The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1887-03-19 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

CHAPTER 111.  Sir Humphrey Thicarrel's hands were folded on the tcp of his stick. He was decrepit, withered. David Ducarrel looking at him, was smitten with regret. If he could only cheer him, if lie could 11lp him to 'submit resignedly to the blow that bad bruised him nine months ago. "Father," he spoke wistfully, "the living should be remembered Its well as the dead !"  The old man started. "Yea, lad," he murmured, "yes, I ought to be thankful I have you. I thought you, too, would have died."  He referred to a dangerous Hitters which had prostrated David abroad, and kept him from home, when he would fain have been there. Only two days had he been back at Ducarrel. So much had occurred in his absence that he was beset with desperate longings to question his father fully, bat he dared not, he must wait until he saw Hester. She was expected from London hourly; how impatient he was for her arrival his tongue would have been ineffectual in telling. Sir Humphrey glanced at him, there was a dazed expression on the handsome face. His brother's death had tried him sadly, but surely it had not wrought that net-work of lines about the sweet month, it had not branded him with the never-to-be.effaced brand of poignant anguish. Sir Humphrey cried with a wailing cry the lamentation always now on his lips: "I could bear our loss, if it had happened in a less cruel moment. To think he should be killed when suspicion clouded him ; if he had only lived to give the lie to those who accused him of murder !"  " Murder ! " David's brain was dizzy. " Father, you have kept much from me— kindness prompted you, of course, but the suspense has been hard. Tell me all, for pity's sake, I implore you." "Hester could tell you better than I, David;" she has been a daughter to me. Humphrey and Stephen Boyce died on the same day, Humphrey a few hours later than Boyce. ,He is credited by many with his death."  " Humphrey credited with having killed Stephen Boyce ? Why, it is preposterous." Sir Humphrey lowered his voice. " They say he had injured Helen! " . . _  ." Father!" David's shout was charged with passion, anger, indignation. He restrained himself with a fearful effort from a violent outbreak. Sir Humphrey, buried in the past, continued unuoticing. "David, that haunts me night and day. Nell was so lovely and pure. If my boy did wrong her, dead though he is, I should be like to curse him. Your mother loved her. I respected Stephen Boyce, be was a good man—a good man. David, I should go mourning to my grave, if I believed a child of mine had deceived a trusting woman—bad slai, a ruined father! Did he do this ? " He ed his haggard, pleading eyes. L •N Al cried, vehemently, "No, no! I--" navid I" Hester had entered. David clasped her hands, Sir Humphrey kissed her gladly, and for the moment his sombre mood melted. "You are chain, ,d," she said, her white lids quivering as she gazed at him; "you have been very, very ill." "Yes, Hester, the scanty news I received hindered my recovery. You must nurse me," he whispered gently. "I shall soon be strong —I must be strong. I have much to do." She turned her head. Sir Humphrey had relapsed into brooding thought. She roused him tenderly. "Uncle, you have been neglecting yourself. Will you go into the West Parlour and rest? I will play to you. Sir Humphrey nodded and rose. She would have followed; David laid his band on her detainingly. "Cousin, I must speak to you. I shall go mad if I wait for an explanation much longer." . . . _  She neither winced nor quivered, but answered steadily, "I will come to you directly Sir Humphrey falls asleep. Be in the library in half an hour." And she tossed off her hat and cloak and glided away. The quaint timepiece had just struck three when Hester Ducarrel reappeared, true to her promise. David, studying the rows of soberly-bound books, shifted his eyes to her. How exqui•itely beautiful she