CHAPTER XLVIII.

Taranaki Herald, Volume L, Issue 12517, 28 March 1904, Page 6

CHAPTER XL VIII.

A IV'WGIvE WiITH • A HISTORY. haidy Cardonnel i.s carried to her rcyofm, and Mr Feardon, uttering- a few words of symipjathy, walks back to his hotel, after promising to call on tlie morfow. He orders coffee to be brought to him to his paivate room, and then he sits until far into the night, thinking, and writing letters,. Ami one letter is addressed, to Scotland Yard, asking for the services of one of their best detectives. L-ate as it is when he retires to rest, he is uip, has dressed, breakfasted and is knocking at Dr. Ryd&H's door by ten o'clock next morsihig. The do&tor is busy seeing his poor, free piatients. buL in a charter of an hour Mr Feardon is uisicred into his study. At tho firs»t words of fhe lawyer, altlhongh uttered very placidly, and with business-like indifference, Dr. Rydall '« face changes. "sly dear sir," the plhysician says, eoMl^, in answer to a qneHtion, "the local newspapers of the date will give yoti a description of Miss Scrope, the passenger who was killad in the railway accident, in my own words." "-Even so, Dr. Rydall," Mr Feardon says, stolidly calm ; "btit, as the medical adviser of the Cardoii- ; nel fxumily, an>'d us one who holds the Oardotinel name anld title in esteem, I thought it advisable — advisable, in the first instance, to obLain my information from you, • without being, obliged to l>ring the j name of the lady who was Miss ' fyydia Surtees then, ati'cl is Lady Car'donnol now, into any pjublic 1 notice in connection with that s,ad j affair. I am sure you uirdersland j

me Dr. R/dall." There is a pause, amd then he adds, in a lower tone, selecting a loose sheet of paper from his noteTaook — "Pihysicians and lawyers are oftener "the guardians of family honor and family secrets, than eyeii the clergy are. Don't you think so, doctor .-"' I Dr. Rydall makes no reply for a ! moment or two. I "But you are nt>t the legal adviser to the Cardonnel family, 1 understood you to say, Mr Feardon?" he remarks gravely ; "although you were the legal adlviser of Miss Surtees before her marriagie." "Yes ; before her marriage our firm transacted her business," Mr Feardon says, thoughtfully fingering his gold pencil-case, "at least, my junior, Mr Blamire, did. Not since her marriage." "1 can have no objection whatever in giving you, from my noteibook, the description of the body ' of the p.oor lady whose name was ;said to be Lilith Scrope," Dr. Ry- , dall says. "But— pardon me!— why do you not apply to Lady Cardonnel herself for all the information attainable ak'otit Miss Scippe ? The poor latdy was in the { service or companionship of Miss Surtees at the time of her death." "Precisely," Mr Feardon says, in lan unmoved manner. "But neither |my late partner nor myself have "been successful in obtaining an interview with our former client since she became Lady Cardonnel." "Indeed ?" Dr Rydall says ; and there is another dead silence. "No, though we toavte written and asked for an interview on business matters several times," Mr Feardon says, briefly. "Blamire obtained one interview with her — at least, he went to her house, and I have been told he had an interview with Lady Car'donnel ; but I never heard it from his lvps, poor fellow ! He died suddenly, before the interview was at an end !" "Gooh heavens!" Dr. Rydall says, partly under his breath, and gazes at the lawyer with a startled, questioning look, until Mr Feardon raised his eyes, and returns the doctor's look deliberately, with a slight assenting nod. "Good heavens !" Dr Rydall repeats, in a half whisper, and sinks back in his chair. The interview between the law3'er and the doctor is over about ten minutes after eleven, when several pages of Mr Feandon's notebook are covered with stenogfapdiic notes ; and then the lawyer, bidding Dr. Rydall adieu, steps out briskly into the brilliant sunshine of the summer morning once more, and -walks toward St. Cray's Abbey. He declines Dr. RydaJU's ofter of a seat in his brougham as far as the abbey gates. He has a troublesome case to think over, he says. On the way lie pauses at a mailbox with a letter for Scotland I Yard. "i will wait until I come oin. again," he decides, and replaces the letter in his breast pocket. When he reaches the abbe}- he notices that the parlour maid who opens the door looks at him with a sort of subdued alarm in her face and manner. He catches a startled glance from an elderly lady, who, in crossing the hall, jpauses to look at him, and then follows him into the drawing-room where he finds Laxly Christabel sit- | ting with a book in her hand, with a very pale face, a-nd traces of rej cent weeping visible in her sad leyes. She rises with a faint smile to greet him, When the elderly ladylooking rather distraught — rushes between them with, outstretched hands. "Oh, sir, you're not bringing us ' news of any more trouble, are you ?" she inquires, distressfully. "We're in trouble enough, I assure you, with Lady Cardotttnel arousin the lDouse at five this morning, with more hysterics, after the hysterics yesterday evening, ami my brother, Lord Cardonnel — extremely agitated in lids haste to take her !ofl to some doctor in London who [she says 'is the only doctor who understands her !" (To be continued).