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The Brussels Post, 1891-1-16, Page 5S IP 36 NC 30IC 14 1ST S'1 RA.NGELY WEDDED. A T11IUILLI.NtG STORY OF ROMANCE AND ADVENTURE. "C.7" 0-.E11..s POS friond'e welfare. 1 have always oer,te'" fond f hDona1 know fi d's likes you not a little. But some thing has come between you, sono• thing which keeps you from speak- 1•IAPTER, XXX. l 'Yee it is true,' Ethel replied, I i utfaand i sk not her ?' to become 0 'And ono day when Jack and I were your Wi' he said, not so is so.' A PLAIN QUESTION. out together, he noticed it—and— 'Yee'Theo I want t' know w' it is It oust be owned that although and he asked theme to leave Oosmo because it is possible I might help t • sure and—you know rest, you over it.' • pollee on her track ?' Madame en, I g q exclaimed, t , a9 of 2t ! She the old jack bad 1° a gran measure 'Ind you would not. come back again, there was still a 'No—I was fond of Jack, you 'Well, Madman, I will tell you groat gulf fixed betsvoeu Lord Rosa- know, and he woulda t have Bug. how I am situated. To begin at trevor and Ethel. Bested it if he had not thought that the beginning, Eche! and I ought All the sweet ween i them of the Cosmo had ill -need me. But really to Ilavq boon married wlien she was old relations between were Cosmo scarcely knew what he was married to Major Dennis.' gone, for a time at least. The 'I have already gathered that,' about—ho—he—he weeps crept by and wore into 'Had been drinking, I suppose 7 she said. Months; royd'S cameme as a tenant and ended Madame. 'Well ; and Mr. 'But her mother kept ne apart. Mie. moved her to an end Jack asked you to end it all by go- In this case—well, Major Dennis is she m n theh hsa belonging to aadame in away with him. And of course dead, and 1 dont want to speak flat Wo ne same floor Madame a that was what any' man who cared against a dead man, but for once I Woleneki a was on. These roomy for me would do. And when you am bound to say that a more un• were larger and brighter in every said no ?' mitigated brute never lived. In way and Ethel would have been per. 'Well, I think Jack was rather the firat plane he was more than tacitl barrier ofp ein them if straint which existed be glad,' Ethel auswered simply. 'I'm twenty years older than Ethel, in euro of it—only Helene, although the second he was a hard, blatant, twsen.Jaok and her had been re- he told me more than once that he drunken bully. He was never faith. moved. " loved' me with -all his heart, he has ful to her. Why for weeks down at But they seemed to sse far ,dos of never told me eo since—since he -Cbertsey, be was literally hunted each poorother than e— used never do in might have done. I think about it down by some foreign woman who poor m e r n time—be e came all, and I think about it till I name had a grudge against him—aye, goingt dinner now, hover sandeste- know what to believe. Sometimes and was,hunted out of the Service hanywhere with her, and ay I feel sure that he does care—and too, for she got entrance' into' the t every day tame in to sse her nearly then again, I feel as if 1 have been house at last -and that frightened every it was always anean the mistaken and that he only pities him so that he sant in his papers' same time in the afternoon and he me. 0h 1 I think and think till I and name to London to lose him - never stayed a very long time. In am almost out of my Senses. And self.' fact, he was, as he believed, leading at the end of it all, I dont know 'And that womaa's name was—?' such a very cireumdpect life that what to 1311101).' 'Mademoiselle Valerie.' not even Mrs. Grundy could veature illudttme Woleneki took the girl's 'Ethel has mentioned her to nit,' to couple his name with that of small soft hand. said Madame calmly. young widow whose husband had 'It is hard on yun, my little one,' She told you about her ?' he ex. been so mysteriously murdered. she said, 'but I would have patience claimed. - So the pleasant spring days wore yet. I know Lard Rosstrevor loves 'See told me nothing. She only an; London thebecame gay and bright, you with all his heart.' asked me one day, before Major the trees in the parks and agnates 'How do you know ?' Deunis was killed, if I had' ever put on their tenderest shades of I have assn him watching yott. met or heard of such a person.' green, the smart boxes in (rout of I have seen a thousand signs good 'And you bad not ?' the smart housesbegan t U filled enough toll what h feels for 'I told her 1 had never heard of 1 as a surname Diadem 'I thought you were a Pole,' he aired, d n do it li'u}'kybLd008 both -)disband was a Pole—I w a was so tonviuted that etQCk•—my wotnef n, nitre flee �- 0 'the ten years old at the birth of her near enough to taken hand, to Hurd a,.'Id my little stater, Vio• 'Well, I need not go through all the life that my deter Va:erie led after that, She had to work in the evidence against her was so overwhelming that she wouldn't have a cllanoe of getting oft. And as it couldn't have been possible for her to get in or oat without beiog seen, it would not be fair to set the police after her. But she did tt, Madame, all the same.' 'The dear child,' murmured Med awe under her b' tittle 'Well,' after a short silence 'Lord R isst•revor, you are a gentleman and a men of tumour --I may speak to you quite safely.' 'Madame 1' he cried indignantly. She smiled a little—'Yee, I know. Know all about that. But I should like to have your assurance if you do not mind. 'I give you my snared word of honour. Madame !' he said trident- ly. 'That you may speak to me with perfect safety: 'And nothing would tempt you to break that promise ?' she asked. 'Nothing, he answered, 'not if ,my life should pay the forfeit.' 'Good 1 Them', Lord Rosetrevor— etay 1' she stopped short and held u a wacning finger, then went to a an o a to me w a e e re• with"ail~colours of the rainbow your—and I say to you, little one, Valerie + with great monad begooi red ger, only have patience and' all "will be plied.please. '0.2 on with I am deeply interested,' story, &ninon, rick -hued begonias and gay well., p 'Well,'lie continued, 'I dont say oalceolarias—and people came and So Ethel, with what paheuoe she went , all manner a et of gar oould muster, set herself to the task that Dennis ever actually strums moats, clad in the gayest ger-. of waiting. It was but weary work, her or beat her— not when he was tand indeed it was a brillianteesea- and before many days had gone by, sober, that is—but be used to catch son Ethelo began de feel ,the Madame Woleneki, who had taint he wrists with his brutal fingers some ,tumble mole stranded in the her eyes open, made up her mind till they were blank with bruises. midst of a great garden -party. that she would take the matter into Well, to everybody's horror, this She might have gone out a good her own bands. man is found dead with a knife in deal herself at this time, for Madame Now Madame Woleneki was not a his back. 111 s death is shrouded thathanks to her in a very smart set, woman to hesitate long after she in mystery. Now do you see bow thanks to her good introductions, had made up her mind. Having I amoplareplied Madame, 'unless you and would willingly have taken her decided to act she very soon found and everywhere. Apart from this, a away of having a little private talk think u havetthe a lurking killed tltat, elle withy young. ncom id absof olutely lytlher owneoe, to • Lord Reeetreyor—in fact, the . yP an income absolutely her own very first time she. met' him' at Dire.. might have kniot fe forhink you of also. ,be of seven thousand a year, does not Dennis's, ebe found an opportunity generailywant for friendship and of Baying 6o him, 'L particularly replied you didsuspecther ?' attention in the gay city where• feel=. want to have half an hour's quiet .Jack looked up and said—It's no inge are really not very deep—where talk with you, Lord Rosstrevor.' you may Bee the hieky widow of 'Certainly, Madame,' he replied. thou e b6 a d occur to to deceive you, that fifty years, and a six weeks' widow. +When shall 1—?' g hood, going modestly to the opera L will go now—you will come m. ashamed of myself now.' under the thin diegnise of her duty to my room when you take leave of 'le that what stands between to society and an uuwill•►ngness to the little one ?' you ?' intrude her private griefs upon the 'Certainly, I am at your service'' 'Madame,' he said, 'while this murder remains undiscovered, who world at large. he replied. And Ethel, who now that she was 'Nay, it is not for my service ex do ioton f ou thiuk is bahlatedthe sus kits complete mistress of herself in every wetly,' she said smiling at hien. P way had begun to develop a very He smiled too, and then Ethel death ABI ? If I were to marry fair will of her own, had made wee came back again, and very soon Ethel to morrow and she ever got an idea into her head that 1 had her mind to one thing, which waa Madame betook herself away. killed him, I should be powerless that she would not go out into so• After about half an Hour or so ciety during that season. She had Jack also took his leave and instead to defend But omyuowyself toher.' you were her.' promised to go abroad to Homburg of turning down the stairs he went Y• or Swalbaeh—in August with Dla' on and rang at Madame Wolenaki's at.that iYee, I e know where I was, but 1 dame Woleneki, and Rosatrevor haft bell. half promised to follow them. In - already waa shown into her boudoir, wonderatis that theyat Trevor ldid not that deed, if the truth be told, he was a pleasant little room with plenty of wo u at once and they did of with already busily engaged 10 getting flowers about it and with a tiny p rip Such symptoms as would sternly conservatory at one end. necessitate a sojourn at a Gowen 'Come in here,' she said. 'We Bad doling tlie late part of the euro• shall be less likely to be disturbed mer. than in the other rooms.' But meantime Ethel was still the Lord Rosstrevor followed her in - other man's wife—and the other closed thedoor man, poor misguided man that he had been, etood between them far more than lie ever had any wish to do, "Ile is eo different," Ethel coni• plained bitterly to Madame one day when that lady had been tax- ing her with her altered looks and low spirits. "He has never been the same sine he became Lord Bosstrevor. I don't believe the difference is anything to do with poor Cosmo's death at all. He used to be fond of me, Helene—yes, indeed, he did—he—he told me so.' 'A :great many men toll married women that,' remarked Madame drily—'it is a very safe way of apitlsin.g themselves.' 'But Jack hover wanted to amuse himself that way,' Ethel cried in- dignantly—'but listen—if you will keep it, it is a great secret, Helene, I will tell you all, and then you can advise me, for I have nobody --no- body to help the in any way but you. 'It shall be a perfect secret,' said Madame sotomuly. 'Well, 1 will tell you all. You know when Major Dennie exehang- ed to the 15th I was then a very unhappy womn. He dict not ill - nee me, at least not actually, al• and e bad myarms a though I lav writhe alt bruieod and black from his roughness.' 'My little ono—,never 1' Madera* seeking to nave have told him his past and fatnro ' by the lines iu hinoG knowing thea foretold to bim, who be was, or rather not kuowing that other life of bis—'You will die by the hand of a woman before you letta. T te., was another girl, Val- eria only thee` are eta then— and I became thv»e tittle mother to them both. Well, ,.,,, went ou acct we lived a simple rah..4. Iife in our little southern otty anal "was six-and-tweuty, Valerie nineteen,, are fifty." little Violetta only sixteen years ! lily Jove, yes; Rosetrevor broke Stto was our pride, our delight, our in--) member his tellicg ui that joy, the blessing of my father's lone• the very r..et day Valeria spotted ly old age, for he had loved our bim iu Cherteey. He wa) corn- motber with all his heart and soul, pletely knocked ova,: by the eight of with no thought of ever filling her her,''Ah 1 it was odd that we neves . place by another woman. After her sixteenth birthday was past, found oat bow he learnt she was Violetta, left the convent where she, Violetta's sister. Well she fonnd and I too, had been educated, and him out at last but not until this name home to share our pleasant very summer at ()batboy. She and tried hard o a fewiimonths went le life. So btme by. wenton, but he wastals always on the et bold of im there, watch.' was the aoknowledged bell of the 'So she sent for me to come tc neighborhood and might have mar- her in London. I was than a widow ried several times exceedingly well of five years and the betrayer of my However, elle only tossed her head sister did not know me. 1 had the at all the. lovers who came our way, beet introductions, fur I move in and as we were not anxious to get the beat eociety in ti is nbut you a—I ant rid of her we only laughed and rich. I waited my Y knew the rest.' She was perfectly unmoved and Lord Bosstrevor gazed at her in profound amazement. '1 cant believe i1,' he buret out at length. 'But you may believe it for if, is absolutely true,' said Madame quiet- ly. uiet ly. 'So you murdered Dennis and—' 'Hush 1 We do not call such an act het so ugly a name in Corsica. I avenged my sister. Say rather that I did a service to the whole world when I removed that wretch. See the kindness it was to his poor little wife. I set her free, and if she knew the truth she ought to bless me forever. You, too, Lord Rosstrevor—you can never thank me sufficiently for the service that I have rendered you.' I must confess that at this point Lord Rosstrevor began to wish hint self safely out of the roo,n—he scratched his head in perplexity— he looked at her doubtfully—'Yee, I see what you would say,' she said quite placidly. 'You E nglish look at these matters in a different light. You will oat give me up to your very blundering justice because you have given me your word of honor that you would respect my oonfi • deuce ; and you are the kind of Englishman who keeps his word at all hazards. But you won't let my little .friend, whom I have set free from a monster who was breaking her heart, come and see me again ; you will regard me during all. the rest of your life as a bloodthirsty murderess, and were I to discues the subject with you for fifty years I should never be able to make you see me in the eame light as 1 see myself—that ie merely an instru- ment of retributive justice, as iunett justified m my act as your judge is when he prououocee the sentence of death upon a couviaterl murderer. Well, well, Lord Rosstrevor—I have loved. your little friend very dearly and very truly, and durin; all tee rest of my life—which I shall pro- bably spend in Vienna, the iby that: I love bust—I shall feel better and. happier for having known her, and for knowing, as I do, that I have been the means of turning her gloom into ennligbt, But there is ono thing I want to ask you. Dsn't tel,, her tuffs—she has been brought up in the Eoglisb way—she would look upon mo with horror. L could not bear that, even In my thoughts,' h 1 and she the door and opened it gently, made thought it no more than a young sure that no one Wee listening, 'girl's. caprice. But ono fine morn came back to her chair and planed it close beside his, so that she could speak to him in a whisper—'Lord Bosstrevor,' she said impressively, 'I will tell you who killed Major Dennis.' ing Violetta was missing. We searched high, we searched low— not a trace of her could we find, un- til at last a note reached us from Florence. In it she bade us a ten der adieu—begged us not to worry about her—said Ghat she was on her CHAPTER XXXII. . ( way to England to become the wtfe VENDETTA ! of a young and handsome English lord, who would bring her back to It is no exaggeration to say that Lord Bosstrevor jumped nearly off hie chair, when diose impressive words left Madame Wolenski's hp —'Madame 1' be cried. 'Yes-yes—sit still,' she said soothingly, 'there hi no need to be so startled about it. 'You want to know, do you not 2' 'Why, yea—of course,' he stem• meted, 'bot—' 'But you did not think I knew anything about it ?' she said, look- ing at him with her calm brown eyes and a gravely quizzical ex- pression on her face. 'Well—now —am I to go on ?' she asked. 'Certainly, if you please,' he re plied. 'Then she sill, speaking in the same quiet and even tone, 'T will put au end to your anxiety at ones without spinning my story out. I killed Major Dennis !' • For some minutes .neither of them spoke—Rosstrevor, in flint, turned and stared at her, his lips ap tr13, his eyes in which as yet there was no room for shy other expression, full She stopped fur amoment—and of a possible amazement. Could Rosstrevor drew a long long breath. b d lderlylo lady,ywith her cls high, He had lost all hie feeling of horror bred elderly with her clear out, he was only intensely interested in regular features, her snow•whne her story. baby curls, her quiet elegant clothes, 'She signed it—' Madame went her smooth and dainty laude, on—' 'Valerie, the stater of your could be the murderess of Major victim;'—tinct then we could only Dennis ? Cu ! it was preposterous think of our poor child, Violetta. It —he was dreaming or mad or pee• was not for long—before the follow• s chairand w l lieed jumped from his in year bac, come, we had laid her bea ii the walked to the window— t sleep for ever with a little name if he was wkehimself hard to find oute less babe beside her and the merci• if t awake or iddrbi ing— warm ful grave bad closed over bar shame. felt his lace—heh laid Up 'Our friends never knew the truth, palms agonist the cold panes of glass is 13120 window, and Hien he Violetta was supposed to hove died 1 went back to his seat again. 'Ma- of a decline --the secret was our). dame,' he said at last—'did I hear But twe act Oorlei oiur, Lord lssbre the `yon aright • just now 2' she said asci No graves ioletta with wasii goneure�e ones then plenty of time to look for her betrayer. J:Te was not known at the address he gave—that vefathat went without saying. Y there himself. Yes, a Mr. Dourine had sent once or twine for his letters there --but only two lettere bad come, both with an Italian post mark. And he had sent—they bad no idea of his identity. They remained, my father and Valerie, for some months in a ing in the Cornmarket at Idleminnster, but he never came for any more letters— be guessed that we should lie in wait for him. Well, years pasted over. I married and went to live in Vienna with my husband, who was rich and kind, but my father and Valerie remained always in the places where the English most re - sett, always looking for a fade that they bad never seen, always trying to find the glue `which would prove the death warrant of our lost one's betrayer. see us all when he was safely maw reed to her after the English lays, which necessitated being married in his own country. Well, some six or seven weeks went by and then we gota poor little-lettor from Paris. Would we go to her—she was alone —ill— heart -broken. My father and I went. We found her in a small hotel, alone deserted, shamed, with nothing but a letter of brutal fare• well to give us the clue we sought. He had left her a euro of money—a hundred pounds in French notes —and gave an address to England for her to write and tell bim that she had got safely back to her peo- ple. The address was 'C. Deanne, Esq. 41n, Cornmarket, Idle =aster.' We sent back his money, with the words that we did not wiah to keep the price of blood—Valerie wrote— and that we guessed that was not his own name but that sooner or later we should find tt out and him also, and that in that day he would learn what Corsicans meant by the word 'Revenge.' ' the murder,' I think you did, q 'They did not do that because iv they had followed your movements, ..plat you, you killed Dennis ?' and because you were well known 'Yes,—why not ? Dou't you think here and would have been identified . that,'—holding out her firm white had ,you passed in or out: hand—'looks as it it could hill a to the room and she o ose ,Pooh 1 Somebody must have got man ?' behind them. 'I daresay you are g 'Winks as if it could do any wondering wily T asked you to come is unless in or out t without Eby eeomeono thing,' he answered promptly 'lint up here ? aha satd. 'A little,' he answered smiling. 'Well—I am going to ask you a very plain question—perhaps what you will think a very imperttnont one—but I am almoet an old wo- man, and I hope you will forgive me if I seem either impertinent or intrusive. But as you must know, I take a very great Interest in our dear little friend, Mrs. Donnie—and I want you to tell me whether you have any strong feeling for her ?' 'Certainly I have,' he replied. 'Then let me tell you,' Baia Madame, 'that you are making her very unhappy. I hope not—' he began, when the lady interrupted him. 'Lord Rosstrevor,' she said laying her hand on his arm—'I beg you to answer me plainly—what is it that has come between you ?' within the building,' he answered. rut don't look as if you 0oa1d do 'Yes that is so. Theo your • that or anything like that. T don't believe you, Madame ; you are try- ing rying to set my mind at rest and make things easy for my dear little sweet- heart,' with a gesture to the direc- tion of Ethel's rooms. 'L ewear to you,' said Madame solemnly, 'that I was the woman who killed Cosmo Dennis.' 'But why ? What reason had you ?' he asked ; he was awed by her manner but he still scarcely believed it in spite of her positive words. I had the best of reasons'— gravely-6 we have been waiting for that mans life for years—for years.' 'But yon are not Valerie,' he cried in bewilderment. 'No, 1 am not. But Valerie is my sister 1' 'Great Scott 1' he exclaimed, eiuking back in his chair. 'Then Dennis was right—he said that he would die by the baud of a woman before he was fifty.' 'Yoe, and it was my sister, Val- erie, who told hint so. 1111t stay—I will begin from the very beginning —1 will oonoeal nothing from you, and then 1 think even your cold English ideas of justice will absolve me and justify mo for what I have done. First 1 must toll you that I a►n a0ors10an. great object is to find out who hill. ed Major Dennis ?' 'It is: 'And you dont mean to marry her till you do ?' 'That is so. T cant marry her until this hideous possibility is done away with,' he cried. 'Lord Rosstrevor; she said -'have you any idea as to who did it.' 'Yes: 'Who was that person ?' He hesitated a moment—'012 ? I don't think 1 ought to mention. a name when the matter is 80 serious as murder ; it isn't fair—I may be utterly wrong: 'It will be perfectly safe with me,' she said calmly. '1 give you my work of honor that I will never div- ulge ivulge that sante: She held oat her band as an earnest of good faith and he took it for a moment in his own. '1 think,' he said rather un- willingly, 'that the women Valerie did it. You see, she had every reason to do bim a harm, at least -'- by her general aoudad, it would even eo. He had the most mortal and abject fear of her, and I feol pretty sure that oho meant doing her or later, and that he for him son r Knew it.' 'Then Why dict yott not 8013 the ORAPTER XSX1. A STIIAI01IT6Oa%Alla ANSWER. When Madame Wolenski• put that very plain question to Lod Bosstrevor, he gave a start and looked at her as if to ash the mean- ing of her words. mean ?' 'Yon would ask me what I u reis yr e that he eats. 0 F toursY e natural. Believe 010 in the fit•at place that I have no cariosity on the subject Whatever. I am putting cried indignantly. my self forwara wholly for pay little 'The only real clue that we had was the knowledge that this Douu• ne's name wee Como. We be' hove that this was his real name, for Violetta wore to the day of her death a little ring with a true lover's knob in small diamond sand t•ur• quoiees, and on the hoop within we found the words engraved --'Cosmo to Violette'--that 1588 after her death. Well, the poem went by and 'Madame. 1 premie° you ebe shall never learn it from me,' he said. solt+muly. 'Stay—you shall see th it I oats be a real friend as 1 can be a real enemy. If ever that thouslit cornu into her mind—that yo't lied to do with Coemo Dennis' death—then, you have my full permission to telt her all.' 'T thank you,' be said. 'And now do you go—as I told. Ethel, I am dining out. Good-bye— No—don't shake hands with me un- less you lilts—I shall not be offend- ed' died.Al Vondetta`to us and made us bo never aplomnly swear that we would lay it dovtn until we had gained oar end. For ono woment he heeitetetl. Thou he bent and kissed her hand courteously. 'Madame,' he eaid, 'I confess I do not think as you do— but it is not my place to judge a national custom. I thank you for your eoafidenee—and .f will reaped it.' Something vary like tears came into her eyes --'I 511 111 go back to Vienna nett week --1 etututa like to see her once before I go.' Her faltering volae towelled him z oft .-' shall not ata a y - I y t u stonily to prevent it,' he aald,'though after. wards 'Afterwards 1 'There 0130 be oto at last my father And lust afterwards,' she ailed almoetilproely. before ilio olid, be passel on the I tl, 'Go ! The blessed saints protect yeti both—Goodbye f (cloiret.nnan adv l`A0a 5.)