FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131  
132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   >>  
n as she was out of sight. And now Winifred was at the front door, timidly pulling a bell. A man strolled with a marked limp around the house from a conservatory. He was a tall, strongly built person, and something in the dimly seen outline sent a thrill of apprehension through her. But the door opened. "I have come--" she began. The words died away in sheer affright. Glowering at her, with a queer look of gratified menace, was Rachel Craik! "So I see," was the grim retort. "Come in, Winnie, by all means. Where have you been all these weeks?" "There is some mistake," she faltered, white with sudden terror and nameless suspicions. "My agent told me to come here--" "Quite right. Be quick, or you'll miss the last train home," growled the voice of Voles behind her. Roughly, though not violently, he pushed her inside, and the door closed. He snapped at Rachel: "She'd be yelling for help in another second, and you never know who may be passing." Now, Winifred was not of the order of women who faint in the presence of danger. Her love had given her a great strength; her suffering had deepened her fine nature; and her very soul rebelled against the cruel subterfuge which had been practised to separate her from her lover. She saw, with the magic intuition of her sex, that the very essence of a deep-laid plot was that Rex and she should be kept apart. The visit of Mrs. Carshaw, then, was only a part of the same determined scheme? Rex's mother had been a puppet in the hands of those who carried her to Connecticut, who strove so determinedly to take her away when Carshaw put in an appearance, and who had tricked her into keeping this bogus appointment. She would defy them, face death itself rather than yield. In the America of to-day, nothing short of desperate crime could long keep her from Rex's arms. What a weak, silly, romantic girl she had been not to trust in him absolutely! The knowledge nerved her to a fine scorn. "What right have you to treat me in this way?" she cried vehemently. "You have lied to me; brought me here by a forged letter. Let me go instantly, and perhaps my just indignation may not lead me to tell my agent how you have dared to use his name with false pretense." "Ho, ho!" sang out Voles. "The little bird pipes an angry note. Be pacified, my sweet linnet. You were getting into bad company. It was the duty of your relatives to rescue you." "My relatives! Who are they who cla
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131  
132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   >>  



Top keywords:
Rachel
 

Carshaw

 

relatives

 
Winifred
 

carried

 

essence

 

strove

 

America

 

scheme

 

appearance


tricked

 
determined
 

puppet

 
mother
 
desperate
 

keeping

 

Connecticut

 

appointment

 

determinedly

 

pretense


pacified

 

rescue

 

linnet

 

company

 

absolutely

 
knowledge
 

nerved

 

romantic

 

instantly

 

indignation


letter

 

vehemently

 
brought
 

forged

 

nature

 

menace

 

gratified

 

affright

 

Glowering

 

retort


mistake
 
faltered
 

terror

 

sudden

 

Winnie

 
opened
 

marked

 
conservatory
 
strolled
 

timidly