The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-03-27
CHAPTER XII

CHAPTER XII.
sIs 1T \ sPIR1T7n
Drowned! oh Heaven, show me some
pity!" shuddered Lady 1nchcape when
they had told her.
She stood motioniess, with blank and
darkening face; she did not even OBJ
serve Ulva, who had sunk upon a chair.
"Oh, this fatal rock, how I loathe it,"
muttered Lady Inchcape.
"What have youth or hope to do Lere?
Naught but to die.
For the first time the patient Enge-
londe rebelled,- had dared almost to
hope,-and here was despair again,
blacker than before. And she had loved
the noble young man 80 tenderly, so ad.
miringly! Deadl she wrung her hands,
and the wild tears came, and relieved
her bursting heart.
"Ulva!" said Lady Inchcape, in o low,
startled voice.
But Ulva did not hear her, nor see
her anguished face; the sound OF the
cruel waves was in her ears, and the
vision of Edgar's face shut out every
thing else.
ais this how I have guarded my dear
lords child?" asked conscience sternly.
aAbsorbed in my own sorrow have for.
gotten that Ulva's childhood Is past, and
allowed q woman's heart to be won and
broken"
All that wild night she held the strick-
en- girl in her arms; but she dared not
ask her whether she could have loved
Edgar.
The whole Of the Sleat-na-Vrecken
was reused by the fatal ending OF the
brave young Englishman. In the few
visits which he had paid to their huts
with Ulva, his hearty, simple goodness
had disarmed every prejudice or sense Of
strangeness, and the romance Of his
rescue had had its influence upon their
minds.
: They had admired him when he
walked beside their Oolava, and some
had forecasted love and marriage bs-
tween the Sbonny pair" They be-
moaned his untimely fate, and dreaded
its effect upon their lady, and with the
earliest dawn they were out searching
all round the finty shore. They found
the boat and they found the furs, but
not poor Edgar.
There were two men who slept none
that night, although they passed 1t in
very different scenes
Sircombe spent a night Of blood-curd-
ling horror In his own study; Kenmore
wandered among the rocks in the storm.
In the morning the heart strings Of
each man tugged at him till he had to
steal to Lady Inchcape's rooms and try
to see her. They met at her door.
Each started at the spectral appear
ance Of the other.
Sircombe noticed the drenched and
m-beaten condition of Kenmore, and
he staggered back against the doorpost
Ia an agony of guilty terror.
you've been-you've been wandering
about all nfght?" whispered he.
GAY, Mr.. Sircombe," said Kenmore,
hoarsely, averting his eyes from the man
who had tenn mpted him to act the sneak.
aAnd-speak OUT" almost screamed
Sircombe-"what have you found out
found, mean?"-the amendation being
due to Kenmore's curious glance. For q
long minute tho old Highlander did not
speak; he was scanning the changed faca
of the secretary, and for the first time
it was eLtering his mind to suspect Mr..
Sircombe.
"What should 1 find, but dool an sor-
row for Draw young man cut of In his
prime? But whist"
The door was opened by Lady Inch
cape's mad, Mary, that thoughtless, af-
fectionate girl, who had once through
her bungling, contributed to Lord Inch
ca pes suspicion Of his innocent wife.
II merely wished to inquire how the
ladies had passed the night" said Sir.
combe, glancing past her.
"Not well, 1 fear," said Mary,
grievedly; "the shock of the accident
has been dreadful. Neither one has lain
down; ! wish had known, l would have
waited up. But my lady's always that
way"
Lady Inchcape had heard the NUT.
tered colloluy, and came herself to tnu
door.
"Lady Ulva is very ILL.," she said, in
carefully chosen phrases-@the exposure
yesterday, added to the unexpected acci-
dent, has contributed to prostrate her
completely. She is now lying on my
bed very feyerish. must trouble you
for some medical assistance, Mr.. Sir
combe."
So jealously she strove to hide poor
Ulva's secret! But both the men before
her OWNED it, and oh, how it tore at
their hearts!
Kenmore strode away with a sense Of
suffocation, and cry from his inmost
soul.
"Oh, Captain Edgar, if ye were but
back again, I wad gle ye my hearts
blood to buy your love for Oolava!'
But Sircombo's soul was writhing In
the pangs Of jealousy, and he was glad
that Edgar was dead-or dying.
He ventured to plead with Lady Inch
cape for sight Of the sick girl, shat he
might examine her medically" but
earned for himself one of my lady's
naughty refusals. and had to content
himself with compounding and sending
Ulva medicine for feverish cold, and
retiring to his own business with raging
spirit
Another day passed; another night
fell This storm was succeeded by
perfect calm. This night the fisher peo-
pie all went to rest, for there was mo
longer any hope of recovering Edg&r's
body. Srcnmbe had sent an account Of
the accident to the authorities on the
mainland, with brief and obscure ac-
count Of the attending circumstances;
but Kenmore had not been one of the
crew who manned the boat.
Kenmore had not slept, had scarcely
broken bread since the catastrophe; for
his heart was breaking over Ulva And
now that a suspicion of Sircombes had
come to haunt him, he wandered from
the tower to the shore, round ans round
the cliff paths; into every Granny and
copse, like restless wrath; pursued by
phantoms