The Argosy, Vol. 66

# Colonel Fane's Secret

This November 1898 Argosy installment continues the serial "Colonel Fane's Secret" by Sydney Honckes. The narrative centers on a long-concealed family secret involving Hugh Chetwode, who has relocated to Sydney, Australia with his wife Grace, while corresponding with a woman named Vera about an impossible love. Meanwhile, Lord Seagrove receives a mysterious letter from dying Major-General John Watson revealing that Seagrove's sister, Lady Vera Colborne—believed dead twenty-three years prior—actually survived catalepsy (a death-like state) and was spirited away by Colonel Fane, who loved her. Watson recounts how Fane discovered Vera alive in her coffin, removed her secretly, and married her. Watson provides details of the clandestine rescue and her recovery at Fane's house, leaving Lord Seagrove astounded by this revelation concerning his supposedly deceased sister and her unknown daughter.