Transcriber's Note:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation in the originaldocument have been preserved.
On page 202, a reference to "Uncle John" has been changed to "Uncle Joseph."
"I SIT DOWN UNASKED, AND I ANNOUNCE MY OWN NAME—ANDREW TREVERTON."
THE DEAD SECRET
A Novel.
By WILKIE COLLINS,
AUTHOR OF
"THE WOMAN IN WHITE," "POOR MISS FINCH," "NO NAME,"
"MAN AND WIFE," "THE MOONSTONE," &c.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1874.
Wilkie Collins's Novels.
HARPER'S ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY EDITION.
12mo, Cloth, $1 50 per Volume.
- ARMADALE.
- BASIL.
- HIDE-AND-SEEK.
- THE NEW MAGDALEN.
- NO NAME.
- MAN AND WIFE.
- POOR MISS FINCH.
- THE MOONSTONE.
- THE WOMAN IN WHITE.
- THE DEAD SECRET.
- QUEEN OF HEARTS.
Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by
Harper & Brothers,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
THE DEAD SECRET.
BOOK I.
CHAPTER I.
THE TWENTY-THIRD OF AUGUST, 1829.
"Will she last out the night, I wonder?"
"Look at the clock, Mathew."
"Ten minutes past twelve! She has lasted the night out.She has lived, Robert, to see ten minutes of the new day."
These words were spoken in the kitchen of a large country-housesituated on the west coast of Cornwall. The speakerswere two of the men-servants composing the establishmentof Captain Treverton, an officer in the navy, and the eldestmale representative of an old Cornish family. Both theservants communicated with each other restrainedly, in whispers—sittingclose together, and looking round expectantlytoward the door whenever the talk flagged between them.
"It's an awful thing," said the elder of the men, "for ustwo to be alone here, at this dark time, counting out theminutes that our mistress has left to live!"
"Robert," said the other, "you have been in the servicehere since you were a boy—did you ever hear that our mistresswas a play-actress when our master married her?"
"How came you to know that?" inquired the elder servant,sharply.
"Hush!" cried the other, rising quickly from his chair.
A bell rang in the passage outside.
"Is that for one of us?" asked Mathew.
"Can't you tell, by the sound, which is which of thosebells yet?" exclaimed Robert, contemptuously. "That bellis for Sarah Leeson. Go out into the passage and look."
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