The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1897-08-27
CHAPTER NNyII,

Lord Dunhaven had been gone week.
and as yet nothing had happened to cor
roborate Lady Hilda's suspicious. She
had seen but little of the duchess. who
contrived now to spend the greater part
of her time in her room. They did not
talk much. This suspicion of Lady Hill
da's stood like a barrier between them.
Lady Hilda began to have faint hope
that she was mistaken. 1t was possible
that her suspicious had been deepened
and magnifed by her fears. Everything
seemed going ON well; there was nothing
to give her any alarm. True she thought
of the earl's look when he was leaving
Lurline, and the solemnity of that one
word:
Remember
She was beginning to hope more and
suffer less, when one morning the duke
asked her to open the letter bag. There
was a great number of letters; among
them was one for the duchess. She rec
| ognized Lord Dunhaven's handwriting;
| it was a. thick packet. too. The duchess
| did not open it, but hid it away in her
dress. An hour later, Lady Hilda, going
| into her room, saw the sheets of paper.
around her and the duchess kneeling, her
! though her heart would break.
| Lady Hilda was uneasy; she went to
| her room, but she could not rest She
opened her window and looked out: the
| night was dark, the moon quite hidden
| few stars gave q. pale, faint gleam
| hardly to be called light; the wind
walled round the great house, and the
bare branches of the tall trees stirred
| gently. 1t was not a cheerful night: q
solemn, silent darkness seemed to brood
| over the earth; the tall chrysanthemums
! and the fair flowers We're fast dying Yet
| there was rest out under this autumn
| sky.
She stood there watching the silent
night; hour after hour passed, but still
| she thought of nothing but her love and
| her pain. She heard the great clock in
| the stables strike twelve, and she said to
| herself it was time she went to bed; yet
the night was SO tempting to her, the
quiet so grateful, she could not leave it.
Her thoughts went back with long sigh
| to Duchess Lurline. Could it be possible,
after all, that there was anything wrong?
She had been strange and unlike herself
ever since that letter came.
While these thoughts ran through her
mind, she heard a sound as of some one
moving quietly and gently. Her first
thought was it was one of the servants;
then horrible fear, terrible doubt, to
which she could give no name. came over
her-a fear that made her hasten quickly
to the door, open it and look out. 1t was
! quite dark in the corridor, the lamps We're
all out, the door of the duchess room was
closed. She looked over the ratings of
the staircase into the hall below, and
there, unless her senses played her false
tall figure draped in black moved silent
ly along.
Suddenly she remembered that from
the window in the corridor she could see
who left the house; she opened it quickly
and there gliding quietly along the west
ern terrace she saw the same tall, darb
figure, and she knew it was Lurline
Duchess of Nairn, stealing from her home
in the silence of night. There was little
need to ask where she was going, or tc
ask who was there to meet her. Quickly
as possible, Lady Hilda hurried dow
the great staircase, and out of the door
but the tall figure had disappeared; Il sud
den thrill of fear passed over her. Wha
if she could not find her? What if sh.
went the wrong way? There were 81
many ways leading out of the house. Sh'
looked at the dark sky, help lay beh:nt
the clouds.
She saw it all now; the earl had gon,
away first to make arrangements for he
flight; she understood now what the wore
Remember meant. The letter of tn,
morning had been. doubtless, to tell he
every detail of his arrangement, ant
now, in all probability, he was there Il
meet her She ran as fast as she could
the way was long and the night was dark