Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1885-09-11
CHAPTER x.
THE SWORD FALLS.

Once conquered-once convinced that
the obstacles which her solicitude for my
welfare raised against my wish were not
insuperable-Philippa offered no further re-
s~istance; while as for me, every day that
might be counted before ] called her my
wife seemed a day spoiled, If not entirely
wasted. With my mothers arguments to
back my W fervent persuasion, | had no
difficulty in winning P%hilippa's consent to
our marriage taking place as soon as the
needful formalities could be complied with.
And yet, although the day was fixed, it
was at my instance changed, and the cere-
mony postponed for awhile.
My reason for deferring my browning
happiness was this. Knowing all that l
knew, the question arose, under what name
was Philippa to be married. Under her
W maiden name; under the false name
which for some time Sir Mervyn Ferrand,
for reasons best known to himself, had
made her assume; or under that name
which, supposing Mrs. Wilson had spoken
the truth, she was legally entitled to bearG
So anxious, so resolved was / that there
should be no shadow Of doubt as to the
validity of her second and happier mar
riage, that after due consideration Ideter-
mined to sacrifice my own inclination, and
postpone our wedding long enough to give
me time to pay a flying visit to England,
where l could do my best to obtain such
evidence as would show that Philippa was
the dead mans widow.
Imade the excuse that / found many mat
ters of business connected with my property
must be attended to before | could be mar
Ssol Tk~n vo1IaA 70 Tv,0Ia-J - sa--z-1 s
sfast as | could. Istayed there for a week,
and during that time made full researches
into the life and death Of a woman who, as
Mrs. Wilson said, had died on a certain
date, and been buried under the name Of
Lucy Ferrand.
The information l acquired as to her ante
cedents is of no consequence to my story.
Whatever her faults may have been, her
history was a sad one; indeed it seemed to
me that the history of any woman who had
been cursed by Sir Mervyn Ferrand's love
was a sad one. However, the result Of my
Investigations was, in short, this: Ferrand
had married the woman many years ago.
They had parted by mutual consent With
his cynical carelessness he had troubled no
more about her; and, stranger still, she mad
not troubled him. She died on the date
given by my informant. The question Of
identity could be easily settled; SO that IL
evar Philippe chose to claim the rights ap-
pettaining to Sir Mervyn Ferrand's widow,
she, would have no difficulty in making that
claim good. But l trusted that years might
pass before she learned that the man was
dead.
1inade my presence in England known to
no che; in fact, I felt that in returning to
my native country I ran a certain amount
of risk. For all l knew to the contrary,
there might be a variant out against me.
If suspicion as to the author Of that nights
work had in any way been directed to Phil
ippa, l, the partner Of her fight, could not
hope to escape free. However, l comforted
myself by thinking that if danger menaced
us l should have heard something about it,
as after our first hurried start / had made no
attemp ito conceal our whereabouts. It would
have been useless. My mother had friends
in England with whom she exchanged let
ters. I had an agent and lawyers with
whom, If only for financial reasons, ] was
bound to correspond. had been obliged to
write to my stolid William, and instruct
him to get rid Of the cottage as best he could,
and to look out for a fresh place for himself.
But all the same | did not care to let it
be known that l was now in England.
While engaged upon raking up evidence
IN Philippa's behalf, | did not neglect to
make such inquiries as / could respecting
the event which had happened that night
near Roding. | found that, so far as the
general public knew, the crime was still
yelled in mystery. No one had been arrest
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