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