CHAPTER XXXV.

"Lynde is down-stairs, asking for you, Leonie. I don't think you are well enough to see him, but Mr. Pryor insisted that I should ask you. What shall I say to him, dear?"

Edith Pyne bent and kissed her cousin affectionately, as she asked the question, and Leonie's eyes filled with tears. Kindness had never seemed to affect her so much as since the death of poor Liz, and she had never received more of it. They all seemed to vie with each other in their attempts to do most to make her comfortable, and in consequence kept her in a state bordering on hysteria.

"I will go down to see him, of course," she returned, with a little quiet smile. "You are all too good to me. You will make a perfect baby of me if this continues."

She arose, and assisted by Edith, made her way down-stairs; but at the door of the library the support was withdrawn, and she was left to enter alone.

She did not notice the fact, as she thought she should find all the family gathered there, if she thought of it at all; but she seemed to understand when she saw that the room contained Lynde Pyne alone.

A dainty crimson overspread her face, but controlling her timidity, she entered and quietly placed her hand in the one extended.

Lynde drew her down beside him upon a sofa before either of them spoke.

"I expected to see you more exhausted, after the trying scenes through which you have passed," he said gently. "I am pleased to see you looking so well."

"Edith and the rest have been trying to persuade me that I was in a fit state for rapid decline, or nervous prostration," she answered, with an attempt at lightness. "It is quite a relief to hear you say to the contrary."

"Not at all. I never saw you look better."

"I am sorry that I cannot say the same for you. You seem harrassed, haggard. Tell me, will you not, how things are going? I have been so anxious to know; but no one knew, or if they did, refused to tell me."

"It has distressed me! I never knew how few friends I had until now. I cannot procure the amount of bail required for--Evelyn, and surely you know what the result of that will be. She is in the Tombs in a state of mind bordering upon insanity. I know that I should not tell you this, and yet, you may be able to help me. The men whom I have accounted my friends refuse to go on the bond for me, saying that she would but escape, and I should be left with an amount to pay that would ruin me, as, of course, I have offered to make the amount good in the event of an accident. Even Mr. Pryor swears at me when I insist upon it that he must do as I say. But if you would speak to him the effect might be different."

"It is so good of you to take this interest in her. If there is anything that I can do, you may be sure that I will with all my heart. Oh, Lynde, I tried so hard to spare her. I entreated her to see the condition in which she was placing herself, but she would not. Why, upon the night that we were all arrested, I told her of the papers that were in my possession--papers that I had no wish should ever come before the public. I did not even ask her to resign her position as the daughter of Leonard Chandler, but I could not see her become your wife knowing that she was a---- I cannot say the word. The thought of it is hideous to me!"

"But it has not released me from my promise, Leonie."

"What! You would not marry her now?"

"I must."

"You are mad!"

"I sometimes think I am going mad! She holds the most solemn pledge from me that man could give to woman, and I have not the power to break it. But let us leave this subject! It is not a safe one for you and me to speak upon. You will do what you can with Mr. Pryor?"

"I will."

"There was another thing that I wished to speak to you about. I have engaged one of my friends, a lawyer of considerable prominence, to examine the original records and prove that your mother's marriage to Ben Mauprat was not legal, in order that your claim to the fortune your father left may not admit of question. It may be rather painful for you, but be assured that all will be done to spare your feelings that can be. You will trust me for that, will you not?"

"I don't think I quite understand you. You say that you have engaged a lawyer for me?"

"Yes."

"To prove my claim to the fortune your uncle left?"

"To the fortune your father left."

"No one can lay a claim to that in my name without my sanction, can they?"

"Of course not."

"And I have authorized no one to do it. I have already said that I have no right to that money, and no intention of having it! It is yours, and yours it shall remain."

He looked at her a moment in stupefied silence, then placed his hand very gently on hers.

"And you think that I am so little a man that I would receive what is yours by every right under Heaven? You think that I would rob a girl to enrich myself?"

She lifted her sweet eyes pleadingly.

"It is not that!" she cried earnestly. "It was never meant for me, and I should always feel that I was using that to which I had no right, that I was living upon charity so to speak! It would eternally hang like a stone about my neck, dragging me to a premature death. You must not ask me to do it, Lynde, for indeed I cannot!"

"But consider, dear; even were I to do the contemptible thing you wish, your heirs could one day come forward and demand their rights of me, and there is not a law under the sun that would not give it to them. You see I should but become a trustee, after all, responsible in the years to come for that of which, very likely, I should not take the best of care. There is nothing for it, Leonie, but for you to accept that which is yours by every right, and of which you have been robbed so long."

Her lovely face had grown almost sullen.

A slow, determined light was burning in her eyes, her hand loosened itself from his, and she arose slowly to her feet.

"If that is all that you have come to say, let me settle it with you as I have with Mr. Pryor, who has ceased to bother me upon the subject. I will not touch one cent of that money. I did not sell my sister to a prison for the sake of gaining a few paltry dollars, and I will not have it appear even to myself that I did. If there were no other reason than that, it would still be enough."

Lynde arose and stood before her.

His face was deadly pale and quivering with the suppression he was putting upon himself, but he was very quiet, for all that.

"It seems too absurd," he said slowly, "for us to be standing here fighting like two children over who shall and who shall not have the money. Your argument is unreasonable. You might as well say that I am selling my cousin to a prison in that I contemplate prosecuting him for the concealment of his knowledge in this affair. There is just one thing that I wish to say to you, and that is that I shall never touch a dollar of the money which no more belongs to me than it does to Evelyn Chandler. If you wish Luis Kingsley to have possession of it, a man who until a few days ago, was a stranger to you, why, I have nothing to say."

She looked at him for some time incredulously, then:

"You don't really mean that!" she exclaimed. "You would never do anything so mad!"

"It contains less of madness than the absurdity you contemplate. I swear to you that I do mean it. I will never touch it!"

She hesitated a moment, her eyes filling with tears, then went a step toward him, laying her hand upon his arm timidly.

"At least we can come to a compromise, Cousin Lynde," she said, with strong emphasis upon the relationship. "The money was left to you; you say it is mine by right of my unfortunate birth, which never was intended. Very well! I will agree to accept one-half if you will take the other. Surely you can see the justice in that! I tell you frankly, that if you refuse, Luis Kingsley may have the money!"

He saw that she meant it.

If he only could have said to her what was in his heart! If he only had had the privilege to propose to her the compromise that was hovering upon his lips, he would have felt himself the happiest of men, but honor closed his lips.

He had not answered her, when Andrew Pryor entered.

"Well!" he exclaimed, "what understanding have you two arrived at?"

"None!" returned Leonie, turning to him, desperately. "Oh, sir, I wish you would make him see that I am right and he is wrong! I wish you would make him understand how impossible it is for me to do as he thinks I should! You see it as I do, do you not? At least he should take half!"

"That seems to me fair enough, Lynde, unless you could name a different compromise!"

He laughed as the remark was made, but would have recalled it if he could, when he saw the expression of both countenances.

"You must give me time to think of it!" cried Pyne, speaking hastily, to cover his confusion. "That is a proposition that I never thought of before. I will call about it to-morrow; and in the meantime, Leonie, see what you can do about the other matter that I spoke to you of, will you not?"

She was about to reply, when the door opened to admit a servant, followed by a messenger.

"For Mr. Pyne!" the servant announced, handing the brownish envelope to Lynde.

"Have I your permission?" asked Pyne, glancing from Leonie to Mr. Pryor, as he held the message in his hand.

Receiving their permission, he tore the end off and read hastily. A frown contracted his brow; then, with the ghastliness of death covering his face, he read it aloud:

"DEAR PYNE,--A message just came for you from the Tombs to the effect that a terrible thing has happened there, and your presence is desired at once. From all accounts you need not distress yourself further about bail for your fair client. I send this to Mr. Pryor's in the hope that it may find you.

"Yours in haste,

"DOWNING."

Neither of the distressed listeners spoke until he had reached the door to answer the imperative call. Then, with a bound, Leonie was beside him.

"If anything has happened you will let me know, will you not?" she asked, her voice not more than a whisper. "You know what I mean. I should like to see her before----"

"Let us hope that it is nothing of that kind!" returned Lynde, his throat seeming to close over the words. "Surely God will give her time for repentance!"