The Seven Secrets

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 The Seven Secrets

 BY

 WILLIAM LE QUEUX

 _Author of "The Gamblers," "The Under-Secretary," "Whoso findeth
 a Wife," "Of Royal Blood," etc._

 _Second Edition_

 London:
 HUTCHINSON & CO.
 PATERNOSTER ROW
 1903




 A. C. FOWLER,
 PRINTER,
 MOORFIELDS, LONDON.




WILLIAM LE QUEUX'S NOVELS.


"As a recounter of stories of mingled mystery and adventure, Mr.
William Le Queux is certainly among the best living writers."--_The
Athenaeum._

"It is interesting that Queen Alexandra is a great reader of novels of
mystery and adventure, and that she is one of Mr. Le Queux's most
ardent admirers. Long ago, when his 'Zoraida' was issued, she gave an
order to a well-known Piccadilly bookseller for all Mr. Le Queux's
books, past and future, and an early copy of each of that writer's
books reaches her."--_The Queen._

"The name of William Le Queux is well known to novel-readers as that
of one who can weave the most wonderful mysteries and elaborate the
most thrilling plots that are to be met with in the fiction of to-day.
His books are read with the avidity of intense curiosity, for the
string of events described are of the kind that demand attention until
the end is reached and everything made clear."--_Literary World._

"Mr. William Le Queux's name is favourably known to all readers of
sensational fiction. He elaborates the most wonderful plots, and holds
his reader breathless to the end, for it is only quite at the end that
light is allowed to break through the entanglement of circumstance, or
the perplexities brought about by the shock of temperament."--_Daily
News._

"Mr. William Le Queux's novels are one of my chief foibles. I can
always read his stories greedily, and 'Free Lancers' should buy his
books."--Mr. CLEMENT SCOTT in the _Free Lance._

_Crown 8vo, 6s._

THE UNDER-SECRETARY. Third Edition.

THE GAMBLERS. Second Edition.

OF ROYAL BLOOD. Third Edition.




CONTENTS.


 CHAPTER                                                    PAGE

      I.  INTRODUCES AMBLER JEVONS                            9

     II.  "A VERY UGLY SECRET"                               15

    III.  THE COURTENAYS                                     20

     IV.  A NIGHT CALL                                       27

      V.  DISCLOSES A MYSTERY                                33

     VI.  IN WHICH I MAKE A DISCOVERY                        43

    VII.  THE MAN SHORT AND HIS STORY                        54

   VIII. AMBLER JEVONS IS INQUISITIVE                        65

     IX.  SHADOWS                                            76

      X.  WHICH PUZZLES THE DOCTORS                          87

     XI.  CONCERNS MY PRIVATE AFFAIRS                        98

    XII.  I RECEIVE A VISITOR                               109

   XIII.  MY LOVE                                           119

    XIV.  IS DISTINCTLY CURIOUS                             128

     XV.  I AM CALLED FOR CONSULTATION                      139

    XVI.  REVEALS AN ASTOUNDING FACT                        150

   XVII.  DISCUSSES SEVERAL MATTERS                         162

  XVIII.  WORDS OF THE DEAD                                 173

    XIX. JEVONS GROWS MYSTERIOUS                            183

     XX. MY NEW PATIENT                                     194

    XXI. WOMAN'S WILES                                      203

   XXII.  A MESSAGE                                         215

  XXIII.  THE MYSTERY OF MARY                               226

   XXIV.  ETHELWYNN IS SILENT                               236

    XXV. FORMS A BEWILDERING ENIGMA                         249

   XXVI. AMBLER JEVONS IS BUSY                              256

  XXVII. MR. LANE'S ROMANCE                                 274

 XXVIII. "POOR MRS. COURTENAY!"                             281

   XXIX. THE POLICE ARE AT FAULT                            290

    XXX. SIR BERNARD'S DECISION                             298

   XXXI. CONTAINS THE PLAIN TRUTH                           306




THE SEVEN SECRETS.




CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCES AMBLER JEVONS.


"Ah! You don't take the matter at all seriously!" I observed, a trifle
annoyed.

"Why should I?" asked my friend, Ambler Jevons, with a deep pull at
his well-coloured briar. "What you've told me shows quite plainly that
you have in the first place viewed one little circumstance with
suspicion, then brooded over it until it has become magnified and now
occupies your whole mind. Take my advice, old chap, and think nothing
more about it. Why should you make yourself miserable for no earthly
reason? You're a rising man--hard up like most of us--but under old
Eyton's wing you've got a brilliant future before you.