Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1902-09-26
CHAPTER Xxx.

seemed to him, in spite Of the trem-
bling Of her limbs and the pallor of
her face, to be more relieved than de.
pressed by the arrival of the police.
1t was with perfect self-possession
that she turned to the sergeant and
said:
MAY 1 speak to Mr.. King alone be-
fore go?"
MMCertainly, Miss. Perhaps you would
like to walk as far as Beacn with MI.
King. and we will have cab wait
ing there to take you on to Stroan."
This course was agreed upon, and
Nell and Clifford left the house to-
gether. They walked in perfect ST.
lence until they had passed through
the unlovely back streets Of the town,
and had reached the contiguous VIII
lage of st. Mary's. with its gray old
church on the high ground. They
stopped for q moment in the shadow
of the tall tower. Clifford looked at
the girl by his side, and was amazed
to see that the gloom which had hung
over her on his arrival had melted
away.
"Why, Nell" said he, with puzzled
smile on his own face. II told you
that you would soon be your own self
again, but I didn't guess how quickly
the transformation would take place"
Her face clouded q little, but the
sigh she gave was one of more relief
than pain.
"Can you imagine what it would be
like" she asked, gravely, as they
turned and continued their walk down
the crooked village street, "to live for
months in perplexity and dread Of
you didn't quite know what? And
then to find yourself cropping your way
to q dreadful, shameful secret, which
was bound to bring misery and dis
grace upon yourself and everybody
you cared about? SuppOsing that you
were forced to confess every thing
forced to do it, mind-wouldn' It be
a relief to you, even If you brought
upon yourself q dreadful punish
ntr"
Clifford was silent. He was alarmed
by her words, indicating as they did
that she was involved in the horrible
story; yet he did not wish to acquiesce
in the idea Of her guilt, or even in the
notion Of her having been a passive
agent in the tragedy.
Nell insisted, however, on getting
an answer from him.
II think. darling" he then said,
very tenderly, 'that you have been
troubling yourself great deal more
than you need have done. And that
you will find plenty of other people as
ready as 1 am to say that Nell Claris
would never merit a dreadful pun
ishment, even IL she tried"
These words were not said merely
to satisfy her. He began to feel, as
she did, that the thrashing out of the
whole matter. horrible as the process
must be, was better for her in every
way than the suspense from which
she had been so long suffering. What
ever her share in the affair might
have been, it had certainly been pas
sive and an unwilling, if not an alto
gether unconscious one. His answer
seemed to content the girl, for she
walked on by his side without any
further remark, while a more placid
expression began to appear in her
wan face.
1t was almost in silence that they
went on walking briskly in the direc'
ton of the bay, which they reached
by the short way over the fields. A
cab was waiting, as the police SER
geant had promised. on the road out
side the village. AS soon as Nell saw
it she stopped short and said:
Il was forgetting what wanted to
say to you. I want you to go to
Single End. And 1 want you to tell
them thereto tell the Colonel that
the police have come for me-"
"To tell the Colonel? echoed Cliff
ford, stupidity, struck with a remem-
brance of the vague suspicious he had
had on his recent visit to that gentle
me1s mouse.
eyes"
He wanted to ask her more ques.
lions. But she saw his intentions, and
walked briskly on. A few PAGES
farther she was met by the police ser.
geant, who saluted her respectfully,
and held open the door Of the cab.
Nell turned and gave her hand in ST.
lence to Clifford But as he pressed it
for a brief moment in his, she again
looked up in his face with the flicker
of smile on her lips and in her eyes.
Surely" thought he to himself.
"it is hope, and not despair, which l
see in her eyes"
The cab door was shut, and Clifford
who had long walk before him,
walked briskly past it, in the direction
of the StrOan road. But before he had
gone many steps he heard the. voice
of the police sergeant behind him.
Clifford stopped ana the sergeant
overlook him.
might ask, sir, whether it's to
Colonel Bostars you're going?"
"Well, yes"
might 1 suggest, sir that you
shouldn't say anything about Miss
Claris to the old gentleman and his
daughter for the present? The poor
lady and gentleman have been in a
fearful state Of nervousness lately;
and If this news was to come on them
quite sudden, it might bring on
stroke, perhaps, OF something of that
sort"
Clifford hesitated. He had promised
Nell to take her message Int on the