THE MILL HOUSE MYSTERY BY FLORENCE WARDEN AUTHOR OF “THE INN BY THE SHORE,” “THE HOUSE ON THE MARSH,” ETC. LONDON JARROLD & SONS, WARWICK LANE, E.C. CONTENTS. I. AN ACCIDENT II. RHODA PEMBURY’S DISCOVERY III. TEN YEARS AFTER IV. RHODA RETURNS TO MILL-HOUSE V. LADY SARAH’S RECOGNITION VI. JACK ROTHERFIELD VII. THE SCARRED HAND VIII. THE MISSING SNUFF-BOXES IX. RHODA’S WATCHFULNESS X. THE STOLEN “ROMNEY” XI. THE PICTURE RECOVERED XII. LADY SARAH’S DUPLICITY XIII. SIR ROBERT SEEKS ADVICE XIV. JACK ROTHERFIELD’S EFFRONTERY XV. SELF-ACCUSATIONS XVI. A FRUSTRATED ELOPEMENT XVII. SIR ROBERT’S PLANS XVIII. THE COMPANION’S ORDEAL XIX. OTHERWISE THAN INTENDED XX. SIR ROBERT’S SECRET THE MILL HOUSE MYSTERY CHAPTER I. AN ACCIDENT The July sun was pouring floods of blinding, glaring light upon the town of Dourville, which, lying in a great chasm between two high white lines of cliff, and straggling under the foot of them to east and west, bears witness, in its massive castle, and in its old relics of stone buildings among the commonplace iron frames and plate-glass windows of the new, to the notable part it has taken in England’s history. The long straight road that goes northwards up through the town and out of the town, rising, at first by slow degrees, and latterly by a steep ascent, to a point from which one can look down upon town and sea, soon leaves small shops for queer old-fashioned rows of houses; and these in their turn give place to roomy old residences of greater pretension. At the back of one of these, a sombre, plain building, roomy rather than dignified, there stretches a splendid expanse of garden and pleasaunce, where a stream runs among meadows and lawns in a direct line towards the sea. This stream once supplied the power that worked a great paper-mill, which was the foundation of the prosperity of the Hadlow family. But three generations back, the reigning Hadlow, more enterprising than his predecessors, had speculated outside his little world, had prospered, and finally blossomed into the great philanthropist, whose magnificent endowment of certain royal charities had earned him a baronetcy. Rich as the family had grown, the Hadlows clung to the old nest with a pertinacity which had in it something of dignity; and only the condition in which the grounds were kept, nothing in the appearance of the house itself, would have betrayed that now, under the third baronet, the place was the property of a man of great wealth.