It Was A Love Match.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 165, 14 July 1891, Page 6

It Was A Love Match.

Br A Boston Pen

CHAPTER XXII. (Continued.)

On this same evening, two officers with a warrant made search for Alexander Comptou and Caspar Compton, tho latter more commonly known in Boston as Caspar Hugo. But tho two men were not to be found. They were not at their chambers, though they had been tijero anil taken away their light valuables, And wo may here remark that the two Compton" wero nob found at all. Thoy ■were tracked to New York, and thence to Buffalo, and thence to St. Louis, and thenco over tho plains toward- tho Osap;o country, where trace of thorn was lost. * * * * _ * * And on that samo evening two fomalcs, with two policemen in company, wero searching up and down the highways and tho by-ways of tho city for ono who was lost; and ab a lato hour, far, far into tho night, thoy came out from an upper chamber, where a man in a linen blouso bendod bar, and where cards wero scattered upon a table and upon tho iloor, and as they gained the street the younger female cried out in wailing agony : • Oh, Raul ! I'aufl Cod help mo now !' The evening that covered with its shadows tho flight of Alexander and Caspar Compton, and which closed the day of Paulines strange developments and triumph, was tho self-same evening upon which the three seemingly ill-ma.oi companions rodo in the street-car, the same evening on which Paul Waybrook and Dick Hammat wont up into the gamingchambor, where tho bartender in his linen blouse save them brandy, and where they met Major John Harvey, of tho Topographical Engineers ; and where, also, the elouchy and ragged tramp staggered in and was suffered to remain. Paul was more than besido himself with liquor, and was despoiled of his last dollar by the three sharpers. On realising the fact thab ho was beggared, Paul hurried from tho place. Ruin, utter and black, was upon him, and only shame and degradation wero beforo him. Love, honour, hope—all„ all gone. The clock of a neighbouring church struck one. lio heard it. and ho wondered what ib meant. Hi_ watch was in his pocket, and not yeb run down. Ho stood "beneath a gas-jeb and looked at it. Ib was one o'clock—an hour *ast midnight. For a time he leaned against a lamp-post with both his hands pressed upon his fevered brow, and then ho started up, clasped his hands upon his bosom, and groaned : ' This is the end !' The words burst from him as though ground out by a great agony, and when they had been spoken, ho dropped his hands by his side, and walked rapidly away until he had got clear of that street, after which his pace was slackened. Still he moved steadily on, and his course was toward tho water. At length ho reached a wharf, drear and deserted. Upon one hand lay a few small vessels, bub upon the other a pier extended out into tho sea, •to which no vessel was moored. To tha far end of this pier he wenb, and gXAsd down into the dark flood. How solemnhow awful, in its mysterious stillness ! Here was rest—here oblivion—here a cooling stream for all earthly fever ! He looked inbo the inky, sullen depth a long, long time, and then a deep, smothered groan escaped him ; down upon his knees he sank; and pressed hi 3 brow upon the cold iron of the anchor. And thus he prayed. He arose, and looked up at the stars. • I wonder,' he murmured aloud, * will I ever meet Christine there ?' And with the thought, a sublime radiance rested down upon'his face. The light thab shone upon his countenance did not seem to come from within, bub from without ,and above, as though an angel had bouched him with its wings. He had bowed his head once for all upon his clasped hands, when he felt a touch upon his shoulder ; first a light touch which ho shrank from, and then a fervid, convulsive grasp, and the angelic notes came to his ears, and to his sense : 'Paul! Paul! Oh, my own 1 My own forever ! Paul! Paul!' He turned, and by the dim starlight he saw an angel form, and an angel looked •upon him—an angel of love and of mercy. Ho saw other forms—a form as of another female, and the forms of men—bub he had only sense to pronounce the name : ' Christine !' and to feel a pair of warm arms encircling his neck, and tho same sweeb voice sounded anew : ' Saved ! Saved ! O. God ! help him and bless !' Paul awoke from a deep sleep, and looked iap inbo the face of Christine—a face as of one glorified. « Paul! Do you know me V ' Christine !' ' Oh, saved ! Saved 1' And she raised his head to her bosom, and kissed his fevered cheek. His senses very soon returned to him, and with them came the memory of tho great ruin. ' Alas ! poor Christine I I am no more worthy ! You know not what I have suffered ; you know not what I have lost I' ' I know all, dear Paul. It is you who do nob know. I, too, have suffered. We have been tho victims of a wicked conspiracy. But God has been merciful and jusb. You are at the Brookside, Paul, and the Brookside is mine. I can tell you now how much I love you. Will you not trust me, and give me still your true and noble heart ?' Paul sobbed his answer in penitential tears upon the bosom of his beloved—tears hallowed and sanctified in that thoy were the oubpouriug of a soul rising to redemption. By and by, Dr. Arkwright came ; bub ho came rather as a friend than as a physician ; for Paul's youthful health and vigour very soon asserbed sway over a system that had Bever been poisoned at its fountain. And other friends came. Mr Lefevre, and the administrator, and tho judge— they came to share Paul's friendship, and .0 give him strength. And Zenas Leffington came—came to declare that he had known of no evil in the case he had aoujjhb to uDhold, and to claim pardon and goodwill* And in time, Nathan Waybrook, grown wondrously old in a brief space, came and asked that the past might; be all forgobten, and that he might be a father still. And later, when the old wounds were healed, Nathan Waybrook accompanied Christine bo bhe albar, and Pauline, happier far bhan she had been for long and weary years, led Paul by bhe maiden's side. And there the solemn service was performed, which placed a seal upon the new and hopeful life. And when the union had been consummated, afi'd Pauline was fully assured that old evils had been put away for ever, she did the^. crowning deed—she gave to Christine and Paul the estate which her mother had left. Bub she did nob bhus give away her home. No, no; she won a home brighter and happier than she had ever known,_ for she lived in the luxury of lovo and filial adoration from bhose whom «he had helped to save and ,o bless. Happy Christine ! Happy in the love of j- a husband whose heart is all her own, and i in whose truth and honour Bhe can confide I with never the slightesb shadow of a doubt; j; &*PP7 in the sanehiae of a friendship that

is growing broader and broader ; and, above all, happy in the thrice blessed ability to carry joy and comfort into tho hearts and the homes of tho poor and the needy who surround hor on every hand. THE END.