Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1897-01-11
DARK DAYS
BY HUGH CONWAY.
CHAPTER IN.-(Continued.)
SAEE-AND LOVED.

embrace. while words which | could not
hear. but whose purp0rt / could well
guess, were being whispered TO her.
] had. indeed. been right III trusting to
my mothers noble nature.
Leave us for little while. Basil.
she said as Philippa still sobbcd upon
her shoulder. Come back III Il quarter
of an hours time"
! turned away, went past the screen
which is sometimes put UP to secure
privacy. out Of the iron gate, into the
narrow street ! watched the lounging,
Misunderstanding men and the dark-eyed
women who went by: | looked at the
merry urchins at play: and after what
seemed an interminablc quarter of an
hour, returned to learn how, my gentle
counsel had succeeded with my suit
Ny mother and philippa were sitting
with their arms around each other.
Philppa. as ] entered. the patio, raised
her eyes to mine with a look Of shy hap
pincss. Ny mother rose, and took the
girl by the hand.
Basil" she said Il have at last been
able to persuade her that you and /,
at least. rise above the jconventionaIitics
of what is called the world. | have
told her that. knowing all | know, |
see nothing to prevent her from being
your wife ] have told her that simply
for her own sweet sake | would rather
see you marry her than any woman i'll
y
made her believe me-
With her soft eyes full of maternal
love, my mother kissed me and left the
court. | opened my arms to close them
around the fairest woman in the world:
and all the earth seemed bright and glori-
Gus to me. My great love had CON
quered!
And yet. even in that moment Of bliss.
my thoughts involuntarily flew away to
snOw-heaped road in England-to Il
white drift, under which for days and
days a CHASTITY object had once been
lying. A dream! A drcali. 1t must
have been n fearful dream. Forget it,
Basil North, and be happy in the hap
pincss you have at last won.
CHAPTER X.
THE SWORD FALLS.
Once conqucred-once convinced that
the obstacles which her solicitude for my
welfare raised against my wish were not
Philippa offered no further
resistance; while as for me, every day
that might be counted before [ called her
my wife seemed a day spoiled if hot en-
tircly wasted. With my mothers argu-
mentS to back my own fcryents persua-
sion, [ had no difficulty i'll winning Phil
ippaS consent to our marriage taking
place as soon as the needful formalitles
could be complied with. And yet, al
though the day was fixed, it was at my
instance changed, and the ceremony post
pOned for awhile.
Ny reason for dcferring my browning
happiness was this. Knowing all that |
knew, the question arose, under what
name was Philippe to be married? Tn
der her own maiden name; under the
o false name which for some time Sir NIer
Vyn Ferrand, for reasons best known to
himself had made her assume; or under
that name which, surprising Mrs. Wilson
had spoken the truth, she was legally en-
CO x-,,I
was | that there should be no shadow of
doubt as to the validity of her second and
happier marriage, that after due cOnsid-
GRAFTON / determined to sacrifice my own
lnclnatlOnS, and postpone our wedding
long enough to give me time to pay a
flying visit to England, where [ could
do my best to obtain such evidence as
would show that Philippa was the dead
mans widow.
| made the excuse that / found many
matters of business connected with my
property must be attended to before [
could be married. | Travelled to England
to LiverpOOl-as fast as ] could. |
stayed there for 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 | acquired as to her
antecedentS 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 Mer-
vyn Eerrand'S love was Il sad one. How
ever. the result of my Investigations was,
i'll short, this: Ferrand had married the
woman many years ago. They had
parted by mutual consent. With his
cynical carelessness, he had troubled 70
more about her, and, stranger still, she
had not troubled him. She died on the
date given by my informant. The ques-
ton of identity could be easily settled; so
that if ever Philippa chose to claim the
rights appertaining to Sir Mervyn Fer
rands widow, she would have no diff
Guilty in making that claim good. But |
trusted that years might pass before she
learned that the man was dead. !
| made my presence in England known
to no one; in fact, | felt that in return
ing to my native country | ran a certain
amount of risk For all / knew to the
contrary, there might be warrant out
against me. If suspicion as to the au-
thor of that nights work had in any way
been directed to Philippa, [, the partner
of her fight, could not hope to escape
free. However, | comforted myself by
thinking that if danger menaced us /
should have heard something about it, as
after our first hurried start | had made
no attempt to conceal our whereabouts.
1t would have been useless. My mother
had friends in England, with whom she
exchanged letters. l 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
ont for a fresh place for himself. But all
the same ] did not care to let it be
known that | was now in England.
While engaged in raking up evidence
ON Philippa's behalf, l did not neglect to
make such inquiries as [ could respect
ing 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 arrested; no one had been accused:
no reason for the deed had been dis
covered, and as yet suspicion pointed to
no one Indeed, in spite of the G100
reward offered by government, it seemed
that Sir Mervyn Ferrand's murder was
relegated to swell the list of undiscovered
crimes. BY this l knew that Mrs. VIII
son had kept her promise of silence; and