LOST BY A KISS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 147, 22 June 1901, Page 6

LOST BY A KISS.

(By VIRGINIA VAUGHN)

CHAPTEB V. JUST IN TIME.

Joloa-ei Vestair was particularly j amiable this evening, and was on such j good terms with himself that he 'ailed j to notice the flushed face and other j signs of suppressed emotion observable in hia daughter. fie had been in the supper-room at the time that, dangerous kiss was given, and, happily for Violet's comfort, none of the guests .seemed to liave noticed the strange proceeding. The cause of the colonel's good temper was not, difficult to find. Miss Arden had been particularly gracious to him, and had distinguished him from the rest of her guests by the way in which she kept him at her side. "She must mean to marry me," thought the old soldier, complacently. ''She isn't like a girl, to play fast and loose with a man. When a woman gnsts to her time of life she knows what she is about, and doesn't let her love of admiration run away with her; if matters progress at this rate, I shall renew my offer early in the new year. and w« could be married before. t.h« spring. In that case, I shoum sei"i my ; own house and come to live here; I i should get rid of those girls though— girls about a place are always a nuiaaoce." So the colonel mused, indulging in the dangerous practice of counting his chickens without being quite assured ; as to the safety of the eggs. _ I Later, during the same evening, it , occurred to him that the only girl he would have to get rid of was his own daughter, since Charlotte would j soon be married, and, from the appearance of things, Isola and General Gorst were probably thinking of taking a similar step. "Violet is never in anybody's way," , he mattered: complacently; "I have' trained her too well for that. And, , by Jove! what a good-looking girl she ; is," he thought, as his eyes rested upon her. "That spendthrift Hampton thinks so, too," he added with a frown; "and he knows that her mother's fortune is settled upon her. I i must 3top his little game and nip his j schemes in the bud." Then he walked over to where his daughter was talking to a good-looking young man of dissipated appearance, j and said: "Violet, it is time we were going. Say good-night to youT friends and j gel; your wraps on; you will find me in the hall." To hear and to obey had been an important precept in Colonel Vestair's i training at his daughter, and she at ! once rose to her feet to do as she was bidden. Kad her father watched her, he would have observed that Violet said good-night to her hostess, and was affectionate in her leave - taking with Isola Landlord, but though- in going out of the room she passed quite close to Charlotte Carrington, she never took the least notice of her. For the colonel's daughter, amiable as she was, felt angry and indignant at Charlotte's behaviour, and she quietly resolved to resent it. The girl was standing in the hall, "wrapped in her fur-lined cloak, with ti\/hood half drawn over her head, when Egbert Alderson, likewise prepared to brave the cold, came toward her. . "You are waiting for your father; ehall I tell him you are ready?" he a«ked, with gentle deference, rather than mere politeness of manner. "No thank you; he told me to wait for him," she replied, timidly. Then, feeling the awkwardness of silence, she said: _ "I fear we shall have a cold drive; somebody told me the snow was falling." "So it is," was the reply; "and snow after the frost of last night will make the roads anything but safe. I hope you will get home all right." "Oh! we are sore to," she replied, carelessly; "oar horses are as steadyas time itself." . "\nd almost as slow," here interposed her father, who at this moment joined them. "What, are you going too, Alderson?" "Yes; I was just observing to Miss Vestair that the roads are likely to be dangerous to-night," returned the young man. "Oh! we shall be all right; we are not the kind of people who meet with accidents. Come a'ong, Violet; I shall catch my death of cold standing in this infernal draught. I suppose our carriage is round?" And the speaker went to the door, but was met with such a gust of wind and shower of snow that he retreated with an expression of disgust. "Let me see if the carriage is ready," said Egbert, who was anxious to pay Violet, or Violet's father, whatever unobtrusive attention was in his power. And so saying, he went out in the wind and snow, meaning to look after bis own bTOiigham at the same time. A few minutes afterward he returned with the observation that it would be weli to drive home quickly, as the roads would soon become impassable. . Colonel Vestair muttered something about asking Miss Arden to put. them up for the night; not because he was afraid of the snow, but that he would have liked to remain at the Cedars. But Violet said with more decision than usual with her: "Miss Arden cannot find room for all her guests, papa. Let ns lose no more time, for we have a long distance to drive." Then she hastily shook hands with Egbert Alderson, and entered the cavriage, followed by her father.

For a time both of them remained | silent, their minds occupied by their : own thoughts, and neither of them noticed the slow pace at which they were going or the unusual jolting sui-1 bumping-. At length the colonel was roused from his pleasing reveries by a more jviolent shake than usual, and h-e exclaimed angrily: ■■[ believe Gibba is drunk; he would never drive like this if he were not. Confound that fellow, does he rueau to upset i a?" This last question did uot seem uncalled for by the way in which the carriage roe.ced and rolled, and (he irate Colonel let down the window with the view of abusing- the coach- I man. A blinding shower of snow cooled his ang-er, while a more violent lurch than before added to his anxiety. "Where are you driving- us, Gibbs?" he managed to demand. '•1 don't know, sir," was the answer; "most every place seems al'ke, and the horses is well-nigh beat. [ don't think they'll reach their own stables to-night, poor things." "We don't want to sleep in the snow, at an/ rate," growled the colonel. "You'd better turn back if you think we can't reach home." "We must be more than half way, .sir. and going back is as bad as going furrard. Shall I try to push ahead?" "'Yes. I can't tell what you've been waiting1 for. We must get horn?, we can't camp out in the snow. Don't spare your whip; those lazy brutes don't know v«hnt it is to work." Then the window was closed, nnd for another space of time the jolting and rolling and bumpinp continued. Violet tried to peer through the carriage window to see where they i were, but she could distinguish nothing; the thick snow seemed liter- | ally plastered over the glass. ! She tried to listen, but she could hear no sound save the crack of their coachman's whip, and his voice trying to encourage the exhausted and struggling horses. This continued for what seemed a i long time, and then, when her eye;* were closed and she had almost fallen asleep, there came a jolt, a swaying ,to and fro, followed by a sudden deafening crash. The carriage had turned completely over. At the first alarm the colonel [had made a desperate effort to escape with his daughter, but in Tain. They might have remained here long enough for the snow to have buried j them if Egbert Alderson had not ; been but a short distance behind them. The cries for aid from Gibbs, who was uninjured, attracted the attention of the yonng man's coachman. i who pulled up and informed his mas- | ter that he was sure some accident had happened not far ahead, . "I believe it's the old colonel and his daughter, sir," the man adder}. The words seemed to act like a spell upon Egrert Alderson. All the way from the Cedars he | had been' thinking of sweet Violet | Vestair. ! from the first moment he ha:l s»*en her she had exercised a subtle charm upon him. It was not love, he told himself; but it must have been something wery near akin to it. —a feeling that needed only a spark to light it into a flame. He was not fully conscious of it even now; but this evening the electric spark had been applied, and the result was inevitable. Hi.s anger laga'insr Charlotte was very great. The more he thought of her conduct the more wantonly cruel and meanly rpiieful it appeared. There, was nothing to be gained by it, and her only motive must have been to inflict pain upon Violet and mortification upon himself. "And that is the woman T am to marry," he thought bitterly; "the woman whom hitherto I have looked upon as almost perfect, and with whom I am to spend the rest of my | life." ■ His mind had reached this point when he heard of the supposed accident, and he got quickly out, took one of the horses from the carriage, and mounting, galloped through tie blinding snow storm to the rescue. He had not far to go. At a bend of the road he saw the overturned carriage. To extricate Violet, who was insensible, as also was her father, was Egbert's first natural impulse. The pallor of her face alarmed him, she was so white and so still, and he called to Gibbs and his own coachman, who soon appeared upon the scene, to help him to lift and carry her back to his carriage. Then, while the men went to bring Colonel Vestair to the same timely refuge, he did all In his power to revive the unconscious girl. The light from the carriage lamps revealed to him the delicate beauty of her sweet face, and, yielding to an irresistible impulse, lie pressed his own warm lips to her cold and motionless ones. j Was it fancy, or did the lips grow | warm under his touch? It was no delusion on his part; the I lips did grow red, the eyelids quiverI ed, and a faint flush of colour cairc into the white cheeks. Egbert Alderson grew frightened at the intensity of his own emotions as jhe sat there winning this girl back jto life and consciousness. If he had not kissed her before he would never have dared to do so now, would probably rot hare felt the. inclination to do so, and he thought angrily and recklessly that Charlotte Carrington had only herself to blame ) for what seemed like treason and faithlessness toward her. The first -kiss was a new phase in the lives of these two young people; what might follow time alone could tell. Violet was half conscious by the time her father was brought to the carriage by the two servants, but she was not in a condition to do anything toward his recovery. Indeed, it was not an easy thing to revive the old man. They rubbed his hands, and they tried to force some brandy down his throat, one at the i;«en being, happily,

provided with a flask; but this had little or no effect and then Mr Aiderson grew seriously alarmed, and ordered bis man to drive to the Vestair's house, which tubs still a couple of miles off. "We must get him into his own bed," he said, anxiously, uand send for a doctor. If your horses can walk," he added, turning to Gibbs, "you had better desert the colonel's carriage till daybreak, and harness them to mm«; but we have no time to lose." At last they started at as rapid a pace as the condition of the road and still falling snow would permit. Colonel Vestair was still unconscious when he was carried into his own. houwe. but his daughter was just able to walk, with the -lid of the strong- arm that supported her. But even now she did not realise what had happened until she saw her fathers white face, with an ugly scar upon the temple, and then she turned to Egbert and said piteously: "Oh! don't leave me till he is better." "I won't," replied the young man impulsively. An assurance that gave the girl ! courage, and that, more than anything else, enabled her to collect her thoughts, and consider wha.t was best to be done under the circumstances. They put the old man to bed, and applied various restoratives with but little success, and the grey dawn was breaking when the surgeon who had been sent for at length arrived. Such a morning! The snow lying deep upon the ground, effacing the paths and roads, and making firm ground and dangerous ditches look alike with its treacherous covering. "Christmas morning," said t^jDert in a law tone to the ffirl, by the side of whose father he and she were watch"And what a Christmas morning!" she responded, with a shiver. "It seems as though the doctor woulc. never come." "Here he is at last," said the young man in a tone of relief, aa the country practitioner came into the room. A. few whispered words of consultation between the two men followed; then Egbert turned to Violet and said: "We will °-o into another room for a little while. The doctor and your father's servant will take care of him "You don't think he will die?" asked the girl anxiously, as soon as they were outside the room in which the injured Tvo^e doctor doe. not think it a very serious matter," was the reply; "but he thinks you have been very much shaken, and he advises that you should take some hot coffee »t once^ "I cannot eat or drink till I know that my father is better," she replied """I- sorry for that, because-I «a rather knocked up myself," ja.d the young man with a suppreßsed yawn"and I should have been glad °f something that would warm me and keep m"Ho^ selfish and thoughtless of me" cried the girl, in a tone of aeMreproach. "Of course you shall have coffee. I will «c if the house-'TSd-kT? all ready," he repli£ "she told me there was a fire in «* Lot/by a Kiss-Take 26 Mfic^--\nd so saying, he led the way to a ,maU r o^m fn which the colonel and his daughter often spent a quiet °A Tbri«>-ht fire was burning in the grate, and a small table was spread with a simple breakfast for two perS°Coffee bread and butter, and eggs, was all that was provided, but never was a meal more welcome than was this modest repast to Egbert Alder S°He had been dancing that (evening, which alone would make him hungry. Then, he had not eaten any supper at the Cedars, heing too angrry and mortified by what had occurred to think of eating. And since then the cold journey in the snow had made him feel perfectly ravenous. "I am literally starving, he said, as Violet poured him out some coffee, "but I will not touch anything unless you have some too.' "I "cannot, it would choke me, she replied in a husky tone. "Coffee won't choke you," he persisted, "and the doctor says you must, take something hot. Directly there is any news about your father they will come and tell us, and, if we can either of us, be of any use we shall be called. Now, do you mean me to remain hungry with abundance of food set temptingly before me. "No," she replied sadly; "I will do as you wish." Whereupon the young man went to work heartily, having first seen the girl swallow a steaming cup of coffee. Vlderson was engaged upon his second egg when the doctor joined them. "How is my father?" asked Violet, anxiously. "Better than I expected, was tne reply "He has been conscious, but is now asleep. He has had a narrow escape, but he will get round all right with care and quietness. I would advise, Miss Vestair, that yon should not go near him unless he sends for you. his servants understand how to nurse him, and experience will do more in this case than the most affectionate solicitude." "But can I do nothing?" asked Violet, helplessly. "Yes: you can eat something with that coffee, and then go to bed. If you don't take care of yourself I shall have a second patient on my hands." Then the doctor went away, saying he would come again later in the day. "I hope you will follow his advice, said Egbert, gravely; "if you^do not you will most certainly be ill." She smiled faintly, but she ate the food he placed before her. It seemed so strange that she should be sitting here with such a companion, and at such a time, that she could not realise it, and now her anxiety for her father was allayed she became conscious that she was tired and completely exhausted. The entrance of the housekeeper roused her for a moment, and she rose to her feet, but she was so giddy that she could not stand alone, and she had to be assisted to her room. "There's a room ready for you, uir,' said the woman when Violet had said good-night, though it was, in i'act, morning. "Thank you, I shall walk home," was the reply. And, despite the woman's expostulations, he did so.

"What a strange Christmas evej and morning i have he mused as he walked over the soft snow. "I wonder where I shall be next year at this time, and with whom?" (To be concluded.)