VIOLET LISLE; OR, A PEARL BEYOND PRICE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 437, 7 February 1912, Page 2

VIOLET LISLE; OR, A PEARL BEYOND PRICE.

All Rights Reserved.

By the Author of "All or Nothing" "Two Keya." etc., etc.

PART 3

Lafly Darlington laughed at the little touch of happy embarrassment in his manner and leaned forward to stroke his cheek with the hack of her .white delicately-shaped hand. The Beverleys from whom she came, yfamous for their hands. » " Yes," she said, archly, " I had f noticed that you seemed of that mind."

" You noticed it, my lady mothter?" It was so he always called her when he was especially pleased. " Did you think I was blind, Guy?"

" No, mother," he answered, with an affectionate earnestness, " not where I am concerned. You are never blind then."

She flushed with the pleasure of his words, and for a moment fondled in silence the hand he had put into hers.

" I think she "will be a good and worthy wife, Guy."

" Too good for my deserts, mother, but I love her so that I believe I shall grow more worthy as I know her. Oh, mother, I am so glad you approve !—though I was sure you would. I did not mean to keep it a secret so long. Indeed, it has not been so much a secret as a silent enjoyment of a happiness so great that it seemed to me I could not speak of it."

Lady Darlington smiled sympathetically.

"I did not know you loved so deeply as this, Guy ; but I am glad. And does Lady Sibyl reciprocate this love ?"

" Lady Sibyl, mother ! Did you think I spoke of Lady Sibyl ?" cried Guy, staring at his mother. " Why, yes," answered Lady Darlington, a startled expression creeping over her face. "Of whom else ?"

" Lady Sibyl !" exclaimed Guy, with a short laugh. " Why, mother I would never think of marrying her. I spoke of Violet Lisle."

CHAPTER V. MOTHER AND SON. The words that Guy uttered to his mother were simple ones to him, and he spoke them without either heat or indecision. He had no thought of opposition from her, and if he spoke decidedly, he also spoke calmly. But to Lady Darlington the words were a shock, and almost involuntarily the question rose sharply to her lips :

" Who is Violet Lisle ?" Then a low Laugh broke from Guy, and he looked dreamily at the tre. " True, mother, I ought to have known that we were playing at crosspurposes. How could you know who Violet was. Ah, mother, it is less who she is than what she is." He was so serene, so certain of her approval, as she could see, that it was difficult for her to know how to take the startling confession which he had made to her.

" And who is she, as well as what is she ?" she asked in a low tone.

He studied a moment, clasping his hands over hie knee and rocking slightlj as he dreamily pictured Violet to himself. How should toe describe her to his mother so that she should gain some faint notion of her perfection ? No, there were no words adequate to the task ; he would tell her who she was, and then his mother should go with him to the abbey .woods and see Violet with her own eyes, as he had so often seen her. " You know the Lisles of Granthorpe ?" he said to his mother. A little sigh of relief broke from Lady Darlington's lips. The Lisles of Granthorpe had larger estates and a bigger rent-roll than the Darlington's even. The estates joined too. The two families had long been in litigation over a large and important estate ; "but such a union would heal any divisions and make the Earl of Darlington, if he became Lord of Granthorpe, one of the most powerful in the United Kingdom. " But is there a daughter, Guy ?"

*' Oh, not of those Lisles," answered Guy, carelessly. " Violet belongs to the younger branch: Very rich in blood," he added with his sunny laugh, " but poor in money. Fortunately that will not matter." " Will not matter ?" she repeated, sharply, almost angrily.

But he did not notice the tone. He was thinking of how little value money was in comparison with Villet's wealth of purity and loveliness. "No, it will not matter, thank Heaven. Ah, lady mother, you will so love her ! I never valued our wealth so much as since I have thought how much happiness she will derive from it. She has been reared in poverty, mother—real poverty ; but she is like the flowers that come up through the snow—all the purer and sweeter for it."

" Poetical !" said Lady Darlingtor with that little sneer wh»ch so often precedes the outburst of suporessed anger.

Guy laughed, unconscious of the storm about to burst.

" And I am so anxious for you tc meet now that I have told you. I ought to have let you share my biappiness before. I don't .know why 1 didn't."

" Perhaps it was Violet? 8 influence" sneered Lady Darlington. "Oh, no, she said I wits to do as I thought best. The truth; is "he laughed happily—" I haven't thought about it at all. How cXttrM I, with Violet to think of?"

" And how this - - * ' *\* ' v

"Eh ?" ejaculated Guy, suddenly burning on the low stool upon which ae was sitting. " Not angry with ne, mother? Why, mother mine,'! .lid not mean to make a secret oi it with you. Do not feel hurt at ••hat. I wish now I had told you Irst as I intended."

" I wish you had, Guy ; but I hope t is not too late now." " Too late ! Not if you feel as I

feel." '* Oh, Guy, my guileless Guy ! can't you see why you kept from me this secret ? Why any other man than you would have gone on to the end keeping the secret ?" " Not so guileless, mother," said Guy, with a slight smile. " But what do you mean ? I don't understand." " No, but you will when I bring my worldly wisdom to bear upon it, and explain it to you." Guy smiled again. The superiority of his mother's worldly wisdom over his was one of the things he had heard a great deal of, and had always accepted as one of those harmless delusions which could not injure his mother or him. " Then let us have the worldly wisdom, mother," he said gaily. " Let us be serious, Guy." " Yes, mother," he answered, earnestly, for he could s€e she was more moved than he had supposed. " How long have you known this Violet Lisle ?" " Not 'this ' Violet Lisle, mother, please," he said, scriouslj. " I have known her three weeks in time ; but we do not reckon time by daysViolet and I. It seems, mother, as if I had always known her." " And how far has it gone ?" asked Lady Darlington, with a compression of the lips. " How far has it gone ?" he repeated looking at his mother with a puzzled expression, " I do not quite understand." " I mean," said Lady Darlington, letting her anger have more play as his serenity continued, " how much have you committed yourself to this —this person ?" There could be no mistake now, and Guy looked at his mother with a flush growing on his cheek and the colour deepening in his dark eyes. " Why do you speafa so ?" he demanded. " How else should I speak, when my son comes to "me and calmly tells me that he has entangled himseli with some unknown person ?" Guy rose from his seat and looked at his mother in a manner that might well be incomprehensible tc her ; for never had he felt towards her the feeling that animated him then. But he did not lose that calm even tone that had become more pronounced since his discovery of his mother's anger. " You are speaking of Violet Lisle, mother," he said, gravely ; " but 1 must pass it by since you do not know her. In future I beg you tc avoid such words as ' person ' and ' entangled,' in speaking of Miss Lisle. Ask me what you will of hei but do not for a moment forget that you are speaking of a gentlewoman, and my future wife." Lady Darlington looked up at hei tall son and recognised in him the man she had never before realised. There was something startling in the , sudden change from the gay, pliant son to the grave, dignified man ; but the mother clung to the belief, which had gradually grown, that he could not gainsay her. In all these years | she had not come to know what was hidden under a loving son. To her this betrayal of dignity was but a passing phase of emotion, and she went on in the path she had mapped out, which was to lead her to bitter sorrow. " And you, Gus ; , do you forget it is to your mother you are speaking?" "No, I do not forget it. Had 1 forgotten my words would have been different." Then his manner suddenly changed and the old affectionate look darted into his eyes. " Come, mother, do not let any difference come between us. Think of all these years ever since I can remember, when until now, there had never been a word except love and kindness from each to the other. He knelt by her side, and took her hand and smiled at her in his own sunny way, and she could not but soften and smile back at him. But the pride of caste and authority that ruled her would not let her yield tc him ; rather she interpreted his loving grace to weakness, which made her firm in her decision to carry out her own wishes. Had she known what was to follow, she might have turned and kept the sunlight of happiness shining on the faces of both of them. " No, Guy," she said, stroking his chestnut curls, yet in a voice whicl was not all sweetness, but had sorai imperiousness, " let there come nc difference between us ; there nevei has been ; and shall this girl whorr you have known but three weeks anc of whom I know apthing, be the first to cause it ?" " Violet cause the difference ! Oh r mother, if you hut knew her ! Gc with me to see her —see her but once. How can you comprehend her, not knowing her ?" " Guy, I am older than you ; 1 know more of the world than you. It is not necessary that I should see hei or know her to understand what you. poor boy cannot understand. It is not you and your loving heart that she care 6 for ; it is your wealth and title." "Mother r mother !" he cried, "dc not say that of Violet Lisle. Fire might freeze and ice burn, but suet words could not be true of her." "It is true, Gny ; and I say shall not marry her." " Shall not, mother !" and he rose from her side, a Cold, hard expeession chasing awaysih<s«s©rter one from hif face. ••■• Yea-Hsbyir-aafc l& You shall nevei

tink yourself to a designing adven--.uress !" " You have said enough, mother. Listen to me. I hope I shall not forget that you are my mother. I lave told you that Violet Lisle shall ic my wife, and she shall !"

There was that in the deepened tone ot his voice, in the glowing darkness Df his eyes, that thrilled and shot to the heart of the mother, and the woman quailed before the man ; but she could not believe that he would not still be the puppet, which, in his loyal, affectionate yielding to her he had grown to believe him.

" She shall never be your wife, jiiy ! I am your mother, and I :ommand vou to put from vou this :oyish infatuation.

"Boyish infatuation !" he repeated more sadly than angrily. " Mother, look at me, not at my height and breadth for my manhood, although they ought to be enough ; but at my face. Is it that of a weak hoy? Can you not comprehend that I have loved you so well that, since I have grown to man's estate, I have followed from pure affection what in my boyhood I did from pure duty ? And now I come to you, saying I love a woman so good, so pure, so uplifted beyond what I ever dreamed of, that she is a thousand times totgood for me, and yet you will not even see her. Is that the love of a mother wishing for the happiness of the son who has never before consciously caused her a pang ? Will you not see Violet, mother ?"

" I will not ; and what is more, I forbid your doing so." He turned away sorrowfully. " Well, mother, I shall not bandy words with you. I shall marry Violet, and I hope that you will receive her as your daughftcr." " Never, Guy, never ! And let me say to you here, most emphatically" —and she rose passionately from her chair —" that if you marry that woman I shall disinherit you ; and you know what that means."

A faint, sad smile passed over his lips and without a word lie left tho room in which a few minutes before had been echoing his infectious mirth. And, even then, the imperious mother could not comprehend her morj haughty son.

CHAPTER VI. GUY'S PLAN. Guy knew his mother better than she knew him, and that knowledge told him that she would never yield her position as long as there was any hope that he would yield his. And he felt that she misjudged him so much that she would not he convinced that he was in earnest until he had put it out of the reach ol doubt. But how was that to he accomplished ? He had already told hit mother, as emphatically as possible, that he would marry Violet in spite of her opposition—in spite of hei threat to disinherit him, and still he knew that she believed he would tinally yield. The thought of disinheritance brought a faint smile to his face as be recalled it. It was his mother'.' last card, and the manner in which she had played it was evidence that she considered it a strong one. How strange it seemed to him that his mother could think for a moment that money could have any weight in the balance against the love of suet a girl as Violet Lisle .' Lady Darlington's* fortune in her own right was an immense one, and it was that which had made, and would make the earldom of value ; for the income from the estate which went with the title was not much over five thousand pounds a year, a sum quite inadequate to the proper maintenance of the dignity. But if the income had only been one-half ol what it was, Guy would still have clung to the love of Violet as incomparably the most precious thing to him.

The truth was, as ho told himself, Lady Darlington did not know Violet. He was as serenely certain that Lady' Darlington would lovt Violet when she knew her as he was that he loved Violet himself. But how should ■he bring about this desirable consummation of his hopes ? It never entered his head to give up Violet—not for , an instant ; and although he did not argue the matter with himself, there was a feeling in his heart that he would give up everything else in the world hrst.

He knew that it would be an uncomfortable day at the castle, so he made some matter of business at Houghton his excuse, and rode away there, arranging his return so that he would be just in time for his tryst with Violet. The ride in the crisp air exhilarated him and there was not even a trace of the unpleasant effects of the morning's interview in his manner when he rode up to where Violet sat sketching. She dropped her pencil at the first sound of the horse's hoofs and sprang to her'feet with a loud cry of welcome. " Dick looks tired," she said, stroking the arched neck of the. intelligent animal. " Have you been for a gallop ?" " I come from Houghton. How well he knows his future mistress !" and he leaped from the saddle and bent over to kiss the blushing face turned up to him ; and so they stood together • for a moment—his arm around her waist, her face on his breast, and Dick tossing his head and champing at his bit.

Then Guy threw the bridle-reins over a convenient branch and led Violet to their favourite; seat iinder the oak, where she had first known her own and his love.

Guy let her sit, while he stood before her, gazing at her with enthusiastic admiration on her beautiful face.

" Could anything make you give me up, Violet ?" he asked suddenly* (To be Continued^)