Year: 1877

BY MRS. HENRY DEAS.


CHAPTER XVIII.


The sick man never again rallied sufti-
ciently to finish, in connected manner, the
account which had so abruptly been broken
off; but in disjointed, fragmentary way, he
impaired to the Earl, from time to time, the
rest of his story. After hiding about for
year or more, pursued all the time by terri
BILE remorse, which gave him no peace, he had,
be said, vision, which made him resolve to
return to the scene of the fatal catastrophe
a vision of Katie herself, who appeared to him
twice in succession, at night, and beckoned to
him to follow her. Unable to resist the sum-
mons, he obeyed, and under an assumed name,
sought fresh place Of concealment in the
little village of Bloxton. Here he fell in with
Peterson-who, in some way or other, he did
notexplain how-obtained possession of his Sc
cret, and thus got him into his power. From
thenceforth he became this mans slave. Pc
terson assisted him to seal up the we'll, and
placed the old couple in the cabin opposite as
spies, to give notice whenever any one came
to the place, in order that he might guard
against discovery; and in return for keeping
his secret, and protecting him from his former
friend, Mortimer, of whom he had now con-
ceived mortal dread, he extorted large sums
from him, until by degrees all his property
passed into his hands. What subsequently
occurred has already been told-how the
loug-growing insanity, eliminating in deliri-
um, brought him into contact with the very
man he had so carefully avoided; and how
the weakened physical frame, on which dis
ease of mind had so eHectually wrought as to
reduce it gradually to an almost hopeless
condition, finally gave way and sunk be-
meath this last and mortal blow.


Wiberton died, and was buried in the lit
tie churchyard of Bloxton village, his funeral
being suitably ordered by the Earl, who had
comforted him in his dying moments with the
assurance of his free forgiveness, and who, &C.
companied by his little household, followed
him to the grave. Here at last his weary,
wasted body found repose; while bis suffering
spirit, it may be hoped, having expatiated its
guilt by long period of repentance and an
guish, sought and obtained pardon at the
hands ofits final judge. .


Andrew Kennedy, his quest ended, and his
fierce longing for revenge subdued, returned
to his home among the Scottish hills, where
he and bonnie Katie had grown up together
side by side, and where his parents lay buried.
His brother Davie was schoolmaster in Ed
inburgh, and his long abandoned cottage lay
bleak and ruined amid surrounding desola-
ton and neglect; but he went to work, put it
in repair, cultivated his garden and field
afresh, and when all was in order, sought and
won the hand of a smiling lassie in the neigh
borhood, and settled down into tranquil do
Nestle existence, in which he found solace fo-
the trouble of the past.


Peterson, the dishonest agent, concealed
himself successfully for many years, though
detectives were put on his track Immediately
after the discovery of the forgery he had per-
petrated when on the eve of flight. He was
finally arrested at gambling-tabe at Ger
man watering.place, and brought home but
was saved from suffering the extreme penalty
of his crime by the interposition of Lord Des-
borough, who out of compassion for his unof-
Tending family, obtained a communication of
the sentence passed upon him. On his release
from imprisonment be went off with his wife
and unmarried children to Australia, and
was never heard of again by any one connec-
ted with bis past career.


Lord Desborough caused the loose stones to
be cleared away from the bottom Of the we'll,
and found beneath them, as he expected, all
that remained Of poor Katie's mortal frame.
These relics were placed in casket and rev.
erently buried beneath the sod and shortly
after, the Earl caused to be erected above the
spot simple cross of pure marble, bearing
her name and the date of her death. Rav-
ing performed this duty, and placed the man
agement of the Cottag &c lands in the hands of
new and trusty agent, he returned with his
wife to the Castle, from which he had been
absent for period of nearly month.


Under very different auspices did Geral-
dine now pass the portals Of her stately home,
from those under which, as bride, she had
first crossed its threshold. Then, her heart
bad been weighed down with sad and bitter
feelings Now it was light with happiness
and filled with joyful anticipations of the fu-
ture which lay before her. If the Earl had
failed in lover-lke behavior during the Pc
riod of his courtship, he more than made
amends for it now. 1t seemed as though he
could not do enough to obliterate the memory
of his former coldness, and to prove to her
how sincere was the affection she had awaken
ed in his heart. He,had spoken truly when
he had told her that it was long since he had
first discovered how important it had become
to him to win her love; but proud reluc-
tance to betrsy this desire, arising from the
belief that she was entirely Indifferent to him,
had restrained him from making any over
lures until chance had revealed to him how
completely he had mistaken her real feelings.


Geraldine never bad been, and never could
n 80 IL E1,.k1 ~