The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-02-13

trait; 10 had been decorated for the oc.
casion BY Loveday and her companion
nymphs.
Mrs Crec5 led the way to this spot,
and when they both stood within the
the small circle Of Light she turned and
faced her companion. Then he saw that
the lamb had turned upon the lion. She
was pale as her own white robe, and her
gentle eyes glowed with the great wrath
of her noble spirit.
@Sir, I make no preamble" said She
sternly; "your conscience tells you what
have to ask you. Where Is Engelonde
Inchcape?"
Rer accusing eyes pierced his very
soul; her thrilling voice froze the blood
in his veins. Overwhelmed, he gazed at
her and could not speak.
~You came here five years ago and
found Lord Inchcape and his young wife
as happy in each other as perfect love
could make them-when you left, you
fed as abaf1ed wretch whose mad love
had been scernfully repulsed. But you
met them abroad not many months after
ward-and Lord Inchcape returned
without his wife-a ruined man. Rich
ard Accrington, I ask you-where IL
Engelonde Inchcape?"
Her anger and grief tore at his heart
strings; the flood Of tragic memories
she had unloosed beat down all pride
and brazen defiance; he buried his face
in his hands with groan Of agony.
Engelonde Inchcape! How fair, how
immaculate, how happy she had been
when nrst he saw herI A new love Tor
him? What blasphemy to hope it! No
-no-no! Loveday Dellamere belonged
to the honorable and good-not to guilty
Richard Accrington!
"Ah! you have nothing to answer, I"
Alice Crecy won't on. Nothing but
shame and tears. And yet you dare to
come back here, as II she had never been
as II you had quite forgotten her, and
were ready for fresh love!" Oh, what
anguish lurked beneath those breaking
tones! "For moment thought when !
saw you to-night-'He has come back to
vindicate her to her husband, remorse
has driven him to make late reparation!
But no, you have only come to view the
desolation Of that once happy home; and
to OUTAGE the two harmless women who
suspect you, with the base effrontry Of
impunity."
He raised his face, oil dazed and pale.
"Is it possible that you thought all
these years she was with me?" asked he
slowly.
Mrs Crecy uttered q cry Of repulsion.
with you!" she echoed with inde-
scribable scorn. "Never! I never doubt
ed her. I knew her heart. Oh, she
was 'f1awless sour If ever such was on
this earth. But I believed that her
innocence had not saved her from her
husbands jealous misconception; that
you had traded on his jealousy until he
believed her guilty, and repudiated her;
ehe then fed in shame and despair from
ooJn nuspano ana prosecutor; and that
you caused him to believe her with you
ever since. Is not this true?"
MADAM, as God lives, the last time I
ever beheld Lady Inchcape, 1 left her
at her husbands side," said Accrington.
Mrs. Crecy scanned his face in wild
incredulity.
as this possible9" she gasped. @How
can I believe you2 No, no, I cannot.
She never came back to England. Oh,
sir, I beseech you, confess it, is she not
in hiding somewhere to which you could
give US the clue?"
He turned from her bitterly.
II know nothing of her." muttered he
with white lips, sbut I believe that she
Is dead"