The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-09-18
THE IiWFER'S SECRET,
By B. L. Farjeon, Author of Bread.
Cheese and Kisses"
CHAPTER /.
IN A LAWYERS OFFICE.


IN A LAWYERS OFFICE.
at is the most provoking clause that
was ever invented to annul the adyan-
tages OF a testament" said the lady.
1T is 4 condition which must be full
filed. or you lose the fortune replied
the gentleman.
Whereupon the gentleman began TO
drum martial air with the slender tips
of his white fingers upon the morocco
covered Office table, while the lady beat
time with the point of her narrow foot
For the gentleman was out of temper,
and the lady was out Of temper, also. |
am sorry to have to say it of her, for she
was very young and very handsome,
and though the angry light in her dark
gray eyes had certain vixenish beauty,
it was species of beauty rather alarm
ing to a man of nervous temperament.
She was very handsome. Her hair
was of the darkest brown, and clustered
about her head in rich, waving masses,
that fell into extemporary curls under
her elegant Partisan bonnet Her eyes,
as have said. were gray-those large,
gray eyes, fringed with long black lash
es, which are more dangerous than all
other eyes ever invented for the perdi-
ton OF honest men. They looked like
deep pools of shining water, bordered
by dark and shadowy rushes; they
looked like stray stars in an inky sky
but they were so beautiful that, ike the
signal lamp which announces the advent
of an express upon the heels of lug
gage train, they seemed to say Dan
ger" Her nose was aquiline; her
mouth small, clearly cut and very de-
termined in expression; her complexion
brunette, and rather pale. For the rest,
she was tall, her head set with a
naughty grace upon her sloping shout
ders, her hands and feet small, and del
icately shaped.
The gentleman was ten or fifteen
years her senior. He, too, was hand
some, eminently handsome; but there
was languid indifference about his
manner, which communicated itself
even to his face, and seemed to oyer
shadow the very beauty of that face with
a dark veil of weary listlessness, that
extinguished the light of his eyes and
blottcd out the smile upon his lips.
That any one so gifted by nature as
he seemed gifted, could be as weary Of
life as he appeared was, in itself, SC
much a mystery that one learned to look
at him as man under whose quiet out.
ward bearing lay some deep and stormy
secret, unrevealable to common eyes.
He was dark and pale, with massive
| ly cut features, thoughtful brown eyes
which rarely looked up from under the
heavy eyelds that shrouded them The
mouth was spiritual in expression, tht
| lips thin; but the face was wanting il
one quality, lacking which, it lacked thu
| power which is the highest form of man
ly beauty; and that quality was deter
mination.
He sat drumming with his white
taper fingers upon the table, and look
ing down, with a gloomy shade upor
his handsome forehead.
The scene was lawyers Office il
Gray's Inn. There was third persol
present, an elderly lady, rather fadet
beauty in appearance, and very mucl
dressed. She took no part in the con
versation, but sat in an easy chair b.
the blazing fire, turning over the crisI
sheets of the Times newspaper, which
every time she moved them, emitted
sharp, cracking sound. unpleasant to tn
nervous temperaments of the younge
lady and the gentleman.
! The gentleman was q solicitor, Horac
Margrave, the guardian of the youn
lady. and executor of her uncle's will
Her name was Ellinor Arden; she wa
sole heiress and residuary legatee to he
uncle, John Arden, of the park an
village of Arden, in Northamptonshirt
and She had this very day ccme of age
Mr.. Margrave had been t listed an
valued friend of her fE dead te
years before, and of her uncle, onl
lately dead; and Ellinor Arden ha
been brought up to think that if ther
were truth, honesty or friendship upo
earth, those three attributes were Gel
tered in the person of Horace Margray,
solicitor, of Gray's Inn.
He is to-day endeavoring to explai
and to reconcile her to the conditions {
her. uncle's will, which are rather pt
culiar,
III the first place, my dear Ellinor,
ne says, still drumming on the tabl
5 still looking at his desk and not at he
5 ''you had no particular right to expe,
5 10 be your uncle, John Arden, of A
RI denis, heiress."
, Il was his nearest relation" 81
: said
3 Granted; but there was no reaso
. why you should be dear to him. You
father and he, after the amiable fashio
of brotherly love in this very Christia
a country, were almost strangers to eao
] other for the best part of their live
lou, your uncle never saw, for YOU
father lived on his wife's small propert
D in the north of Scotland, and YOU WEI
. brought up in that remote region unit
you were sent to Paris, to be there ed
Gated under the surveillance of vol
s aunt, and you therefore never made Il
acquaintance of John Arden, of Ardel
your fathers only brother
i "My father had such horror {
being misinterpreted; had he sought {
D make his daughter known to his riC
Q brother it might have been thought -
{ THAT he wanted to get that riC
4 brothers money, it might have bee
: thought My dear girl, it would ha,
been thought! Your father acted wit
the pride of the Northamptonshire A
dens; he acted like high-minded FL
glish gentleman; and he acted. in til
eyes of the world, like a fool. Yc
. never, then, expected to inherit you
, uncle's money!"
Never! Nor did / ever wish it. M
mothers little fortune would have bee
enough forme.''
Il wish to heaven you had never ha
Il penny beyond itr'
As Horace Margrave said these fe