THE LIVING LINK.

A Novel.

BY JAMES DE MILLE,

Author of "The Dodge Club," "Cord and Creese," "The Cryptogram," "The
American Baron," &c, &c.



THE LIVING LINK.

* * * * *




CHAPTER I.


A TERRIBLE SECRET.

On a pleasant evening in the month of May, 1840, a group of young ladies
might have been seen on the portico of Plympton Terrace, a fashionable
boarding-school near Derwentwater. They all moved about with those
effusive demonstrations so characteristic of young girls; but on this
occasion there was a general hush among them, which evidently arose from
some unusual cause. As they walked up and down arm in arm, or with arms
entwined, or with clasped hands, as young girls will, they talked in low