THE MAN IN BLUE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 2414, 27 May 1876, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE MAN IN BLUE.

CHAPTER LVH. "CLAUDIA, YOU HERB ?" "It's the last one, and by Hearen I'll have out of it all I can," he muttered again. 1 A knight in armonr was coming towards them. Eta's heart beat faster ; she knew who he was, but just as he had neared them somebody touched him on the shoulder. He turned— a stranger stood facing him. " You invited Lady Knowles ?" said a voice. "Yes." " She is here ; and her valet with her. Did you also invite him ?" " I gave her a ticket for an escort. You take counsel of your fears ; you are mistaken. Lady Knowles wonld never have committed so great an impropriety." " Nevertheless he is here." " I beg you to be quiet about it, if you are certain," said Reginaln. " I will find out, and if it is so, dispose of him quickly. What is bis dress ?" " Black omino with red facings." ; " Very well ; I wil\ attend to it. \ Still I trust you are mistaken." Another touch on the arm. " Yon are reqasted to follow -me by a friend. It is for some very important reason, and you are on no account to deny me. " I am yours, .obediently," he said, laughing. "Go on, I follow." The domino led him up stairs, and into a recess that was divided off from the main room by a curtain. There were grouped three persons. A table stood before them, on which was a lighted lamp, and a packet of papers, yellow with time, the ink faded upon them. " Here he is," said a voice. As he entered the recess two of the dominoes, who had been talking rapidly, disappeared. There was one masker left, a woman. She turned to him, and slowly withdrew her mask. Her eyes flashed with mingled defiance and passion. He started, but commanded himself,, only exclaiming : " Claudia ! you here ?" " Not Clandia, Reginald Grey," said the woman, poising herself in the qneenly manner she knew so well how to assume. "No longer Clandia, but Lady Claudia Templeton." "I — beg your pardon — but don't quite comprehend," he said, his eyes fixed on her face. I thought you had released " She made an impatient gesture with her hand. "Look at these papers," she said. "I am married. My husband, the Man in Blue, is the rightful Earl Templeton. I wanted the triumph of heralding your fall to you, and of saying to you ' you are simply what you were before' Reginald Grey, the artist." "Do you really bring me snch good sews ?" he queried, taking off his mask. "Am I so fortunate as to have a successor promptly provided, jost as the gauds and flimsies of this painted life pall on my senses ? Lady Templeton, if that. is indeed yonr title, I congratulate you with all my heart," and he bowed like a courtier. She gazed at him confounded. Her eyes flashed fire, her color turned from red to white, and from white to red. Was it possible he cared for none of these things ? Would her revenge be so paltry, after all ? " You will look at these papers ?" she said. " No, if you please. For to-night, at all events, I will take your word for it. I am pained sufficiently already with the unavailing of an impure life. The mere mention is revolting to me. I can only assure you again, that you will give me unfeigned pleasure when you release me from this false existence whioh degrades while it dazzles." " Reginald Grey ! what kind of a man are yon ?" "A very ordinary and unambitious one, I fear," he said, smiling. "Oh, Reginald!" She held oat her hands ; there was no mistaking the voice or the gesture.

"Lady Templeton, where is your husband ?" he asked, falling back a step or two. "Oh, Reginald ! I would have borne poverty, misery, shame, with you." He pitied her, for there was something 1 real, almost awful in her anguish. "Your husband ?" he repeated again, with pale lips. „ "He knows all — has known for years," she said, bitterly. "He loves me as — ah ! Heaven, if I dared to say it!" "Better silence, Lady Templeton," said Reginald, almost sternly. " Bnt I would see your husband." The woman pressed back her tears, that burned her very eyelids, lifted the cnrtain, and called : " Gustavo !" He came forward slowly, and the other figure with him. "We have met often before," said Reginald, addressing the Man in Blue, " under somewhat mysterious circumstances ; but I think I never really saw you yet. Have you any objections to unmasking ?" " None in the least." ■ The Man in Bine unfastened his mask, and stood there looking unflinchingly in Reginald's face. His eyes were bluer and his hair darker by many shades than Reginald's own, and it was a fine type of countenance, though wanting intellectuality. " You have played a strange and busy part in life," said Reginald. " Yes," was the simple answer. "It was not just the fair thing, j though, to put those criminals on me." j " I counselled him to," said Clandia, ' quickly. , j " Perhaps those piei-cing shrieks I j i heard were also yours," said Reginald. ' " Doubtless," she answered, turning [ away with seeming indifference. J " You will be willing to clear roe, then, before any tribunal ?" • ! [ They both glanced up at him. "Because these boxes were sent haphazard to a party in New York named Symes, and there happened to be such a man." " You hare heard from them ?" spoke the Man in Blue, quickly. " Yes ; will you be responsible ?" "Itis a crime to harbor suoh men, but it was not my doing. I acted but as the instrument of others. Some way needed to be improvised to get them off our hands ; that was the only one." " You exonerate me, then ?" " Willingly." "I have not yet wished you joy. Allow me to congratulate you." Claudia handled the papers nervously. Then, turning round, she said, pointing to the other mask : " This" is the old priest who performed the marriage service for us. Over sixty years ago he united Karl Templeton and the grandmother of Gustavo. He is in his ninetieth year. Unmask, holy father." The old man, with her help, took off bis mask. His face was that of a dried mammy, save for his piercing, restless eyes. f CHAPTER LVni. Meantime Irene and -her young American friend were in the seventh heaven of enjoyment. They were known everywhere ( by their exuberant delight, expressed by voice and motion. " Have you seen papa yet ?" queried Ada. "It is almost supper time." Irene shook her head. "And do you notice those two dominos ? They hardly move ; how queer ! It makes me nervous to watch them." " I have noticed them," and Irene's voice fell. "I'm going to be saucy enough to speak to them." She glided in the direction of Eva and her brother." "Good evening, quiet ones," she said. She felt rather than saw the burning eyes that were bent upon her. " Good evening, white lily," replied a voice that thrilled her so the core. " 0," she cried, musing, with a pained look, pressing both hands to her, heart. Then in a broken whisper, she cried breathlessly : "Earl Dudley." " Hush," said the man's companion. " You must not breathe it to any one that we are here." The light went out of Irene's face. She shivered like one in an ague fit, | and retreated slowly.

" Have yon seen the ghost ?" asked Ada, laughing. " You look as if you had. lam in earnest. They say the ghost of the old earl is here among the maskers. There, don't you here the buzz and hum down there ? Don't you see the people streaming off to look. There it is — that old whiteheaded man, with the long silver beard, and such eyes ! And, good heavens ! there is my father with him." All eyes were fixed upon the venerable figure, and everybody moved aside while murmurs of astonishment and glances of fright abounded. Reginald was just entering the draw-ing-room through an opposite door. "Oh, Heaven! the old earl!" he cried, aloud. Just then, before the words had scarcely left his lips, a cry so awful, so chilling that it was like a sword-thrust in the marrow of men's bones, rent the air, and caused a universal shudder. Dudley Templeton wrenched his mask from his white face. His eyes were fixed upon the venerable figure. " Three times ! three times I have seen him !" he cried, hollowly. " Old man, haunt me no more. Curse me — curse me. Tell them all the dveadful story. 0, Heaven ! no peace have I had since that woeful night — no peace. Tell them I did it— toll them I did- it— that I am a " His head fell back, one plunge he gave like a drowning man, and fell with arms outspread at the feet of the seeming spectre. Cries of horror sounded everywhere. Many of the maskers fled from the room. "Friends," said John Symes, "I present to yon the true Earl of Templeton, twin brother of the old earl 1 who died within the past year." Reginald Gray was supporting the half-fainting form of Eva Templeton, the body of Dudley bad been borne to another part of the house. It was curious how plainly he heard the desultory remarks that met his ear in passing. "" Yes," said one, "he did have a twin brother, old Lady Molloy told me; but it was thought he died." " The living image of the old earl," cried another. " Why look at his portrait there. They are as like as two peas. But what a very childish old man ? He doesn't seem to know what to do or say. Very old, too — most ninety. Wonder if he'll take a young wife ? Preposterous idea, though — one foot in the grave. Who is the next of kin ? "Can't live many years. Did you say that poor young Dudley Templeton fell dead? And what was he trying to say ? I couldn't hear." " Awful' isn't it ? People will talk, | you know, and he was full as wicked as his father. They say he poisoned him." " Queer ending for a ball- I wonder if we shall get supper ?" These and similar comments fell on | their ears, and involuntarily Reginald's i arm tightened on the hand he held. i "I am dying, I believe ; take me to i Dudley," gasped Eva. " Not yet, dear Eva — indeed it is best not." i "Then he is dead. O, Dudley,' Dudley !" she moaned, and hung more j heavily upon him. He carried her to the housekeeper's room. On his way back he encountered Irene. , " The people talk so strangely," she said. " Are not you the earl any more ? Is that dreadful old man who shakes so going to take all these things away?" "I will talk to you to-morrow, Irene," he said huskily. A mask caught him by the arm. He knew that touch. " Laugh at me," it said, " my triumph was short-lived." " I am sorry," he replied, mechanically. > " Reginald," said the voice, mournfnllyagain, " I shall die for you." " Pshaw !" he cried, angrily, and thrnst her on one side. The woman sank back, neither humiliated nor revengeful. From that moment she carried a broken heart. Another story agaited him. " See here," said Lord Craven, who recognized him, " what kind of an enchanted castle are we in p There are two ghosts here to-night."

" If you said twenty I should believe you," murmured Reginald. " The story goes tbat Tom Knowles, the valet, killed himself, and the man here to-night with Lady Isabella is Lord Knowles himself. What do you thiuk of that ?" " Bosh «" said Reginald. "So I say, but that's the story ; there's a general resuscitation going on among the dead men, I should fancy.. What are you intending to do about all this ?" Cat the concern," said Reginald. " Ive had enough of it." " Egad ! I don't blame yon. Pretty little calender of vices that old man's eh ? I mean the dead one. As for this ancient fellows he's like the other as two peas. Well, good- night. There are a hundred or so in the in the supperroom, but the most are gone. S«me people, you know, never lose their appetite." * Reginald moved about in a maze. Irene was iv her own room weeping, and Ada keeping her company. The latter felt that she had something to mourn for. She had not been in a real earl's house after all. And when the evidence had to be sifted, she learned that her relatives, were servants and sons of servants. But her father had lined his pnrse well beside doing an act of justice, which was only to tardy. Nobody could tell the old earls story even he himself was past that, past all enjoyment of the magnificent estates. But there was proof beyond doubt that he was the the living twin of Earl Templeton, Dudleys father, born one hour after his brother's birth. This latter child the mother refused to see, or to nurse for some unaccountable reason and the result was that he was banished, given out as dead, and pat in charge of a faithful old woman who was bound to secrecy by an oath, and who would have died to serve the family she loved. She in turn gave the child in charge to her children, and as. the burden was well ballasted with gold, it became a profitable undertaking. So the poor neglected boy grew up rude and untutored, and the secret was well guarded from generation to gene* ration. In some manner, however, the discarded son, grown to maturer years \ had learned that he was deprived of his just rights, and his aggrieved cry had been for justice, whenever he by stealth could find any ears that were willing to listen. His was the pitiful voice, his were the footsteps Irene bad heard in that hated house at Windsor. His was the face that was slowly revealed, feature by feature, on the memorable night, of the fete, when miserable Earl Dudley ! Templeton believed he saw a vision from the world of spirits. Dudley templeton was not removed from Templeton House. Strangely enough, he was borne to the old earl's room, and there he died, after a long, dreadful supor on the bed in which his 1 father had breathed his last. ' Then for the first time Eva learned that he was only her cousin, and yet in her affectionate heart, his memory was ever after enshrined as that of a brother. Best of all her legitimacy was proved, she having been the child i of poor but honest parents as the phrase goes. London' rang for more than nine days with these extraordinary revealments. One evening, when a drizzling rain filled the atmosphere with gloom, a servant brought a card to Reginald, who bad not yet left Templeton House. Somebody waited for him. " Tell him to come in," said Reginald. " He says will you come into the 'all sir ?" returned the servant. Reginald went out' : there stood the Man in Blue. He was exceedingly pale ; he leaned against the wall, as if for support. " Claudia has sent for you," he said, his white lips scarcely moving. " What has happened my friend ? You look ill and unhappy," said Reginald. " Claudia has sent for yon," was all the man could say. " But had I better go ? Is she ill ? Is there really any occasion ?" " Yes, yes ; we must hnrry — she is dying !" broke from the man's pale lips.

Reginald said no more. He prepared himself to accompany his guest, and the two drove rapidly to the old house in Cecil-street. In silence be was coaducfced up the stairs and into a large, spleudidly furnished chamber. Upon a curtained bed lay Claudia. Her face was fearfully changed, " She has been that way since the night of the ball," whispered the Man in Bine. "Is it yon — is it Reginald ?" murmured a low voice, so low and faint. I sent for you ; I could not die without. It is my heart, I think, my poor, misguided heart ; it has been breaking for days." " Clandia, this is terrible !" said Reginald unsteadily. " Ah, you pity me then, at last — at last ?'' she mnrmnrrd. " I have often pitied you," Claudia. " Hear him— '-he has often pitied me, and I thought* he bated me — poor, impulsjve creature that I was." " Oh, no, no, Claudia, I never hated . you." 44 Well, it will be gOod to die now. Don't look so incredulous ; I kuow that death is coming ; my kind husband has tried to avert the doom ; I was not worthy of him- Ah, it was not revenge I wanted, it was not a coronet. I have been all wrong, Reginald." " Well ?" He bent over her. " Will you raise me up ?' : He sprang to do her bidding, but ! the Man in Blue caught his hand, pushed him aside, and lifted her. "It is well ; it is 'his right," she whispered, speaking with difficulty. " Oh, Reginald— Gustave " The pale lips faltered and closed, never to open again. Reginald hurried from the room and sat down in a small apartment adjoining. He heard the passionate moaning of the bereaved man left desolate,' with an aching heart. He strove in vain- to collect his thoughts. Presently the Man in Blue came out of the death-chamber. He seemed j calm, though he still looked changed and ghastly. In his hand he carried a bundle of papers, and going qnietly up the small grate, on which a few embers were burning, be laid the papers deliberately on the fire. Reginald sprang forward, but too late to save them. " I only valued them for her sake," said the Man in Blue. "Now that she is gone, perish all empty honors. That old man will not live long ; you are next heir to the earldom." "I will not accept it," said Reginald, "Yes, you will," said the Man in Blue, calmly, "for I shall leave the country forever. The records I have destroyed cau never be replaced. Probably in a year from now I shall be under the ground. Man," be added, passionately, "you will nover know a love like that I felt for Claudia — deep, deathless, eternal. Go, now, and leave me with my dead." Reginald left the house, daring not to speak before such grief. The day following a fnll account of the crime, imprisonment and death of the two men whose fate was such a seeming mystery, was sent to Reginald's address, together with a detailed and minute statement of the manner in which he the Man in Blue, had at all times gained access to Templeton House by using 1 " Sannders" as a tool ; how through bis wonderful power of ventriloquism, he had personated the dead earl, and by wearing a coat of mail under his dress been impervious to bullets ; bow, by hiring the house of a very rich prestidigitator, Claudia had been able to produce wonderful scenic effects — all of which, of course, stripped the matter of its supernatural appearance. There were also other memoranda, which gave more definite details with regard to Claudia herself, and which I will not weary the reader by repeating. If those who have followed mo thus far should see some English records, not very old, referring to the time of which I write, they would there read of a woman who at one time as the Unknown set all London to talking — a person of wonderful gifts and almost superhuman beauty, and whose sodden

and sorrowful death was also duly chronicled. Suffice it to say that certain members of her own family had suffered through the wicked gallantry of this same Earl Templeton, and that she, in order to invest the punishment she designed to inflict with the strongest elements of retribution, had devised the most extraordinary means to compass her revenge, and had indeed for years made the old earl's life a terror to himself. It is needless to say that the papers once in the possession of the Man in Blue, which gave him the right of heirship, had never been spoken of outside the little circle immediately interested in them. His work was done, he said, and begged as a personal favour that the only interview in which they were brought before Reginald's notice might be forgotten and never again alluded to. The poor old earl, never quite appreciating the honours of his position, took a violent fancy to Reginald and could scarcely permit him to go out of his sight. To him he confided the trials of his life — the many times he had been sent away to different parts of the country, the solititnde in which he had been kept for years at a time, the harshness with which he had been treated, the hospitals he bad been confined in as a harmless lunatic, till his spirit was utterly broken. So Reginald promised to stay by him to the last, and not leave him to the care of servants. When the old earl died, within a year after he had come into his title, Reginald bad a thorough investigation of the family records, and of all the moneys and estates, and not till he was entirely assured by unmistakable evidence that the title and the great fortune were rightly his, would he consent to be called Earl Dudley Ternpleton. It took a great deal of persuasion to induce Eva, the gentle-spirited but proud creature, to become an Earl's wife and Lady Eva once more. It seemed a kind of poetic justice that she who had also borne her honors so I meekly, and had not murmured at the dispensation of Providence in lowering her estate, should preside again as tbe rightfnl mistress of the now noble house of Templeton. For a time those who held the rules of caste to be more absolute than tbe requirements of Heaven stood aloof from Lady Eva, but those who were gifted with common sense and loyal warm hearts made no difference in their manner of recognition, and loved her as dearly as ever, though she was' not nobly born. [TO BE CONCLUDED IN OUU NEXT.]

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Printed and published Tor the Proprietary, at the "Taranaki Herald" General Printing Establishmont, Dovou-strectj New Plymouth, Taranaki, by William Heur> John Betibru, Journalist, of U^ronstreet, Now Plymouth. Tannalci, in tht Cotauftaf New &alaad-MAX 87. 1876. -