A MATTER OF MILLIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 286, 4 December 1890, Page 6

A MATTER OF MILLIONS.

SY OBBS*, Author of tae Leavenworth Case,' "The jjipjiken Inn,' Etc., l^tc.

WOK THIRD. — A MORTAL STRUGGLE.

CHAPTER XXXIX. , : /OTHER TURN OF THE WHEEL,

tt.jLton Degeav %vas not in the painti"c n mood. Hβ had taken up his brush m h than once, but bad repeatedly laid idown again, only to fling _ib away atl a ?t i despair. lie was expecting a reply to iis note, and was now" pacing the length of his studio, with his eye on the floor, ior lie was sure he had heard the postman's whistle in the hall below. But minutes passed, and no letter was thrusb under the door. Ho must wait another dreary three hours, unless— Ah, fresh steps! This time, dainty and womanly'ones. Are they coming to this door? Yes. And will he hear a knock? Yes. But he does not oxpecc the fagure he sees blushing on the threshold. No heart throb had told him that she would be there. And yet, there she is in all her charm and beauty, and, though not alone —as, indeed he would not wish her to be —welcome beyond all expression ; for this visit assures him withoutdoubt or suspense, that she, indeed, loves him and intends to jbe his wife. His looks speak his greeting. ' Enter '.' he cries. ' Enter, Miss Borers : enter, my dear Mrs Dutton. My studio is honoured by your presence. All, I have often wished that you would visit me here, if only to see this siietch of Miss Aspimvall. It is thought to be one of my most successful efforts.' Jenny's eyes, which had boeh roaming with visible curiosity through a spot which inighb soon be her only refuge, turned at these words, and followed his pointing fin- • Oh, how lovely !' sbt cried. ' When did you paint this ? Uae B. ilary scon ib V ' No, I have nob felt at liberty to show it to Miss AspiuwalK It is an idealised sketch, you see. I call it "A loet's Dream." ' 'Ah, , murmured Jenny, with a Wistful tone in her voice, •I have another picture which I call " Love's Reality, , " he tenderly observed, taking advantago of Mrs Dutfcon's coufiiderate pre-occupation wibh the sketches she saw everywhere displayed. ' Can you guess who was my model for that 5' Jenny's eye 3 mcc his, and he thought he never saw her look moro glowing. 'May I guess thab it is your future wife?' glie whispered. Wibh difficulty he suppressed the impulse to clasp her then and thoro to hia heart. Bub he pressed her hand, which had boeqohow stolen toward his own, and his face told all the re3b. • Oh, my darling !' ho breathed. • Would sre were alone for one short minute !' 'We are,' she laughed. 'Mra Dutton is very shorb-sighted, and so deaf, when she thinks ib best to be, thab she cannot raally be looked upon as an intruder. Yeb, I do nob mean for you to forget tho proprieties,' ehe naively insinuated, as he approached his arm toward her waist. ' Wo can talk unj restrainedly and tlmb is a great priviloge, for we have much to say to each other, have we not ?' ' Much ; we have to plan for a life-time,' he declared- ' And you have to explain why yon left me for three days, hovering between hopo and despair.' His face fell; a shadow flitted dark and threatening across hia satisfaction. ' Are you going to press me for that ?' his Jook appeared to'ask. Her look responded, ' Certainly; can you think me capable of ignoring such neglect ?' He sighed, and reluctantly admitted; ' I have had a groab deal to try me lately, Jenny. I have a friond upon whose judgment I rely, and this friend, for some renson impossible for me to fathom, has received an inexplicable distrust of you. , 'And who—?' she bogan, but she .had pot courage to continue. She felt an if an axe had been laid at the root of hoc happiness. 'It is a parson whoso name ifc seems an Indignity to you to mention,' he responded, *yeb is a noble fellow and a gentleman, I allude to Mr Byrd, Jenny.' • Mr Byrd !' How wud her eyes looked; and her speech, how thick it sounded. 'I distress you,' he objected. 'This is not talk for such a day as this. Let us emit explanations.' ' No, no,' she entreated, drawing him'toward a quaintlittle recess upon which he had expended all his art and taste to make it a nook worthy to hold the picture he bad painted of her. ' I must hear why Mr Byrd distrusts Die. Hie conduct eurely has not Jjeen of a distrustful nature; then why ehould his thoughts he?' ' That, dearest, I do not know. I am only telling you why I did nob at once rush to you after your loving revelation at Mi.?s Aspinwall's reception. Ho held me back.' • And you lob him !' 'His entreaties were urgent,' remonstrated the artist. ' He asked me to vljait # week—only a week. He declared I owed that much to my career; aud when Ireplied that I could not see you without betraying my feelings, he entroated me to stay away from you till be could substantiate bis doubte. He did not say what they , were, promising that ho would do this, in the one- week which he exacted. As he naturally awakened my own doubts by these unexpected and forcible demonstraiions, I yielded to him, Jenny. Though I gee now that I did wrong in this, that I should have trusted yon implicitly, 1 was -creak enough to withhold myself from yonr side for three day?. Then my love' triumphed. I vvonfi to Mr Byrd and told him that he had exacted too much from me, that I could not and would not believe that you were not all your sweet face promised, and gave as an argument in your favour the fact that you were ready to give up •your great fortune to please my whim. Ho was overwhelmed ; had not dreamed you cr any other woman capable of 50 great 0 eacrilico, and ended by asking my pardon for insinuations which had been occasioned, IBS lie asserted, by a total misconception of your character. This «vaa at eight o'clock, Jenny. Ab half-past nine, I was at your house. There were lights in the parlour, but I was not admitted.' • It was through a mistake,' she murmured, with lowered head and brow turned away. ' I—' And there she paused. Hqi? could she go further ? How explain this situation? . Besides, she felfc weak and shaken. That any man should have distrusted her, and rnado her lover share hia doubts, if only for a few days, was terrible to her. She did not know how to hide her agitation, nor how to keep back her tears.; • When I gob home, I wrote to you,' he resumed. *Tha letter must have been t* ■wild one, but since ib has brought you here ,1 will not apologise for ib. And now, is mjr sweet one going to forgive me ? Can "v woman ever forgive her lover's ©yen when occasioned by the well-planned suggestions of a reliable and generous; friend?' g She did nob answer; the waves of griell and fear were rising bitterly in her i>reast. ; ' I love you so,' he went on, forgetting! jMrs Dutbon's presence, which, indeed, dicj not obtrude itself, ' and my truab ieso com-: pletely restored ! I can never doubb you £gaj», nor will I ever in the future listen.

to any one's words against you. Jenny, Jenny! my queen !my life! Look around, give me your hand, breathe eweet forgiveness, and forget—' ' Miss Aepinwall !' The word w»3 uttered loudly in Mrs Button's most; pronounced tones. Mr Degraw and Miss Kogere ab once turned, and coloured deeply as they saw the form of Hilary standing in the eturiio door. But their emotion, evident as ifc was, was nothing to hers. She, the self-posaessed, seemed in one short moment absolutely ovorcomo by what she saw before her; and though she came in and advanced with outstretched hand to greet them, she did this in a manner so different from her accustomed one, that Jenny knew that her friend was moved by some extraordinary! emotion of fear or astonishment, and turned faint almost to the point of sinking. 'Mr Degraw ! Jenny ! I did not think to find you here together,' she ejaculated, with a pointed look. Jenny seized hold of a small table near her to steady herself and cast an entreating glance upon her friend. That friend did nob see it, or failed to understand it. ' I have juifc como from an interview with Mr Degraw, of Cleveland, whom I met unexpectedly ab Tiffany's this morning,' Miss Aspinvrall continued. ' Hβ told me you had engaged yourself to him, Jenny ; and I came hore." Her full, eweet look at the artist told why. Bub nobody saw thab look. Ho and Jenny were both absorbed in the one wild glance each had cast upon the other at the utterance of these fatal words. 'What facts are these?' exclaimed the artisb, after one terrible moment. ' You have engaged yourself to my rival, and now come here—' • Oh, I can explain it,' interrupted Jenny. ' I can explain it. Ho came when I thought myself deserted, offered hia hand without condititions, and—and—l listened to him.' ' And are you solemnly engaged to marry him V sternly continued her lover. ' Nob now, not now ; I wrote to him today, after I heard from you. I could not keep my word to him when I found that you still loved mo; and I told him—' ' What ?' She did not aqswer. She, wae swaying like a reod. ' What, Miss Rogers V 'Ah!' Her cry rose from a wounded heart. She turned and fled toward Mrs Dutton. ' Take me homo !' she cried, then suddenly tottered and turned upon them with a drawn and frightened face. * I have no home,' she moaned. • I sent) the deed with my letter; I have neither home nor friends.' This was too much for Hilary and too much for hiai. They both sprang and caught the unhappy girl in their arms. ' Sho is such a child,' whispered Hilary, in the ear-of the artist. 'We musb not judga her as we would ourselves.' But the other was saying to himself: 'Ib ia all my faulb. Had I not left her to herself at the moment when she needed rr.o most, and had won the right to my fondest support, she would nob have been subjected to such fierce temptations. . Bub he did not cay this to her. Hβ ab that moment regarded her as the betrothed wife of another. ' You sent him a letter and the deed ?' he repeated, bub this time in more gentle tones. ' What did he reply ?' ' I have not received any reply, , she faltered. 'There has not been time. I—l did nob expect any. He will not wish to marry me when he knows —' 'Jonny!' It was her lover who spoke. 'You have nob been released by Mr Degraw. If you had, I might bemoan the occurrences which have thrown a cloud upon our Jove; bub I ehould still have taken you to my heart, and tried to woo forgotfulnees of the past for your«elf, and for me ; but, as ib ia, I feel I fern' trenching upon the rights of another in even entertaining you in my studio. You have a home till Air Dograw acknowledges fcho acceptance of the deed ytfu Hiavo serifi to him, and though ib breaks my heart to seem cold to you when my whole being is molting with pifcy and tenderness, I musb still suggest thab you be patient for a little while, Jonny, and when quite free—' 'No more!' she commanded, with a strange dignity. A new thought or a new impulse had seized her,and acourfcly,almosfc imperial-looking woman stood before them, instead of the pleading child-like being of a moment ago. ' You say lam still under obligations to Mr Degraw,' she asserted, moving toward the door. 'Aβ it la but four o'clock now, and he was not expected at my hoiuo till four, you may be right. I ■will go and see. . And with a bow and a slight gesture to Mrs Dubton, ehe vanished from the room, while the artist stood shaken and undecided, nob knowing what this sudden change might betoken. She went immediately downstairs to her carriage. She stepped quickly and seemed impatient ab Mra Duttoc's slower gait. • I am in haste,' she cried, more than once. ' In haste, my dear V inquired that lady, as she took her seat in the carriage. * Yes, yes,' retorted Jenny, givng her orders to the coachman with feverish impetuosity. ' I have business at home. Pray God, I may nob be too late. . She scarcely glanced afc Hilary's carriage, standing close by, though it held more than one porson whom ehe knew. ' I hope,' mildly insinuated Mrs Dutton, as they rode rapidly up the avenue, • that you are not going to do anything injudicious.' •I cannob say,' was Jennys response. • Tho way is dark before me ; I only know that I must get home, and that, before Mr Degraw of Cleveland has called.' The truth was thab she was terrified ab the letter she had written him. As she saw matters now, it seemed the wildest, maddest thing she could have done. She must have that letter back ; at whatever cost, at whatever risk, she musb destroy the words which ehe had -wribten, in the heafc of her love and devotion to the artist. Were Providence only kind, ehe would yet reach home in time to stay the hand of the eirl ordered to deliver ib. Were her expected visitor but delayed by ten minutes, ehe would be there before him and all would bo well again. For fewer explanations than she had given him would suffice for her release ; just the simple statement of her affection for the artiet would be sufficient. . But when she came in eight ot her home and saw that a carriage was just driving away, she became greatly frightened, and leaning from tho window, begged the coachman to drive faster. In an instant more she was upon her own stoop and awaiting impatiently for the door to be opened. When it at last swung back, she asked, breathlessly : ' Has Mr Degraw been here ?' Tho answer she received made her catch wildly at both lintels for support. 'Yes, miss; he ha 3 just driven away. I gave him your excuses, and handed him the package. You can see his carriage there, j'usb turning the corner. , (To be Continued,)