The Volume Of The Sacred Law.

" You have followed us , Richard ? " she asked , as her elaughtei was recovering her presence of mind . " Yes , anel found you . It has been a weary search , and , had I been a poor man , it would have been hopeless ; but the wrong you did me has come home to you at last . You have said you Know me—God grant you do!—but tell me , if you have a heart

> vithin you , who my wife is , whom you call your daughter ? Why is she no lawful wife of mine ? " It was all Gertrude could do to calm him . The spirit was up , undamped by the snow that fell melting from his shoulders , and he faced Mrs . Oakhurst with a determination they had never known

him to possess . " It is a story , Richard , which must be told you now . If you were a wise man you would not force me to disclose the secret of my life , because it will disclose the secret of yours . Better for you if you hael never found us out , for I warn you , my poor boy , my

story will crush you to the dust . ' I have not told Gertrude more than was necessary to make her obey me , and she does not know your true position . " " What position , mother ?" " Never mind that ; we want this terrible story you would seek

to frighten us with . I elect to hear it now before I leave this house , and Gertrude shall remain and hear it with me . " "As you wish , Richard ; but let me make another appeal to your honor not to force me to disclose that which can only cause sorrow and destruction to you . "

" I want it I " was all he said , and she gave it him . Seating herself at the table where the lamp cast its light full upon her face , and with Gertrude and Richard with their arms about each other standing in front of her , she told her story : — " Thirty years ago a man was married to a woman at the Church of St . Martin ' s-in-the-Fifclds . It was a lovely day , and the beautiful

bells in the belfry peeled out a merry chime as the service ended , for it was a Royal birthday , and the town was gay with rejoicings . They lived in a charming house in Devonshire after they were married , and that marriage was likely to prove a blessing to both , for they were passionately attached to each other . One day , purely

by chance , the wife found out that her husband was not the Mr . Nethersole he had represented himself to be , but Lord Crowdley , the heir to the Earldom of Culverhouse , one of the oldest peerages in the kingdom . She kept this secret from her husband , eletermining to leave him at a fitting moment ,

as she foolishly feared his marriage with a plebeian would destroy his whole future life . Providence made that fitting moment for her , and during the absence of her husband she took passage to Australia in the ill-fated London , leaving an

explanation of her conduct and her plans for the future . That ship , as you may have heard , foundered in the Bay of Biscay ; but Mrs . Nethersole was not on board , and that ' s where Providence came in . An accident of the slightest nature prevented her joining the ship , but Lord Crowdley never knew that . They never met , and his lordship , believing his wife to be dead , and forced by family reasons to

marry , did so within a year , and Mrs . Nethersole from that hour dropped out of existence . One tie , however , bound her to the past ; she was confined of a daughter some months after she left her husband . Mother and child went back into Devonshire , and hid themselves from the world . In years to come a

stranger came down to the village , and founel an artist seated on the beach sketching . They fell in love , the stranger and the artist , and were married . A house was purchased for the use of the young bride and her mother , and things went on as peacefully as the river which flowed in front of it . Beneath

that peace a volcano of horrible import was preparing itself , and fate was working to destroy still further the remaining hopes of an unhappy woman . She found out , again , by a cruel chance , that the man who had married her daughter was no other person than the son of the man she herself bad married . The complication was

so terrible she almost lost her reason , anel without consulting any living being she made her way last Christmas Eve into Durham , determined to seek the assistance of the Earl of Culverhouse . She walkeel from Chilldington and waited until she could see him alone . What took place within the library of Culverhouse Court , this night twelve months ago , no man will know ; but the woman gained her

point , and left the house at half-past three in the morning by a private door in the Earl ' s own room . Mrs . Nethersole went back to the house on the banks of the river , and immediately prepared for a second flight , not on this occasion from her own husband , but from the man who had married her daughter . When they reached New

York she heard of the death of Lord Culverhouse from heartdisease . " " Poison , " calmly interrupted the Earl , who was now standing alone as in a trance with his eyes fixed in a gloomy stare upon the features of Mrs . Oakhurst . The word came to her but once and

pierced down deep into her heart . She rose from the chair and staggered towards the man standing before her . She put her hands on his shoulders anel looked him in the face , and then slowly and hoarsely asked him but one question . " Did your father commit suicide ? "

1 he question was never answered . The wretched man could not speak . A heavy sweat poured up through his skin and trickled down on his brows , but there were no tears . He walked over to the window , which hael become snowed up , for the storm had increased its fury and was beating down the wrath of heaven upon the land . Like a thief flying from the hands of judgment he left the house in the manner he had entered it , and never once looked back at the room or at its inmates .

That night a man bereft of his reason crushed his way through the snow and blinding storm just as he had done in another land a year ago . Nature could not deter nor the elements stop him in his mad effort to get away from the last habitation he had entered . Across the Settlement into the main track , which was now trackless , he wandered panting for breath as he struggled on he knew not

whither . Utterly exhausted at last of the inhuman strength he possessed , he reached some buildings , against a door of which he leaned . His weight , and that of the snow which had beaten up against it , sent it open and he struggled inside .

The place was dimly lighted from the ceiling , but he could not notice much . As his eyes became used to the new light , the items in the room were visible to him , and he saw curious things . He saw benches of carved oak , such as he had seen somewhere at Culverhouse . He saw a throne over which angelswere hovering , anel on

^ that throne was seated his father , as he had seen him at the Court . Gradually the room got more distinct , and round him he watched a row of men standing in the regalia of Freemasonry , and singing to the music of sweet echoes which floated in with the snow-flakes through the open door . In the centre of the room was a pedestal ,

upon which was placed a volume of the Sacred Law , open , and with the tools of a Master Mason laid thereon . He saw all . this , and more , but be was mad .

In the morning early , when Mr . Miller , who had stayed at Bill Norton's all night , set out in search of his friend , accompanied by a willing party from the house , they traced a wild passage through the snow to the door of the Lodge-room , at the head of Conway Creek , where the brethren of the Order met from the neighboring

villages ; and stretched upon the sacred book , with his clothes frozen to his back , and his hair and beard one mass of sparkling ice , they found Richard Rawlinson , Earl of Culverhouse , anel Lord of the Manors of Chilldington and Crowdley , in the County of Durham , England , dead . The " Ancestral Feast " of the house of Culverhouse no longer takes place .