The Forrest City times., 1892-01-15
Dark DarreII's Bride.
cHArTER x1.-coNrIxnEn.

| "1o 1ou need not apologise," returned her
 cousin, declining the profered hand. al
 know why you broke your promise; and it
 is not worth while to ask whether your
 other promise was made before I said | goodbye to you the other night or after-
 wards"
 .sother promise! What do you mean:-
 said the girl hsughtily. Il made no other
 promise. l went out to avoid you that is
 the plain truth--aothing more."
 "Very well, then; l wrongcd you," sn-
 swered Roland, who did not doubt his young cousins truth. If lima had made
 an appointment with Darrell, she might
 have refused to answer questions; but she would never stoop to.an untruth. "I thought you had promised Sir Philip Dar-
 rell to meet him; for you were with him. You were seen walking along the road | with him."
 "what thens" said lima. "!s that 90
 very new or strange . thing to do! Rave
 l never walked or ridden with Sir Philip before' What is 1t to yon or any one in this place wha: do or where goi' cit is everything to me, lima, cried the young man, "if Darrell is-as believe he is-your loveri No; you shaii hear me !! You know that love you; and that can give you what he, with all his beauty and his wealth and his intellect, cannot give yoii--happincssi Sheer as you will, you cannot shake of all faith in that terrible curse. You must believe that to love him is fatai-.-- s
 "Then how can you save mel" inter- rupted lima, with flashing eyes. elf love him, it is too late--I must share his fate.'
 "Loye? No, no," said Roland almost wildly: cit Is not love--only fancy. You are captiyated by his graces; his very doom has excited your interests. He is a dastard to have tried to win you; and he tried from the beginning. Look back, and you will see that am not unjust to him. He threw himself in your way, he gave you a costly gift, such as no man would have given to girl he did not want to lay under an obligation to him. Did he mean nothing by those flowers, nothing by----o
 "stop, stop, Roland. 1 will not listen to you. How dare you speak 90 to me of Philip Darrell?" The slender girl seemed transformed into woman, as she stood erect, with stern brow and commanding gesture, never more superbly beautiful than now. "Leavc mo, you have said too much already. l should not have loved you if had never seen Sir Philip Dar- rellf never liked you, never trusted you, and you have proved that my instinct was right"
 s.Neyer liked me, never trusted me P echoed Roland, drawing back step. His face was liyid-the look in his eyes made the girl tremble inwardly, though she showed nothing Of this in her fearless mien and dauntless gaze. Then you love Philip | Darrell, and he loves youi"
 .Why should 1 deny tS Even if his | fate is sealed by a gipsy-woman's curse, | am 1 not free to choose death with him | rather than live without hmf"
 | Roland stood still for moment, gazing | On the beautiful girl before him. He felt as if he could strike her; but not so | should his vengeance be worked out. | suddenly he burst into discordant laugh. l "Yes, l suppose you have a right to | choose your fate. Yours, is a fair life to l win from him the sncedful sacrifce.' A man might we'll lose all for you. Yours 1 will be merry marriagc-chimcs. Ha, ha 1! l Tell them not to toll the miuute-bell when | they bring the last Darrell home with his | bride. No, l am not mad; you need not | recoil with that white face. It will be -whiter tomorrow by this timer' He laughed again, and, dashing open | the door, rushed from the room and the house, leaving lima in the full belief that | his mind was unhiuged.
 An hour later Roland Sabine stood in | the little wood near the Coalmere, talking | in low tones to Job and Zeph Hcston :; and, as the trio parted, Zeph nodded with
 resolute look of evil in her black eyes, l and said, "All right; Pll do it." and Job l dropped some money into his pocket aud l said, "Agreed--all one to me sir" | Then Roland turned back towards the l village, but not home wards. He went no farther than deserted barn little way | up the slope; and there he sat down, with l the wide landscape of hill and void and river before him, and his heart full of a | foul design that hc scarcely cared even to | try to veil with q euphcmism.
 He had not told Zeph the whole truth when he had enlisted her services; he had not told her that lima should have one chance for her life, and that that chance was to fly with him; he had only told her the alternative, as though it were the
 entire scheme; and, if lima chose that, | his crime would perish with her. The | Hestons dared not betray him, for his | guilt was theirs, and Zeph regarded her. 1 self as in some sort an instrument to fulfill l the curse of her ancestress. Moreover, in | speaking to her first, he had filled her | foolish undisciplined heart with wild hopes | for the future, till he gave the girl cause | to think that he would some day make her | his wife. What the result would be when Zeph found herself deceived Roland did | not ask himself; he was not Q man who at the best of times was able to forecast
 beyond a short period, or to hedge round l any contemplated misdeed with safe- l guards and now he was in no condition of fmind for even ordinary precautions. Had Sir Philip Darrell at that moment appeared
 before him, he would most likely hove
 sprung at him with the ferocious instinct | of a wild beast, without seconds consid.
 eration of his inferiority to his antagonist or of the consequences to himself If even he succeeded in taking tie hated life. Startling was the change that evil pas-
 sions had wrought in the young man in q l few hours. His cheeks were livid and hag- gard, his ..ether lip was dropping, and his eyes were wild and bloodshot; any one | who had seen him seated in that dreary place, with bis elbows on his knees and his hands proppng his chin, might well have deemed that he had committed or contemplated some deadly crime.
 Although the rain had ceased at Scarth | Abbot. 1t was pouring down over the far
 of hills, and the storm might sweep over
 Scarth Abbot again that night The river
 rose steadily; and numbers of villagers watched anxiously the progress of the floods, and predicted that whether the rain came or not the river would certainly overflow at the turn of the night, if not
 before; though what mysterious influence
 the midnight hour had upon tides and cur