VAINLY HIDDEN.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume V, Issue 511, 18 June 1897, Page 4

VAINLY HIDDEN.

(Specially written for the Herald.) (Bv 11 Doris.”) CHAPTER 11. The band had ceased playing, and several carriages bad driven away, when a maid came to ask me to go into the bouse to Mrs Dacre. “Il has been most successful, Madame,” she said, “ it was wonderful bow you managed to keep up the interest so long, and you have made some remarkable bits. Tell me, were you specially interested in any-

one who came to you ” ? “Ob yes,” I replied quickly. “ I wonder wliat’s the name of the little lady in pale pink, with a black lace bat ” ? “ Oh, my cousin, Mrs Vincent, you mean, I suppose, trlie wishes lo see you before you leave. Poor girl ; such a sad thing for her. She is at present living apart from her husband through some silly quarrel. I can't understanfl it. lint they are both as colil as ice and stiff as sticks.

Now I must run away to my guests, but here’s something which I hope will interest you while you are resting. See, in this small desk there is a collection of scraps of writing and , autographs of many noted persons. Would you like to look over them ” ? I assured her tlmt I should bo very pleased to do so, indeed nothing could be more of a treat to me. “ It has not been opened for a long time till now,” she remarked, “ for the key was lost in some strange way about a year ago, and I never troubled to get another one. Mr l'a lo has bad the lock picked just now, so that you might sco them.” I soon hi came absorbed in the different specimens; many of them were of great use to me as studies, the writers In ing so well known and I was interested to notice the signs of scientific taste in a noted inventor, and the dramatic ability depicted in that ef some successful actresses. Cut about half-way down in the box 1 came upon a thick letter, wrapped in a thin sheet of blue paper. I opened it a little curiously and found it was a letter unopened addressed to Mrs Vincent in her husband’s writing. The missing k ite r sure enough and my conjecture was correct : he bad never received it. I rr. e with ihe 'ntention of going to her ot once, but at the moment .Mrs Dacre re-entered the room and 1 handed it to her saving “ This is a more modern specimen than the oilier l , nuel unopened.” “ Why, goodness gracious, however could it have got there. It is for Alice from her husband. llow ve iy strange. I'll take it to her at once.” The time became late, the light faded away, and still I sat alone. I began to think of slipping out of the . • tdllwish el to l.e u someth:!:!’about the letter. 'I wondered if it won!! hitve the desired effect of i ringing about a reconciliation, and above all why had it been hidden away all tins time, and by whom. And after a little while my curiosity was fully satisfied by Airs Dacre, lor she said that her cousin was going tj her husband by tho first looming train, and 1 afterwards l.retrd tl.at they had gone to England together. It appeared that Mir Vincent was 1 rouglit up by a lialf-sister many y: ars older than liersclf, who was devotedly attached to her in a selfish, jealous fashion Slut bad objecteil to the maniuge with Mr Vincent from the first, and was rather pieo-cd when the parting occurred in tween them, as she thought she would li t n regain her sister as her coto j a idem. No doubt she bad balden ti e letter, instead of delivering it a: she had promised Mr Vincent she would do. She had died suddenly, the result of an accident, within a week of the date of the letter, and it might have been the re bidden away undiscovered for a lifetime, but for Mrs Dacrc’s kind thought of showing me the old letters and specimens of writings. Mrs \ inccut is still a happy wife anil mother, and often says that graphology is a very useful science. She is thankful that the missing letter was found before too late, anil that it proved to be “ Vainly Hidden.” THE BSD.