The Cotton Factory Times. — 1899-09-29 (Manchester, Greater Manchester, England)

CHAPTER XIV.  OONCLVSION.  But Mabel did not die; neither did she go mad; and it is certain that if her terrible illness had terminated in death or insaolly Colonel Leybourne would not have told to anyone the story jest related, and therefore the mystery of Berkeley Square would still have remained a mystery. She recovered completely, but her illness was long, and more than two months had passed since Eastace Selwyn's suicide before those who loved her so dearly could feel satisfied that there was gaud rea• son to hope for her restoration to health. The much-talke l-o journey to Brighton was postponed again and again on Isoconot of relapses and fears that her strength would not bear the trial of the journey, but at last it was acoomplished. When she first came, languidly reclining in a bath chair, into the splendid sunshine that floods the King's Road in floe weather, she seemed to her loving and anxious watchers to be but the ghost of her former self, so thin, so melancholy-, so silent was she.  But the day before the party returned to London she stood, her hand on her lover's arm, at the end of the pier, enjoying the high wind and dashing spray which are some of the delights of life by the sea in early winter and langhm-4 at the efforts of her mother and Miss Desrnond to preserve a, proper amount of dignity of carriage ander mush trying cironmstances.  -Thy were all happy, intensely happy, for that morning the date of the young people's marriage had•been fixed, which, of oourse, like the marria_ms in all stories, was to be the commencement of a period when worries and troubles were to be things of the past. They were to be married the beginning of the following year. And when Janulry came the wedding took place in London. It was a quiet wedding, but a bright one. De Bertrand officiated as best man, and Dr. Saunders gave Mabel away; and after the ceremony was over, the young couple went to France for the honeyMOOD.  On coming out of church Mabel turned slightly pale, for amongst the little knot of psople on the steps watching for her departure she saw a face that brought to her recollection the terrible trials through which she had been brought. But nevertheless she smiled at the face, for she recognised it as being the kindly and somewhat sad countenance of _Mr. Graves, the inspector.  It is now thirty-five years since that wedding day, and even if Stephen and Mabel Desmond have lived to find that marriage does not do away with all the worries of life, they are surely as happy as moral man or woman can be, and certainly cannot be nembered amongst those who relieve their feelings and entertain the public by detailing in the daily papers the causes that have led them to pronounce marriage a failure. Though their happiness 49 husband and wife has boen cloudless, Stephen and Mabel have had sorrows to bear. Their first sorrow came to them when De Bertrand was killed in the FrancoPrussian war of 1870, and the death of Dr. Saunders took place soon after, awl a few years ago they were in mourning for gentle Lady Anna. Aunt Mary still lives, happy and cheerful as ever; and she is the sympathising friend and wise adviser of the Desmond family, as she used to be of Stephen in his young days. All the other persons who were connected with 62, Berkeley Square, at the time of Eustace Selwyn's disappearance and death—Mr. Boyne, the solicitor, Inspector Graves, and Mrs. Craik and her daughter —have gone over to the majority. For some years after the night Mahal discovered the dead body of her uncle, eo surely as July earns round she was haunted by awful dreams, and showed a tendency to walk in her sleep ; but the arrival upon the scene of her domestic life of certain fluffy-headed little mortals filled her mind with so many charming and engrossing thqughts connected with their present welfare, and so many delightful speculations as to their future, that it left no time to brood over the terrors of the past, and disagreeable memories gradually ceased to visit her uninvited.  Mr. and Mrs. Desmond have personally related to me all they recollect of the events of that terrible time, and Miss Desmond, in reducing her account to writing, incidentally mentioned that her cat died comfortably and pea,oefally of old age.. . .  —Colonel Laybourne gave me all the information it was necessary I ehould know about the Selwyn family, and each and all have helped me to collect the leading facts and minute partionlars without a knowledge of which the Mystery af Berkeley Square could never have been properly cleared up in these pages.