The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-01-29

comes back
DO you know that it most wonderful
purple, and the stars of remarkable
last year?'
Meg shrinks but answers, quietly
Yes, perfectly, 1 shall never forget how
dismal everything looked as 1 was being
driven away from Rokeby."
Rotha regards her with a keen flash of her
dark eyes.
Does Mrs. Golaing know anything of that
rumor treacherously circulated by her
throughout Avonlee?
Has Bruce Ellington prepared her for what
Is in store for her?
Meg is so calm that it seems as though she
IS ignorant of that false report which the
spiteful malice of a jealous, resentful woman
has invented
have a curious instinct that something
is going to happen Miss Give comments
with an affected shudder. Not an elopement,
she adds, with laugh that CRATES, it is so
Hocklng. jamie does not make any secret
OF his engagement with Ida, does he?
Megs large eyes glow with anger
She is pale as ashes, trembling though
smitten with ague, for Rotha's derisive words
string and unnerve her
My marriage was my own affair." she
says racing her enemy with scornful dignity
and ! request that you will talk of something
else While under my mothers roof
My dear Mrs. Goding, I had no idea that
you SO hated the subject Rotha exclaims,
IN tone of complete establishment.
And she glideS away.
Bruce and Meg are standing presently in
the embrasure of one of the large windows
and, drawing plush curtain away the for
nier looks out.
side fits black shadow, and Meg recoils
with throb of fear Suddenly, with strange
look on her face, she asks
rs it midnight"
In two minutes the bells will ring" Bruce
responds. viii you come outsider"
Ihey slip from the room, and Bruce throws
open the hall-door
Then, with merry laughter on their lips Ida
and jamie come running, hand in hand into
the shimmering moonlight
suddenly Ida gives a little start, and
drawing Jamie with her goes a few PAGES
along the frozen path
Il thought 1 saw two eyes peering through
the eVersreens, she Whispers mysteriously
ana her hancee begins to laugh, asking, in
the midst of his unbeeving mirth:
Are you sure tina: you didn't see a weird
and awful being'?'
With flash of her rose-lned skirts, Ida
returns to the now crowded portico, not con-
descending to reply.
Has she been so silly as to mistake two
scintiliating icicles for human eyes?
She stares at the cluster of laurels, near
which Meg is standing, until every branch
seems to twist in distortion.
Clang! clang! breaks from the lived belfry
of the wears church and burst of musical
sound peals through the stiffness of the night.
Meg feels the hidden presence of lurking
she glanceS round with a muffled beating at
her heart
Why does she recoil, in a quivering panic?
She can hear a voice whispering close to her
ear-not the voice of Bruce-but one husky
and desperate.
Margaret! my wife," it says.
smothered scream breaks from Meg's
blanched lips.
She gasps fer breath, tries to speak, and
falls upon the snow in fainting horror.
CHAPTER VIII
When Bruce calls at Rokeby the following
morning Meg rises to greet him with a wan,
miserable face
'sWhy did you Gomez" she asks, coldly.
''You know that my husband is not dead, and
I would rather not see you more than l can
help
ct was nothing but your fancy Meg he
assures her, gently. You have not seen Mr..
Golding-nobody has seen him."
Meg shudders.
The voice was real she persists, land
the snow was trampled down near the lau-
rels. No, it was not fancy, Doctor Ellington.
My ears didn't deceive me. Gervais will come,
and l. his wife, must remain true to him in
every thought.
DO you think 1 would wish you not to be
PERFECTLY true to him?" he responds "or that
I would try to make you believe in his death,
ii he were living? ] want TO be of some SER
vice to you he goes on earnestly; and
am going to leave my patients to the care of
nv assistant for day or two, in order to help
you all in my power.
What can you do?" she asks
Go to London, seek an interview with the
proprietor of the arena, and question him
about Mr.. Golding. If he is alive they will
surely have seen him at the hail.
His voice so strange, and he spoke as
though in great Distress Meg says, with
another shudder He may not have gone to
Senior Dardanel
For your sake, hope to find some trace
of him. You have been too long in suspense
regarding the mystery of his disappearance. y