Produced by Al Haines

MAY BROOKE

MRS. ANNA H. DORSEY

P. J. KENEDY & SONS

NEW YORK AND PHILADELPHIA

BY

P. J. KENEDY.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

I.—UNCLE STILLINGHAST II.—MAY BROOKE III.—THE MORNING ERRAND IV.—AUNT MABEL V.—PAST AND PRESENT VI.—HELEN VII.—THINGS OF TIME AND ETERNITY VIII.—TROUBLED WATERS IX.—TRIALS X.—THE WARNING XI.—THE MIDNIGHT MESSENGER XII.—REPENTANCE XIII.—THE NEW WILL XIV.—THE SECRET SIN XV.—THE DISCOVERY XVI.—THE DEATH DREAM XVII.—REMORSE XVIII.—REPENTANCE XIX.—CONCLUSION

CONSCIENCE;

OR,

THE TRIALS OF MAY BROOKE.

CHAPTER I.

UNCLE STILLINGHAST.

"Do you think they will be here to-night, sir?"

"Don't know, and don't care."

"The road is very bad,"—after a pause, "that skirts the Hazelproperty."

"Well, what then; what then, little May?"

"The carriage might be overturned, sir; or, the horses might shy alittle to the left, and go over the precipice into the creek."

"Is that all?"

"Is it not dreadful to think of, sir?"

"Well, I don't know; I should be sorry to lose the horses—"

"Oh, sir! and my cousin! Did you forget her?"

"I care nothing about her. I suppose my forefathers must havecommitted some crime for which I am to suffer, by being made,willy-nilly, the guardian of two silly, mawkish girls."

"But, sir, you have been very kind to me, and it shall be the endeavorof my life to prove my gratitude."

"Very fine, without being in the least consoling! I'd as lief have twoAfrican monkeys under my care—don't laugh—it exasperates, and makesme feel like doing as I should do, if I had the cursed animals—"

"How is that, sir?"

"Beat you. I hate womankind. Most of all do I hate them in theirtransition stages. They are like sponges, and absorb every particle ofevil that the devil sprinkles in the air, until they learn to be younghypocrites—triflers—false—heartless."

"Oh, dear uncle! has such been your experience? Have you ever met withsuch women?"

"Have I ever met with such women, you holy innocent? I have never metwith any other. Now, be still."

"Oh! Uncle Stillinghast—"

"What!"

"I pity you, sir; indeed, I pity you. Something very dreadful must intimes past have embittered you—"

"You are a fool, little May. Don't interrupt me again at your peril."

"No, sir."

And so there was a dead silence, except when the rain and sleet lashedthe window-panes, or a lump of coal crumbled into a thousand glowingfragments, and opened a glowing abyss in the grate; or the cat uncurledherself on the rug, and purred, while she fixed her great winking eyeson the blaze. The two persons who occupied the room were an old manand a young maiden. He was stern, and sour-looking, as he sat in hishigh-back leather chair, with a pile of ledgers on the table beforehim,—the pages of which he examined with the mos

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