PARTED AT THE ALTAR.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5159, 2 March 1888, Page 4

PARTED AT THE ALTAR.

[BY __•£_. JEAN LIBBEY.I

CHAPTER XXV.

"MY I___ HAS BEEN SO COLD, LOVELESS

AND DREABY."

For one instant Karl Lancaster stood quite still, like ono stricken dumb. Doris was gone ! Gone ! How the words smoto upon his ear! "Why, how white you look, Mr Lancaster !" said Mrs Morgan, lookinsr curiously into the young man's white, handsome face. He turned abruptly away and flung open the door. Mrs Morgan was at his side in an instant, laying a detaining hand on his arm. _

" What are you about to do, Mr Lancaster P" she cried, anxiously. "I am going to search for her until I find her," answered Karl, hoarsely. "I will search tho whole world over for her, if needs be." And with these words ho rushed from the room and out of the house.

" The poor fellow has gone clean daft," sighed Mra Morgan. "It was well that I i Bent the girl away before he returned. Why, , he would actually marry that girl if he could find her. And, oh! what a stormy scene there would be under the old doctor's roof! lam suro his father would disinherit him on the spot. He would never forgive himfor malumr a misalliance. Never! Meanwhile" Karl Lancaster, with bis heart on fire and his brail, in a whirl, was threading his way swiftly along the crowded thoroughfare. Which way had poor, pretty Doris goner' Where should ho find her ? Suddenly a thought occurred to him that almost took his breath away. He remembered Doris had been on her way to an employment agency on that day the accident had occurred which had so nearly proven fatal. What more natural or probable than that she had bent her steps in that direction now '( He remembered the number, and lost no time in making his way there at once. And the first person whom his eyes rested upon as he opened the door was Doris herself. She started in surprise us sho saw him. What! had he followed here ! And, like Mrs Morgan, she was struck by the strange pallor of his face. " Doris—Miss Brandon !" he said, coming up to her and catching one of the little white clatped hands that lay so idly in her lap. " Thank God I have found you ! " I have much that is of tho greatest importance to say to you, Doris," ho went on, *'but I cannot speak here." The roception-room beyond was almost deserted at this hour of the day. Karl pointed toward it. " Come there with me, Doris," he said : '• I havo that to tell you which will sound more like the pages of romance than reality ; but it only serves to illustrate the old adage that truth is indeed stranger than fiction." Doris shrank back from him, with the memory of that scene, in which ho had madly declared his love for her, beseeching her to many- him, rushing over her mind. Had he followed her to repeat that scene i she wondered.

Karl saw her hesitancy, and read her thoughts and dread aright. •' It is not of myself 1 wish to speak—not one word," he said, flushing- deeply. " That which I have to say concerns you, and you alone, Doris. Come !" In wonder aud dismay Doris followed him to the reception room beyond. He placed a chair for her, and stood leaning against the mantel, seemingly in no hurry to begin. Doris silt twisting her little white hands nervously together, wondering what new calamity was about to befall her now. 41 It was fate that led you to me, Doris," began Karl Lancaster, huskily. " But before I proceed, I must be sure that I am on the right track—beyond any possible shadow of a doubt ere I raise your hopes." "In tho first place, arc you tho Doris Brandon whose life, up to a few weeks ago, was passed at Madame Delmar's seminary at Beech Grove r"

He scarcely breathed in his intensity to catch her answer.

" Yes, I am that most unhappy girl :" breathed Doris, faintly, " But why do you ask r How could you have found out that?"

Like one in a confused dream, Doris listened while he told her the wonderful story—of her father and mother's return, after long years, to reclaim their child, only to find her gone, none knew whither ; of their grief, her mother's death, and the fatal accident which caused her father to follow her soon after, having barely time to make his will, leaving his vast wealth to his daughter, with the earnest prayer that die should be sought for, night and day, until she was found.

" This fortune was to be kept in trust for Mr Hulbert Brandon Fielding's daughter until she is eighteen. My father has been Bearching for the lost heiress ever since. "I thought when I heard the name, ' Doris Brandon,' it had a strangely familiar sound; but not until to-day—an hour since—did the astounding revelation occur to me that the young girl fate had drifted across my path, and the lost heiress my father was searching for, were one and the same. Allow me to be the first, Miss Fielding to congratulate you upon the good fortune that has befallen you." The beautiful, dreamy, blue eyes were expanded in the greatest amazement. All tho color had faded from the fair yong face, leaving it paler than the petals of a white lily. He believed she had not comprehended what he had said, and he repeated :

" You are an heiress, Miss Fielding— heiress to a million of dollars in your own right, which my father, as your guardian, is to hold in trust for you until you arc eighteen." " Oh, Mr Lancaster, do you really believe it J"'cried Doris, breathlessly. "Is there no mistake 'i Surely there must be. Fate has been so unkind to me all my life it must bo playing some trick on me now," she declared.

'' If you are the Doris Brandon who has lived with Madame Delmar up to a short time ago, there can be no possible mistake." Doris sprang to her feet, trembling with emotion.

" I can scarcely believe that I, Doris Brandon, whom the world has used so cruelly, am indeed aii heiress,'' she cried, pushing back the rings of golden curls from her flushed face in a bewildered sort of way. " I am only a poor dependent, whom nobody hag ever cared for," she went on, fiteousty. "I have novel' had any money. am unused to wealth aud luxury. My life has been hard, lone, and dreary. I should not know what to--do with money." " Afttlf.you have seen a little more of the world, you won't say that," smiled Karl. " Why, ladies know how to make money fairly fly. I. am not surprised at your agitation. A dis.le_uro such as 1 have made to you would turn almost any young lady's head. No wonder you are bewildered. Perhaps no }'oung girl over had more cause. But you must bear .prosperity as you have borne adversity. Froui this time out your whole life will be changed. Your future will be brilliant; for, with wealth and beauty combined, life is full of golden promise." A dazzling smile parted the girl's beautiful crimson lips, and the color surged back to the sweet young face in a burning tide. In her great excitement, she forgot what Karl was saying to her. She did not hear one word. Doris's thoughts had drifted back to Frederick Thornton, and her heart was crying out: "Would he have turned from me had he known I was one day to become a great heiress—quite as much of an heiress as Vivian, whom he loved '? " Oh, Frederick," she moaned out in tho bitterness of her own heart, " what would all the wealth m the world be worth to me -without your love V" Doris offered no resistance when Karl proposed that she should accompany him home at once.

Dr. Lancaster was more than amazed when, a little later, a cab stopped before his palatial residence, and from it stepped his son, leading by the hand a young girl, plainly dressed, almost to shabbiness, but "with a face as gloriously beautiful as an angel's. It had been the one secret fear of his life that some day his son might marry on the impulse of the moment, attracted by the pretty face of some lovely working-girl chance might throw in his way. And he meant that his handsome son of his should marry an heiress, or not marry at all. Like his wife, he had the secret hope that tho heiress, Miss Fielding, might be found, and that she and his son might be mutually attracted to each other.

His brow grew dark and stormy as the quick footsteps drew near the library. A.« the door opened, he rose to his feet, coldly confronting the two who .food on the threshold. He expected to hear the words ; " |_t_er, bid us welcome. X have brought