CHAPTER XII.—PARTED!

Lake County Press, Issue 2459, 2 January 1913, Page 2

CHAPTER XII.—PARTED!

"Oh, Geoff, and you really think you ought to accept this appointment?" Phylliß put the question anxiously, her pre\ty under lip quivering. "Don't look like that or I shall have to give it up. Don't you see what a good thing it will be for me? And as x soon as I get settled you and Jack must come out. Tho climate would be the very thing for him, and instead of waiting years perhaps, before we could get married, it will only be a year or eighteen months at any rate. Little girl, be brave as you always are, and just look forward to the good time coming." Geoff's voice shook, but he drew Phyllis closer to him, and kissed those trembling lips and tearful eyes. 'I wish I did not feel so frightened about your going. It is silly, I know, and Jack is most enthusiastic about it, but 1 have the most horrible sense of dread hanging over me, something tells me this parting means disaster. Oh, Geoff! Geoff! If only I could go right away with you, too. To be left behind is unbearable; 1 can't endure it." The girl clung to her lover, crying piteously. Never had Geoff seen her 90 upset, and yet the thing he had told her was good news. Through the influence of Dr. Branscombe, of the Ventnor Hospital, he had been offered a good partnership in South Africa with a medical man of eminence, who wanted a younger man to help him in his work. The appointment seemed too good a one to let slip, and it would be absolute folly to refuse such a chance. What astonished Geoff Hathcrley was that Dr. Branscombc, whom he really only knew slightly, should have been so good as to fix upon himself as the man to be sent out, when he must know many better men, and men whom he would prefer to benefit.'Geoff could only be grateful, and believe that Branscombc knew more about him than he supposed. Little did he dream that Dare Grimshavv was at the bottom of the whole thing, bent upon getting Hatherley out of the country, and away from Phyllis YVentworth. (To be continued