Part 12 (2/2)

”I can't think Aered to a chair

”Mad, indeed,” said his aunt, bitterly ”Come away, Laura, and leave him to his conscience Better if it had been as you and poor Isabel thought--that he had ht her niece by the arm, but Laura shook herself free and took a step or tards where, in his utter despair, Chester sat bent doith his head resting in his hands But he made no movement, and with a bitter sob she turned and followed her aunt from the rooood forty-eight hours before Chester could think clearly His aunt had sternly avoided his room, and he had been dependent upon Laura, who attended hi pains in his head She hardly spoke, but saw to his wants as a sisterly duty, and felt that silent reproach was better than words to one who had proved hiate

”I can't understand it,” she said to herself again and again ”It is so unlike hiive him--in tiht how her brother blessed her for her silence, as he lay struggling to get behind that black curtain; but all in vain

He was sleeping heavily on the third night, when he suddenly woke up with the one The pain had passed away, and his brain felt clear and bright once more

He remembered perfectly now The scene with Marion after his triu past Their e of the saturnine head of the house, and the struggle, all caraphic minuteness He recalled, too, how in the encounter when he had forced his adversary back over the edge of the table, he felt that an effort was being reat athletic brother ca on the folly of the encounter at such a tie that I can remember it all so clearly now,” muttered Chester ”Yes, he said that it was over a dispute He would not acknowledge the real cause, and she did not speak The scoundrel; he had been persecuting her with his addresses I see now; that must have been the cause of the first trouble Her brother was defending her from him”

Then he recalled how the pair went away, and that the old housekeeper stayed, while Marion sat by the patient's side, avoiding his gaze, and as if repenting that she had given way to her feelings

A tray was brought in by Paddy, so that the housekeeper should not leave the rooh, for so the part of servant to them, till they had all partaken scantily of the excellentto Marion alone

Chester lay for so excited by the recollections, and a strange dread had coain; but the adventures of that night ca of Paddy once ht in a tray with coffee and four cups, which he filled and handed to each of those present Yes, Chester remembered how the housekeeper refused, and Paddy spoke--

”Nonsense, old lady! take it; we can't stand on ceremony now, you may have to be up for hours”

Then the old housekeeper took the cup, and the young ared his own coffee very liberally, and added plenty of creaood-humouredly, ”but I like it sweet So you feel now that poor Bob will be all right?”

”Yes, I have no doubt of it”

”Thanks to you,” said the young man, and he advanced and took Chester's e the roo a little drowsy after this, and then in a drea upon the patient's pillow

Noelse, but consideration filled up the gap The elder brother, satisfied that the patient's life was saved, was desirous of ridding the house of the doctor's presence, the more so now that he had discovered the relations which had sprung up between hiht Chester ”Thather, and the brother was shot down in defending his sister”

Chester shi+vered now, and his brain grew hot, as he saw clearly enough all that re a drug, and Paddy had taken care that they should go to those for whoh Paddy orking in his brother's interest, and he was the big friend who had taken him first to the Circus, and then placed him in another cab, with instructions to the man

”Well,”to sit down calain”

Then he tre sensation came once more But it passed off, and he felt that hesleep, when he hoped to be quite restored

He lay trying now to forget all that had passed, so as to rest for a while; but sleep would not co but dwell upon his adventures at that e The servants had evidently been sent away, so that they h to prove a murder He wanted to know of none other cause for the quarrel His patienthis sister fro, unprincipled scoundrel who see, an intense desire came over him to learn more of the family who had literally imprisoned him, and kept him there all those days When there, it had seemed for the most part like soue intangibility of those nights and days appeared to hie than ever; so much so, that there were moments when he was ready to ask hiination

He recalled all the actors in the little social draht, and who dropped out of sight afterwards; the two ladies--the wives of the brothers--both quiet, startled-looking wo the latest fashi+ons at so of the Four-in-Hand Club, and evidently slaves of their husbands--and he recalled no the wife of the elder brother see ht to himself as he turned from side to side, ”and I cannot--I will not, sit down and patiently bear such treatood excuse,” he said half aloud and with a bitter laugh; ”there is ely ”If I am to prove a scoundrel, I will be an honest one I will ferret out who and what they are I behaved like a child in not having so passively as I did without reason--no, not without reason I could not help it Heaven help ain It is fate!”