Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1909-09-25 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

MTS. Niaclntyre left the two young men to the enjoyment of their pipes, saying diat she would be back to pour out the tea in an hour's time, that Ned felt at liberty to unbosom himself to his friend. He told him of Lady Westlake's  9"  1  heartless behaviour, of the strange conversation he had overheard between Count Bardoni and the trustee of Muriel's property, of M.uriel's disappearance, and of Bardoni's apparently sincere denial that he knew what had become of her. The telling took up some time, interspersed as it was with many questions as to details, and the answers to them; and the hour that had been fixed for tea. arrived by the time the story was finished.  "It is the simple truth, Duncan," Ned said, in conclusion, "that it would have pained me less to hear that Muriel had died. If she had suocumbed to an illness. I would have told myself that she had been mercifully called away from this world and its pains and miseries; I should have been able to visit her grave, and think that after a greater or less number of years I would sleep at her side! I would live in the hope of meeting her in another world. But as things are now, I have all the torture of one who watches at the bedi, side of one he loves, and who is hovering between life and death, and it has been prolonged for weeks. To you it may seem absurd—"  Macln-tyre made a gesture of dissent, and Ned went on—  "Well, to a stranger it might very well seem absurd that I should feel in this way about a girl who has been simply sent to school by her relatives to avoid the entanglement of a foolish attachment. But I cannot forget that she is in the power of an unscrupulous woman who, in my opinion, is stained with her husband's blood, and that she stands in that woman's way. Bardoni has an interest in her too, and I camiot help suspecting that he is the man who murdered that unfortunate baronet. He may not wish that she should die; but the fate he has prepared for her is in some ways worse than death. Of course the thought of Muriel being married to any other man is odious to me, but apart from my own feelings, it seems to me that it would be a better thing for any innocent, good girl to die, than to be married to a man like the Count. And my helplessness is complete. All the little things I could think of doing have been done long ago. I can do nothing but fold my arms, and curse my hard fate, in impotent rage. It is the peril she is in, all unknown to herself, poor child—it is the thought of that that unmans me." Ned's voice had sunk almost to a whisper, and he had forgotten in the sharpness of the mental pain he was suffering, that Mrs Maelntyre had come back into the room. She had come in so quietly that she in no way disturbed the train of thought in the mind of Ned Stanhope, and as the listened her sympathy and her curiosity increased every moment. When Ned had finished speaking, she drew from her husband in a few whispered sentences the outlines of the story, and Ned read in her kind Scotch face a sympathy that was as deep and true, and even more tender than her husband's. - -  "The question is, what can we do ?" said Macintyre, speaking more to himself than to his com panions. For some time no one answered, and then his wife said gently—'" I am surprised that a wom.a,n who has been guilty of so terrible a crime as murder should dare to run the risk of another crime. I hardly think it is possible." Her busband looked up quickly, but when Ned turned an inquiring look on him he sadly shook  his head. "My fear would be," said he, "that if she has alreAdy committed one crizoa with impunity, it  # N