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Updated: June 9, 2025
There was some delay in procuring a conveyance to Powyss Place, and the drive was a lengthy one. Twilight had entirely fallen, and lamps glimmered in the windows of the old stone mansion as he alighted. The servant stared, as he ushered him in, at his pale face and dusty garments. "You will tell Miss Darrell I wish to see her at once, and alone," he said, slipping a shilling into the man's hand.
Two weeks later, as June's golden days were drawing to a close, five of Lady Helena's guests departed from Powyss Place. One remained behind. The Stuart family, with the devoted Captain Hammond in Trixy's train, went up to London; Miss Edith Darrell stayed behind.
Inez Catheron might have flown with the dead summer's swallows for all the trace she had left behind. The first week of November brought still another revelation. Sir Victor Catheron had left the Royals; Lady Helena, the squire, the baby, the nurse, Powyss Place. They were all going to the south of France for the young baronet's spirits and health. Catheron Royals, in charge of Mrs. Marsh and Mr.
There seemed to be some foundation for the news. Letters without end kept coming for Mr. Stuart; little boys bearing the ominous orange envelopes of the telegraph company, came almost daily to Powyss Place. After these letters and cable messages the gloom on Mr. Stuart's face deepened and darkened. He lost sleep, he lost appetite; some great and secret fear seemed preying upon him. What was it?
"The ball was held at the De Rooyter house, up the avenue, in honor of their distinguished English guests, Lady Helena Powyss, of Powyss Place, Cheshire, and Sir Victor Catheron, of Catheron Royals, Cheshire. How grand the titles sound! My very pen expands as it writes those patrician names. Lady Helena. Oh, Dithy! how delicious it must be to be, 'My Lady! "What did I wear, you ask?
I would not, could not think. I drove the last warning he had spoken out of my mind. I clenched my teeth I swore that I would not give you up. Not for the raving of a thousand madmen, not for the warning of a thousand dying fathers. From that hour I was a changed man from that hour my doom was sealed. "I returned to Powyss Place, but not as I had left. I was a haunted man.
"Take good care of him, nurse," was Lady Helena's last charge, as she stooped and kissed him, tears in her eyes; "poor little motherless lamb." "I'll guard him with my life, my lady," the girl answered, sturdily. "No harm shall come to him." Lady Helena returned to Powyss Place and her convalescent husband, her heart lying like a stone in her breast.
What did it matter whom it was from what it contained what did anything matter now? His haggard eyes went silently back to the marble face lying among its pillows, so awfully still. Trixy opened and read it. It was from Inez Catheron, and announced the death of her aunt, the Lady Helena Powyss.
And you are the first of your line who has blurred the family escutcheon. Dukes' daughters have entered Catheron Royals as brides. It was left for you to wed a soap-boiler's daughter!" Thus Lady Helena Powyss, of Powyss Place, to her nephew, Sir Victor Catheron, just one fortnight after that memorable night of his wife and heir's coming home.
Fair and sweet surely. Yet why, if innocent, that nervous start at sight of him that frightened look in the blue eyes. The nurse stood at a distance, but he did not heed her. "A summons from Powyss Place," he said; "the poor old squire has had a fit of apoplexy. This is the second within the year, and may prove fatal. I must go at once. It is not likely I shall return to-night."
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