THIS SHADOW OF A SIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13030, 22 November 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

THIS SHADOW OF A SIN.

[PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ABBANaBHEN*.]

BY 0. K. C. WEIGALL, Author of " The Temptation of Dulce Cap ruthers," " Gunner Jack and Uncle ' John," " An Angel Unawares," *' Too Late," etc.

[ALL BIGHTS RESERVED.]

CHAPTER XVIII.

Mrs. otitis locked up the inn that night like a woman in a dream. She had cooked a very excellent little dinner for Andrew Morgan, a dinner that caused the heart of thaib business-like person to expand with joy, since it was only another proof of the fact of which he was already absolutely convincednamely, the identification of Mrs. Curtis with the Mrs. Levison of his. long search. The clingy dining-room with its patternless linoleum, on which stains of beer and soda-water still lingered, might once have been a fine apartment, for it had all the elements of beauty in oak-panelled walls and oak-ceiled roof, across which the long, black beams stood out in heavy relief, lint there was nothing to recommend it now, for a series of careless landlords had depreciated the value of every fitting, and Mrs. Curtis cared nothing for appearances, so long as , the weekly takings kept her body and soul together. * Andrew Morgan sat and stared at the fly-blown prints on the walls, and calculated the value of the oak sideboard that some troth had painted a dirty drab, whilo he ate his steak a la maitre d'hotel, and trifled with an " angel on horseback." He was not sure how he might best achieve his object, but he felt sure that it would certainlv not be done by displaying any indecent haste. . ill's. Levison was a' bird that must be snared with all caution, and he bade good night to the slatternly maid and her mistress, with an excess of politeness that found vent in elaborate com-' I pliments on the cuisine of the Seven Kings. I "If your omelette oux fines herbes that is to be my breakfast is as good as that parsley and butter steak, ma'am," he said, with a smile that showed his wide, honest mouth, "I am in luck's way indeed." .... " I could always cook) sir, since I was a baby," said Mrs. Curtis cautiously. "I should think that you must have been in very excellent places, maiim, if you were in son-ice. First chef of a London hotel or something superior of that sort. The Seven Kings is much to be congratulated on" having such an artiste." Morgan stood in the shadow of the stairs, with his bedroom candle slanting in his hand, and his eyes upon the face of the - uneasy woman below him. "There's so many cooking schools nowadays that a woman must- be a fool to let her chances slide," said Mrs. Curtis, sullenly. " I must go and see to the door now, sir, if you have all you want." She found that her hand was trembling as she shot the rusty bolt arid drove Lavinia to her attic under the roof with a venom that silenced the girl's saucy answers, and embraced in its completeness every sin that she had committed from her cradle, and others that had never come in her way. "I'll not stay here to be put upon," sobbed Lavinia defiantly, as she slammed her rickety door. " I'll leave first off to-mor-row, and you can shift' fqr yourself." "You'll stay just- as long as I like to keep you, Lavinia Pye," was the answer from the hail, and Mrs. Curtis put out the lamp and went lip to bed. •'• The long clock that stood in the first archway chimed eleven as she passed it, and she touched the long Chippendale case with a furtive hand that had something akin to affection in its caress. She listened for a moment outside the door of the guest-cham-ber, then passed to her own room with a face out of which all comeliness had dc- imparted, to be replaced by a greyness that ' svrept the living colour from it like a. smeared pastel painting. She would not even acknowledge to herself the fact that fear had come suddenly upon —she only undressed herself rapidly, breathing heavily all the time like a person who had been running hard; then, wrapping herself in a thick flannel gown, lay down upon her. bed and closed • her eyes. It seemed to her only, a few moments before she fell into an uneasy stupor and dreamt, yet her dream was so vivid that in it she lived through her past life with a minuteness of detail that ignored nothing. Some unexplained dread, some link with the past that she dared not pause to define, had recalled everything that she would fain have forgotten, and she was back again-, as confidential housekeeper to Sir Lionel Prevost. She was a valuable woman to an invalid bachelor, for her hospital training stood her in good stead, and although she was a widow, yet the fact of her one child was no drawback to her, since from the time of his birth Sam had been out at . nurse in the town of Daleslmm, where ho had remained with the woman who had brought him up until her death, which had occurred just about the same time that Mrs. Curtis appeared at the Seven Kings. She had gradually risen to a position thati gave the reins of government into hop hands, and after ten years it was impossible to judge whether the household hated or? feared her the most, while Prevost himself whose weak state of health often.left him' dependent on her, allowed it to be understood that she might exact obedience as' their mistress from all his dependents." So great was the influence that she had gained over him that she knew his Mill was made entirely in her favour, and as an aneurism of the heart was likely to shorten Lis life at any time, it- was evident that her chance of a wealthy future was assured. It was unfortunate that one day she forgot herself, and, with the arrogance of a woman who is too certain of her position, went so far as to quarrel violently with Prevost. She could hear his sneering contempt fanning the fuel of her rage— could hear her own/ unwise taunts, as his calmness gave him the upper hand —and their tardy reconciliation that left matters strained to breaking point between them. A few days later he departed on business for the first time since her sway had become undisputed at Amersfield, and when he returned after a considerable absence lie sent for her to his study. It was a new Sir Lionel that she had faced — man whose will had awakened under ai desire for revenge that had not slept. Hi<i face still wore. the grey colour of his illness „: but his eyes .were keen. "I have sent for you, Dora, to tell you! that I am to be married to Miss Lorraine I Dare. The wedding -will take place immediately : and—Dora —you will be glad to know that I have provided handsomely foil, you— will have two hundred pounds under my new will that is waiting my signature iu my despatch-box. I have drafted it' out very carefully, and this time I have taken no one's advice, Dora, as to the disposition of my property." She recalled now, moving uneasily, thai malicious grin upon his pale lips, that re veiled his jagged, yellow teeth; but she i remembered that she had answered nothing in reply, save a quiet acquiescence, and) that she had kept complete control of licit muscles. 1

I ' Sir Lionel had been married very quietly*-' I for Miss Dare was' a penniless orphan, who, had been left in his charge, and there was no object in any delay, and Mrs. Levisoni had been the first person to offer the pale bride her congratulations as she stepped l across the threshold of her new home two days after the wedding., The housekeei>ei* saw no beauty in the face that the new Lady Provost turned upon her. The dark eyes wore homes of despair, and the curve of dark hair that lay upon the ivory of her i forehead looked like a heavy shadow, while , the pale, pure oval of the cheek made up art insignificant personality to the contemptu-. ous woman whose idea of beauty was colour and form. ISTo one but Mrs. Levison herself knew that she was. mad that night- with baffled rage and despair, and she shivered! now if, her sleep as she lived through it all again—her stealthy creeping through the silent house, her turning of the noiseless I handle, and' the sight of the room she knew so well with the great four-post bed in the centre. It had boon the work of a mad • moment to. creep alongside on unslippered feet, and oh, irony of fate! —to take the 1 ' bu'de's handkerchief from the dressing-table . and to steep it. with the pungent stuff the little bottle that she carried, and then, withV.

|" —... . . - ii, > out a pause, to lay it lightly over the sleeplifting face of the man she hated. " Neither husband nor wife had stirred, cud Ife;' •when Mrs. Levison had trusted herself to - * glance at the small dark face upon the pillow the chloroform had taken effect, and K'- the wife lay stupefied by the side of her motionless lusband. It "was the work of another moment to lifle the despatch-box in the dressing-room of all that was of any value. There were note,«»to the value of fire hundred pounds in one of the compart- # ments, and she had smiled grimly to her- - self as she lemembered the legacy. The new will was there, witnessed by two un- - known names, probably servants by the illi-" terateuess of the handwriting. It would be safer with her; for until Lady Prevost was convicted of the murder of her husband, whom it was plain she hated, there was a ■ />.: hiding-place for notes and will that 110 one but herself knew of. She recalled in her awful dream how slip • had broken into the room 111 the early >: morning ,and had filled the house with a. ' cry of " Murder," sweeping everything aside with the authority of her venomous tongue. iS It was Lady Provost's handkerchief-—the ! , bottle was found hidden in her trunk, and ! " tho name on it was that, of a London chemist, and in London their honeymoon pL had been spent. Lorraine, too, was so bewildered with the effects of the chloroform) and the horror of her situation, that she had no answer but tears to give at the inquest, and the coroner, who was a friend of Mrs. • Levison's, brought ,in the verdict of wilful murder, although the doctor's cautious evidence had gone far to proving that he had K- died of heart disease. But the whirling fury of Mrs. Curtis carried everything before it, and she was back again at the trial, facing the solicitor for the defence, with : one or two men who were Lorraine's friends watching her closely. _ It was a cause celebre indeed, the Levison-Prevost case as ' it came to be called: and iii the end nothing was proved, for the new will had disappeared, and with it. the banknotes that were in Sir Lionel's despatch-box. "Was it likely," urged the counsel for the defence, "that. Lady Prevost would murder her husband and destroy the will that left her mistress of his fortune?" "Or was it- probable." , argued Mrs. Levison's counsel,'whom she had deemed it expedient to engage, "that, the housekeeper could have known anything of the murder, since in the sight of a. suffi- ■ cient number of witnesses she had destroyed the will that left, her mistress of Amersfield. stigmatising it as an injustice that Lorraine should not succeed." A wave, of blank unconsciousness passed over the dreaming woman, and when she recalled the past again the trial was over, with the acquittal of Lady Prevost, since it was considered possible that, unstrung and overwrought as she was, she might have - been attempting to relievo her toothache, or more probable again that as the window was wide open tho murderer might have - come through the park, have robbed the despatch-box, and departed again the way lie had come. She remembered Lady Prevost had gone away, utterly refusing to take one penny of her dead husband's money, and how'she herself, not waiting for any further developments of the affair, had disappeared completely from the world that had known her so long. Those who had any interest in discovereing her whereabouts :; ' realised that her clothes had been found on the Thames Embankment, and it was generally believed by everyone but Detective Andrew Morgan that a dead body washed up, disfigured beyond recognition, was all that remained of Dora- Levison. Interest ii« her personality was exhausted at last, and no- one felt the least cause for excitement when Mrs. Curtis, with a hump-back-ed boy, became the landlady of the Seven Kings at Enford. Neither will nor notes had ever been found, though it was proved 'that after Mrs. Levison's reported death, a note of the value of fifty pounds bad been changed at a small branch bank in a sleepy town. „ _ r „ .. At this point of her dream Mrs. Curtis woke with a. shock of pain, and found herself in the dark, standing erect in her room, with the faint starlight drifting through the window, outlining the furniture into grey, < indistinct shapes. She was standing beside her bed, and had been awakened by striking her foot violently against the iron bar of it. With a horror and fear that thrilled through everv nerve of her being, she realised that she had been walking in her sleep —nav, that it was possible that she had been outside her room into the corridor. She put her hands to her head to steady her reeling senses. Then, fancying that the dead silence of the house was disturbed by a faint sound, she partly dressed, and then silently opened the drawer in the table anil snatched up & revolver that, lay there hidden snuglv under the papers. „ "I am fit for anything to-night, she said to herself "I have been so ever since lie entered this house. I shall kill him if he moves outside his door." There was something in her face as she moved cat-like and silent out of the room that was like the venom in the eyes of a cornered rat. She was dangerous, if ever a woman was a source of danger to any human being, and, if' Andrew Morgan should come across her path that night he placed himself within the power of a woman who was desperate and would stick at nothing to save herself from discovery and disgrace. (To be continued daily).

ON SATURDAY NEXT. A TRUE STORY OF BUSHRANGING . LIFE. A stirring and interesting narrative of three years with. Captain Thunderbolt, the notorious Australian bushranger, will be commenced in this journal on Nov. 25. The story is told by William Monk ton, who was companion to Thunderbolt during the period under review, and who has since repented .of his criminal career, and is a reputable citizen of New .' South Wales. The story is true in detail, and is full of interesting and exciting adventures. No reader should miss it.