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Transcriber's Note:

  Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
  been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

  Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal
  signs=.

  On page 202, a reference to "Uncle John" has been changed to "Uncle
  Joseph."




  [Illustration: "I SIT DOWN UNASKED, AND I ANNOUNCE MY OWN NAME--ANDREW
   TREVERTON."--[SEE PAGE 352.]]




     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-house
situated on the west coast of Cornwall. The speakers were two of the
men-servants composing the establishment of Captain Treverton, an
officer in the navy, and the eldest male representative of an old
Cornish family. Both the servants communicated with each other
restrainedly, in whispers--sitting close together, and looking round
expectantly toward the door whenever the talk flagged between them.

"It's an awful thing," said the elder of the men, "for us two to be
alone here, at this dark time, counting out the minutes that our
mistress has left to live!"

"Robert," said the other, "you have been in the service here since you
were a boy--did you ever hear that our mistress was 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 those bells yet?"
exclaimed Robert, contemptuously. "That bell is for Sarah Leeson. Go
out into the passage and look."

The younger servant took a candle and obeyed. When he opened the
kitchen-door, a long row of bells met his eye on the wall opposite.
Above each of them was painted, in neat black letters, the
distinguishing title of the servant whom it was specially intended to
summon. The row of letters began with Housekeeper and Butler, and
ended with Kitchen-maid and Footman's Boy.

Looking along the bells, Mathew easily discovered that one of them was
still in motion. Above it were the words Lady's-Maid. Observing this,
he passed quickly along the passage, and knocked at an old-fashioned
oak door at the end of it. No answer being given, he opened the door
and looked into the room. It was dark and empty.

"Sarah is not in the housekeeper's room," said Mathew, returning to
his fellow-servant in the kitchen.

"She is gone to her own room, then," rejoined the other. "Go up and
tell her that she is wanted by her mistress."

The bell rang again as Mathew went out.

"Quick!--quick!" cried Robert. "Tell her she is wanted directly.
Wanted," he continued to himself in lower tones, "perhaps for the last
time!"

Mathew ascended three flights of stairs--passed half-way down