor sister's death?" he +asked, gently. + +She bowed without speaking. + +For answer he put into her hand Sydney's dying deposition, which Lord +Valentine had returned to him. + +She read it silently through. It dropped from her nerveless clasp, and +she looked at him with a bitter pain in her white face. + +"Oh, God, my poor, unhappy sister!" she moaned. "I have been the cause +of her death." + +"Say rather her own reckless passion was her doom," he answered, +solemnly. "Do not accuse yourself, Queenie. _She_ did not blame you. She +was very sorrowful and repentant at the last. She wanted your +forgiveness." + +"Oh, my poor Sydney! She went mad for love," said Queenie, weeping. + +"As I had almost done," he answered. "For, Queenie, I have been nearly +beside myself these last few weeks. I knew you in spite of all your +denials, and the bitterness of it all nearly broke my heart. But now I +shall have my own again. Sydney wished it, dearest," he added, seeing a +look of hesitancy on her face. + +She did not answer, and her blue eyes drooped away from his fond glance. + +He moved nearer and took her unresisting hand in his. + +"Darling, forgive me for pressing it now in your grief and trouble, but +tell me, shall it be as Sydney wished? Will you come back to my heart?" + +"Perhaps you will not want me when I have told you all I have to tell," +she answered, her sweet face crimson with painful blushes. + +"There is nothing left for you to tell, my darling. Sydney has told me +all," he answered, quickly. + +"And you do not blame me? You are not angry with me?" she said, lifting +her fair, troubled face with a look of wonder, mingled with relief. + +"No, my sweet one. How could I blame you? It was like your sweet, +impulsive self," he answered. "But tell me now, Queenie if you will----" + +But at that moment the shrill scream of a woman broke the silence of the +night, and Queenie sprang to her feet with a sob of grief and terror. + +"It is your mother, dearest. She is there with Sydney. Can you bear to +go to her, Queenie? Perhaps it may comfort her to have one daughter +restored to her in the hour that she has lost another." + +"Yes, yes, I will go," she moaned, turning toward the door. He drew her +hand into his and led her around to the fatal western door. + +Mrs. Lyle was there, down on her knees by her dead daughter, weeping +and mourning, and Georgina stood apart, sobbing in her husband's arms. + +Queenie rushed forward and threw herself down by the side of the +kneeling woman. + +"Mamma, mamma," she sobbed, "let me comfort you a little. Sydney is +dead, but Queenie has come back to you to try to fill her place." + +Mrs. Lyle shook off the white arm that had been thrown around her neck +and sprang to her feet. + +"How dare you touch me?" she cried, "you whose siren wiles have wrought +my daughter's death? Go away from me, vile imposter that you are! My +daughter Queenie is dead." + +"No, no, mamma, she lives; she was saved from death! Oh, let me tell you +all! I am your daughter Queenie!" cried the actress, in a voice of +passionate pleading, lifting her streaming eyes to her mother's face. + +"Begone! You are no child of mine!" was the angry reply, as Mrs. Lyle +drew away from her, disdainful of her very touch. "Oh, go! go! You have +stolen Sydney's husband; you have caused her death; you cannot deceive +me also. Will not someone take her away?" + +Queenie stood still, with clasped hands and streaming eyes, listening to +her mother's cruel words. Then she crossed over to Lady Valentine, who +stood within the clasp of her husband's arms weeping bitterly. + +"Georgie," she said, in a tremulous voice, "won't _you_ speak to me? +Don't _you_ know me? Sydney recognized me and owned me for her sister, +even though I stood in her way. Surely you will not disown me!" + +Georgie lifted her head and looked at the beautiful pleader a moment in +silence. + +She was not a bad woman, this Lady Valentine, and for a moment an +impulse of pity stirred her heart and prompted her to believe this +strange story at which her husband had sneered, and which her mother +affected to disbelieve. + +If she had been left to herself the better impulse in her heart would +have triumphed, perhaps. Even as it was a momentary tender remembrance +came into her heart as she recalled the night of her father's and +sister's death! She recalled his words: + +"Georgie, forgive her; she was more sinned against than sinning. She +went mad and avenged the wrong. Remember that when she comes back." + +"How did he know she would come back?" thought Lady Valentine to +herself, in wonder. "We all thought she was dead then. But perhaps dying +eyes can see more clearly than others. Poor papa, must I go against his +dying charge to me?" + +Then she remembered what her husband had said to her a little while ago: + +"Georgie, do not forget that you have married into a proud old family. +Think of the disgrace to us all if you should own this impostor for your +sister! True, she is beautiful and gifted, but what then? She is an +_actress_! The men and women of our race do not descend to such. They +amuse us on the stage--these clever people. We pay for our amusement, +and that ends all. We have nothing in common. Do not allow this clever, +deceitful woman to impose on you as she did on your brother-in-law." + +Lady Valentine knew quite well what those words meant. + +She was not to recognize the actress as her sister, no matter what she +thought. + +So she strangled the thrill of pity at her heart, and answered in a +cold, hard voice, quite unlike her own: + +"Go away, Madame De Lisle. You are no sister of mine!" + +Queenie turned from her with a heart-wrung sigh and went back to her +mother. + +"Mamma, let me kiss you once," she said, "only once, dear mamma, before +I go away! I have loved you so, I have hungered for you so these long +years while I have been away from you! Let me even kiss your hand, +mamma, and I will try to be content. Oh! surely you will show me a +little kindness if only for papa's sake, who loved me so dearly!" + +But the mother's heart was turned to stone. She thrust away the clinging +hands, she spurned the tender, beseeching lips. + +"Go away," she harshly reiterated, "you are no child of mine. My +daughter Queenie is dead and buried!" + +The discarded daughter knelt down by Sydney's beautiful, lifeless clay +and took the cold hand in hers, then kissed the white, breathless lips. + +"Good-bye, Sydney," she whispered against the icy cheek. "You were +kinder to me than they. You sought to kill my body, but they have broken +my heart!" + +She rose, after one long look of grief and pain, and went back to +Captain Ernscliffe. + +"I have only you left, Lawrence," she said, mournfully. + +"I will be father, mother, sister, husband--everything to you, my +darling," he answered, fondly, as he drew her hand in his arm. + +"Put me in the carriage now," she said. "I am very weary. I must go +home." + +"You will have to be present at the inquest to-morrow. Did you know +that?" he said. + +"Yes, I will be there. Good-night, Lawrence," she said, putting her hand +out from the carriage window. + +He clasped and kissed it, then after watching the carriage out of sight, +went back to where the mourners kept their weary vigil by the side of +the beautiful woman who had loved him so fondly and fatally. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + +All London rang with the romantic facts that were elicited at the +inquest over the body of poor, murdered Sydney, but though the +examination was conducted with the utmost strictness, and every +available witness was interrogated, no light was thrown upon the matter +that could lead to a conviction of the murderer. + +Everyone who heard the tragic story of how Sydney came to her death, +thought that Madame Reine De Lisle's evidence would certainly furnish +some satisfactory clew to the enemy who had sought her life. To their +surprise and consternation, she declared herself utterly ignorant in the +matter. + +The note which Sydney had read was found on the dressing-room floor but +Queenie did not recognize the writing and could not guess the writer. + +"If I had found the note myself I should have thought precisely as she +did, that it was written by Captain Ernscliffe," she admitted, frankly. +"But I should not have gone to meet him, for I had promised my sister to +avoid him, and deny my identity to him. I have not an enemy upon earth +that I am aware of, neither a jealous lover who might seek my life. I +had an enemy once, who was cruel and vindictive enough for any deed of +darkness, but he is dead long ago." + +They cross-examined her, they tried to trip her in every way, but she +never varied in her evidence, and never faltered in her reiterated +declarations, so at last they let her go, feeling convinced that nothing +but the truth had passed her lips. + +So the mystery only deepened, and taken together with the romance and +pathos that clung about the story of the resurrected wife and her +brilliant career while seeking her husband, it created a perfect _furor_ +of excitement. + +The interested parties had tried to keep it a secret, but the facts had +leaked out in spite of them. + +Everybody had heard that the great actress was Captain Ernscliffe's +first wife, who had died and been resurrected from the grave and +restored to life, kept a prisoner for months, then escaped, and been +cared for in her friendlessness and desolation by an old actor and +actress, who had found her dying in the wintery night when she had +escaped from her cruel jailers. + +They had taught her their profession, and she had gone upon the stage to +earn money to seek her husband. + +All this the world knew, and it knew also that the proud Lady Valentine +and her mother refused to recognize the actress, and branded her as a +lying impostor. + +All these facts only added to the interest and admiration that had +followed La Reine Blanche wherever she moved. + +And poor Sydney was laid away in her grave, while her cowardly murderer +roved at large, "unwhipped of justice." + +One single clew to the criminal had been found. Captain Ernscliffe had +employed the most noted detective of the day to ferret out the mystery. + +This man had been thoroughly over the ground of the murder, and had +found one trifling clew. + +Yet he confidently told his employer that it was an important link in +the chain and might possibly convict the murderer. + +It seemed a very trifling thing to Captain Ernscliffe, who had not +learned by grave experience what simple things might lead to great +results. + +It was only a woman's handkerchief of plain white linen that he had +found outside the western door, wet and soiled where it had lain on the +damp earth all night. + +Only a woman's handkerchief, but it was marked in one corner with a +name--the simple name of "Elsie Gray." + +Queenie started when she heard what the detective had said about the +handkerchief. She sent for him immediately. + +"Do you believe that there was a woman in complicity with the man who +murdered my unfortunate sister?" she inquired. + +"Madam, I cannot tell you," he answered. "She may have been in +complicity with him or she may have been a chance witness. Anyhow I am +bound to find Elsie Gray." + +"I can give you this much information about her," was the startling +reply. "Elsie Gray was my maid, and she has been missing ever since the +hour of the murder." + +"Elsie Gray your maid!" exclaimed the detective. "That throws new light +on the matter. Can you account for her disappearance?" + +"Not at all. She was in the habit of going to the theater every night +with me to help me to change my costumes for the different scenes. She +went with me that night, but when I went to my room after the first act +she was not there. I have never seen her since." + +"Had she any grudge against you?" + +"None that I am aware of. She was a good-natured, middle-aged woman, and +appeared to be attached to me." + +The detective took out pencil and paper. + +"Will you describe her appearance to me, Mrs. Ernscliffe?" he said, +courteously. + +Queenie started and blushed at being addressed by her husband's name. +She had not yet decided whether she would return to him again or not, +but she complied with the detective's request and minutely described her +maid's appearance. + +He carefully noted it down, bowed and withdrew. He reported what he had +learned to Captain Ernscliffe, who bade him go ahead and spare neither +pains nor expense until he had discovered the murderer. + + * * * * * + +In the meantime the wide-spread notoriety of the whole affair was very +distressing to Mrs. Lyle and the Valentines, and to Queenie and Lawrence +Ernscliffe as well. They could not bear to remain in London. + +Lord Valentine took his wife and mother-in-law to Italy for an +indefinite sojourn. + +Lawrence Ernscliffe begged his wife to let him take her back to America +to the beautiful home he had prepared for her reception three years +before. + +"It does not seem right to return to you and be happy after--after that +terrible tragedy," she objected. + +"Queenie, it was not your fault nor mine. Surely you will not doom me to +wretchedness for such a scruple as that. You made every sacrifice she +asked of you while living, and she would not wish you to immolate our +mutual happiness upon her tomb, now that she is dead." + +Her own heart seconded his pleading so fully that she could not say him +nay. + +"I had meant to fulfill my resolve to retire into a convent for life," +she said, "but I cannot keep down my heart's rebellious throbs. I will +go with you, my husband." + +So it chanced that two weeks later the strangely-reunited husband and +wife stood on the deck of a steamer just leaving her moorings for +America, and as Queenie turned away from her last look at old England's +fading shore, she saw a gentleman hastening toward her--a gentleman so +like her poor, dead father, that her heart leaped into her throat. + +"Uncle Rob!" she cried, springing forward with her hands extended. + +"My little niece, Queenie!" he exclaimed, taking the two little hands +warmly into his own. + +"This is my Uncle Robert Lyle," she said, presenting him to her husband. +"You see, Lawrence, _he_ does not disown me!" + +The old gentleman looked down fondly into her sweet face. + +"Oh! how could they disown you?" he exclaimed. "You have changed but +little since I saw you last, and that change has only made you more +lovely. I should have known you anywhere, though it is five years since +I saw you last. I have heard your sad story, my dear, and I do not doubt +its truth for an instant. I would have hastened to you at once, but I +was ill and unable to travel." + +She flashed a look of silent gratitude upon him from her dusky eyes. + +"And by the way," he said, "I owe you a scolding, little Queenie, for +your failure to come abroad with your mother and sisters four years ago. +It was a great disappointment to me when they came without you. I did +not enjoy the year we traveled together half so well as I should if my +little pet had been with us." + +Queenie stood silent, growing white and red by turn. Captain Ernscliffe +stared from one to the other in blank astonishment. + +"Surely, Mr. Lyle, I have misunderstood your meaning," he said, "Queenie +certainly went to Europe that year with her mother and sisters!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + + +For a moment there was a blank silence. Robert Lyle stared silently at +his niece's husband as though he doubted his sanity, and after a pause +Captain Ernscliffe gravely repeated his words: + +"Surely I have misunderstood your meaning sir. Queenie certainly went to +Europe that year with her mother and sisters." + +"If she did I was certainly not aware of the fact," Mr. Lyle answered +dryly, for he felt just a little nettled at the other's persistent +contradiction. + +Captain Ernscliffe looked around at his wife. He started and uttered a +cry of alarm as he did so. + +She had fallen back against the deck-rail, grasping it with both hands +as if unable to stand alone; her cheeks and lips had blanched to an +ashen hue, her eyes were wild and frightened. + +"Queenie," he said, with an unconscious accent of sternness, "do I speak +the truth or not?" + +"Lawrence," she gasped, in a frightened voice, "I thought you knew--did +not Sydney tell you? you said she had told you _all_!" + +"I meant she had told me all that had transpired between you two in the +last six weeks," he answered; "she did not refer to the past only to say +that you had been resurrected from the grave by a disappointed suitor +who hated you and kept you for weary months a prisoner. What more is +there to tell, Queenie?" he inquired, in a voice rendered sharp by +suddenly awakened suspicion that as yet took no tangible form. + +Through the wild chaos of conflicting feelings that rushed over her she +was conscious of a new feeling of tenderness and respect for poor, +erring Sydney. + +"She kept my terrible secret after all," she thought. "I believed she +had told him everything, but in her desire to atone for her cruelty to +me she kept back all that dreadful story, and died in the fond belief +that my happiness was secure. She was nobler than I thought. But, oh! +what an awful position I am placed in. I thought he knew all and had +forgiven me. I meant to tell him everything before I came back to him, +and would have done it but for that dreadful mistake. But now, oh, how +can I?" + +"Uncle Rob is right, Lawrence," she said, speaking with the calmness of +despair. "I did not go to Europe with mamma. I meant to go, but at the +very last my heart failed me and I begged to remain at home with papa. +She gave me my will, though very reluctantly, and I staid behind. +Afterward I went out of town on a visit." + +"And yet," he said, with a heavy frown, "it was supposed--you allowed +everyone to believe that you had been in Europe. Why was that?" + +Great crimson waves of color swept into her cheeks at his half-angry +words. + +"Mamma permitted it," she stammered. "She was so angry and ashamed +because I remained behind, and I was, too, after I saw how silly I had +been. So when people spoke of it we simply never contradicted it. But +you may have noticed that I would never speak of that continental +tour--that I always turned the subject when anyone named it." + +"Yes, I do remember that," he said. "But you should, at least, have told +me, Queenie. It is very strange that you made a secret of such a +trifle." + +"I am very sorry," she answered, sadly; "I intended to tell you about it +before--before I came back to you, but you said when I spoke of it +that--that Sydney had told you _all_. I am very, very sorry." + +Her eyes fell and rested on the blue waves of the ocean. Her head felt +dizzy with the motion of the ship and the waves. It seemed to her as if +she could scarcely stand. She seemed to be whirling round and round. Mr. +Lyle came forward and took her hand. + +"My dear little Queenie," he said. "I am very sorry that my careless +words have exposed your foolish, girlish little secret. But forgive me, +my pet, and do not look so sad. Captain Ernscliffe, you must not be +angry with my little girl. She was very willful and thoughtless in those +days, but she has told you she was sorry and meant to tell you all about +it." + +One gentle, appealing look from her blue eyes did more to melt the heart +of the angry husband than all her uncle's words. + +His moody brow unbent; he came back to her side, and, as no one was +looking, bent down and kissed away the pearly tears that trembled on her +delicate cheek. + +"There, I forgive you," he said; "but you must have no more secrets from +me, little one." + +She shivered slightly, but made no answer, and for this one time the +threatened cloud in the sky of their happiness blew safely over, and all +was peace between them. Yet the heart of the wife lay like lead in her +breast. + +Day and night she thought of the terrible secret she was jealously +guarding from the eyes of her husband. But after a calm and lovely +voyage, in which she had been most tenderly cared for by her uncle and +her husband, she found herself once more in the beautiful city where she +had been wooed and wedded. + +"Uncle Robert, you will go home with us?" she said, as they were getting +into the carriage on the wharf. + +"Not now," he answered. "You know I told you that it was bad news +regarding some of my property here that brought me over to America. I +must go to my lawyer's at once and see what can be done. I will come to +you in a day or two and see how you like housekeeping," he added, with a +laugh. + +"We shall certainly expect you," answered Captain Ernscliffe, heartily, +as the carriage drove away to the beautiful mansion he had prepared for +his bride years ago. + +A cablegram from England to his housekeeper had instructed her to +prepare the house for the reception of himself and wife. + +Now, as they drew up before the grand marble steps, the front door +opened as if by magic, and the cruel woman who had turned Queenie away +homeless and friendless years before, appeared in the hall, richly +clothed in fine black silk, and smirking and smiling upon her master and +his beautiful bride as they came up the steps. + +Queenie had told him of that cruel deed, and he looked sternly and +coldly upon the woman as she came up to them. + +"Mrs. Purdy," he said, haughtily, "this is my wife. Look well at her, +and tell me if you have ever met her before?" + +The housekeeper looked searchingly at the beautiful face, whose blue +eyes flashed lightning scorn upon her. In a moment it all rushed over +her mind. + +That face was too lovely to be lightly forgotten. She grew pale, and +commenced to stammer forth incoherent apologies. + +"Ah! I see that you remember me," said Mrs. Ernscliffe, curling a +scornful lip. + +"Madam, I--pardon me," stammered the crestfallen woman, "you were not +then his wife. I thought you a stranger, a----" + +"Silence!" thundered Captain Ernscliffe. "She was my wife then as she +is now. There is no excuse for your infamous conduct. She might have +died but for the kindness of strangers--she, my unfortunate wife, turned +from her own house without shelter for her friendless head. Go, now, and +never let me see you again. Even as you drove her out I will drive you!" + +"No--no," exclaimed Queenie, for she saw how utterly the proud, +overbearing woman was abashed. "No--no; I was very angry, but I forgive +her now, for I see how she is humbled at remembrance of her fault. Let +her stay, and this incident may teach her in future to be guided by the +golden rule." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + + +"Queenie, are you ready for your drive?" called her husband from the +foot of the stairway. "The phaeton is at the door." + +A bright, bewitching face peeped down at him from above--a face as sweet +as a rose--with coral lips, and softly-tinted cheeks, and eyes as +brightly-blue as violets. + +Directly she came fluttering down the stairs, and paused, with her +slender, white-gloved hand upon his arm. + +"I am ready," she said. "Come, Lawrence, let us go. It is too lovely a +day to remain indoors." + +"Darling, how lovely you are," he cried. "Let me kiss you once before we +start." + +She smiled, and linked her arm fondly in his as they went down the +marble steps together. + +"Lawrence," she said, half-gravely, half-fondly, "I almost begin to +believe in my happiness now. At first it seemed such a precious thing, +and I held it by so frail a grasp that I feared I might lose you again +and fall back into the terrible gulf of despair. But now months have +elapsed and nothing has happened to part us, so that it seems possible +for me to breathe freely and look forward to a happy future with you." + +"Darling, these trembling fears of yours have always seemed strange and +unnecessary to me. What could happen to part us now?" he said, as he +handed her into the lovely little phaeton, with its prancing gray +ponies, and sprang in beside her. + +"I do not know. Nothing, I hope," she answered, with a quick little +sigh, as she took the reins into her hands and touched up the spirited +ponies. "Where shall we drive, Lawrence--in the park?" + +"Yes, if you like," he answered, leaning back luxuriously. + +It was a beautiful day in May, the air so balmy and delicious that it +was a luxury to breathe it. + +As they flashed along the shady drives in the park many eyes followed +them admiringly, for Mrs. Ernscliffe was conceded by all to be the +fairest woman in the city. + +To-day she wore a wonderful dress of mingled blue and cream-color, and a +hat of azure satin, with a streaming white feather set coquettishly on +her waves of golden hair. + +The colors suited her bright blonde beauty exquisitely. + +Her dark, handsome, dignified husband thrilled with pleasure and pride +as he noted the many admiring glances that followed his beautiful and +dearly-beloved wife. + +"I have had news from England, Queenie," he said, presently. + +"From England?" she said, and her delicate cheeks grew white. "Oh, +Lawrence, have they found out who murdered Sydney yet?" + +"Not yet, dear, but the detective is very hopeful. He is on the +villain's track." + +"Who was he? What is his name?" she asked, eagerly. + +"I do not know. He writes very meagerly, though hopefully. He merely +says that he has found your maid, Elsie Gray, and that she has put him +on the track of the murderer." + +"It is not possible that Elsie Gray was concerned in the murder of my +sister!" she exclaimed. + +"Oh, no, she was a witness to the deed only--at least I gather that much +from his letter. I think she has been pursuing him ever since. The +detective says that we may expect startling developments soon." + +"God grant that the cowardly criminal may soon be discovered and +punished for his awful sin!" she exclaimed, shuddering. + +"Queenie," he said, musingly, "have you ever thought that but for the +sin of this unknown man we should never, perhaps, have been reunited in +peace and happiness? To-day you might have been in the lonely convent +cell, while I, perhaps, should have raved in the chains of a lunatic, +for, Queenie, I was going mad with the horror of losing you again." + +"I have thought of it often," she said, gravely, "and I have thought +again and again that it was almost wrong to accept happiness that was +bought at so fearful a price to my poor Sydney. Her death lies heavy on +my heart." + +"Queenie, we both did what we could to insure her happiness while she +lived. I married her because one very near to her hinted to me that the +poor girl was dying of a broken heart for my sake. I did not love her, +but I sacrificed myself to save her, as you afterward sacrificed us both +at her request. And yet those mutual bitter sacrifices of ours availed +very little to secure the end she sought. I begin to believe that such +terrible self-abnegations are wrong and unjustifiable, and that they +never work out good to any." + +"It may be true," she answered, thoughtfully, and relapsed into silence, +her eyes downcast, her lips set in a half-sorrowful line, while she +unconsciously checked the speed of the horses and allowed them to walk +slowly along the drive. + +Absorbed in thought she did not observe a handsome, fashionably-dressed +man coming along the side-path toward them, airily swinging a natty +little cane. + +"I hope and trust, darling, that you will not allow any weak and morbid +fancies regarding Sydney to sadden and depress you," continued Captain +Ernscliffe. "I know she would not wish it to be so." + +Queenie looked up at him gently with the words of reply just forming on +her lips. + +But they died unspoken, and she uttered a low cry of fear and terror +commingled, while her whole form trembled violently. + +She had caught sight of the man in the road who had just come abreast of +the phaeton. + +At that moment the man, who had been observing her for some moments, +looked at her with a sardonic smile, lifted his hat, bowed deeply, and +murmuring familiarly: + +"Good-evening, Queenie," passed insolently on. + +Captain Ernscliffe grew ashen white. Something like an imprecation was +smothered between his firmly-cut lips. + +"Good Heaven, Queenie!" he exclaimed. "Is it possible that you know that +man?" + +She did not speak, she could not. She only stared at him speechlessly, +her lips parted in terror, her breath coming and going in quick gasps +like one dying. + +"Do you know who and what that man is?" he reiterated, hoarsely. +"Queenie, it is Leon Vinton, the most notorious gambler and _roue_ in +the city! And he dared to speak to _you_! What did he mean by it? You +surely do not know him. Tell me?" + +Still she did not speak. It seemed to her that her tongue clove to the +roof of her mouth. + +She had thought that her enemy was dead--had she not seen him lying cold +and still, with his heart's blood staining the snowy earth? Yet there he +walked, smiling, evil, triumphant. The horror of the sight struck her +dumb. + +"You will not answer me," passionately cried her husband. "Very well. I +will wring the truth from that insolent villain! I will know why he +dared bow and speak to _my_ wife. Drive on home, madam; I will follow +the villain and make him retract the insult!" + +He sprang from the moving phaeton at the imminent risk of his neck, and +followed Leon Vinton with a quick stride down the road. + +Like one in a fearful dream, Queenie gathered the reins in her trembling +hands and drove recklessly homeward through the beautiful sunshine. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + + +The angry husband followed Leon Vinton's leisurely steps, and quickly +overtook him. + +Placing one hand on the villain's shoulder with a grasp like steel, +Captain Ernscliffe whirled him round face to face. + +A malevolent sneer curved the lips of the handsome scoundrel as he +recognized his assailant. He tried to shake himself free from that +painfully tight grasp, but it was useless. He seemed to be held in a +vise. + +"Unhand me, sir," he said, in a voice of angry expostulation. + +"Villain!" exclaimed Captain Ernscliffe, in a low, deep voice of +concentrated passion. "How dared you speak to my wife? Apologize +immediately for the insult." + +Leon Vinton's face assumed a blank stare of astonishment. + +"Does _she_ consider it an insult to be recognized by an old friend?" he +inquired, in a voice of mocking courtesy. + +Captain Ernscliffe's brow grew as dark as night. He shook the sneering +scoundrel by the shoulder as though he would have shaken the life out of +him. + +"How dare you claim her as an old friend?" he thundered. "You whose +acquaintance is a disgrace to any woman. You, the most notorious and +unprincipled villain in the city. Retract those words before I kill +you." + +"Come, come," answered Vinton, coolly and maliciously, "I am but +speaking the truth. As for killing, let me remind you that two can play +at that game. I have a pistol in my pocket, and I believe I am a better +shot than you are. But your wife, as you call her, is not worthy the +shedding of an honest man's blood! I will keep my weapon in its place, +and all I ask you is to confront me with the lady whose honor you are so +zealously defending. I think she will not dare to deny that once she +claimed me as her _dearest_ friend!" + +Captain Ernscliffe drew back his hand to strike him in the face, but +something in his enemy's words and looks seemed to stagger him. He +hoarsely exclaimed: + +"I will not pollute the pure air she breathes with your foul presence. +As for you, _liar_, beware how you assert things that you cannot prove." + +"Hard words break no bones," laughed Leon Vinton, seeming to take +downright pleasure in tormenting the other. "I'm determined not to be +angry with you, for I do not think the lady we are discussing is worth +the trouble. I can prove all that I assert, and more besides." + +"How? How?" exclaimed Ernscliffe, in sheer amaze at his unparalleled +effrontery. + +"I _could_ prove it by the lady herself, but since you refuse to admit +me to her presence, come with me to my home, a few miles from the city, +and my housekeeper shall show you the elegant rooms Mrs. Ernscliffe +occupied when she was my dear friend and guest for a year." + +The cool, insolent assertion fell on Captain Ernscliffe's ears like a +thunderbolt. He staggered back and stared at the calm, smiling villain +in wonder mingled with indefinable dread. + +"My God!" he muttered, half to himself, "you would not make such an +assertion unless you could prove it." + +"I can prove every assertion I have made," was the confident reply. +"Queenie Lyle ran away with me the day her mother and sisters went to +Europe. She lived with me nearly a year. I can prove this, remember." + +"You married her!" gasped his adversary, his eyes starting, his face as +white as death. + +Leon Vinton looked at that pale, anguish-stricken face, and laughed +aloud, the mocking laugh of a fiend. + +"Married her?" he asked, sneeringly. "Oh, no, I am not one of the +marrying kind. She knew that, but she loved me, and was content to live +with me on my own terms." + +There was a blank silence. Captain Ernscliffe dimly felt that the agony +he was enduring was commensurate with the pains of hell. + +Leon Vinton enjoyed his misery to the utmost. + +"We lived together a year," he went on, after a moment. "At first we +were very loving and very happy, but well--you know how such cases +always terminate--we wearied of each other. She was a spit-fire and a +termagant. She pushed me into the river and tried to drown me. She +thought she had succeeded, and ran away home. Her family kept her fatal +secret, and married her off to you." + +"This is horrible if true!" ejaculated the listener. + +"Come," said Leon Vinton, "go home with me. My carriage is outside the +gate. I merely chose to saunter in the park. You shall see her letters +to me, you shall hear what my housekeeper knows about the matter." + +"I will go with you," said Captain Ernscliffe, rousing himself as from a +painful dream. "But if I find that you have lied to me, Vinton, I will +kill you!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + + +"My poor Queenie, my poor child, you erred greatly in the deception you +practiced in the beginning. It was wrong to desert your home and family +as you did, but I cannot upbraid you now. Your punishment has been +bitter enough. May God help you, my little one!" said Robert Lyle, +smoothing the golden head that lay upon his knee with a gentle, fatherly +caress. + +Queenie had come back from that ride which had begun so happily and +found her Uncle Robert waiting for her in the drawing-room. He had +declined her invitation to make his home with her, and taken quarters at +a hotel, but there were very few days when he failed to visit her. +To-day when she came staggering in, looking so fearfully white and +death-stricken, he saw at once that some fearful thing had happened to +her, and started up in alarm. + +"Queenie, my dear, what is it? Are you ill?" he exclaimed, going to her, +and taking her cold, nerveless hand in his. + +She looked up at him, and Robert Lyle never forgot the tearless despair, +the utter agony of her white face and wild, blue eyes. They haunted his +dreams for many nights after. Yet she tried to smile, and the smile was +sadder than tears. + +"I--I--yes, I believe I am ill," she said, dropping down into a great +arm-chair. "I will sit here and rest, Uncle Rob! I shall be better +presently." + +"Let me get you some wine," he said. "It will revive you." + +"No, no, I will not have anything!" she said. "Nothing could help me." + +The tone made his heart ache, it was so hopeless. + +He bent over her and removed her hat and gloves as deftly and tenderly +as a woman could have done. + +His anxious looks, his tender solicitude made her think of her father. + +The tender recollection broke down the barriers of stony calm she was +trying to maintain. Bowing her face on her hands she wept and sobbed +aloud. + +Mr. Lyle was greatly shocked and distressed at her vehement exhibition +of grief. He brought a chair, and sitting down beside her, put his +kindly old arm about her heaving shoulders. + +"Tell your old uncle what grieves you, pet," he said. "Perhaps I can +help to set it right." + +And after a little more passionate weeping she answered, without looking +up: + +"It is one of those troubles that nothing can set right, Uncle Rob, but +I will tell you the truth, for perhaps you may hear it from other lips +than mine soon." + +She stole one hand into his and nestled her bright head against his +shoulder. + +"Promise not to hate me, Uncle Rob," she whispered through her tears. "I +have only you now. Father, mother, sisters, husband--I have lost them +all. In all the wide world I have but you to love me!" + +"My dear, you talk wildly," he said, in wonder. "It is true that your +mother and sister have shown hearts harder than the nether mill-stone to +you, but you have the noblest and most loving husband in the world!" + +"He will not love me any longer when he has heard all that I am going to +tell you, Uncle Rob," she murmured through her choking sobs. + +And then she told him the shameful story of that missing year of her +life as she had told it to Sydney a few months before; but it was not so +hard to tell now, for instead of her sister's scornful looks and cruel +words, she had a listener as tender and pitying as her own father had +been--a listener whose tears fell more than once on the golden head +bowed meekly on his shoulder. + +And when it all had been told and the weary head had slipped down to his +knee, he had no reproaches for the suffering young heart that had +already been so cruelly punished. He could only repeat: + +"My poor little one, my poor little one, may God help you!" + +"And you'll not desert me, Uncle Rob--not even if--if _he_ does?" she +murmured. + +"No, never," he answered, fondly. "I'll stand by you, Queenie, if all +the world forsakes you. You never meant to do wrong, I know that, and I +will not scorn you because a devil in human shape has made desolate the +fair young life that opened with such sweet promise. If Lawrence deserts +you, we will go away together--you and I, pet--and wander around the +world, restless and lonely, and yet not altogether desolate, for we +shall still have each other for comfort and support." + +"But, oh, Uncle Rob, I love him so, I love him so. How can I give him up +now, when I have been so happy with him? It is more than I could bear. +He had as well plunge a knife into my heart and lay me dead before him +as to leave me now," cried the wretched young wife, giving way to a very +abandonment of grief. + +Uncle Rob could only say: + +"My poor Queenie, my poor darling, let us hope for the best!" + +He did not know how to comfort her, for he could not tell what course +Captain Ernscliffe would pursue after hearing Leon Vinton's garbled +version of Queenie's early error. He hoped for the best; but he feared +the worst. + +He could not bear to leave her in her sorrow, so he remained with her +until the luncheon hour, hoping that Captain Ernscliffe might return +while he--her uncle--was present, that he might defend her from his +possible reproaches. But the hours passed slowly by, and dinner was +announced, yet he failed to come. + +They made no pretence at eating--these two sorrowing ones. They remained +in the drawing-room alone, talking but little, and both on the alert for +Captain Ernscliffe's coming. But the lovely, starry night had fallen, +and the lamps were lighted before a strange step ran up the marble +steps, and a letter was handed to Queenie. + +"It is from Lawrence," she said, tearing it open with a sinking heart. + +"MADAM," her husband wrote, "I have heard the whole disgraceful story of +the year you were supposed to have been absent in Europe from the lips +of Leon Vinton and his housekeeper. I need not ask you if he told the +truth. Your looks when you met him to-day were sufficient corroboration +of his story. No wonder you looked so ghastly at the reappearance of the +man you thought you had murdered. Oh, God! to think of it. You whom I +have loved so madly, whom I thought so true and pure--you, a sinner, +with a soul as black and unrepentant as a fiend in Hades! + +"To-morrow I shall institute proceedings for a divorce. I can no longer +lend the shelter of my name to one who has so basely deceived and +betrayed me!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + + +The letter dropped from Queenie's shaking hand, and she fell heavily +into a seat, her slender form trembling with great, tearless emotion. + +"Oh, God!" she moaned, "it is indeed a bitter cup that is pressed to my +lips! A disowned daughter and sister, and a divorced wife!" + +"What does he say, Queenie?" inquired her uncle, pausing in his weary +march up and down the room. + +She silently pointed to the letter that lay upon the carpet, where it +had fallen from her hands. + +He picked it up and read it, then turned his kindly blue eyes upon her +with an expression of pity and distress. + +"The scoundrel Vinton must indeed have traduced and maligned you to have +elicited such a scathing letter from your devoted husband. Let me go and +bring Lawrence to you, Queenie, that you may vindicate yourself." + +But she shook her head sorrowfully yet firmly. + +"No Uncle Rob; he asks for no defense from me; he tacitly accepts all +that Vinton has told him as the truth. He will hear nothing from you or +me. There is nothing left me but to hide myself somewhere in the great +cruel world and die," she said, with inexpressible bitterness. + +"Queenie, let me entreat you not to throw away your happiness thus. Let +me explain everything to Lawrence as you have told it to me. He could +not be hard upon you then. He would see how cruelly you had been +wronged, and how much you had suffered for it. If he loves you as much +as he has seemed to do he could not but forgive you." + +She took the letter from his hand and glanced over its brief contents +again. + +"No, no, his love must have been dead indeed before he could write to me +so cruelly as this. Let him think what he will, Uncle Rob. The best is +bad enough; so why should I try to vindicate myself? He shall have his +freedom since he wants it so much." + +"But, my dear, surely you will not permit the divorce without contesting +it? Think what a terrible thing it would be to remain silent in such a +case. A divorced woman is always a disgraced woman in the eyes of the +world, no matter how unjustly the verdict was given against her. It must +not be permitted. We must engage a lawyer to defend your case. I do not +believe that your husband could obtain a divorce from any court in the +land if the truth of the matter were rightly known." + +"Do you think that I would belong to him and bear his name against his +will?" she exclaimed, with all the passion and fire of tone and gesture +that had won her fame and fortune on the tragic stage. "No, never, +_never_! I will not raise my hand to stay the divorce. I will be silent, +whatever they lay to my charge. His quick unkindness, his readiness to +believe evil against me, has been the bitterest of all to bear, but I +will not speak one word to let him know it. My heart shall break in +silence!" + +He gave up the point, seeing that it was utterly useless to urge it upon +her. + +"Since you are determined to sacrifice yourself thus on the altar of +Vinton's fiendish revenge," he said, "tell me what I can do for you, my +poor child. You will not wish to remain at Ernscliffe's house, of +course?" + +"Of course not," she answered. + +Then after a moment's thought, she said, abruptly: + +"Why, Uncle Rob, I shall have to go upon the stage again. I had +forgotten until this moment that I am poor, that I have nothing at all +to live upon. When I gave up my theatrical career and returned to my +husband, I deeded away, with his consent, all my earnings on the stage +to build a free church for the poor of London." + +"You shall never go upon the stage again with my consent," he answered. +"I have enough for us both to live in luxury all our lives. It is true I +have lost a few thousands recently by the failure of a bank, but that is +a mere nothing. I am a very wealthy man yet. You shall be my dear and +honored daughter so long as I live, Queenie, and my heiress when I die." + +She thanked him with a silent, eloquent glance. + +"And now," he continued, "it will not do for you to remain in +Ernscliffe's house any longer than to-morrow. Let your maid pack your +trunks for you to-night, and to-morrow I will take you away to some +health resort--the mountains or the seashore--anywhere you like, so that +I get you out of this city." + +"And I shall never see my husband again," she said, clasping her hands +with a gesture of despair. "Oh, how fleeting and evanescent was my dream +of happiness! How can I live without him now, when I have been so happy +with him?" + +Uncle Robert took her tenderly in his arms, and kissed her white +forehead. + +"It is hard, dear," he said, "but we learn after awhile to do without +the things that have been dearest to us on earth. I lost the darling of +my heart many years ago. It was very hard to bear at first, but after +awhile I learned patience and resignation." + +"You have loved and lost?" she said, looking at him in great surprise. + +"Yes, pet. Did you think I was a crusty, forlorn old bachelor from +choice? No, no; I was betrothed to a sweet and lovely girl in my early +youth, but she went away to live with the angels, and I have been true +to her memory ever since." + +"Poor uncle! I did not know you had so sad a secret in your life," she +said, with the dew of sympathy shining in her beautiful blue eyes. + +"Every heart knoweth its own bitterness," answered the kind, old man, +sadly. + +The next day he took her away to the seashore, hoping that the change of +air and scene might divert her mind from its sorrows. + +It was a vain hope. Her terrible trouble was too deeply graven on her +mind. She became ill the day they took possession of their cottage, and +for several weeks lay tossing with fever, closely attended by a skillful +physician and two careful old nurses, while Mr. Lyle veered to and fro, +his gentle heart nearly broken by this unexpected stroke of fate. + +But at length, when they had almost begun to despair of her recovery, +her illness took a sudden turn for the better. + +She began to convalesce slowly but surely, and one day she turned the +nurses out of the room and sent for her Uncle Robert. + +"I want to ask you something," she said, putting her feverish, wasted +little hand into his strong, tender clasp. + +"I am listening, dear," he answered, kindly. + +"Has--has that divorce been granted yet?" she inquired, flushing +slightly. + +"Oh, no, my dear. Your husband has applied for it, but they have been +waiting since your illness to know what steps you will take in the +matter--whether or not you would engage a lawyer and contest the +divorce. I would not give them any satisfaction while you were sick, for +I thought you might change your mind." + +"I _have_ changed my mind, Uncle Rob," she said. "I mean to contest the +divorce. There is a reason now" (she blushed and drooped her eyes from +his perplexed gaze) "why I should try to save my fair fame as much as I +can. Not that I wish to live with Lawrence again, whether there is a +divorce or not, but I wish to defend my own honor and leave behind me as +pure a name as I can. You will secure an able lawyer for me, will you +not, Uncle Robbie?" + +"Yes, darling, you shall have the best counsel that money can procure," +he answered, deeply moved at her earnest words. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + + +Captain Ernscliffe sat alone in the spacious library of his elegant +mansion. + +The windows were raised, and the rich curtains of silk and lace were +drawn back, admitting the bracing October air. + +The playful breeze lifted the dark, clustering locks from his high, +white brow, and wafted to his senses the delicate perfume of roses and +lilies that filled the vases on the marble mantel. + +The evening sunshine lay in great, golden bars on the emerald-velvet +carpet. + +But none of these beautiful things attracted the attention of the master +of this luxurious mansion. + +He sat at his desk with an open book before him, and a half-smoked cigar +between his white, aristocratic fingers; but the fire had died out on +the tip of his prime Havana, and the idle breeze turned the leaves of +his book at its wanton will. + +He sat there, perfectly still and silent, in his great arm-chair, +staring drearily before him, a stern, sad look on his handsome face, the +fire of a jealous, all-consuming passion smouldering gloomily in the +beautiful dark eyes, half veiled by their sweeping lashes. + +He had been trying to read, but the strange unrest that possessed him +was too great to admit of fixing his attention on the author, yet now he +slowly repeated some lines that caught his eye as the light breeze +fluttered the book leaves: + + "Falser than all fancy fathoms, falser than all songs have sung." + +"Ah! she is all that, and more," he exclaimed, bitterly, showing by +those quick words where his thoughts were. + +A slight cough interrupted him. He looked up quickly and saw Robert Lyle +standing within the half-open door. The old man moved forward +deprecatingly. + +"Pardon my abrupt entrance, Captain Ernscliffe," he said; "I knocked +several times without eliciting a reply, so I ventured to enter through +the half-open door." + +Captain Ernscliffe arose and shook his visitor's hand with a cordiality +tempered by an indefinable restraint. + +"Pray make no apologies, sir," he said. "They are quite unnecessary." + +He placed a chair for the visitor, then resumed his own seat, gazing +rather curiously at the pleasant-looking, kindly old gentleman, who +reminded him so much of his wife's father. + +What had brought him there, he wondered, with some slight nervousness at +the thought. + +Mr. Lyle looked a little nervous, too. He wiped the dew from his fine +old forehead, and remarked that it was a warm day. + +"I suppose so," assented the host in a tone that seemed to say he had +not thought about it before. + +"I have come on a thankless mission, Lawrence," Mr. Lyle said, with +some slight embarrassment. "At least on an unsolicited one. I wish to +speak to you of--of Queenie." + +Captain Ernscliffe flushed crimson to the roots of his hair, and then +grew deathly pale. + +"I must refer you to my counsel, then," he answered, after a pause. "I +have nothing to say about her myself." + +"Lawrence!" + +The gently rebuking tone in which the one word was uttered made the +hearer start. He looked up quickly. + +"Well, sir?" + +"Do you know that you are treating my niece very unfairly in this +matter. It is cruel to condemn her with her defense unheard." + +"She condemned herself, Mr. Lyle, without a word from anyone else. Her +guilt and shame were written all too legibly on her face the moment she +looked upon Leon Vinton." + +"Let us grant that she had reason to be ashamed of his acquaintance, +Lawrence. Still may there not be some extenuation for her fault?" + +"None, none! The more I think of it the blacker her dreadful sins +appear. Oh, my God, to think of her with her face as lovely as an +angel's, and her heart all black with sin! To think how I trusted and +loved her, and how basely she repaid my confidence! How cruelly she +deceived and betrayed me!" exclaimed the outraged husband, rising from +his seat and pacing the floor excitedly. + +"I cannot effect any compromise, then?" said Mr. Lyle, irresolutely. +"You are bent on a divorce, I suppose. A separation would not content +you?" + +"Did _she_ send you to ask this?" angrily exclaimed Captain Ernscliffe, +pausing in his restless tramp to glare furiously at the would-be +peacemaker. + +"No, Lawrence, I told you I came on an unsolicited mission. Queenie +knows nothing of my coming, and would not thank me for having asked that +useless question. She asks no favors from you, but she means to defend +her honor, and fight the divorce which would brand her with shame." + +"My counsel and hers will settle that affair. In the meantime, why this +useless dallying for long months on the pretence of illness? Why does +she shirk appearing at court in answer to the summons? If not guilty, +why does she not hasten to protest her innocence?" + +"Queenie is ill, Captain Ernscliffe--has been ill for months. But we +hope now that she may soon be able to appear at court and confront her +accusers." + +"Why does she not instruct her lawyer to manage the case without her if +she is unable to be present herself? This suspense is unendurable. If +this delay is continued much longer, I shall endeavor to push the matter +without her. I am tired of this dilly-dallying!" + +They looked at each other a moment in silence. Then the elder man said, +with a repressed sigh: + +"That is one thing I came to ask you, Lawrence. Grant us this much +grace, my poor, unfortunate Queenie, and her fond, old uncle. Do not +push the matter for a little while. Wait until she can come into court +and tell her own story before her fiendish accusers." + +"But, Mr. Lyle, I am growing too impatient to wait longer. I chafe at +the bonds that bind me to that beautiful deceiver." + +"They will not bind you much longer," Mr. Lyle answered, sadly. "Either +death or the law will soon sever your hated fetters." + +Captain Ernscliffe started and looked at the speaker wildly. + +"Death," he said, with an uncontrollable shudder. "Why do you talk of +death? What is this mysterious illness that has held her in its chains +so long? She used to be strong and well. She never talked of weakness." + +"I cannot tell what ails her, Lawrence," said Mr. Lyle, rising as if the +conference were ended, "but I have the word of her physician to tell you +that within a month she will either be able to appear in court, and do +what is necessary to defend her rights, or she will be in her grave. In +either case you will be free." + +The words fell coldly on Lawrence Ernscliffe's hearing, chilling the hot +and passionate tide of resentment that hurried through his heart. + +He thought with an uncontrollable pang of all that bright, fair beauty +he had loved so long and so fondly lying cold in the grave--those lips +that had kissed him so tenderly sealed in death, the white lids shut +forever over the heaven of love in those soft blue eyes. + +"Will that content you, Lawrence?" asked the old man, wistfully, pausing +with his hat in his hand. "A month is not so very long." + +"That depends on the mood one is in," was the unsatisfactory reply. + +"But you will wait?" Mr. Lyle said, almost pleadingly. + +There was a minute's pause, and then the answer came, coldly: + +"I will wait." + +"Thanks--and farewell," said Mr. Lyle, passing silently out of the room. + +The outraged husband was alone once more, the red glow of the sunset +shining into the room and touching with its tender warmth his pallid, +marble-like features. + +He could not rest. Mr. Lyle's words re-echoed in his ears, turning his +warm blood to an icy current that flowed sluggishly through his benumbed +veins. + +"In a month she may be in her grave--oh! the horror of that thought," he +said, aloud. + +Yes, it was horror. He thought he hated her--she had deceived him so +bitterly--he thought he was anxious to sever the tie that bound them +together; he thought he never wished to look upon her beautiful, false +face again. + +And yet, and yet those words of Mr. Lyle's staggered him. He reeled +beneath the suddenness of the blow. He asked himself again as he had +asked Mr. Lyle: + +"What is this mysterious illness that holds her in its chains?" + +He did not know, he did not dream of the truth. If he had known it, he +must surely have forgiven her and taken her back. He could not have +hated her longer, even though she had sinned and deceived him. For he +had loved her very dearly, and she was his wife. + +But he said to himself: + +"Why should I care if she dies? She deceived me shamefully. She can +never be anything to me again. In either case, as that old man said, I +shall be free. What will it matter to me, then, if she be dead or alive; +I shall never see her again!" + +And then when he began to understand that she might die before her +testimony was given before the court in her own defense, he became +conscious of a vague feeling of disappointment. He knew now that he had +been very anxious all along to hear what his wife would say when she +stood face to face with her accuser. Perhaps, after all, she could +vindicate herself. If not, why was she so anxious to make the attempt? + +"Have I wronged her?" he asked himself, suddenly. "Should I have +condemned her without hearing her version of that villain's story? Ah! +he would not have dared deceive me!" + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + + +Suddenly a serving-man entered with a card in his hand. + +"A gentleman to see you, sir," he said. + +Captain Ernscliffe took the bit of pasteboard in his hand and looked at +it. + +He started with surprise as he did so. + +"C. M. Kidder," was the name he read. + +It was the famous London detective whom he had employed to hunt down +Sydney's dastardly murderer. + +"What is he doing here in America--in this city?" thought Captain +Ernscliffe, in surprise. + +"Show the gentleman into this room," he said to the man. + +Mr. Kidder came briskly in a moment after. + +He was a shrewd-looking little man, well-dressed and gentlemanly. + +"You are surprised to see me here," he said, after they had exchanged +the usual greetings. + +"Yes," admitted the host. "Do you bring news?" + +The little man's black eyes sparkled. + +"The best of news," he answered, blithely. "I have run the game down." + +"That is indeed the best of news," said his employer, his face lighting +up. "But I don't quite understand why you are here, in the United +States." + +"You don't?" said Mr. Kidder, with a good-natured laugh. "Well, I am +here because my man is here. I have followed him across the seas." + +"Is it possible?" exclaimed the listener, with a start. + +"Yes, it is true. I have had a weary hunt for him, but I have unearthed +him at last, thanks to Elsie Gray." + +"Elsie Gray! Ah, yes, I remember, she was my wife's maid who +disappeared so strangely the night of the murder. You say she helped +you. Where is she now?" + +"She crossed the ocean with me. She is here in this city, and will be +the chief witness in the prosecution. She witnessed the murder, and +recognized the criminal at that moment as a former lover of your present +wife. She pursued him, and was on his track when I found her." + +"It has been almost a year since that dreadful night," said Captain +Ernscliffe. "He must have been very clever to evade justice so long." + +"He was a cunning, accomplished villain," said Mr. Kidder. "I followed +him for weary months, but he managed to elude me every time when I began +to think I had run him to earth. I lost him altogether for awhile, and +then I discovered that he had left the country and sailed for the United +States. I at once secured my witness, Elsie Gray, and followed him." + +"But he may elude you here as he did in Europe," said Captain +Ernscliffe, looking disappointed. + +"It is not at all likely," said Mr. Kidder, laughing, "for I have +already had him arrested and lodged in prison. No, do not thank me," he +added, as his employer poured out a torrent of praises and thanks. +"Rather thank Elsie Gray. But for her indefatigable exertions, and the +valuable information she gave me, I might never have succeeded in my +undertaking." + +"She shall have my thanks, and something more substantial beside. The +reward shall be doubled, and she shall share it equally." + +"She has already promised to go shares with me," said the detective, so +significantly and demurely that Captain Ernscliffe could not fail to +understand his meaning. + +"So she will marry you?" he said, smiling, and then, gazing curiously at +the happy, little man, who was not more than thirty years old, he added: +"Pardon me, but you are quite young, and Mrs. Ernscliffe's maid was +quite middle-aged, was she not?" + +"Oh, no, she was quite young and pretty," said the detective, laughing +his happy, good-humored laugh. + +"But surely----" began the listener. + +"Mrs. Ernscliffe's maid was in disguise, both as to name and +appearance," said Mr. Kidder, interrupting him. "Perhaps a bit of her +history might interest you, sir, seeing that she has served you a good +turn." + +"I should like to hear it," said Captain Ernscliffe. "But wait a moment, +Kidder, until I ring for lights. It is growing dark." + +When the gas was lighted, and the curtains dropped over the windows, he +turned back to his visitor and said: + +"Go on, Kidder, let me hear Elsie Gray's history." + +"Well, sir, Elsie Gray's true name is Jennie Thorn, and she is not more +than twenty years old. + +"She was a poor farmer's daughter when this man whom she has tracked to +his doom deceived and ruined her under a pretense of marriage. + +"The poor girl went home to her parents, but her honest father drove +her away with curses when he discovered her condition and learned her +sad story. + +"Her mother secretly befriended her, and found her a place to stay in +hiding until her child was born. + +"Fortunately for the poor girl it was born dead, and then she set out +upon a mission which she had sworn to accomplish--her revenge upon the +man who had betrayed her. + +"In the meanwhile her enraged father had shot the deceiver, and thinking +him dead had fled the country. + +"But the wicked deceiver was proof against his enemy's bullet. He was +born to be hung, you see, sir, and he was proof against anything else. + +"So he got well, and was clear out of the country before poor Jennie was +on her feet again. She was sorely disappointed, but she bided her time." + +Captain Ernscliffe began to look as if he took an interest in the +history of the farmer's pretty daughter. + +"She sought for him everywhere as far as her money would carry her," +went on the detective, "but she never saw or heard of her enemy. + +"At length her mother came to the city with her, and together they +continued their unrelenting quest, for they both had sworn to take a +terrible revenge upon the destroyer of innocence." + +He paused a moment, and Captain Ernscliffe, half forgetful of his own +troubles in this sorrowful story, exclaimed: + +"Go on, Kidder. I am very much interested in Jennie Thorn's sad story." + +"One night they went to the theater," continued the detective, "and +there they saw upon the stage the beautiful lady that is now your wife." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Captain Ernscliffe, with a start. + +"Yes, sir; you begin to get an inkling of things now," said Kidder. +"Well, to go on, Jennie Thorn recognized the lady. She had seen her +before, and knew that the man who had wronged her was an enemy of Madame +De Lisle. She knew that they hated each other, and that he had sworn to +take a terrible revenge upon her. Well, sir, in that minute Jennie Thorn +began to see what would be her own best chance to find her betrayer +again." + +Captain Ernscliffe was growing too excited to keep his seat. He rose and +paced up and down the room, his arms folded over his broad breast, his +burning gaze fixed on the detective's shrewd, intelligent face. + +"She knew that the man would follow Madame De Lisle like her evil +genius, and she determined to keep near the beautiful actress. The next +day she disguised herself as an elderly woman, changed her name, and +went into your wife's service as her maid." + +Captain Ernscliffe gazed at him silently. He began to comprehend now. + +"There's little more to tell, sir. Jennie left her mother in the United +States and followed Madame De Lisle across the ocean. + +"At first the actress had an old couple of actors with her--the same +that adopted her and taught her their profession--but they both died. + +"The old man sickened first and died, and his wife soon followed him to +the grave. + +"Then the actress grew attached to Jennie, and would not have parted +with her for anything. + +"Her middle-aged appearance was a protection to the young lady who was +so beautiful and so lonely, and she never suspected that her elderly +maid was other than what she seemed. + +"Jennie was contented to remain with her; but though she followed her +like a shadow she never saw her base betrayer until the night of the +murder. + +"That night a small boy came to the dressing-room with that fatal +letter. + +"It was so unusual an occurrence that Jennie stealthily followed him out +and saw where he had gone. + +"Hidden behind the curtains of a window, she watched the man outside the +western door. + +"Almost at the moment that she recognized him she saw him spring to the +door. + +"She parted the curtains and saw the steel flashing in his hand, to be +buried the next moment in the heart of the woman coming up to him." + +He paused a moment at Captain Ernscliffe's hollow groan; then continued: + +"Jennie told me that the wild scream of anguish that rose the next +moment nearly broke her heart. + +"She thought it was her dear, kind mistress whom he had killed, and she +was filled with the fury of the tigress. + +"She sprang over the fallen body, and followed the murderer, who was +hurrying away. + +"She caught him by the arm, and fastened her teeth in his arm. + +"He shook her off and ran away. She sprang after him. + +"She followed him to a house, but he escaped from it, or eluded her +somehow, and she took quarters in the vicinity, and was watching the +place when I found her. + +"With the information she gave me I succeeded in tracing him further, +and finally we tracked him down. + +"He is at this moment in prison, and if he gets his dues he will swing +from the gallows right speedily. A blacker-hearted villain never walked +upon the earth." + +There was silence for a time, and then the detective added: + +"When I landed herein this city, with Jennie in my charge, we found that +her mother was dead. + +"The poor girl has not a friend on earth, and she has promised to marry +me to-day, and after the trial is over she will return to England with +me. + +"She is a good, sweet, true girl, and I don't bear any grudge against +her because she has suffered from the arts of a villain through her too +confiding innocence." + +"You have my congratulations, my fine fellow," said Captain Ernscliffe, +heartily. "But do you know that you have forgotten to tell me the name +of the man who murdered my poor Sydney?" + +"Why, really, have I neglected to mention his name? You must excuse me, +Captain Ernscliffe, for it is one of the traits of my profession to be +chary of mentioning names. The man belongs right here in this city, and +is a notorious gambler and rogue. He is as handsome as a prince, as +wicked as the devil, and his name is Leon Vinton." + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + + +"If there be any whom you have not yet forgiven; if there be any wrong +you yet may right, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, my son, for +verily, you must forgive as you would be forgiven. Upon no less terms +than these can you win the pardon and absolution of Heaven." + +It was the voice of the solemn, black-robed priest, and he stood in the +gloomy cell of a convicted murderer, who, before the sunset of another +day was to expiate his terrible sin by a felon's death. + +Even now from the gloomy prison-yard outside could be heard the awful +sound of the hammers driving the nails into his scaffold. + +Upon the low, cot bed reclined the handsome demon whom we have known in +our story as Leon Vinton. + +Wasted and worn in his coarse prison garb and clanking fetters, there +was still much of that princely beauty left that had lured youth and +innocence to their deadly ruin. + +But the reckless, Satanic smile was gone from his pallid, marble-like +features now, and a glance of anguished terror and dread shone forth +from his hollow, black eyes. + +Like many another wretched sinner in his dying hour, Leon Vinton was +afraid of the vengeance of that God whom he had despised and defied all +his wicked life. + +All day the priests had been with him, praying, chanting, exhorting, and +now the chilly, gloomy December day was fading to its close, and the +long, dreary night hurried on--his last night upon the beautiful earth, +through which he had walked as a destroying demon, scattering the +fire-brand of ruin and remorse along his evil pathway. + + "And now he feels, and yet shall know, + In realms where guilt shall end no gloom, + The perils of inflicted woe, + The anguish of the liar's doom! + He hears a voice none else may hear, + It bids his burning spirit pause; + It bids thee, murderer! appear + Where angels plead the victim's cause!" + +Almost a year had passed since the tragic death of unhappy Sydney Lyle. +Now outraged justice was about to avenge her death. + +Conviction had followed swiftly upon the murderer's arrest and +imprisonment. + +When he had left poor Jennie Thorn, his betrayed and ruined victim, +fainting upon the floor, with his demoniacal words ringing in her ears, +he had little dreamed how and when he should meet her again. + +Perhaps he thought she would pass silently from his life as other +wronged ones had done, and never be seen or heard of again. + +Not the slightest premonition of evil had come to tell him that the +hatred he had stirred to life in her once loving heart would pursue him +to the scaffold. + +Yet so it was, and Jennie Thorn had stood up in the witness-box and +given, under oath, the testimony that had cost him his life--had given +it gladly, triumphantly, without one thrill of pity or regard for the +man she had once loved and trusted. + +Well, it was all over now--the trial was a thing of the past--to-morrow +the sentence of the law would be carried out and his neck would be +broken upon the scaffold. + +Many a time when he thought of it now with a sick and shuddering horror, +he recalled the angry words that Queenie Lyle had spoken to him years +ago: + +"_They cannot be drowned who are born to be hung._" + +His reckless, wicked career was over. He had cheated men of their +substance at the gaming-table, he had robbed women of what was dearer, +their peace and honor, without a thought of the retribution that would +fall on him from the God he had offended. + +But now when the priest came to him and told him solemnly and sadly what +terrors awaited him if he died unrepentant, remorse and terror struck +their terrible fangs into his guilty heart. + +"I have done many wrongs that nothing can ever set right, father," he +said humbly to the meek priest. "But there is one black falsehood +hanging heavy on my heart, one sin I may in some little way atone for. +Will you send Lawrence Ernscliffe to see me to-night? I will tell him +how cruelly I wronged the lovely woman he married and how pure and +innocent she was then and ever. And Jennie Thorn, father. Will you ask +her to come and see me? I will beg her to forgive me." + +"I will send Captain Ernscliffe to you, my son, if he will come, but +Jennie Thorn--that is impossible!" + +"Is she so bitter and unrelenting, then!" said the prisoner, sadly. + +"Let us hope not," said the gentle priest. "But she is gone away, my +son. + +"Immediately after your trial and conviction she left the United States +and returned to England as the wife of the detective who effected your +arrest." + +The prisoner sighed and bent his head. + +The priest bowed over him a moment, murmured a benediction and passed +out through the heavy iron door that shut Leon Vinton in forever from +the busy, beautiful world. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + + +A few hours later the heavy iron door was unlocked, then clanged +together again, shutting Lawrence Ernscliffe in alone with the condemned +prisoner. + +They looked at each other in blank silence for a minute, then the +visitor said coldly: + +"You sent for me?" + +"Yes, I sent for you," said the prisoner, eagerly. "I have wronged you +and would make reparation before--before to-morrow." + +The fire of rage and hatred that flared up in the listener's eyes was +dreadful to behold. + +"You lied to me--how dared you do it?" he exclaimed, hoarsely. "Did I +not say I would have your life if I found you out?" + +"The few hours of life that remain to me are not worth your vengeance," +was the quiet reply. "Sit down, Captain Ernscliffe, I would speak to you +of your wife." + +He pointed to a chair, but the visitor shook his head. + +"No, I prefer standing. I can scarcely breathe the same air with you, +Leon Vinton! Speak quickly." + +"Do not look on me as your enemy now, Captain Ernscliffe," said the +prisoner, deprecatingly. "I stand apart from my fellow-men as a +condemned criminal about to be executed. + +"Think of me as a wretched sinner trying to make peace with those whom I +have wronged that I may plead for pardon before my offended God." + +Captain Ernscliffe bowed silently, and the angry flash in his dark eyes +faded out at the melancholy tone and air of the frightened and wretched +criminal. + +"I lied to you when I told you that I did not marry Queenie Lyle," said +Leon Vinton, looking down and speaking in a low, hoarse voice. + +"The day she ran away with me I married her, and the certificate was +placed in her hands. + +"She thought she was my wife, but the pretended minister who performed +the ceremony was only a boon companion of mine who had served me before +in such an accommodating manner. + +"It was the merest farce, but Queenie thought she was my legal wife. + +"She would not have gone with me else. She was as pure and innocent as +an angel." + +He paused a moment, but he did not look up. He could not bear to meet +the tiger glare in the eyes of the man before him. Clearing his throat +nervously, he continued: + +"I lived with her a year, and then we mutually wearied of each other. + +"Her keen intuition soon showed her that she had been deceived in me, +and that I was far different from the ideal which she had placed on a +lofty pedestal and worshiped for awhile as a god among men. + +"She scorned me then, and I hated her because she had found me out. In +my rage I told her the truth, and then I tried to kill her." + +"My God!" Captain Ernscliffe muttered, clenching his hands as though he +would have torn the villain limb from limb. + +"I thought I had killed her," pursued Vinton. "I strangled her with both +my hands. + +"I threw her down and trampled upon her beautiful face that had been her +ruin. + +"I hurriedly dug her a shallow grave, covered her over with the wet +earth and leaves, and hastened back to the cottage by the river where we +had lived together." + +"Fiend!" thundered Captain Ernscliffe, springing furiously upon him. + +The prisoner, chained as he was, could offer no resistance to his +infuriated assailant. He did not even utter a cry. + +But all in a moment Captain Ernscliffe remembered himself, and drew back +before he had struck the fatal blow he had meditated. He would not harm +a defenseless man. + +"I will not kill you," he said, hoarsely, "but finish your story +quickly. I can scarcely bear your presence." + +"It was the first murder I had ever attempted," said the prisoner, after +a long-drawn breath. "Naturally enough, I felt nervous over it. + +"I walked up and down the river-bank for hours in the rain, trying to +excuse myself to myself. + +"Then all of a sudden she came up behind me, and pushed me in, and ran +away. + +"It was then that she went home to her parents. They took her back, kept +her terrible secret, and married her to you. + +"If I had let her alone then, all might have gone well," pursued the +prisoner, "but I hated her for her maddened blow that dark, rainy night. + +"I swore revenge. It was I who sent her the bouquet of flowers that +caused her seeming death at the altar that night. + +"I resurrected her, and made her a prisoner. She escaped the day that +Farmer Thorn shot me. + +"She thought I was dead, but as soon as I recovered from my wound I +started out upon her trail again, still pursuing my hellish scheme of +vengeance. + +"But she escaped me for years, and I never met her again, until the +night that I murdered her sister. + +"I had just reached London that night, and went into the theater, full +of idle curiosity to see La Reine Blanche, the beautiful idol of the +hour. + +"The moment she came upon the stage I recognized in the great actress +the lovely girl I had treated so inhumanly. + +"In an instant I conceived my diabolical plan of revenge. I hurried out +of the theater, sent that note to her dressing-room, and waited at the +western door. + +"The woman who came had the voice, the form, the step of Queenie, and I +plunged my dagger in her heart. I killed Sydney, but the blow was meant +for Queenie." + +He stopped, and there was silence in the gloomy prison-cell, while the +criminal waited for Ernscliffe to speak. + +"You are telling me the truth?" he demanded, hoarsely. + +"As God is my judge, and on the word of a dying man. Let Queenie tell +you her story and she will corroborate my words. I have pursued her +pitilessly, remorselessly. I have wronged her beyond all reparation, yet +she is as pure, and true, and innocent to-day as she was that fatal hour +when I first met her, a happy, thoughtless girl, selling her painted fan +to buy her simple ball-dress. My terrible sin against her is enough of +itself to drag my soul down to the lowest depths of perdition!" added +the prisoner, with a hollow groan. + +"You have indeed sinned fearfully, and God will punish you," said +Captain Ernscliffe, turning to go. + +"A moment longer," pleaded the unhappy wretch. "Say that you forgive me +before you go." + +"Never in this world or in the next!" cried Captain Ernscliffe, +furiously. + +The grated door unclosing, let in the priest who was to spend the night +with the condemned man. + +He caught their parting words. + +"My son, my son," he said, laying his withered hand on Ernscliffe's arm, +"forgive the poor soul; he is almost beyond your resentment. Think where +his soul will be to-morrow night. Give him your hand in token of +pardon." + +"No, no," said the listener, shuddering; "I will not touch his hand, +but--but"--with a great effort--"I will forgive him." + +"Tell _her_ to forgive me, too," said Leon Vinton, looking at him with +his wild, frightened face. "Tell her I am sorry--tell her that I repent. +She is an angel. She will forgive me." + +The door closed upon the retreating form, and the gentle priest knelt +down and began to pray for the guilty soul so soon to be launched into a +dread eternity. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + + +Captain Ernscliffe found that it was almost midnight when he reached +home after his visit to the condemned murderer. + +He was too excited for sleep, and going to the library he turned up the +dimly-lighted gas and prepared to spend the remaining hours of the night +among his books. + +A pleasant warmth pervaded the luxurious apartment, and the fragrance of +some white hyacinths, blooming in vases on the marble mantel, filled the +air with sweetness. + +They were Queenie's favorite flowers. He remembered the one she had worn +on her breast the day he had come upon her in her strange interview with +Sydney. + +Breaking off a beautiful spray he pressed it to his lips, then pinned it +on his coat. + +"I wonder where she is now?" he said to himself, with a heavy sigh, as +he drew up a chair to the table and laid his head down upon his folded +arms. + +Something rustled under his touch as he did so, and he looked up +quickly. + +There was a sealed letter lying upon the table, addressed to himself in +an unfamiliar writing. It had been laid there by a servant while he was +absent. + +Mechanically he tore it open and glanced at the bottom of the page for +his unknown correspondent's name. + +"Robert Lyle," he read, aloud, with a suddenly quickened heart-beat. + +Yes, it was from Robert Lyle--a brief note, coldly and curtly written. + + "CAPTAIN ERNSCLIFFE," it simply ran, "I arrived in this city to-day + with your wife. She is now quite well and prepared to defend her + case at any time the lawyers agree upon--to-morrow, if necessary." + +That was all. It was brief, cold, and to the point. Yet the reader's +heart thrilled with sudden joy. + +"She is here in this city; she is well," he said to himself. "Oh, how +can I wait until to-morrow?" + +But he waited, nevertheless, though burning with anxiety and impatience, +and at the earliest permissible hour he was shown into Robert Lyle's +private parlor at the hotel where he was stopping. + +Mr. Lyle was sitting cozily over his morning paper and cigar, his +slippered feet on the fender, his gorgeous dressing-gown wrapped +comfortably around him. + +He rose in some surprise as his unexpected visitor was ushered in. + +"You did not expect me," said Captain Ernscliffe, as they shook hands. +"I received your letter at midnight, sir, and came this morning as early +as propriety would allow. I want to see my wife, Mr. Lyle," he added, in +a trembling voice. "Will you take her my card and see if she will admit +me to her presence?" + +Mr. Lyle looked at him curiously a moment. He saw that he was struggling +with some unexplained agitation, and that he had not come with any +hostile intent. + +He pointed toward a side door that stood slightly ajar. + +"She is in there," he said; "there is no need of formalities. Go in and +see her." + +With a faltering step Captain Ernscliffe advanced and passed through the +partly open door. + +He found himself in a beautiful little dressing-room, with hangings of +pale-blue silk, exquisitely furnished and pervaded with the delicate +perfume of white hyacinth. + +Before the bright fire burning in the polished grate a lady was sitting +in a low rocker of cushioned blue satin. + +He advanced toward her, then started back. He thought he had made a +mistake. + +For the beautiful woman sitting there in her elegant morning-robe of +quilted blue satin was looking down and smiling at something that lay on +her arm, nestled close and warm against her breast. + +It was the pink face of a very tiny baby, wrapped in costly robes of +embroidered flannel, and lace and cambric. + +Captain Ernscliffe was going out quite precipitately when a low, +startled voice cried out: + +"Lawrence!" + +He turned back and looked more closely. + +Yes, it _was_ Queenie--but then--_that_ baby--where on earth--and at +that stage of his cogitations something flashed across his mind. + +This, then, was the cause of that long, mysterious illness. What a fool +he had been not to suspect it before. + +He rushed to her side, and kneeling down upon the carpet, put his arms +around the beautiful mother and child. + +"My darling," he murmured, in a voice so broken by emotion that he could +scarcely speak at all. "My precious Queenie, my own sweet wife, shall we +mutually forgive and forget all that is past?" + +One stifled sob of joy, and then the woman dropped her face upon his +shoulder in silence. + +One moment of rapturous stillness while she rested in the close clasp of +his strong arm and then he whispered, with his lips against her warm +cheek: + +"Darling, you will forget my cruelty and come back to me--you and the +little one?" + +Then she lifted her head and looked at him with a happy, little laugh +and a very bright blush. + +"Lawrence, kiss our little boy," she said, putting the little bundle in +his arms. "Is he not a pretty babe? I call him Robbie, for my uncle, who +has been so good and kind in all my trouble." + +"While I have been so cruel and unkind," he said, remorsefully. + +"But that is all past now," she said, hopefully. "Oh, Lawrence, I +thought you would never return to me again! What caused you to forgive +me?" + +"That villain--whom I cannot curse now because he was hung this +morning--confessed all to me last night. My darling! you were cruelly +wronged, and I was mad and blind to believe all the lies he told me at +first." + +"The best he could tell you was bad enough," she said, remorsefully. "It +was wicked, it was terrible of me to have encouraged that clandestine +acquaintance and secret love, deserting my home and loved ones for a +stranger of whom I knew nothing, except that he was handsome, and that +his romantic wooing took my foolish heart by storm. + +"Oh, the bitter consequences that have followed that act of girlish +folly! + +"My own deep disgrace, my father's death from a broken heart, poor +Sydney's dreadful murder, mamma and Georgina's everlasting alienation +from me?" + +She clasped her hands, and tears stood bright as dew-drops in her soft, +blue eyes. + +"Yes, darling," he said, as he laid his little son back in her arms, +"your youthful folly has, indeed, worked out a terrible retribution. If +your tragic story could be written it might teach many parents to guard +their daughters more carefully, and many a thoughtless girl might grow +wiser and profit by your dreadful experience. The fitting text for such +a mournful story might be, 'Girls never keep a secret from your +parents!'" + +"Am I _de trop_?" asked Uncle Robert, putting his gray head and smiling +face into the room at that moment. + +"Never, Uncle Robert. You are one of us now, and always," said Captain +Ernscliffe, bringing him in and giving him a cordial pressure of the +hand. + +Queenie looked up with the bright tears still shining in her eyes. + +He kissed her fondly, then bent over the little babe to hide the dew of +tenderness that dimmed his kindly blue orbs. + +"I shall have to give up my little pet now," he said, a little sadly. + +"No, you shall not, Uncle Robbie. You are to come home with us, and live +with us always. You shall not live alone any longer," said Queenie, +tenderly and gratefully. + + * * * * * + +Three years later, when Robbie was the loveliest and most mischievous +little, dark-eyed lad that ever delighted a parent's heart, they all +went abroad again. + +Captain Ernscliffe, who was the fondest and most devoted husband in the +world, had taken an absurd fancy that Queenie's roses were fading and +that a European tour would improve her health. + +So one bright, sunny morning in the month of roses, they found +themselves registered as boarders at a famous health resort in Germany. + +But after Captain Ernscliffe had smoked his cigar on the balcony, he +came into his wife's airy room with a frown on his dark, handsome face. + +"I shall have to take you away to-morrow, my dear," he said. "I have +found out that your mother and sister are staying here. Of course it +would be embarrassing to all parties if we remained." + +"Yes, we must go away," she said, but she sighed as she spoke. + +It had been a bitter cross to her that her mother and sister would not +recognize her. + +She loved them still, for the ties of kinship were very strong in her +heart. + +Now her own motherhood had made her even more gentle and loving than +before. + +She would have loved dearly to be friends with those proud ones who had +discarded her, and to have shown her beautiful little son to his +grandmother. + +"Yes, we will go away to-morrow," she repeated, brushing away a +quick-starting tear. "We must not trouble their peace." + +But that evening, when her husband and her uncle had gone out for a +walk, and she was alone with Robbie, she heard a timid and hesitating +rap at her door. + +"Enter," she said, looking up in some surprise. + +The door opened, and Lady Valentine came abruptly into the room. + +She was paler and graver than of old, and her stately form was draped in +the gloomy sables of a widow. + +"Georgina!" exclaimed Mrs. Ernscliffe, starting up. + +Lady Valentine rushed forward, and threw her arms about the trembling, +hesitating figure. + +"Little Queenie, my sweet, wronged sister!" she cried, "will you forgive +my cruelty to you, and love your Georgie again?" + +"I have never ceased to love you, Georgie," was the answer. + +Lady Valentine pressed a dozen kisses on the sweet lips and wavy, golden +hair. + +Queenie put her gently into a chair, and then she saw a little, +dark-eyed lad looking at her with a great deal of wonder. + +"What a lovely boy!" she said, "and it is yours, Queenie, I know, for he +looks so like your husband." + +"Yes," answered Queenie, proudly; then she led her little son up to her +sister. + +"Robbie, you must kiss your aunt," she said. + +Lady Valentine stayed a long while with Queenie, and many mutual, +touching confidences were exchanged by the long-parted sisters. At last +she rose to go. + +"May I have Robbie a little while?" she asked. + +"You may go with your aunt, my dear," said Queenie, kissing the child. + +Lady Valentine took his hand and led him away to a room where a +gray-haired lady was sitting alone in the fast-falling twilight with a +grave, rather sad expression on her handsome old face. Georgie lifted up +Robbie and placed him on the lady's knee. + +"Grandmother," she said, half-laughing, half-crying, "kiss your +grandson." + +"It is Queenie's child!" cried Mrs. Lyle, pressing him to her heart, and +kissing him, then crying over him in her womanly joy and excitement. + +"We must take him to his mother now," said Georgie. "Come, mamma," and +Mrs. Lyle followed her without a word. + +So when Captain Ernscliffe and Mr. Lyle returned from their walk they +found them all together, Queenie's fair face perfectly radiant and every +one very happy in this touching reunion. + +They were never parted afterwards. When Mr. Lyle and the Ernscliffes +returned to the United States Mrs. Lyle and Lady Valentine went with +them. Mrs. Lyle had conceived such an affection for her little grandson +that she could not bear to be separated from him. Georgina had no ties +to bind her to England, so she followed them also. Many years of calm +happiness came to Mrs. Ernscliffe afterward, but she never forgot the +terrible secret that had almost desolated her life. + +She had one daughter, a sweet and lovely girl, who bore the name of one +long dead, and sometimes when she kissed and caressed her, Captain +Ernscliffe would hear her say, sweetly and gravely: + +"Sydney, my darling daughter, you must never have any secrets from your +papa and mamma!" + + +[THE END.] + + + + +The Bertha Clay Library + +_THE ONLY COMPLETE LIST OF BERTHA M. CLAY STORIES ::: MANY OF THESE +TITLES ARE COPYRIGHTED AND CANNOT BE FOUND IN ANY OTHER EDITION._ + +PUBLISHED EVERY MONTH + + + To be Published During May + + 263--A Modest Passion By Bertha M. Clay + + To be Published During April + + 262--Suffered in Silence By Bertha M. Clay + + To be Published During March + + 261--True to His First Love By Bertha M. Clay + + To be Published During February + + 260--Love's Twilight By Bertha M. Clay + + To be Published During January + + 259--When Woman Wills By Bertha M. Clay + + * * * * * + + 258--Withered Flowers By Bertha M. Clay + 257--The Love He Spurned By Bertha M. Clay + 256--Tender and True By Bertha M. Clay + 255--Her Heart's Victory By Bertha Clay + 254--Love's Debt By Bertha Clay + 253--For Old Love's Sake By Bertha M. Clay + 252--Love's Conquest By Bertha M. Clay + 251--A Blighted Blossom By Bertha M. Clay + 250--The Wooing of a Maid By Bertha M. Clay + 249--Mistress of Her Fate By Bertha M. Clay + 248--The Flower of Love By Bertha M. Clay + 247--A Cruel Revenge By Bertha M. Clay + 246--Two Men and a Maid By Bertha M. Clay + 245--Baffled by Fate By Bertha M. Clay + 244--Two True Hearts By Bertha M. Clay + 243--Her Noble Lover By Bertha M. Clay + 242--For Lack of Gold By Bertha M. Clay + 241--In Defiance of Fate By Bertha M. Clay + 240--A Wild Rose By Bertha M. Clay + 239--An Exacting Love By Bertha M. Clay + 238--Her Heart's Hero By Bertha M. Clay + 237--The Unbroken Vow By Bertha M. Clay + 236--Love's Coronet By Bertha M. Clay + 235--A Woman's Part By Mrs. Alex. Frazer + 234--Kitty's Father By Frank Barrett + 233--On the Altar of Fate By Mrs. Edward Kennard + 232--The Dawn of Love By Bertha M. Clay + 231--Lorimer and Wife By Margaret Lee + 230--A Dangerous Suitor By Gertrude Franklin Atherton + 229--Margaret Byng By F. C. Philips + 228--A Vixen's Love By Bertha M. Clay + 227--The Courting of Mary Smith By F. W. Robinson + 226--Divided Lives By Octave Feuillet + 225--Sybil Ross' Marriage By F. C. Philips + 223--Unfairly Won By Nannie Power O'Donoghue + 222--The Girl in the Brown Habit By Mrs. Edward Kennard + 221--Little Mrs. Murray By F. C. Philips + 220--The Secret of a Heart By Bertha M. Clay + 219--Marrying and Giving in Marriage By Mrs. Molesworth + 218--A Broken Life By Mary Cruger + 217--A Question of Time By Gertrude Franklin Atherton + 216--What Dreams May Come By Frank Lin + 215--An Artful Plotter By Bertha M. Clay + 214--My Sister's Husband By Patience Stapleton + 213--A Terrible Crime By Emma Garrison Jones + 212--The Man She Cared For By F. W. Robinson + 211--In Love's Bondage By Mrs. Edward Kennard + 210--Hester's Husband By Bertha M. Clay + 209--Out of Eden By Dora Russell + 208--Keep My Secret By G. M. Robins + 207--A Country Maid By Mrs. Campbell Praed + 206--As Fate Would Have It By Evelyn Gray + 205--Her Bitter Sorrow By Bertha M. Clay + 204--The Lover's Creed By Mrs. Cashel Hoey + 203--Her Father's Sin By Annie A. Gibbs + 202--The Siren's Triumph By Genevieve Ulma + 201--Love's Temptation By Mrs. Edward Kennard + + +By BERTHA M. CLAY + + 200--Fair as a Lily. + 199--Strong in Her Love. + 198--A Heart Forlorn. + 197--A Soul Ensnared. + 196--Her Beautiful Foe. + 195--For Her Heart's Sake. + 194--Sweeter Than Life. + 193--An Ocean of Love. + 192--A Coquette's Victim. + 191--Her Honored Name. + 190--The Old Love or the New? + 189--Paying the Penalty. + 188--What It Cost Her. + 187--A Poisoned Heart. + 186--True Love's Reward. + 185--Between Love and Ambition. + 184--A Queen Triumphant. + 183--A Heart's Worship. + 182--A Loveless Engagement. + 181--The Chains of Jealousy. + 180--A Misguided Love. + 179--A Supreme Sacrifice. + 178--When Hate and Love Conflict. + 177--The Price of Love. + 176--A Wife's Devotion. + 175--The Girl of His Heart. + 174--A Pilgrim of Love. + 173--The Queen of His Soul. + 172--A Purchased Love. + 171--An Untold Passion. + 170--A Deceptive Lover. + 169--A Captive Heart. + 168--A Fateful Passion. + 167--From Hate to Love. + 166--Her Boundless Faith. + 165--On With the New Love. + 164--Lost for Love. + 163--Glady's Wedding Day. + 162--An Evil Heart. + 161--His Great Temptation. + 160--The Love of Lady Aurelia. + 159--The Lost Lady of Haddon. + 158--The Sunshine of His Life. + 157--Love's Redemption. + 156--A Maid's Misery. + 155--Every Inch a Queen. + 154--A Stolen Heart. + 153--A Tragedy of Love and Hate. + 152--A Bitter Courtship. + 151--Lady Ona's Sin. + 150--The Tragedy of Lime Hall. + 149--A Wife's Peril. + 148--Lady Ethel's Whim. + 147--The Broken Trust. + 146--Lady Marchmont's Widowhood. + 145--A Sinful Secret. + 144--The Hand Without a Wedding Ring. + 143--How Will It End? + 142--One Woman's Sin. + 141--The Burden of a Secret. + 140--A Woman's Witchery. + 139--Love in a Mask. + 138--The Price of a Bride. + 137--A Heart of Gold. + 136--A Loving Maid. + 135--For Love of Her. + 134--The Sins of the Father. + 133--A Dream of Love. + 132--A Woman's Trust. + 131--A Bride from the Sea, and Other Stories. + 130--The Rival Heiresses. + 129--Lady Gwendoline's Dream. + 128--Society's Verdict. + 127--A Great Mistake. + 126--The Gambler's Wife. + 125--For a Dream's Sake. + 124--The Hidden Sin. + 123--Lady Muriel's Secret. + 122--Dumaresq's Temptation. + 121--The White Witch. + 120--The Story of an Error. + 119--Blossom and Fruit. + 118--The Paths of Love. + 117--A Struggle for the Right. + 116--The Queen of the County. + 115--A Queen Amongst Women and An Unnatural Bondage. + 114--A Woman's Vengeance. + 113--Lord Elesmere's Wife. + 112--His Wedded Wife. + 111--Irene's Vow. + 110--Thrown on the World. + 109--A Bitter Reckoning. + 107--From Out the Gloom. + 106--Wedded Hands. + 105--A Hidden Terror. + 103--Two Kisses, and The Fatal Lilies. + 102--Dream Faces. + 101--A Broken Wedding Ring. + 100--In Shallow Waters. + 99--For Life and Love, and More Bitter Than Death. + 98--James Gordon's Wife. + 97--Repented at Leisure. + 96--The Actor's Ward. + 95--A Woman's Temptation. + 94--Margery Daw. + 92--At Any Cost, and A Modern Cinderella. + 91--Under a Shadow. + 90--In Cupid's Net, and So Near and Yet So Far. + 89--A Coquette's Conquest. + 88--If Love Be Love. + 87--Beyond Pardon. + 86--Guelda. + 85--A Woman's Error. + 84--Lady Latimer's Escape, and Other Stories. + 83--A Fatal Dower. + 82--A Dead Heart, and Love for a Day. + 81--Between Two Loves. + 80--The Earl's Atonement. + 79--An Ideal Love. + 78--Another Man's Wife. + 77--A Fair Mystery. + 76--A Guiding Star. + 75--A Bitter Bondage. + 74--Thorns and Orange Blossoms. + 73--Her Martyrdom. + 72--Between Two Hearts. + 71--Marjorie Dean. + 70--A Heart's Bitterness. + 69--Fair But Faithless. + 68--'Twixt Love and Hate. + 67--In Love's Crucible. + 66--Glady's Greye. + 65--His Perfect Trust. + 64--Wedded and Parted, and Fair but False. + 63--Another Woman's Husband. + 61--The Earl's Error, and Letty Leigh. + 60--A Heart's Idol. + 59--One False Step. + 58--Griselda. + 57--Violet Lisle. + 56--The Squire's Darling, and Walter's Wooing. + 55--Golden Gates. + 54--The Gipsy's Daughter. + 53--A Fiery Ordeal. + 52--Claribel's Love Story; or, Love's Hidden Depths. + 51--For a Woman's Honor. + 50--A True Magdalen; or, One False Step. + 49--Addie's Husband, and Arnold's Promise. + 48--Her Second Love. + 47--The Duke's Secret. + 46--Beauty's Marriage, and Between Two Sins. + 45--Lover and Husband. + 44--The Belle of Lynn; or, The Miller's Daughter. + 43--Madolin's Lover. + 42--Hilary's Folly; or, Her Marriage Vow. + 41--A Mad Love. + 40--A Nameless Sin. + 39--Marjorie's Fate. + 38--Love's Warfare. + 37--Weaker Than a Woman. + 36--On Her Wedding Morn, and Her Only Sin. + 35--A Woman's War. + 34--The Romance of a Young Girl; or, The Heiress of Hilldrop. + 33--Set in Diamonds. + 32--Lord Lynne's Choice. + 31--Redeemed by Love; or, Love's Conflict; or, Love Works Wonders. + 30--The Romance of a Black Veil. + 29--A Woman's Love Story. + 28--A Rose in Thorns. + 27--The Shadow of a Sin. + 26--A Struggle for a Ring. + 25--A Thorn in Her Heart. + 24--Prince Charlie's Daughter. + 23--The World Between Them. + 22--The Sin of a Lifetime. + 21--Wife in Name Only. + 19--Two Fair Women; or, Which Loved Him Best? + 17--Lady Castlemaine's Divorce; or, Put Asunder. + 16--His Wife's Judgment. + 15--Lady Darner's Secret. + 14--A Haunted Life. + 13--Evelyn's Folly. + 12--At War With Herself. + 11--For Another's Sin; or, A Struggle for Love. + 10--One Against Many. + 9--Her Mother's Sin; or, A Bright Wedding Day. + 8--Hilda's Lover; or, The False Vow; or, Lady Hutton's Ward. + 7--A Dark Marriage Morn. + 6--Diana's Discipline; or, Sunshine and Roses. + 5--The Mystery of Colde Fell; or, "Not Proven." + 4--Lord Lisle's Daughter. + 3--A Golden Heart. + 2--Dora Thorne. + 1--A Bitter Atonement. + + + + + EAGLE SERIES A weekly publication devoted to good literature NO. 426 + July 25, 1905 + + +"Get Acquainted With Smith's" + +The Big Three + +[Illustration: MRS. GEORGIE SHELDON] + +[Illustration: MRS. MARY J. HOLMES] + +[Illustration: CHARLES GARVICE] + +You are now looking at the three most popular authors in America. Ten +million copies of their novels have been sold and they are now +exclusively engaged to supply =Smith's Magazine= with all their new +work. + +Get a copy of the current number and look it over. It's the best +published at + =TEN CENTS= + +SMITH PUBLISHING HOUSE, _NEW YORK_ + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + +Some missing punctuation has been added without being noted below when +the original text has extra spacing suggesting that the error could have +been caused by light inking of the plates rather than incorrect +typography. + +Some inconsistent hyphenation has been retained (e.g. "woodwork" vs. +"wood-work"). + +A table of contents has been added. + +Some archaic spellings ("hightened", "vender") have been retained. + +Carets are used to denote superscript text (e.g. M^cVEIGH). Underscores +(_) denote italics. Equals signs (=) denote bold. + + +_Front Matter_ + +Added period after "Alex" in listing for "253--A Fashionable Marriage." + +Removed unnecessary period after "By" in listing for "207--Little +Golden's Daughter." + +Removed unnecessary period after "(Barclay North)" in listing 176. + +Removed unnecessary period in "(A Wilful Young Woman)" in listing 70. + + +_Bride of the Tomb_ + +Page 2, changed "weath" to "wreath." + +Page 4, removed "an" from "an another." + +Page 5, added missing period after "testily." + +Page 9, changed "ye you" to "yet you" and changed question mark to +period after "fair Necropolis of the dead." + +Page 19, changed ? to ! after "it was all for you." Changed "Lillie" to +"Lily." + +Page 27, changed "shubbery" to "shrubbery." + +Page 28, added missing comma after "revive." + +Page 36, changed "eat" to "ate." + +Page 38, changed "pedling" to "peddling." + +Page 39, changed "spring" to "sprang." + +Page 41, changed "they not the heart" to "they had not the heart" ("had" +is missing from Street & Smith edition but was present in original +Family Story Paper appearance--thanks to Deidre Johnson for confirming +this). + +Page 49, capitalized 's' in "She tore off the bed-covers." + +Page 53, changed "thererefore" to "therefore" and "terrible" to +"terribly." + +Page 55, changed "Good-nigh" to "Good-night" and "Lilly" to "Lily." + +Page 60, removed unnecessary comma after "well" in "I may as well go +then." + +Page 61, changed "leige" to "liege." + +Page 62, moved misplaced end quote in sentence beginning "No, I won't." +and changed "Horace" to "Harold" in sentence beginning "Now, then." The +"Horace" error is found in both the original Family Story Paper +appearance of the novel and the later Street & Smith reprint; however, +it is clearly a mistake as the character is referred to as Harold in +every other instance. + +Page 71, changed double quote to single quote before "And have you lost +your heart?" + +Page 72, changed "oblivous" to "oblivious." + +Page 77, changed "necessrry" to "necessary." + +Page 79, removed stray quote after "the old house with the stone wall." + +Page 80, added missing period at end of page. + +Page 81, changed "queston" to "question." + +Page 84, moved close quote in quoted poem to correct position. + +Page 85, changed single quote to double quote after "win him from me!" + +Page 87, changed "mein" to "mien." + +Page 92, changed "reconnoisance" to "reconnoissance." + +Page 93, added missing period to end of second paragraph. + +Page 95, changed single quote to double quote after "I have not tasted +food for two days!" + +Page 96, changed "Colvilie" to "Colville." + +Page 98, changed "Lilly" to "Lily." + +Page 102, changed "braggadocia" to "braggadocio." + +Page 106, changed "deamed" to "dreamed." + +Page 107, changed "The" to "They" in "They had lived their evil life." + +Page 109, added missing close quote after "home to your mother." + +Page 112, changed "frienzied" to "frenzied." + +Page 114, added missing quote after "Perhaps so." + +Page 119, changed "drectly" to "directly." + +Page 120, changed "disorered" to "disordered." Changed "she" to "he" +after "Pray explain yourself." + +Page 121, changed "Whan" to "What." + +Page 124, changed "Collville's" to "Colville's" and "familar" to +"familiar." + +Page 133, changed "detect-tive" to "detective." + +Page 138, added missing period after "her yearning look." + +Page 143, changed "happest" to "happiest." + + +_Queenie's Terrible Secret_ + +Page 3, changed "which to" to "to which" and rearranged final sentence +in paragraph beginning "No, indeed." It was scrambled in the original +edition. + +Page 7, changed "meantim" to "meantime" and "Erscliffe" to "Ernscliffe." +Added missing quotes to separate "so sweet a flower" from "Doubtless +you." + +Page 10, added missing open quote before "now I begin." + +Page 12, added missing period after "perplexing mystery." + +Page 13, added missing open quote before "Why, Papa." Changed "Sidney" +to "Sydney" and "Georgiana" to "Georgina." + +Page 15, changed "Sidney" to "Sydney." + +Page 16, changed period to question mark after "wronged you." + +Page 18, changed "confied" to "confined." + +Page 19, changed "Au contrairie" to "Au contraire." + +Page 23, added missing quote before "my head whirls" and changed +"cologue" to "cologne." + +Page 26, added missing close quote after "about my sister." Changed +"stilled crowned" to "still crowned." + +Page 27, changed "distaught" to "distraught." + +Page 30, changed "CHAPTER IX" to "CHAPTER XI" and "endeaver" to +"endeavor." + +Page 33, changed "?" to "!" after "Au revoir, Mrs. Ernscliffe." Changed +"?" to "." after "screams and cries." + +Page 34, changed "sudder" to "shudder." + +Page 35, changed "?" to "!" after "touch me." + +Page 37, changed "?" to "!" after "declare to gracious." + +Page 40, changed "?" to "." after "blushed deeply." + +Page 41, changed "Hold you peace" to "Hold your piece." + +Page 42, added missing quote after "demented little sister." + +Page 46, added missing quote after "I don't blame you." + +Page 48, the "h" in "sharply" is accidentally inverted in the original +book. Added a missing period at the end of the page. + +Page 49, changed "?" to "!" after "I don't know what you mean." + +Page 50, changed "?" to "!" after "for this cruel sin." Added missing +period after "hundred dollars." + +Page 52, changed "quite" to "quiet." + +Page 53, Removed duplicate "she" from "she she said to herself" and +added missing close quote after "will not tell her." + +Page 55, changed "!" to "?" in "Who killed him?" and changed "te" to +"to" in "in time to see." + +Page 56, removed extraneous ", or" from sentence that originally read +"walk, or at a slower and more reasonable gait." + +Page 57, changed "idenity" to "identity." + +Page 63, added missing open quote before "Ah, Captain Ernscliffe." + +Page 64, changed "." to "?" in "Will you take me home?" + +Page 67, changed "ligh" to "light." Changed "were" to "where" in "hotel +where La Reine Blanche." Changed "pearl-handed" to "pearl-handled." + +Page 71, joined erroneously split paragraph (starting "I could not +wait") and changed single to double quote after "husband!" + +Page 77, changed "did I say!" to "did I say?" + +Page 80, changed "dusk" to "dusky." + +Page 82, added missing quote before "what ails your husband?" + +Page 84, changed "you lips" to "your lips" and "were she was playing" to +"where she was playing." + +Page 92, removed duplicate "the" from "told him the the truth." + +Page 93, removed unnecessary quote before "Queenie lifted her head." + +Page 96, changed "availabe" to "available." + +Page 99, changed "CHAPTER XXXVI" to "CHAPTER XXXIV." + +Page 107, added missing "to" to "not so hard to tell." Changed "?" to +"!" after "hope for the best." + +Page 108, removed comma from "great cruel, world." + +Page 115, added missing close quote after "share it equally." + +Page 119, changed "condemed" to "condemned." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bride of the Tomb and Queenie's +Terrible Secret, by Mrs. Alexander McVeigh Miller + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42100 *** |