 15 It was all quite true. The Tsar had been assassinated. Though he was not killed outright by the bomb which was thrown under his carriage, it was known that he was mortally injured and could not live long. The messenger who brought the news to Sergius had started from St. Petersburg to Moscow as soon as the deed was done, being previously armed with a railway ticket and a passport, and was already on his way to the frontier, whither it was advisable for all other suspects to proceed at once if they would escape the tremendous hue and cry which would doubtless be raised without delay. In spite of the fact that I was the associate of conspirators, the news which elated them horrified me, and I was more than ever convinced that my rightful avocation lay among scenes of peace and domesticity. It was, therefore, all the more strange that the whole of my grown-up life so far should have been one of danger, turmoil, and excitement. Yet as all things have their limit of prominence in the ever-shifting kaleidoscope of life, and so would that fever of existence, which is variously termed patriotism and treason, cease to influence my daily being ere long. Such, at all events, was my hope, and I no longer doubted that Sergius would at once use his utmost endeavors to escape to England. But for a time it was difficult to obtrude individual interests into the jumble of excited comment in which this ever-increasing number of fresh arrivals discussed the tragedy which had taken place at St. Petersburg, and its probable effects upon the members of the society. I suppose it will be no longer safe to meet here after to-day, said a man whom I heard addressed as Ivan Vesovskoy, but whom I would not have recognized as the man whom I had seen with Sergius on that never-to-be-forgotten night of adventure. I do not think it was safe to meet here to-day, said another who had just arrived. Just as I entered the passage leading round to our secret entrance, I fancied that a man brushed past me, and I feel rather alarmed. One of ours, remarked Sergius. I think not was the reply which seemed to imbue all the company with a sense of insecurity. I challenged him in our usual way, but received no answer, as must have been the case if he had been one of us. Then why did you come in if you fancied yourself followed? Because I concluded that the house was already suspected. I did retrace my steps for a few yards, but did not succeed in drawing the man away from the vicinity of the passage. This being the case, I thought it better to come in after all in order to warn you. It is quite possible that the passage is guarded already, and that everybody emerging from it will be arrested. You did well, brother, was the verdict of a tall, imposing man who had hitherto said little. I had already begun to doubt the wisdom of meeting here much oftener, but was anxious to await the great event before altering our plans. As you all know, that event has taken place, and by the terms of our oath we are no longer a society, although the consummation aimed at has not been our work, but the work of our brave St. Petersburg contingent. I proclaim us morally and patriotically disbanded and absolved from all further duty or allegiance to the rules of our brotherhood. If in the future it becomes necessary to give the government another severe lesson, you all know how to communicate with me, if I am still alive and in freedom, and you all know that my sole aim in life is to avenge the wrongs of the people. Before the setting of another sun some of us will be on our way to other lands, to seek that safety and freedom of speech which is denied us here. Some of us may have fallen into the hands of the tyrants, and have no longer a hope left. Others, confident that nobody suspects their connection with us, will continue to live in and amount Moscow in comparative security, pursuing a life of honest toil, and always ready to afford an asylum to a patriot. But whatever be the fate in store for us, we have nothing to reproach ourselves with, unless it be that our fight for God and our right has not been drastic enough. All the details of this conversation were fully explained to me by Sergius some days later, when it was no longer dangerous to speak even in whispers, as was the case while we were flying toward the frontier. But although I had not understood all that was said, I had gathered enough to know that our situation was already one of extreme peril, and I owned that I felt terribly alarmed. I was also angry with myself for my husband's sake, for I was sure that my presence could not fail to hamper his escape from Moscow. But I was not a little surprised to see how stoically all these dangerous conspirators received the news that their arrival had been watched, and that their exit was probably cut off by an outraged government at whose hand they would find a little mercy. This seeming mystery was, however, soon explained. There were, on the upper landing, and partly within the four rooms whose doors opened onto this landing, over twenty people present, none of whom appeared in the cloaks and dominoes which had imparted such an awful solemnity to their meeting when I was taken captive by them. This, Sergius told me afterward, was because they knew that the catastrophe at St. Petersburg had virtually disbanded them. Take off your shoes, Dora, whispered Sergius, and don't be alarmed, darling. Our danger is not nearly so imminent as you seem to fear. We have long expected this crisis and have not allowed ourselves to be trapped like rats in a hole. While Sergius was speaking, he rapidly unlaced his boots and took them off. Greatly to my amazement, I saw that all the other people present were engaged upon the same task, and I followed the general example, feeling sure that it would eventually prove to be justified by reason. As soon as their noise-producing foot covering was removed, all present began to throng into the bedroom I had occupied for so short a time. Someone touched a secret spring in the Wayne Scotting, which noiselessly yielded to a slight pull given to it by Sergius, and revealed a cavernous opening into which, with whispered injunction against making much noise, first one and then another of the conspirators disappeared with either boots or shoes in hand. One man fetched a short ladder into the room besides a boot and a shoe, which had evidently been previously in readiness for some special purpose. Sergius held back until all the others had passed through the secret door, then he raised the bedroom window, which was the one that opened on to the roof. His next proceeding was to throw the two shoes some distance along the flat roofs of the adjoining buildings. Then leaving the window open, and the ladder by which he had reached it still standing, he took my hand and drew me into the space in which our companions were making cautious and laborious progress. Carefully closing the door behind us he stooped for a moment, and I heard a sharp click, as of breaking metal. There, he said, in a low tone, it would take pursuer some time to follow us, for I have broken the spring, and that door will never yield again to gentle persuasion. Are your shoes all right? Yes, I have them in my hand. And your money and jewelry is already stowed in our pockets. Everything else you must sacrifice. You are unfortunate with your clothes. Never mind, so long as I have you left. But why did you throw those shoes out of the window, and why did you leave the window open? To lead probable pursuers off the scent, and induce them to believe that we escaped through the window dropping our shoes in our hurry. A couple of houses along the flat roof, there is an easy means of descent to the ground, by way of outhouse tops, and thence into an unfrequented backstreet. It will seem the most natural way in the world to escape, and while the enemy is following up the false scent, we shall all be making good progress in another direction. But suppose it is a false alarm after all? Listen. I did listen, and no longer hesitated about groping my way into the darkness beyond. For noises, loud and threatening, penetrated to my shrinking ears, and told me that the house had already been forcibly entered. Of course the doors have been locked behind us, and I could hear that these were being beaten down with heavy weapons. Now silent, for your life, whispered Sergius, trust me to lead you to safety. Not another word was exchanged between us for several minutes, during which, having crawled on to a sort of shelf, and covered the opening by means of a spring-sliding panel, we found it necessary to crawl for some distance on all fours, in a stifling atmosphere which threatened to choke us. But at last this ordeal was also over, and we emerged into another chamber, similarly arranged to the one by which we had entered the species of tunnel which we had just traversed. I was by this time almost exhausted with terror and haste, and was thankful indeed to be told that the worst danger was now over. But I exerted myself womanfully to hide the full extent of my distress from Sergius, and have since felt rather ashamed at times when he has insisted upon praising my courage and fortitude. You may put your shoes on again now, he said, and we shall no doubt find someone in the next room ready to give us a good brushing. It was, as he said. But it took a good wash, as well as a good brush, to make us at all presentable, and every requisite facility for forbishing up one's toilet was to be found here. How strange it seems, I said, to have come into such handy quarters. I understand the comforts of the other end, but these two little rooms seem to be only used for dressing and don't communicate with a bedroom at all. That is easily explained. We are actually in a theater, and these are the manager's dressing rooms. He is one of us, and the whole plan of escape is of his devising. That passage, along which we crawled, is space taken from the front upper rooms of three houses that we have crossed. It was necessary to take off our shoes in order not to make too much noise over other people's heads. But even the chance of betrayal on this score is practically guarded against, since all these front rooms have been taken by various members of our fraternity. They would know what a scrambling noise overhead meant, but there is a possibility of antagonistic strangers being sometimes present in some of the rooms, so we are always as careful as possible. There now, if you have quite recovered your breath, we will follow the rest of our friends downstairs. In a few minutes, we found our way down staircases along corridors into what proved to be the manager's private room, and here the manager himself was conversing with several of those who had so recently escaped a mortal danger. Ah, here you are, Brother Valkovsky, he said. Do you think the alarm has been a false one, or that the flight was unnecessary? If my wife and I had been one minute later, was the reply, all would have been lost. I had only just broken the secret spring when I heard loud commands to surrender while the door was being violently assailed. Huck! shuddered one or two. It is well we are out of it, but what had we better do next? I do not think that it would be advisable for any more of you to leave the theatre now, said the manager. The police will be watching the whole neighbourhood very carefully just now. You very likely all need refreshment badly, or will, before you have a chance of obtaining any elsewhere. Four of you shall have some wine and such substantial fare as I have already provided, while the rest walk boldly onto the stage. You must refresh yourself in relays of four. I don't want too many people in this room at once, as we are likely to be interrupted at any moment, and my advice is that you spend as short a time here as is consistent with a substantial meal, which I again warn you will be needed. I will give you all part of some play to masquerade on the stage with, and if any prying spies intrude, you will be supposed to be rehearsing for tonight's performance. As evening approaches, the theatre will be lighted up, and before the real artists arrive, you must so dispose yourself, as to be able to join the audience unobtrusively. You will then be comparatively safe, as no one will imagine that people who know the police to be on their track would spend the evening listening to a comic opera, thus apparently wasting valuable time. After the play is over, you can emerge with the crowd and go your several directions in comparative safety. After that, it will be each one for himself, and the god of nations for us all. And now, my friends, I have my daily duties to perform, and must attend to them at once, if I would avoid the curse of suspicion. So good-bye, and may our unhappy country be no more under the necessity of fighting against those whose duty it is to help instead of to oppress. This wish was fervently echoed by the rest of those present. There was a solemn ceremony of hands shaking, and then the society, which had exacted such a horrible duty from my husband, was disbanded forever. Although many of its members found it advisable to follow the manager's advice and abide in the theatre until after the evening performance. Sergius and I were of the number, and, greatly to our relief, the tickets and passports with which Sergius was already provided were accepted at the railway stations without suspicion. Our journey to the frontier, although desperately fatiguing, proved uneventful. And when, having traveled by the Brest-Litovsk route, we found ourselves in Berlin, we felt able to express to each other without fear our thankfulness at our escape. In Berlin we stayed for a couple of days to take much needed rest and to replenish our shabby and scanty wardrobe, since we did not care to return to England with nothing but the clothes we stood up in. There was no need for Sergius to sell any of our jewelry to provide ready money. He was well supplied with cash, and had this not been so he could have drawn upon a Berlin banker whom he knew. A couple of days later we presented ourselves, somewhat travel-worn, but otherwise in good health, at the house of Prince Michaelow in Kensington, and I shall never forget the delighted astonishment with which he and Nina welcomed us home again. Thank God! said the former, we never expected to see either of you alive again. You see, I fetched him home, I said to Nina, and I hardly know whether smiles or tears most prevailed as I received my friends in raptured caresses. I can't think how you have managed so beautifully, said Nina, unless indeed you only went part of the way. We went all the way, and Dora has gone through all sorts of terrible adventures with no end of pluck, asserted Sergius. It's just wonderful. After the news of that horrible assassination reached England I felt sure you were both doomed, said Nina, with a shudder, accompanied by another hug. But how did you escape so easily? Perhaps we had better defer explicit particulars for a little while, interposed Prince Michaelow. I am thinking that one never knows what may happen, and that it will be as well not to betray the facts of your having been in Russia again to anyone. I suppose you were in St. Petersburg. This was said so significantly that I knew what awful thing he was hinting at, and at once exclaimed, No, thank heaven. Sergius has been no farther than Moscow. That was done without him. I am so thankful, chained Nina. Of course I feel for the people, but it is an immense relief to me to know that none of my friends have killed the poor misguided man. You see, said the Prince, we shall never be able to make true patriots of our wives. They are too English for that. But how will this affect your future? I am just as much absolved from further duty as if mine had been the hand which threw the bomb. Our society is disbanded and will never be reorganized on the same lines. While still a member of it, I was resolved to fulfill the terms of my oath to the letter. But that sort of work does not suit me, and though I long for the regeneration of my country, I am now convinced that violence on the part of secret societies can never cure the evils we deplore. Then you are not likely to join another secret society? Never. My political career is over. I cannot sympathize with the government. I may not work openly in the interests of the people, and I will not lend myself again to secret plotting. This much I have already told Dora, but she does not know yet that I have resolved never to return to Russia. Henceforth my life is devoted to her happiness and comfort. This was indeed glorious news, which helped me to throw off the last talent of the incubus of dread and speedily recover the happiest spirits imaginable. We decided to adopt the Prince's advice and to say nothing to anyone about having been elsewhere than on our originally projected wedding tour. We had returned within the time expected, and I for one would not have put it in Bell's power to betray the fact that Sergius was in Russia when the Tsar was assassinated. So we duly took possession of our own beautiful house, and then, as I really longed to see Lady Elizabeth and Jerry, we went down to the Grange to pay a visit which my father had strongly urged us to pay. And how different this journey to Morbi was to the last one. Then I was lonely, unloved, miserable, and homeless. Now I was the possessor of everything that goes to make life happy. And yet only a few months had elapsed between the two visits. Early summer had but given away to late autumn. Certainly many events had been crowded into a short space of time. Nevertheless it was nothing short of wonderful that such results should have sprung so rapidly from the ashes of what I had deemed an almost incurable grief. I could not complain of my reception, for all but Bell greeted me with warmth, and I was positively thankful that she held aloof for me. I was also glad that no one witnessed our meeting. She had kept her room when we first arrived on the plea of a headache to which I inwardly gave the name of Envy. For knowing the superiority of Sergius to the Earl of Greatlands, and thoroughly understanding Bell's envious nature, I knew that my good fortune could but be a very bitter pill for her to swallow. We encountered each other in the corridor when I was on my way to the dressing room assigned me, and it was characteristic of the nature of us both that we merely bowed when we saw each other. There was no sisterly kiss, not even a handshake. Apparently there was to be an armed truce between us, and Bell's first words prepared me to understand that she hated me as much as ever. So, she said, drawing her superb figure up to its full height and looking scornfully at me, you have managed to secure a title after all. Had you lived in the Middle Ages you would have been burned as a witch, for nobody would have believed that you used aunt but magic arts to ensnare your victims. And you have not shown much decency, either, or you would have not married so soon after. Here, Bell, callous and hardened as she was, paused for a moment, and I finished the sentence for her in a manner she little expected. Since the death of your victim, I said, now feeling as relentless as she was herself, take care how you goad me, where I may be tempted to betray your secrets, for I know everything, and one word for me could shatter your castle of cards. While I am at it I will tell you something else. Not long ago you deliberately meditated my removal by the same means which made your fiancee an earl. Take care how you attempt to repeat such experiments. I am not the only one in the secret, but it will be safely kept, if you behave yourself, for the sake of others who would suffer by your downfall. I hardly need hint that you would precipitate that downfall by any attack upon my life, since I am less likely to die unevenged than the poor old earl. And now I have only one stipulation to enforce. You must henceforth be civil and polite to me and mine. In return I will refrain from ever alluding to this wicked business again. The possessors of your secret are as anxious to guard it as if they were alike guilty with you. Had Belbin struck into stone she could not have been more rigid than she was. Her face petrified with horror and her eyes betrayed the consciousness of guilt. She made no attempt to interrupt me. But the look of relief which overspread her face when I reassured her that her secret was safe showed me that she thoroughly understood the meaning of every word I said, and convinced me that I need fear no further insults from her in future. I had not meant thus openly to confront her with her own wickedness, but her insults stung me to it, and my words certainly had the effect I desired. When, shortly afterward, I joined the others in the dining room there was ample balm for my wounded feelings. My father, having got over the peak which he had first felt on discovering that I was capable of carving my own fortunes, and that I was not inclined to eat humble pie, was becoming quite cordial with me and had evidently come to the conclusion that there must be something in me, after all, since others seemed to appreciate me so highly. As for Sergius it was impossible to resist him, and there was every evidence that Mr. Courtney was already feeling very proud of his new son-in-law. Lady Elizabeth was looking much better and plied to me with a great many questions relative to my early Russian adventures. I have missed you very much, she said, but I have not felt so anxious about you as might have been the case had you been less energetic and self-reliant. Besides, you knew that I loved you and I expected you would apply to me at once if you were ever in need of money. I also thought that as the friction was connected with Belle, you would return to us as soon as she was married. But I never dreamed that you would be the possessor of a wealthy husband and a title. Certainly in your case it has been proved that it is better to be born lucky than rich. I wonder what Belle thinks of it. She has never said anything to me. She knows I would not listen to a word against you, but I hope that she does not mean to be rude or that her headache is not a mere pretext to avoid you. You need have no fear, I replied confidently. I met Belle in the corridor and received her congratulations. I think she means to let bygones be bygones as much as possible now. I dare say she felt that she had sufficient cause to be ill-natured before. And, you know, she must have been awfully disappointed when she found she was not to live at the castle. You said some strange words that morning, said Lady Elizabeth, sinking her voice to a whisper. The thought of what they implied has almost killed me. The whole affair was so dreadful that I did not know what to think. Do you still— Mother, I interrupted hastily. For heaven's sake, pay no more heed to the ravings of a grief-stricken girl. It was unfortunate for us all that your brother should have gained his title under such tragic circumstances. But pray do not think anything but nature interfered with my wedding. It served me right. I was selfish and headstrong and ought to have remembered how cruelly Belle was disappointed. It was a shame to say wicked things of her besides. Oh, Dory, how thankful you make me. I have of late begun to think it impossible that either Cyril or Belle would stoop to criminality. It was too awful to believe. Now that you are also convinced I feel thoroughly happy. And how nice you are looking, too. You have such pretty hair and such a fine complexion. Your figure, too, since you have become less thin, is as good as Belle's own. Your father remarked a little while ago that it was wonderful what an amount of good looks you were developing. I believe I am too happy and well cared for to ever recover from my former perfection of ugliness. Now, Dory chimed in another voice. It's really too bad of you. You don't seem to be able to spare me a minute. I don't believe you are half so jolly as you used to be. Why, Jerry, I said, kissing him affectionately, didn't I talk with you nearly all the way from the station? And didn't I discover what a little fraud you are? For you couldn't answer my most simple French questions. And haven't you taken possession of Sergius ever since? Yes, to be sure. I forgot that. But, oh, my, isn't he a brick? He's given me a sovereign, and he's going to buy me the jolliest pony he can get, so that I can have plenty of writing in the holidays. Just at this juncture, Mr. and Mrs. Garth, who it seems had been invited to dine with us, arrived on the scene, and there was a considerable amount of congratulating and handshaking. Then Bell came down, looking as quietly elegant and beautiful as ever, though perhaps a shade paler. She was very gracious when introduced to Sergius, and impressed everyone very favorably by her brilliant conversation and ready wit. Both my father and Lady Elizabeth looked very happy and contented, and the evening was spent sociably and harmoniously. There was only one cancarous secret hidden beneath the smiling surface of family unity. But that was to be buried for ever, I devoutly hoped. What a pity Greatlands isn't here, said my father, some time after we had all adjourned to the drawing-room. I'm sorry a business kept him in town this week. You see, Volkovsky, he is doing the thing in style, and is very busy making all necessary preparations for next week's grand event. Yes, one week more, and then Bell, too, will have passed the portals of matrimony. Yes, one week more, and the final scene in this life drama will have been played. One turn more of Fortune's Wheel, and we will wring the curtain down upon these reminiscences of an ugly girl's life. CHAPTER XVI. LIFE AND THOUGHT HAVE GONE AWAY. Never had such a brilliant company been assembled within the walls of Morby Church. It was Bell's wedding day, and the sun shone kindly upon the face of nature. Only a few family friends had been invited down, but the little church was filled to overflowing by the gentle folks of the neighborhood, who did not think it infra-dig to undergo a lot of crowding and elbowing for the privilege of witnessing an earl's wedding. Bell looked superb, and her pearl and bordered satin gown as she walked up the aisle with my father, and her bearing must have struck the onlookers as unusually calm and dignified. I fancied that I could detect a sign of anxiety in the hurried glance she cast around in search of Cyril, and that her face paled on discovering that he had not yet arrived. Possibly she thought of that other bridal mourning when the bridegroom did not put in an appearance. As yet, however, there was no need for uneasiness, the train by which the Earl of Greatlands was to come from town was only just due, and it might possibly be a little late. I feel very anxious, said Lady Elizabeth to me, in a voice low enough only to be heard by myself. Cyril ought to have contrived to be here first. He has behaved very strangely altogether of late, and I cannot help thinking that something must be wrong with him. I hope he is not ill. Alas, I knew what was wrong with him, and by this time my fears exceeded Lady Elizabeth's own. When I say that I feared I speak advisedly, for it had seemed to me that an interruption to this marriage was a thing to be dreaded for everybody's sake. True, real happiness was not to be expected for either Belle or her husband. But it was more fitting that these two, who had sinned together, should spend the rest of their conscience haunted days together, than that either of them should be left at liberty to cast a shadow upon the life of anyone else. Perhaps it was very presumptuous of me to constitute myself judge in such a case as this, for to encourage criminals in the achievement of that for which they have schemed and planned hardly seems a justifiable way of making the punishment fit the crime. Certainly the demands of justice would appear to point to a very different ending to our family troubles. But what woman in my place would not have tried to pit silence and oblivion against naked justice? It was a relief to us all when the Earl of Greatlands, accompanied by Mr. Alwyn Gardner, his best man, hurriedly entered the church and walked toward the altar. But Mr. Gardner appeared flushed and troubled, and the bridegroom seemed to me to be looking like one demented. For at one moment he bit his lip and clenched his hand with all the air of one who is doing a thing that is distasteful to him. The next he was smiling at Belle and gazing at her with the exultant admiration of a proud and happy bridegroom. Presently Mr. Garth and his two chosen assistants began the marriage service, and the interest of the onlookers was quickened in an endeavor to hear the responses. Even yet I felt apprehensive of interruption. But so far my fears were unfounded, for the ceremony was concluded, and soon all was smiles and congratulation. The bride was kissed by relatives and bridesmaids, and I hoped that among all the fuss and excitement the fact that I neither kissed my sister nor shook hands with my brother-in-law would pass unnoticed. There was to be a reception after the wedding, and then the newly married pair were to go to Scotland for their honeymoon. We were quite a merry party at the Grange, and even I, who was so much behind the scenes, felt as if I almost dared hope that the failing troubles were now over. Jerry was in high glee for everybody like Tim, and the tips he got were enough to have turned any ordinarily lucky schoolboy green with envy. His holidays were almost over, and no doubt some of the school chums of whom he spoke to me would soon show him how to get rid of his pocket-money. The Earl of Greatland excused himself somewhat earlier than had been expected, on the plea of feeling the need of half an hour's quiet, as he was considerably out of sorts. It will be time enough for you to get into your traveling dress in three-quarters of an hour, dear, he said to Bell, whom he kissed again with all the ardor of a lover. Then he went up to his room, while Bell supported her honors a while longer in a manner that one admiring ecomiums from certain individuals of the toadying order, who never lose an opportunity of flattering their superiors in station. When it last the bride went upstairs she had little time to spare for dressing, but declined to take her two bridesmaids with her to facilitate the process. A minute later, Marvel, who had accompanied his master to Morby, rushed into the room in which the rest of us were toying with time, and throwing his hands up with a despairing gesture, screamed rather than shouted his dreadful tidings, my master is dead. That was what he had to tell us, send a moment later all was confusion and excitement, which was augmented by the sound of despairing shrieks from above. In common with others my first impulse was to rush upstairs to Bell's room. I arrived first and found her standing in the middle of the floor, alternately screaming and laughing, both screams and laughter being such as can but proceed from the tortured bosom of insanity. Beside her on the floor lay an open letter. I instinctively picked it up and hid it in my pocket before anyone else saw it. I knew without being told that whatever awful tragedy had taken place in the next room was explained in that letter, and that it was the reading of it which had driven my sister mad. There were plenty of affection at hands ready to help the stricken bride, plenty of loving hearts that would feign have lightened her woe, but the blow had been too awful in its suddenness, and had struck when she was least prepared for it, just when she was at the zenith of her triumph and satisfaction. It had extinguished forever the light of reason from that beautiful face, and had transformed the erstwhile smiling bride into a hopeless maniac. Strangely enough, she seems to have forgotten the present, and all memory of ought connected with the family of Great Lent has been wiped off her darkened mind. She will never betray the part she bore in that other tragedy, and the world speaks very pityingly of the beautiful girl whose mental and social life ended on the very day which had witnessed the climax of her ambition. The new Earl of Great Lent, being tender and pitiful, would have established his father's bride of an hour in the Dower House, surrounded by such comfort as she is capable of enjoying. But to this plan neither my father nor Lady Elizabeth were willing to consent, and she still lives at Courtney Grange, one of the saddest wrecks of humanity it is possible to meet with. Interest in her surroundings she takes none, but will sit and babble by the hour of the time when she was a little one, and had no greater trouble than to please an indulgent governess. My father has aged very much of late, and always bears about him the impress of one who has been cruelly stricken by fate. He had almost worshipped his eldest daughter, in whom he saw nothing but physical, mental, and moral perfection. To gaze upon her as she is, and to contrast her present condition with what might have been, is a daily torture to him, which robs his life of much of its former animation and spirit. Seeing how he takes the changed order of things to heart, I often feel thankful that he is quite unsuspicious of the fact that, but for herself, Belle might have been happy in the love of husband and children, even as I am. Lady Elizabeth, too, was greatly grieved for a time, but as her sympathies are widely scattered, and her interest in human nature is keen, she finds sufficient employment for mind and body to keep both in a healthy state of activity. If there is one thing that she is more sorry about than another, it is the fact that she could ever have harbored unworthy suspicions against two people, whom she now firmly believes to be entitled to be numbered among the innocents. Thank God that she has spared the knowledge which I possess. It would kill her. Jerry is now at Cambridge, and bids fair to reward all the hopes centered upon him. As for myself, there is a perpetual problem facing me, and that is, what have I done to deserve all the love and happiness which are showered upon me? Yes, there is one other. How shall I repay Sergius for the transformation he has wrought in my life? I am constantly trying to do it, but never manage it quite to my own satisfaction, though I believe my Russian friends, all of whom now live within a short distance of our house, entertain very exaggerated views concerning my capabilities of making a good wife. There is one other subject upon which the future reader of these memoirs may possibly desire a little enlightenment. He shall have it. Cyril Earl of Greatlands, who is said to have accidentally poisoned himself by swallowing a large dose of chloral in mistake for a milder drug, sleeps by the sight of his ancestors in the Greatlands mausoleum, and only Dennis Marvel, who is now the young Earl's valet and myself, ever dreamed that despair and remorse drove an apparently happy man to sever the life cores which had become a torture to him. So soon as I had an opportunity to do so unobserved, I read the letter which had been the last thing upon which Belle had gazed with the light of reason. My darling wife, it ran. I thought to have overcome the horror which has been resting upon me ever since I became an accursed parasite. My God, how could I do it? And how could you urge me to it? You, whom it would not have been difficult to worship as the outward embodiment of all that is pure and holy. I have often asked myself if I were mad. For I could not otherwise understand how it was possible for me to continue loving the temptress whose ambition has wrought my father's doom and mine. For I am doomed and accursed. My days are filled with loathing of myself, and my nights are one long dream of horror. For me there is no salvation. I see my father's frowning face, and hear his curses even amid the gay talk of the happy folk around us. And it is more than I can bear. Therefore I have put an end to it. When you pick this up from your dressing table, the man who murdered his own father to gratify your ambition and his own greed will be numbered among the dead. But for you, who could coolly plan a murder and yet not be haunted by remorse, life still holds many possibilities. You are now the Countess of Greatlands. I have enabled you to gratify your ambition. In return you can make expiation for your own guilt by devoting your gifts to the interests and benefit of others. This I pray you to do, repentant sinner that I am. This I implore you to do, madly loving husband that I am. This I command you to do, wretched, but my strength fails me. I must bid you an eternal fair well. God bless you, my darling, and may his mercy be given to us both. Zero. I read this letter through, but though it moved me terribly, it told me nothing I did not know already. How would it be with others, though? Would it not enlighten them more than was desirable about secrets that were better kept? I thought so, and I carefully burned the letter, anxiously watching it shrivel beneath the action of the flames, and guarding against the possibility of the smallest fragment escaping to betray the dark mysteries of the past. Does the reader blame me? The end.