CHAPTER LIX.

Taranaki Herald, Volume L, Issue 11933, 5 April 1902, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER LIX.

"IT WAS MY OWN WIPE, DELTA MARSHALL 1" * Fanny,' said Lady Beryl, * when I was walking along the rocks tlria uiorni«g, 1 thought I saw you talking with a titll mt»n ; and ye?»erdry, it was the ?aiBP. 1 hope you will not allow yourself to become entangled With any foreigner. I haie bad so much trouble, thai I feel old and wise enough to advise you, Fanny.' * And very ready I am, my lady, for any advice you may give me. But this is no for<?igu scamp — it is an Euglishroan—a sailor. It is .Ralph Marshall, nay Itf'dy.' ' Ob,' saiJ Beryl, with a shadow sweeping o\er her mobile face. ' i hope l.c in a j^ood mau and meant) you well, JFdnnr. it would be veiy haid ioi vie

to lose you, bat I cannot expect to keep a pretty and pleasing girl, such as you are, forever. Love is yonr right.'

*My lady, there's no man that lives can get me away from you, so long as yon keep me. I know when I'm well off/

* Then, Fanny, do not be cruel and trifle with the man. Oh, Fanny, remember bow I suffered from having wounded and driven away one who loved me. It is a fearfal thing to drive a man to despair.'

' Ob, this man will not be hurt bo easy, my lady/ said the naughty Fanny, quilling a piece of lace into a jabot with great skill, *He has had his experiences. He has been married once.'

' Then, as be has suffered, you should b 8 doubly careful aot to cause him more grief. If you do not mean any kindness to him, do not encourage him.'

• Bot the man is tantalising me with a secret, my lady. He has a secret that I'm bound to know. He has promised to tell me, and he keeps putting me off till next day, until lam wild. And" then is is pleasant to have a nice tall man to buy one fruit, and he H« '^en giving me some mighty pretty bu-iis and a string of bangles.'

' Jb'anny, 1 warn yon, do not take his presents, unless you mean to return hii love.'

• Oh, I like him. Might I put a bit of cream or Juvender ribbon in this jabot for you, my. lady? Do' be pleased to lighten np your mourning. I could have danced, for joy, last week, when I saw the cap off your beautiful head — it is just as bright and curly as when I first brushed it for you — me in my first long frock, and you standing busrging the doll baby you would not lay down.'

Fanny was fond of these reminiscences.

• Ye?, I like the man very much my lady. If, after he has told me his secret, I like bim more yet, would you mind me being engaged to him a year or two?'

1 1 should, if yon jilted him at the end/ said Beryl, looking up from the book oq her lap.

' Possibly, if he sailed the seas all the time, I might CDntent him by marrying him, so he would have some one to spend bis wages on, and bring things to, and I could be your maid all the same, my lady.'

4 Fanny, I shall never hinder you of any real honest love. I know too well what it is to part two fond hearts.'

• You will not ba displeased if I walk on the sanda a bit with him, my lady ?' 1 No/ Baid Beryl, kindly.

f Well, I'm bound he shall tell me his secret/ said Fanny, to herself, as she finished tbe jabot and laid out her lady's dress for dinner.

All the time she was dressing her lady, who had invited four or five English friends to dine with her, Fanny was considering by what acts she could beguile from Rilph Marshall this secret which concerned Sir Jerome Sothron and her lady. Fanny was a girl exceedingly given to curiosity.

I When Lady Beryl bad gone to her ! pretty little drawing-room to receive her | guest?, Fanny, with a final peep in the glass, which assured her thai ahe was quite fascinating enongh to wile secrets from Ralph, as a bird -charmer is to beguile birds from a bush, ran down to the. beach. She found Marshall sitting under the fantastic archep, and flicking little pebbles into the water. Ralph had provided himself with a -knot of cherry ribbon, a box of bonbons, and a Ltd* silver pencil. All th.se he laid at Fanny's shrine. * I don't think I'd better ,take them,' eaid Fanny, with apparent 1 iu'diffor,ence. * When a man don't give me what I want, hehassrnal} call to bring me 'what I don't want.' - : - . ■ ;» • I wish 1 thought it was liilph Mir < shall himself yotj w^nted^-my l^gg^tt'l" you should have litm in a minu c. What would you think of me as a husband, Fanny"? 1 ' Not much good ; you'd n it be enough confidential.' ' Why, y<sJ would,' said Ralph. ' To my mind, a* man that dosi'c tell his wife his secrets i3o'fc woith having." ' Oh, if you come to that, my lass — ' 'If jou loved me you'd Ml me all your secret?, and you know there's one about Sir Francis and Sir Jerome, that you're keeping back.' ]

Ralph looked at the waves, in a brown stutfy.

' And/ said Fanny, ' I only came here to-day to tell you not to expect m» again. It may make trouble for me meeting you here, when it is all to come to nothing, because you don't truly love me, nor talk confidential to me.'

• Come now, my lass, if you make it a point, I'll tell you all I know ; for I'm not going to throw away happiness,, keeping other folks' secrets.'

Whereupon, Fanny sat down, leaned a little against Ralph, and favored him with a smile and her strict attention.

' The first thing I have to tell yon,, my lass, is that Sir Jerome's wife, Celia Morris, had a sister Delia ; and they two, being twins, was so like, almost' no one could tell 'em apart. It took real love to know one from the other. Sir Francis Westholm Sothron, visiting at the abbey, took a notion to Delia — Celia being then living with an aunt in Lambeth , and finally, under promise of marriage, he got her to go off with him;, and, as usually falls oat in such cases, then he would not marry.', • Oh, the brute V said Fanny. ' I wish I had not said a word against your breaking his head !'

• I shall do it yet,' sud Ralph firmly; it's my mission !'

' And Delia V said Fanny. * Well, she went into despair finally — 30 far she left Sir Francis, for she was a girl ashamed of doing wrong, and desiring to do right, and in her sorrow she was about to throw herself off London Bridge. Now that was "just after Sir Jerome had married her sister, and it happened he was. crossing the bridge, and seeing, what the young woman was at, he caught her in time. Then, turning her to the light, he thought it was his own wife, and shocked he says, ' Celia ! is it you V When he found v. was Delia, he felt very pitiful to her, and he took ber to a decent woman that kept a lodging, and he got fifty pounds for her somewhere, for then he was poor. In a day or two after, he was rich. He told Delia to go see her sister, and he gave ber money to live quiet.

' At that time I saw Delia, and I went wild in love of her at sight, and I wanted to marry her. And Sir Jerome, he told her, ' Marry aa honest man if he loves you so, as to overlook all/ And her sister, she b»3ged and begged her to marry me, a> I finally she did. But I tell you truth, my lass, the love was all on my side : and though she behaved as well as a woman could, she did not care, a penny for me, and she had cared, and did care, for Sir Francis. And I'll pay him out for it.

' No iv that is as affairs stood when I came home for a voyage, and lookingfor my wife, met, in the middle of the night, Sir Jerome flying from the police under euspicioD of having murdered his wife. I, knowing him so well, knew that he never had done that same, and so I helped him off in the barque Eliza* beth going on to Rotterdam with half her lading. Knowing Delia would be-heart-broke for her sister, I remained ashore to look to her. Well, I thought Delia would be glad if I bad seen Celia'sbody, and knew how and where she: would be buried • and so I went up to the house £ knew so well, and up to the room where the body lay.

' Ah, my lass, that was a hard sight !" A low lounge in the middle of the room, and a linen sheet on it, hanging to the fl )or, over something all slender, straight,, and still ! And they lifted away the sheet, and, -my lass, there she lay, as pretty a piece of marble as ever was cub out ;. scarce eighteen year old, murdered by a cruel hand. But, my lass, the secret is — it was not Mrs Jerome Sothron at all 1 No, it was not Celia. Where Celia is I don't know. Bat, in a blue fl>w?ied" gown that- C.-lia had given I er. th«r^ lay dead Iwf.in* my<*ye?, not Sir •l.trotim's wife at ail,' but. my own wife, Ddlia Marshall !'