Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) A WOMAN'S BURDEN A NOVEL BY FERGUS HUME _Author of "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab," "The Expedition of Captain Flick," "The Mystery of Landy Court," "The Lone Inn," etc._ THIRD EDITION LONDON JARROLD & SONS, 10 & 11, WARWICK LANE, E.C. [_All Rights Reserved_] CONTENTS. PROLOGUE. I. A QUEER ADVENTURE II. A STRANGE ARRANGEMENT PART I. I. MRS. DACRE DARROW II. A RED RAG TO A BULL III. POVERTY HALL IV. MR. BARTON'S VISITOR V. BEHIND THE SCENES VI. MRS. DARROW'S BOMBSHELL VII. IN THE WOODS VIII. SHORTY IX. THE SHADOW X. THE SQUIRE'S SECRET XI. UNMASKED XII. MIRIAM KEEPS AN APPOINTMENT XIII. MRS. DARROW BECOMES REFRACTORY XIV. ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT XV. A NINE DAYS' WONDER XVI. A LITTLE FEMININE DIPLOMACY XVII. A ROMAN FATHER XVIII. THE REWARD OF MIRIAM PART II. I. 5A, ROSARY MANSIONS II. JABEZ REDIVIVUS III. MRS. PARSLEY'S PROTÉGÉ IV. DICKY'S DISCOVERY V. JUST IN TIME VI. SOME MUTUAL COMPLIMENTS AND A CONFESSION VII. MRS. DARROW SYMPATHISES VIII. MRS. PARSLEY SEES A GHOST IX. MORE TROUBLE X. THE MAJOR'S POINT OF VIEW XI. IN THE DEPTHS XII. JABEZ SEEKS AN OLD FRIEND XIII. THE END OF GERALD ARKEL XIV. A QUEER STORY QUEERLY TOLD EPILOGUE PROLOGUE. CHAPTER I. A QUEER ADVENTURE. It was midnight--midnight on Waterloo Bridge. A plague was over the city--the concentrated vomit of a million and more chimneys wrapped all in an Egyptian darkness. The miracle of Moses could not have produced a deeper gloom--an atmosphere more impenetrable. It clung to the skin, it even pressed against the eyeballs. It might in truth have been that very outer darkness which we are taught is reserved for those amongst us who are sinners. Big Ben and his brethren of the steeples struck a muffled twelve, seeming to insist upon their strokes the more as if they knew their dials were hidden from all sight. The very gas lamps entered into rivalry, some looming out mere splotches of dirty yellow light, while here and there one more modern than its fellows managed successfully to penetrate the gloom. The bridge leapt across the river from fog-bank to fog-bank, like the bridge in Mira's vision, and if the chill mist lifted a trifle toward the centre, it was but a matter of a few feet. And above it all presumably there shone the stars and moon in their spacious firmament, they and their kindly influence shut out, it might be for ever, by the relentless pall.