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A Terrible Secret by May Agnes Fleming
page 43 of 573 (07%)
the distant dinner-room. Lady Catheron rose to her feet, uttered a
hasty and incoherent apology, and ran from the room.

She did not return. Peace reigned, the infant heir of the Catherons
was soothed, but his mamma went downstairs no more that night. She
lingered in the nursery for over an hour. Somehow by her baby's side
she felt a sense of peace and safety. She dreaded to meet her husband.
What must he think of her? She had stooped to concealment, to
falsehood--would he ever love her or trust her again?

She went at last to her rooms. On the dressing-table waxlights
burned, but the bedroom was unlit. She seated herself by the window
and looked out at the starlit sky, at the darkly-waving trees of the
park. "And this is my welcome home," she thought, "to find in my
husband's house my rival and enemy, whose first look, whose first
words are insults. She is mistress here, not I. And that fatal folly
of my childhood come back. That horrible man!" She shuddered as she
sat alone. "Ah, why did I not tell, why did mamma beg me to hide it
from him? She was so afraid he would have gone--so afraid her daughter
would miss a baronet, and I--I was weak and a coward. No, it is all
over--he will never care for me, never trust me again."

He came in as she sat there, mournful and alone. In the dusk of the
chamber the little half-hidden white figure caught his eye, the golden
hair glimmering through the dusk.

"Ethel," he said, "is that window open? Come away immediately--you
will take cold in the draught."

He spoke gently but very coldly as he had never spoken to her before.
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