"If She So Abide."

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 210, 4 September 1900, Page 6

"If She So Abide."

By VIOLA TKYELL.

CHAPTER XT. I LOUISE'S LOVE TROUBLES. "I love you in a way that's cousinly--110 more-" Browning. "You see, dear Eugene," said Loitise, pensively regarding the sparkling beads on her pretty shoes, "¥ am very, Very anxious about dear mamma.' "1 am sorry to hear it, Louise. Do yon mean that aunt's health is giving Wy? If so she shows no outward Signs of it." . "Mamma is too plucky to give m very readily," said Louise, "but 1 don't mean that she is exactly ill. She is worried to death." ("Money again, I suppose!" thought the Baron lightly to himself. "I wonder how much it is this time. Things must be pretty serious if my dear ■Aunt Antoinette sets Louise to. soften my hard head.") But had he only known. He for once did his Aunt Antoinette an injustice. She had no idea of the plan that was working in Louise's pretty, silly head. "What is Aunt Antoinette worried about, Louise? Can Ibe of any use?" In reply Louise only shook her head, rather, it must be confessed, to his astonishment. "I am afraid not, Eugene—except in giving her some advice." "I thought it was you that I was to give the advice, Louise," said her cousin, rather dryly. So it is, of course. But you see one thing hangs on another so much," said Louise, vaguely. The Baron assented, wondering whether Louise would soon come to a point in the conversation where he could understand what she was driving at. "It is a question —of my marriage,' eaid Louise, making the necessary plunge, much to his relief. "Oh! It's a romantic question, then," said the Baron, smiling. "VVhat advice do you want on that subject, cousin?" "You see, mamma is very poor," said Louise, plaintively, raising her Skyblue eyes to hel* coxtsili's face. "You would hardly believe how very poor she is, Eugene, and what a fetruggle it is for both of us to live. I could manage to live in a much humbler way, but poor, dear mamma has always been used to the best of everything, and I could never bear to see her suffer." The baron felt a little bewildered. Had not the Comtesse always told him tha^ it was in poor, dear Louise's account that the family mansion in the Champs Elysees was being kept up? And here was this same poor, dear daughter making a similarly touching confession regarding her poor, dear mother. How these two women did {sacrifice "themselves fbr each other to be sure! , . ' ~ "I hope that'your mother" "Will never know; what it- is, ta really, suffer, liOiijsg," he said, gravej^ "%j mother and T Would be t fie fast' people in the whole World'to let such, a thing happen if we could prevent it." "Of course she is un'fia.ppy because ; she is too proud to ask anyone's help," said Louise, sighing; "but I: feel I can't let her go on any longer like this. I shall have to, sacrifice myself," and She sighed heavily. • "What on earth do you mean, Louise,'* said the baron, a little sharply. ; "What need is there tor you to sacrifice yourself I should like to know, and ihow do you mean to do it, pray?" "How unkind of you to Speak like that, Eugene," said Louise, holding a morsel of cambric before her eyes and ■beginning to whimper in a half ■'frightened sort of way, just when I want kindness most, too." The baron put a rein on the neck Of his impatience. The interview was likely to be endless.at this rate. "Tell me what you mean, Louise, and I shall try and help you," he said. "I mean—that—that'—-1 think 1 ought to marry, and p^-put dear mamma out «>f her difficulties,'* said LOuise, Still ■whimpering, ''and—and—it is so awful to have to do it." - "My dear Louise,** Said the baron, more, seriously, "let us come to a clear Understanding about these things* Let me know What you hte driving1 at. -As far as 1 gather at present you jvish . to marry* but yourhave no dot, as my aunt is poor.: If' that is what ybu mean, you may make your niihd easy. 4WJ always meant to give you a handsome aowry, when yoti married." : "' "It's awfully sweet of you, Eugene," murmured his cousin,1 tying knots in the little cambric handkerchief in an embarrassed sort of wajf; -'"but that istt't quite what I mean. The man who wants to majTy'm'e is very rich, indeed —the Gomte de Laurent." "The—Comte de Laurent!" echoed het cousin, rising to his feet in astonishment, and gazing at the young girl in something like horror. "Are you in iyoiir right senses, Louise?" , "Don't look at me like that, Eugene! What is there odd about t\e comte -wanting- to marry me, pray?" "Nothing at all, my dear; —nothing at all," said the baron, sarcastically, "only there is something very odd to my unsophisticated mind in your'wanting to marry him." "It appears to me that it is my. duty to do so,*' said Louise, casting down, .her eyps with a modest air. "Your duty! My dear child, are you aware that this Comte de Laurent of whom you speak of marrying is over seventy years of age?*' "I know. It is very hard," sighed Louise. .V .■■■; is one of the very worst men in Paris? A man who.lias.committed every crime, which it is possible for the human mind to conceive?" "I heard he had "been .rather—gay," admitted Louise, "but then that was , when he was much younger. He is too old to be very wicked lioW."

(Author of "A Eussian Romance," "Master and Man," etc.)

(To be Continued.)

! "Men are never too old to be very I wicked lam afraid, Louise," said Ihej baron, gravely. M hope that the next thing you are going to tell me, Louise, is not that you are in love with the hOfll'y old sinner?" "In love with him? How could I be?" cried Louise indignantly. "What do you think I am made of?" "I don't know, 1 am suit, Louise: of very odd stuff. I should think, if you can contemplate the possibility of such a marriage with anything- like calmness." "That is just what I wanted to consult yon about," said Louise. "Is it right to marry a man one does not love?" "Personally, I should say not. But then I lmovv that yon and my Aunt Antoinette consular'my views as quixotic iii the extreme. Louise," answered the baron, rather grimly. "Not 1, Eugene—never I. I have always admired them beyond words and vnitu'd you as the noblest man I ever met." "My dear Louise." said the baron, with much pardonable invitation, "when shall 'I over get you to understand that this wholesale flattery with which you and my aunt overwhelm me is more than distasteful — it positively revolts me." "That is because you are so frightfully reticent and Undemonstrative," said Louise, "and you will never appreciate yourself at your full worth — as we do." "I assure you I know my full worth perfectly well," returned the baron, "and I do not consider it very much to boast of. Please come to the point, .Louise —that is, if you have one, which I am very much beginning to doubt. I can only spare you a few minutes more." "A'few minutes more, when it is a question that affects my whole futur.e life!" said Louise, reproachfully. "I thought you took a deeper interest in me than that, Eugene." The baron sighed hopelessly and remained 'grimly silent, waiting for the next start. "The fact is," said Louise, after she had waited a minute to see if he would reply; "that if I have to marry the Comte de Laurent I shall" break my heart." "Why, my dear child, then, do you contemplate the marriage?" asked the baron, coldly, with fatigue and irritation in his voice. "You make it very difficult for me to tell you, Eugene." "Do not tell me then, my dear child." "How cruel j'ou are, Eugene? If you Will have it then"—Louise cast down her eyes again and blushed and hesitated —"I am in love with another man." "Marry the other man then, my dear cousin," said the baron, with a coldness like ice in his voice. Louise hesitated a moment. "If he is poor," pursued the baron, "you can give him to understand that your doWry will be a handsome one." "He is not poor, Eugene." "Then what is the difficulty? For I presume there is One after all this beating about the bush." "I—-I am not Sure if he is in love with me," said Louise, blushing really this time, and wondering how far it was safe to push matters now that she had gone this length. "rfot in love with you! Impossible!" said the baron with the deepest irony in his voice. ."So you see I don't know what to do?" said Louise, "and I thought I would ask your advice." "Can y6u not ascertain whether this man'returns the priceless treasure 6f your love?" asked Eugene, with still deeper irony. ■ "But how?" murmured Louise. "Ask him!'* said the baron, eyeing her so steadily that she began to feel a quiver of apprehension lest she, indeed, had gone too far. "I—l don't like to," murmured Louise» her fair head bent again; "he ■ —he might think it so unwomanly." ''Perhaps his standard of women is not very high," siiggested the baron, hopefully. "Oh, but it is, Eugene—-as high— as high as yours," said his cousin, rather breathlessly. The baron stood up and buttoned his coat, preparatory to departure. "My standard of women is not at all high, I am sorry to say, Louise," he said, coldly. "I know what they ought to be. I know what I shall expect in my wife, if I marry. But it seems to me that the majority of women will do anything in the world for a little money." , "Then -you would recommend •me to " "I recommend nothing, Louise. I only suggest that the present conversation has gone quite far enough." "And you will not help me?" "I think not," said the baron, eyeing- her steadily again. "I think not, At least not in the way you mean. Advice is sometimes dangerous. Why you should have chosen me as a confidant I do not know. I think you had better forget that you ever did so. I am glad you did-not confide to me the name of the object of your affeotiOn," he added. "Men do not care to have that Sort of a secret forced into their ears. And you would, ho doubt, have regretted it afterward had you done so. But please understand, Louise, that'if your mother is in the slightest degree harrassed pecuniarily that my purse is always at her disposal. Good-bye," he added, holding out his hand. "I wish you well out of all your love difficulties,and hope soon to hear that your are happily married." Saying which he departed, leaving LoUisfe de Charente to feel certain that he had fully grasped her meaning, and was not going to be Ungallant enough to refuse her love. And she hated her cousin from that day forth.