THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3071, 16 December 1908, Page 2

THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

CHAPTER ill.—Continued. "He shall never hear of it through me or ray son," the old woman readily promised. As Edith Tyrrell rode away homeward, her face clouded. She pulled a note from the folds of her dress and examined it gloomily. She had received it from her cousin three days before. She had read it more than once before now, and each time with increasing irritation, its tenor was so peremptory and presuming. "Edith," it ran, "you avoid me. You ought to know I will not "submit to that after all that has passed /between us. I warn you that J will not. I shall be at the Hollow Oak this afternoon, at four precisely." "He never would have dared to write me such a note as this but for » my having been out with him the night of the storm," muttered Edith. "He thinks that has put me in his power, because I have concealed it from my husband. Suppose this note had fallen into Captain Tyrrell's hands? I believe that he hoped it would." She rode on some distance, her delicate eyebrows knit, her scarlet lips compressed, the note clenched in her little gauntlete'd hand. At h turning in the path, Randal Heathcote met her. Edith started angrily. "I won't be haunted by you in this way, Randal," she said turning her horse, as if to seek another path. "Wait and hear one word from me first," he said, dashing in front of her. "I have not spoken alone with you once since that happy night a

week ago." Edith's lip curled. "It was the most miserable night I ever spent in my life, with one exception." "And that?" "I shall not tell you. It is none of your business." "I can guess it. It was the night after our engagement was dissolved." ' He saw by the pallor of her face and the flash of her black eyes that he had guessed right, "Oh, Edith, what a fool I was!" '•'You are a greater fool now, if you think I will permit you to talk to me in this tone," she said angrily. But she dashed the tears from her eyes as she spoke, and he fancied by the quiver of her lips and the heaving of her bosom that her heart was full of him still, undeserving as he was. "You know you love me yet," he pursued audaciously. ' Edith looked him straight in the face. "Iflch," she said, "after your contemptible treatment of me, I deserve to be despised by all womankind. If I do, you are a coward and destitute of every spark of manhood to tell me of it." Heathcote turned pale. "I don't know why you abuse me so, Edith." ',*Tlow dared you write me such a note as this?" showing it. "Did you hope my husband would find it and kill me?" ,

"You know I did not." "You would never have dared write it but for that night of the storm. You imagine that your wicked contrivance to keep me out, and my desire to conceal it from my husband, put me in your power." "You have not told him, then?" said Heathcote eagerly. "It would be as much as both our lives are worth to tell him, atcl you know it." Heathcote sneered. "Perhaps you think I am afraid of him?"

Edith made no answer. She v/as tearing the note into small pieces and casting them into the bushes. Haathcote watched her for a little. "Why didn't you come t') the Hollow Oak, as I a?ked you? I only wanted to say half a dozen words to you." "You can say them now. I never will meet you by appointment anywhere, Randal." "Why not?" "No matter «'hy not, if you don't know. I have wronged Fairfax Tyrrell enough in marrying him; I will never deliberately be guilty of one unfaithful word or act to him." Heathcote shrugged his shoulders and smiled in a way that made Edith's temper flash up again. "Edith, I want you and your husband and Miss Altman to come with me to Heathcote House and spend some weeks." Edith looked surprised. "It is impossible. Nothing would induce Mr Tyrrell to go." "Will you promise to use your influence to have the invitation accepted?" "No."

"Why not?" "I should have no influence in such a case, and, if I had 1 would not use it; because I believe you only want to get me where you can involve me in new difficulties." "1 swear to you, no. I havo been thinking, indeed, of making lovo to Miss Altman." Edith's face turned deadly white. "Have you?" she asked in a husky voice. *'l hope you may succeed." "Will you go to Heathcote House if your husband consents?" "Not if I can avoid it," she said firmly; and then, giving her horse a sharp and unexpected stroke of the whip, she wheeled him suddenly and dashed past Heathcote before he could interpose as he had done before. He looked after her some moments. "I'm as fond nf her as I ever was," he said to himself. "I love her a million tirr.es better than I ever did, and she loves me. What a foo] \ was not to marry her when I ■coni . Bui:" —and his countenance took a sinister expression—"she'il be a rich youns; widow one of these 1

By HELEN COEWIN PIERCE, Author of "At His Own Game," "Carrie Emerson Wilde," "Badly Matched," "The Cheated Bride," Etc.

. days, and then we'll see if we can't j make up for lost time." I ****** I The family at Blackir.ere were at dinner, a week later. There was no I company, only Mr and IVrs Tyrrell and Rose Altman. j The cloth had been removed, and wine and nUts we v e ,on the table/ j The servants had been dismissed, I according to a habbit of Faiifax j Tyrrell's, who often talked family ! matters at this hour, and, unlike : most men, was more apt to air his temper in his after-dinner mood than i at any other time. I Edith Tyrrell ha,d not seen her ! cousin, Kai.dal Heathcote, since the ' interview with him just narrated, i "I saw Mr Heathcote this afternoon," began Mr Tyrrell, in a voice j of import. j Edith looked up. Rose Altman looked down. Rose knpv what was j coming. Randal Heathcote had con- .' trived to enlist her. | "He is very urgent that we should j all spend the coming moLth with him at Heathcote House. I presume you would like to go Mrs Tyrrell?" sneeringly. j "You would not," said Edith quietly, "and you are my law." Rose looked up sweetly. "I wish you would go, grand a. There is to b; a large party, and everyone will think you are jealous of Mr Heathcote if you don't. You ought to show yourself with your beautiful wife, and let people see how devoted she is to you." Mr Tyrrell wheeled his chair swiftly. L "If you call me grandpa again, you minx, I'll oox your ears. Who says ■ I am jealous of that rascal? I'd horsewnip him if I were. I'm not l jealous, but I'll not have my wife I flirting with any man, and making herself the country talk."

An angry colour rose in Edith's delicate cheek. She lifted her head haughtily. "Please to understand," she said, "that I, for one, decline to spend the coming month at rjfeathcote House."

"You don't! You sha'n't!" cried the irascible old man, "I have decided to go. I'll go to show people I am not afraid of, him, if for nothing else."

Edith bit her lip. She read at a glance how Heathcote had worked on her husband's weakness through Rose, and the look she gave that young woman was a compound of pity and wonder.

"You are certainly governed by praiseworthy motives," she said to her husband.

"My motives don't concern you. You are to go. You just said I was your law, and I'll show you I am." "I don't require any convincing. I accepted the fact in marrying you."

Rose Altman knew when to be silent. She had effected her purpose, and she said no more. But her demurely bent head could not quite conceal from Edith that her blue eyes were glittering with triumph and her lips curving every now and then with furtive smiles. (To be continued).