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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1893-8-11, Page 2HIS HEIRESS 0R, LOVE IS ALWAYS THE SAME, rc). of XLIII. I. ' Tv T t,HAPl ,R ?t knew this gentlemen dY its Lord Branksmere, who has noted the ,p rossed iutliguation that is staking the call theme tremble. "You have guessed it, Branksmere. This intlemaa and I are well acquainted." to stops suddenly, as thouglt it is impos. bks for her to go on. How is she to tell .? let she has promised Margery to save tis wilful woman. She flings from her all fought of self, and, stepping more clearly its the moonlight, throws out her hands seventh Staines. " This men," she says, in a clear, thrill - ng tone, "anise did me the honor to seek a dishcuorme." Her face falls forward into her hands, "Great Heaven I This is inure than one hould dare expect of yon," cries Lord Irankemere, in deep agitation. Mrs. Billy lifts her head and looks at ltaines for this last time. " My husband knows all," she says, the fords coming reluctantly from between .er teeth. "It you would retain your mite table life, escape from this without de- ' Is this thing true ?" asks Lady Breaks• nere, going straight up to Staines. He is silent. • Spank, man 1 Answer Y" cries she, im- ,eriously, with a stamp of her foot. " N -o," lies the miserable wretch, with 'ulsehood written in the very swaying and tending of his cowardly frame. What she ;Des ooavinces her. " Liar 1" she gasps beneath her breath. Lord Braukamere is now close to Staines, alto makes a movement as though to de. ?met, but ho lays his hand quickly upon his irm, gives him a sudden jerk that brings zim to the front in a second. "True you have shown yourself forbear. ' ` ing, she says, and shiv fila 14little tt ad if with t h cold, Not another word is uttered between them until they once more reach the library, where she has mechanically followed luta. '• You are cold," he says, abruptly, merit- ing the trembling of her frame; "cone closer to the fire," He would have unfasten• ed the lace wrappings rottud her thrust, but the repels him. " Don't touch me," site exclaims, in fierne, miserable tone, " You never would have gone with him, at all events. If he had refused my terms, if lm had addressed another word to you, 1 would have killed hint as I would a dog I" "Perhaps you have killed him," says she, indifferently.Suchvermin die hard, Let no fears for ea him star your rest tonight, Tho lament, brume of that check he is to reeely° to- morrow morning will keep him alive." Her senses are too benumbed to permit of her feeling any very great surprise when she meets Mine. von Thirsk. The Hungarian is leaning eagerly out of the open window, as though in expectation of something. The sound of eluriel's advance ing footsteps reaching her at last, she turns abruptly toward her. It would be impossible to avoid noticing the expression of blank dismay that over- spreads her features as her eyes fall on Muriel. To Lady Branlcsmere it occurs vaguely, that intense and terrible disap- pointment is what is most plainly written upon her mobile face. "I have disturbed you, madame," she says, coldly. "Not at all. I was but looking on the night," she answers in a somewhat quaver- ing voice that is hardly so carefully English as usual. " A gloomy picture." On the instant it crosses Muriel's mind that this woman knew something of her intended flight. Even as she ponders hurriedly on these imaginings, a slight repetition of the ory that had some to her twice before, startles her into more active thought. Looking round instinctively to madame she finds site his disappeared, and that she is standing alone in the anteroom, Crossing hurriedly to the dowager's door site knocks. It is opened by Brooks ; the pale, still woman who had streak Muriel so many bines before as being almost bloodless, "Her ladyship is not well to -night, my lady. I think it will be wiser not to excite her with your presence." "Has Lord Branksmere given you orders to forbid my entrance here?" "No, my lady. But believe me it will be wiser not to enter -tonight, It will be better for you to leave this." "So I shall when I have aeon Lady Branksmere." • "You can not see her ladyship tonight," says the woman in a tone of ill suppressed anger that is curiously ,nixed with fear. Let me pass," returns Muriel, curtly. For the instant it occurs to her that the woman means to resist her, buts, thin, high, terribly piercing old voice coming to them,, checks any further argument. It is the dowager's. CHAPTER XLIV. • My good fellow, don't go until we come o ien understanding." The gallant captain, whose knees seem Nara to cease to be a portion of himself, ethers something in a weak whisper that `-.yet is unknown. "We are waiting for the lover -like state- • eats that will declare your desire to take barge of her you love." .Ooaded by this into speech, Staines ekes answer: 011 you understand anything," he says, 'it is, that I desire nothing better than to pend my days insuring the happiness of-" "Quite so !" interrupts Lord Breaks - ere, curtly. "Yon are then prepared to airport her? She is without fortune, you now. There was a certain sum settled igen her by mo, but that she dr si not take OL her." • You can not deprive bee rf it," erica 'Mines, hoarsely. ' True. But it appears she rejects her : usband's gift, with her husband. Speak or yourself here, madame. Is this so?" ee'It is so," returns she, kiln.. -Any lilt's blood that still tamales in "teenee' face now flies from it. 1" Well,'sir ?" questions B'anlr rmore, "We wait your. word." Jeue still tate terrible silence continues, Stainee, as though compelled to it, once none answers him. His speech is rambling; grows into a puerile mumbling at last. the 'tad not deemed it possible that site aid havebeen so foolish es to-" He rooks down ignominiously. "What, swindler I Yon have not a any in the world, eh?" 1'!1`Iat many, certainly," co -lessee Staines, eeklessly. " A mendicant, I know your sort I think. OW price to olear out of this? Name it." lI -" sally," begins Staines, stammering. It is ail so new to me, you see,' he utters. " I had not imagined you-er- meld have taken it in this way. I should ot, of course, like to drag Lady I3rauks- 'ero into aiife of pow-" "If you mention Lady Branksntere's eine again," says Branksmere, in an un- leesantly Blow sort of way, " I shall kill au 3" '° Oh, We not so easy to kill a fellow," says 'Wanes, beginning to bluster a bit. '"'Your price 7' says Branksmere in an 'utinons tone. " But p sr haps," with a sneer, " you look. ,d upon me in the light of a deliverer-" " Your price 7" says Branksmere again, eremelting heavily." "' You .offer me a thousand ; but you Could take certain things into considera- ion when making an arrangement of this ind. Silence on the subject of your wife's haraoter, for example, and-" " Damnation 1" Almost as the word leaves Lord Branks- aesre's lips he has Staines within hie grasp, d forcing him upon his knees, and'hold- ng him. by the Dollar of his coat, he drags along the ground until he has him at 'dy Branksmere'e feet. Look at him, regard him well," he ens, in a low, terrible tone. " How now, say gay Lobharlo, where are your winning similes ? Take heart, man, all is not yetlost. Me equivalent for your disappointment ell be yours to -morrow morning, and now, earnest for your money you shall have - is 1" ' "Hee lifts the hunting -whip, and brings it town with savage force upon the shoulders .i• the kneeling wretoh, Like hail the blows 'eseead. T E E BRTTSSELS POST, It de Staines, though it ie osier to reeog cries idea Bill, pushing theta Loth to. dour.' nice him by his clothes titan his features. 13ruieed, swollen, utterly demoralized in appearance, it is no wonder that the woman ou brat glaneing.at hen gives way to an ox. oletr atfon of horror. !' Whet,is it ; wheelies happened, thou?" cries she, in a low tone, " 1 sent for you that I ,night learn how Lite Weer fell through, but I had not expected title." Madame points expressively at his dislgurod Noe. " Well, well, well?" she exolaillta, impatiently, as ho makes iter no reply. " How is it with yon Y" rr It is all up," snarls iia, Monthly, " Nothing now is left but flight," " Whet, you have failed I" hisses she through her teeth, " With the gams in your hands you have lost I Aoh I" she muse way to a free ose or two in her own language, and stamps her foot with irre- pressible passion aeon the ground. "Uh Ito have toiled, and lied, and work- ed for -•-this I" cries she, wildly. "How I have labored to place that woman under "\Who is there mumbling at that door, Brooke? Let 'em in ; let nim in, I say. Am I to be kept imprisoned here by you, with no one to give me ever a good -day ? Lot 'em in, I tell you." "It fe I, Lady Branksmere." " And who are yon, eh? eh ?" demands the old creature, lifting her weird face to stare at Muriel, whom she has seen in the morning. " You are not the other one, are you 7" u The other?" " Yes, yes. The little one in her white gown. So pretty ; so pretty," mumbles the old lady, her head nodding as if gone be- yond her control in her excitement. "Such a little thing." "Lot me speak," cries she distractedly, "Oh 1 Uurzon, there is oomothhtg-e small thing -just ono thing that I must tell you." " That you never really oared for me 1 Why 1 know that, my love," replies lie rather wearily, t She stands btalafrptn "No. Oh .) o."to t hits, and glanoos at him rather sltamotnoed. ly, Then Douse a stop nearer, "It is only -that I do love yon so 1" she cries suddenly, the tears running down her oh setts, "\Won't you have me for yang wife, Cur- zon?" she whispers tremulously, and then in a moment oho is in his embrace, their erne round each other, their oyes look long, as ,bough each would search the other's hoar,, and when at last their lips meet, ruin and trouble and possible poverty, are forgotten, and a breath from heaven is theirs, " Snow mulch you have borne from mo," she murmurs softly, "I have thought my feot. that I might trample on her, °rush it all out long ago, you see, but I never her, and now -to be entirely balked of may was certain of myself until to•day." revenge, and all through your imbecility.' "Until I told you that I had lost every• Eters rather. Had she not told ''ranks- being 1" mere of her determination to leave him, i, Yee." she would Have been well out of your path " Then 1 ant glad that mine failed," says by this time. He would gladly have been tbisfoolishyoung Luau, eimply and truly, and rid of her, I believe, but she nmauudersto°cd from his heart. him when she supposed he would make no "That isn't a very wise thing to say, is fight for his honor." it?" murmurs Mies Daryl, thoughtfully. " \\'ell, you have lost your money," says "And yet, do you know, I myself don't feel oho. sorry," Why I no. It appears she had made "0f course, we shall have something," up bar mind not to touch a penny ot it." says he ruefully, "But d400 a year ! Itis " Hall l" She comes nearer to him and penury" examines his features (s hick look rather "It 1a opulence," gayly, "with rho love mixed) in a ourioue way. "So that was we can throw in." why you did not make a greater stand,"she "How I love you," he breathes, rather trios. "When the money failed you, you than speaks. cried off! You have been false to our bar- She laughs softly, and the dawn of a blush gain. Her frame trembles with passion. breaks upon her cheek. She goes nearer to him still, and turns the "I know that," she says saucily. " If lamp, with an insolent air, on his bowed you don't trust me, you see I trust you. figure, and the generally °raven appearance But of ono thing I warn you, Curzon, that that narks hint; " So he beat you!" she I am not married to you yet. There is many cries exultantly. "Beat you before her- a;nip, you know." your ideal I Aoh-the brave fellow 1' She "Not when elle is fairly caught." breaks iato a loud, derisive laugh. "Caught !" stepping daintily behind a "Go home, you she -devil, before I mar- rosebush. "Who said that word? Am I nor you," breathes Staines, fiercely. naught, think you? Well, a last chance then I If you catch me before I roach the CHAPTER XLV. yew•tree over there, I'll-" Most unfairly she starts away &Dross the " Well 1" exclaims Mrs. Billy, in a heart- velvet sward, straight for the desired Mar- tell tone. She sinks into a chair and looks bor, giving him fierily time to understand round her -the very picture of misery. her ohellsnge. But love has wings, and be- " What a cruel shook to him poor fellow. "Hash, madame! You don't know what you aro saying," interposes Brooks, sharp. ly. "Sometimes she raves, my lady, and you know I warned you she was not well to -night." "You are wrong, Brooks; wrong. It uoa a white gown ; and there was blood upon it -bright spooks of blood. Eh? Eh? I rec- ollect it all. Et ? Oh 1 my bonny boy -my handsome laddie 1" Muriel now, having bidden her goodnight, she moves toward the door. As Brooks with her eyes on the ground holds it open for her, another cry, very low and subdued, seems to ureep to her through the semi -darkness of the apart- ment. Muriel lifts her head sharply. " There it is again. That was not Lady Branksmere," she says, scrutinizing the woman's fano keenly. But it never moires. " What fs it, my lady?" "That terrible cry. It sounded like the wail of a hurt animal," answers 'Muriel, with a shedder. " I heard no ory, my lady," says the woman, sullenly. "'But they do say this corridor is 'taunted." With a last glance at her impassive ocean nuance, Muriel steps from the room and hurries swiftly out of sight, her head throb- bing, her heart beating wildly. She sinks upon a low stool, and lots her proud head fall until it rests upon her knees round which her hands are clasped. A for- lorn figure, void of hope. And now what is left her? How can she endure the daily intercourse with Beelike. mere -the chance meetings with madame, These last may indeed be avoided, as ma. dame for the last week or two has elected to dine in her own rooms, stating as her pre- text that the dowager is failing fast ; to at- tend whom is evidently an arduous task, as madame hes grown siegulariy wan and dejected during this fortnight. No sleep comes to her tens night. Broad awake, she lion, hoer eller hour, with her eyes wide in the darkness, and her tired brain rushing through the and plains of past &iefs and joys. The dawning of the morn finds her still with her eyes open, staring eegeriy for tho first faint titmice of light. * * x * * There; comes a moment when Branksmere see to hold tum, and Statues, crawling yatrer to Muriel, seizes her skirt, and in a ,sone wild with terror implores her proteo- 'L,ady Branksmere sickens a little at this gilt, and lifts Moth her hands to her head. " Pnnegh, enough 1" she cries, faintly. ' Let him go ! Would you take his life ?" 'hadrags Branksmere back with all her i. ht. " Lot him go ; for my sake,'' All for your sake 1 You love him Mill ken, swindler, seducer that he is ?" " No, no. believe me. I was thinking of ettt then-" "Por the first time, ell ?" He pushes her ,Tram him, and looks beck thirstily to where his adversary had fallen, but that worthy Tied taken advantage of the interruption to awn away into the darkness like the reptile that lie he " Come," says Branksmere, once more Tproeching Ids wife. " Where ?" asks she, shrinking from ilio. e' Back to the house." "" No 1 Oh I no I" with a strong shudder. e' Bub I say yea," sternly. " Whet 1" 'where stamped his foot. "Would you have this indecent farce go further? I still can rely upon your word that you have told no one but me of your intended flight," " Why should you doubt it ?' asks she, note t„ no emotion in her tone, no sly a settled indifference. aysBranksmarce Ile struggles )r a moment, and then goes t rose, the present has to be can b' ar it if you can," 1 assure you the news has made me feel just anyhow. Such a thing to go and happen to him." " It is a beastly shame," says Dick in- dignantly. " What is? What's the matter?" esks Mr. Panlyu, sauntering into the room at Angelica's heels, with whop it is quite evi- dent he is not now on speaking terms. ",Why, haven't you heard?' asks Mrs. Billy, with tears in her eyes, "about poor Curzon? The failure of that Cornish mine has valued him," "Bless my soul I cries Tommy. " What a horrid thought I Where is he? Who told yon? It's a lie most likely." No such luck,"returns Dilly dejectedly. "It's only too true. Poor old chap! I had a line from him about an homage, end Peter has run down to him to bring hhn tip here. He can't be left by himself, you know." "So that young man has come to grief, hey?" calls out a gruff old c)loe from the hall outside. "Never thought much of hint myself," Sir Jlutius by this time has entere•i the roost. "Fools and tlteirmoney soon part." Mrs. Billy casts a glance at her husband, lifter which they boot break into untimely mirth. At I you can laugh, eau you," mewlsSir Mutius, "when your chief friend is so sore smitten ! Poor comfort he'll get from you, i' faith, in spite ot all your protesta- tions. Well, I'm glad I never professed af- fection for the young man, I've the less trouble now. Holy about you, Margery? He wes a bean of yours, Eh?" "A fortunate thing now, Margery, as things have turned out -hey? If you had engaged yourself to him you might have had some difficulty in getting out of it, and marriage with a beggar would hardly suit you -eh ?-ha 1- Oh I Good•morrow, Bel. lew ; good -morrow !" "Yon are right, Sir Murine, marriage with a beggar weans only misery," says Curzon calmly, who had entered the roots during the old eau's speech, " It is quite true, then, ()axon ? Is there no chance for you?" asks Angelina, who has run to ]rim, and thrown her arms round hie neck to give him a loving kiss. "None whatever," bravely, " in the way you mean, I went up to my lawyer about it this morning, and it appears when all is over and done 'shall be left with about 4400 a year. Nothing can be clone," nays Curzon, turning round again. "I've thought it all out,?end in time I shall be reconciled to it. 1 shall forget it all -that is" -looking down -" nearly all I And one can work, you know; and there's many a fellow hasn't even 4400 a year." "No, by Jove," acquiesces Dick heartily, who hasn't a penny beyond what his brains will bring him. "I dare say to some, therefore, that amount might mean riches," goes on Curzon, pleading his own cause bravely, "though I agree with you, Sir Mutius"-looking at hiin with a kind smile-" that it really does mean beggary. But that is the result of one's training, "No, no, don't mistake,nte," says the old baronet.- "There is greet scope for a young man's intellect when bathed up with a little capital, You might go to New Zealand, for example -a flue opening there -or to Aus- tralia, or to Canada," " Or to the deuce'" supplements Billy cheerfully, "But after all, perhaps, none of us, liotvever lttorative the poet, would hardly care to see him there." "You ere flippant, William," growls Sir .l'Iutius, frowning. " What Sir lelutiva means," says Curzon boldly, though his lips turn very white, "is, that he would be gladto see me well out of this country because of Margery, "Ian very glad to hear it from your lips too, although I knew it before. AIy niece, sir, 1s a young woman of sotiae. Site wit, marry well, if she marries at all," "That is quite trio I" The voice is Mate gory's, and a sudden silence falls upon the room as she speaks, She has risen from her stab, and is looking with her beautiful eager eyes full at Bellew, "I shall do well in• deed if Imarry Curzon, Will you here me," cite asks him softly. "No -no" cries Bellow, pressing her back from hint. "1 mndorstaud the semi. fine, my- f'on't make it so hatel for me Margery; yea are all so hind, so tender, and now, this from you 1-snybest friend, no." "Ah 1 murmurs she piteously, in a very agony of distress, "Why ---don't you know?"she eovers her face with her hands. "Take me away front ,hie," she whispers, faintly. " Yoe, go. I.,to the garden -anywhere i believe Iter -believe every word site seye," The chili soft breeze that heralds the opening day has hardly yet arisen, however and darkness still covers the land, A fig. tire, cloaked and hooded, emerging from the quaint old oaken door on the western side of the Castle, looks nervously round her as She steps into the blackness and tries to piorao it. Moving swiftly, end unerring- ly, with light, firm: footstep to the direction of the wooded path to her right, site enters the line of elms, and makes for a dense bit of brushwood further on. Arrived et it she pausos, and a lose cocas issues front her lips; It is answered presently, and the woman, drawing a tiny lantern from ba, ;math her anus's, turns it full upon the utas who has answered iter call fore she has reached tate aged yew site is fu his grasp, and ones for all she owns him if anywhere, we thought, bears ought to be plentiful. Ours was distinctively a bear hauling party, but I was the chief enthu- siast. Ab least, I spent more hours of the day and night in search of the longed -for gone then any of the rest. One sultry day I had tramped six or eight miles through the woods tolook at my traps, and on my return to camp felt so warm and uncomfortable that I decided to take one of p the boats, row out into deep water and have appear to be on_frioudly terms. a royal bath and swim. The other fellows and I Lady Brankamsre, who has entered the 1 had t lel whole lake tup the o mys lffis shinI rtrout owed out fully a mile from shore, so as to get that grand sensation, which every adventuresome swimmer oar appreciate, of floating and diving in 100 feet depth of water. Those who daily near shore know nothing about this sensation. It is like the sensation which an eagle or a hawk must have, pois- ing and wheeling, with a utile of transparent air between itself and the earth. Great depth of water buoys a swimmer up -makes hint feel as if ho had water wings, and timid circle, float, and almost sleep on the water, as a broad -winged bird does on the air. When I got ant into the deepest part of the lake, I threw over the sharp-oornered stone we use for an anchor, attached to its hundred feet of stout cord,and proceeded to undress and make my first thrilling plunge. Down, down, Iwent into the clear water, till its elastic resistance, like a cushion, stopped my body-aud drove it to- ward the surface again. Ise I emerged blowing the water from nostrils and mouth, I saw that a blank etorin-doud was coming up over the ntoutain behind the camp ; but as yet the sun shone fiercely from the Western sky, and I had no thought of giv- ing up my delicious hath for a threatened thunder -shower. I dived repeatedly, floated, swam on the surface and beneath the surface, trod water and enjoyed myself in the most luxurious fashion. Filially, I started and swam is hundred yards or so away from the boat, with the intention of seeing how many times Ishould have to;tomato the enrfaeein rettaoing my course under water. As I came up after my first dive, I noticed that that fresh breeze which precedes a storm was beginniup to wrinkle the lake with little waves, and deemed it best to get back to the boat as soon as possible. But I was surprised to see how much farther away the boab looked tlsan when I first started to return to it. It really seemed a quarter of a mile off now ; but, supposing this to be merely an optical illusion, 1 swam on with leisurely strokes, thinking to reach it in a few minutes, Bub after I had been swim- ming for five minutes, and the boat seemed if anything, farther away than when 1 started, I began to suspect something was wrong, and forged ahead at the top of my speed. All this while bhp breeze was freshening, the wrinkly waves were increasing to small rollers, and I oonld 'tear the thunder mat- tering and rolling over the hills behind me. Suddenly the truth flashed aoross my mind, that the stone author which held !ny boat must have slipped from its loop, and the boat With slipping away from me with in. creased speed 1 le was a decidedly Marbling and discgrooablc situation, to say the toast, Out in the middle of the lake, with one of these violent mountain storms coming on,. the land a mile away from me on every side, and my boatclriving off with the wind fast - or than I could swim 1 The more I oonsid. eyed it, the more terribly serious the nubs to looked ; and it was not long before I realized that, as oCrobabilitica go, there was only ;thou ono chance in tot that I should got alt of my adventure alive. Under favorable circumstances I could have swam n mile, 110 (10111)1, but not in a raging, driv- ing storm. ,Av'GUST fl, 1893 as Muriel inetinotively recede with horror from her tench, If you wielt it, yon shall bo invited too 1 I'll get him to ask you ; don't lot Thokla know, Thokla, little cat 1 We shall outwtb her," she ernes, " Ay. Y oat and I and Ito. "What is Brankeuere to you ?" cries weie Muriel sharply, "Do yon not oven know that N . 1Why-- my husband 1" returns the stranger, with a peculiar little jerky wave of her 'land. A low ory breaks from. Muriel, "To•night, to.niglit you than be meds known to Mtn !' goes on the girl lightly. She laughs, To her dying day Lady Branksmere never forgets that laugh. "Yost will come, you pale thing)" she asks, eagerly, "sad we'll sing to him, you ad I. Hor voice now is slightly raised, her manner excited, "And we'll dance, too." She lifts iter teat one by one in a jerky fashion, and swap to and fro in a very ecstasy of delight. "Join in -join in I" she calls to 'Muriel, and twirls herself ronm1 and round with a terrible speed, and laughs again. A wild laughter thin time, .that ends in a wilder shriek, (TO BZ CONTINUED,) YOUNG FOLKS. Saved by a Bear. Like mob boys of out -door tastes, there was a time in my life when I thought that nothing could quite equal the glory of kill- ing a bear. It may be interesting to know how I escaped the craving of this ambition without its actual gratification. I bad gone off into the woods, with a party of otiser young fellows, to spend the latter half of the Summer vacation. We all carried Win- chester repeating rifles, and in addition I took two immense bear -traps, with jaws and teeth like a shark's. It was almost as much as a person's safety of limb was worth to set these traps, for if they went off prematurely, or the man who was adjusting the tongue lost Isis nerve, a leg or an arm wouldn t be worth muoli a second later. And, as tora coat-tail, it would soon bo put beyond the help of a tailor. We camped on the shore of a mountain lake, surrounded on all sides by wooded ]tills. There was no house within ten miles, and the whistle of a locomotive, or even the rumble of a etage-coaoh, had never echoed from those solitary mountain office. Here, conqueror. * w w w * * * CHAPTER XLVI. Mme. v n Think has fallen asleep. A glorious flood of October sunshine stream- ing into the Library reveals this fact. • She looks anything but her best ; to look that, one must be hap y, and grief and she room in her usual elow, lifeless fashion, so isghtly as to frill to disturb so heavy a sleep- er, draws near to her through a sort of fas- cination, and stauding over her, stares down upon, and studies the face, so impene cable as a rule, but now laid bare and unprotected in its unconsciousness. For a long time she gazes upon the wo- man, when something catoites fuer eye, rivets her attention immovably and puts an end to her idle examination. After all it is only a key. A well -sized key of a vory ordinary type. Lady Branksmere's lips pate, and her oyes grow bright. Not for one moment does she hesitate. Taking up a pair of scissors lying on the table near, she cuts deliberately the silken cord, and possessing herself of the key leaves tine roost. Not ones does her heart fail her. And when she stands before madame's door and fits the key into the lock, and throws it open, and at last crosses the threshold of the forbidden chambers, no sense of fear, no desire to draw back whilst yet there is time, oppresses her, only' a longing to solve the problem that for so many days has been an insult to her. She throws up her head, and it is with a sense of positive triumph that she steps into the first room and looks around her. Muriel takes it in ata glance, and hastens toward the door opposite to the one she has entered. It made to a room, small, and evidently meant as a mere nassagefrom the. room left beyond, the door of which is par• Rielly open. Muriel has half crossed this ante -chamber, when a soft musical sound, corning apparently from some place near at hand, causes her to stand still. The voice of one singing. Yet hardly singing, either. The sound is sweet, and pathetic,- and young' Muriel's heart begins to beat tumultuous- ly. A voice here, a woman's voice, and Mme. von'Thirsk asleep down -stairs 1 What can this' mean? She pushes open the half- closed door, and steps lightly into the room. At the far end of it, seated on a prie-dieu, with her lap full of flowers, sits a girl -a pale, slender girl•-dreseed all in white, Her eyes are lowered, and site is playing in a curiously absent way with the blossoms amongst which her fingers are straying aimlessly, and is singing to them in that strange monotone that had startled Muriel. Now she looks up, She stares straight at Muriel, and her eyes are a revelation. They are blue, but such an unearthly blue, and what is the gold doll gleans in thein? And are they looping at Muriel, or ab some object beyond her? Her fingers still play idly among the flowers, whilst these strange eyes of hers are wanderinp, vaguely, " Como in, come in," she murmurs sag• Orly, so eagerly that Muriel ponders within herself as to whether she and this white, smiling girl may not have met before under different circumstances. That she botrays no agitation, no awtwardness at then nom. ing face to lase with the Iwstese who has not invited her to her house, is strange in. deed, Shots looking unoonoornediy at Mur- iel, witha smile upon her lips. More ; have you brought more?" asks the pale girl anxiously, leaning forward, the eternal smile still upon her face, Teatime to Muriel that she would be almost more than beautiful but for the nemeloss something that mars her expression. Site waves her hand about the room blithely, and Lally Branksmere following her gesticulations, seesihattheupariment is litterally crowded with flowers, of all hinds and all hues, sone one. No crimson, rod, or scarlet blossom lies among them. She brings bath her glance again t0 the girl, a,d now regarding her more fixedly, perceives that the facie is nob so young as she had at first imagined. She Creeps closer to Muriel and whispers slyly, " i)o yob know whose birthday it is?" "No,"' fit a Erma'' One. "No? Why itis his 1 That is why the flowers are hero, the flowers he loves to well," Muriel Mane at her, Bratksmaro's passion for flowers hail not tomo beneath her natio°, " Tonight, is itis festival, end iv() shall keep it merrily 1 Liston 1" She I obis tip one forefinger:, and advances upon Mssnicl, titan a bear, letting the wind drift hint norm the lake, as is fregeontly done by those big furry follows, whoa they have a long jimmy to make by water, and feel lazy 11 it had not been so terribly serious, I:he siting ien would have been rldloulous in the extreme, Ab last the enthusiastic bear. hunter had conte face to Noe with his game -tut under what unexpected and disoonrag- ing circumstances 1 The tables had been tntmed In such a wiry as to leave little doubt whish weed be the game, and which the limiter, should Use bear choose to take advantage of rho situation. Probably, few hunters nave over been placed in such an embert'assing, not to say distreseing, situ- ation. I must either beg a ride from the beer, or go to the bottom of the lake -that v e rising, was pretty evident. The twt o were i i„ tine stream was beginning to sweep down the mountain side, Still, I was naturally delivata abort caking a favor from one for whom I had two shark's -tooth traps set in the woods, and a gen loaded with fourteen euesossive entices of lead. There was no time to consider the mat- ter, however ; and really, it seonod better to be clawed, chewed, sr even hugged to death, than to be helplessly drowned. So I swan arospd the boar, approached his flanke,ancl very timidly and respectful' y putt out one haus' and got hold of Isis furry hide. There was a protesting growl on the port of bruin, but he made no other objection to taking me in tow, and for a few moments we floated along very sociably together. Then the storm broke upon us with all its fierceness, and I actually ceased to tear the boar, in the turmoil of tlse elements, and, drawing closer to his sheltering side, buried both hands in his long fur and hung on for clear life. It was a perfect hurricane that burst over us. The wind whipped off the crests of the waves, as if they had been so many white hats ; the lightning flashed and darted all around us, and the air was torn by crash on crash of rattling thunder. It was not long before the bear was as fright: eted as I, and began to swim, dragging me along with him. I actually believe he was grateful for my company, in that terrifying tumult of sky sad water, and I am sere I was about as thankful far his as a man could well be. It was impossible to sco a dozen yards ahead, but the bear seemed to know by instinct where the nearest laud lay, and swam steadily on, apparently as little alfeated by the waves as a ship of 300 tons' burden. Occasional- ly 1 hoard him snort and blow, when the wind whipped off a white cap and tossed it squarely in his face ; but he had ceased to growl at his companion in danger, though one of my hands had sought out his stub of a tail, and must have given it some painful wrenches, as the rollers toss- ed me to and fro. Just as tho fury of the storm was abating, we got into shallower water, and once in a while I could feel my feet touch bottom. I hell on, however, until the shore loomed up iu sight through the rain, and then cast off from the bear with an audible : " Thank you, old fellow 1" and lethim stake his way to land first. I saw Min emerge, dripping, from the water, climb the musk and die. appear in the woods. Tor several minutes, however, I stood waiting, waist•deep in water, until the coast should be safely clear, Finally I venturer' ashore and lay clown to get my breath and recover from lay exhaustion. As soon as I sew that it wonid be impos- sible for me to overtake the drifting bomb, I bresgbt myself to en upright, position and began to tread water, while I took a good look around me, How my heart leaped with joy, when 1 OM not inoro than fifty yards away, what looked like a short, Oleic, boating tog I It was drifting along in tine sa't.e direction as the boat, bet at a much slower rata of speed, and was still to windward of ne, 00 that I could easily intercept it. S streak out With renewed courage, and a heart that was iighter by a good many most ml tons than it had boort a few minutes pro. vionoly:, It did n01 take me longto get in line with the dark floating object, but just as I was about to make a spurt for it and lay ]old of it, something paused mo to stop as suddenly as if I had boon seized with cramps, The carie object turner' out to Have a head, end that head was shear's head. The apparently floating log was clothing loss As soon as I felt able to walk I started, naked, for camp around the lower end of the lake, and reached its shelter just ne the other fellows, drenched with their long walk through the woods, amain from trout. tug. I told them my story, but they thought I was guying them, and refused to believe ire until next morning. I went out and snapped both my bee•+ traps and buried them in the woods. Then they knew I was speaking in earnest, when I said that I had made up my mind never to kill a bear, un- less he first tried to Iclll me. Dumb With Horror, It was recorded a few clays ago in one ot our contemporaries that during the ,tearing of n summons for theft against a woman at Blackburn au extraordinary statement had been made. A daughter of the defendant was present when the summons was served, and is said to have been so horrified at the thought of ben mother going to the Polios Court that she lost the power of speech, and at the time the statement was made, a week after the event, the faculty still re- mained in abey:mete The profoundly dis- turbing effect of strong emotion upon the bodily organism is a fast which very fre- quently obtrudes itself upon the notice of the medical man. It is one phase of the influence of the mind upon the body, a sub- ject widish Dr. Hook Take has made peotil- iatly his own. In his book on the subject a case is quoted occurring under sit -niter oincnmatances to those alluded to above, but in which the phenomena were differ- enb, probably not in their origin., although certainly in their character. It occurred at the Limerick Sessions, where two men were aeouserd of assaulting a relative. The prosecutor summoned his father as witness, and the mother of the prisoners, exasperated at the prospect of her sons being condemned, prayed bloat the old man when he left the witness box might be paralyzed, and singularly he was para. lysed. In the groat majority of cases such emotional paralysis is no doubb what we call functional as distinguished from para. lysis the result of actual structural than ges. Probably many oases of " railway spine aro of this nature. Functional aphonia, conning en after a sadden shook, is one of the commonest manifestations of severe emotional dtsturbence in women, and al- though Otto patient at Blackburn is said to be absolutely dumb, it is, we think, more likely that she still possesses a whispering voice ani' Is really suffering from aporia: But there seems no room 00 doubb tied emotional disturbance, aseociated it may be with slight pet'ipheral injury, not inn commonly determines at leant the ,node of ensue of coutral disease, The persistent faeia1 spasm succeeding severe grief, end rendering permanent, as it were, the ex - premien of woe; the fright, with .a alight injury to the hand, which may usher to shaking palsy and determine the limb first affected ; the fallaud injury to the shoulder which is followed in the child by an in. flsmmation of the spinal cord which per- manently disables the arm ---these an all familiar in our text books end at our hos. pitalo, Chorea, epilepsy, insanity, end various nervous disorders all emphasize. the profound influence of mental shock upon the bodily action. Diabetes has Leen known to succeed mental distress, the rapid notion of the heart reduces' by fright hoe become per. menent end has had associated 'tvitli it later the other phenomena of Graves' olds. ease, How fan the mental attitude doter - miners or permits the outset of infectious disease is always an interesting problem. That .apprehension teems to .court. de le praatdoally admitted, whilst the debouch' attitude of the nam who looks the danger in the face recognizing it as a danger but without flinching, appsaro to he in come oases a siefoguar•d,--teai,cot,