Our Novelettes.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1521, 5 March 1886, Page 4

Our Novelettes.

THE TURN OF THE TIDE.

(Continued.)

, "It has been i blessed little refuge," said she. " I feel as if I were leaving rest and pesce behind me." She walked up to the table, and took a couple of rosebuds from the nosegay blooming there. " The world is all before me, where to choose,' said she, half aloud, as she fastened them in her dress. " I suppose it is because my strength has not quite come back that I feel as if the world were very large and very cold." She smiled, and checked herself, for just then the Doctor walked in.

He looked flurried and discomposed— Allace had never seeo him so before.

" I am late," he apologised. " I fear I have detainod you." "My time, unfortunately, is not very valuable," she returned.

" •'it down," said he with professional authority, drawing up an arm chair. " You are looking tired and pale." She eat down, and he stood by her. He was silent so !oug tlmt a thrill of terror passed through her. The post he had talked of for her wrb fillt d up, and he was afraid to tell hj» r ! It was because she was still weak that her heart sank like lead at the thought. Then her old courage came back, and she looked up at him, smiling, to reassure him. " Don't mind telling me," said she. The post you mentioned is no longer vacant —is'nt that it?"

" No," ho answered, with increased embarrassment—■" It is still open, only lam afraid —1 am doubtful whether you will accept

" You need cot be afraid," said she, Badly; " Have I any choice ?" " I)o you tell me not to be afraid?" asked he, leaning towards her. She turned whiter than her handkerchief at his tone.

" What do you mean," cried she, half in terror, half in pain. " The position 1 hare to offer tou is one in which you will be deeply valued," be replied —" which you will confer an inestimable benefit by accepting. Miss Drummond, do not think that 1 am presuming on your confidence when 1 ask you to make my home yours—to be my wife !' " Oh," she cried, returning with comical fidelity to her old, fixed idea, " I am not the kind of person to—to marry! I—l—have never thought of it."

" Think of it now," he pleaded. "It—it is impossible," she answered, still bewildered by the suddenness of the idea. "You don't understand—l am strong-minded. You men have a horror of the kind of woman I am lor a wife."

I have no horror of you as a wife; on the contrary," he added, earnestly, " I desire it as my greatest earthly good." She covered her face w: h her hands, and in the few seconds winch flowed, Allace quickly reviewed the life of the preceding two months, analyfed the regretful tenderness and the depression of the morning, and arrived at a suspicion which corered her cheeks with blushes.

"Is this, can this be lore? And I, too!"

Then she gianccd up timidly at the face bending over her. It was a good face, a noble face, if not a handsome one ; and it wns transformed now by something which Allace instinctively recognised as the great passion. It filled her with a kind of awe ; her hea't beat —the room spun round—the treJlis work of paper llowers grew hopelessly mixed. She stretched out her hands to save herself from falling, and felt herself .-aught and held in two strong arms.

" I never faimed before in my life," gasped Alliice, as she came to hertelt, trying at the same time to fit bolt upright and to look as if nothir y had happened. " Let us tuke it as a si k n that the strong* minded era is euded," said the doctor, as he laid her gently back again.

She tried to smile, but burst into tears instead.

" It is because I am so weak," she excused herself between her sobs.

" Yes, you are weak," assented the doctor, gravely ; " )ou need a grea: deal of care jet. Give me the right to take care of vou. Ttie disqualification is. removed, you know," he added, smiling.

" What hindered hor that she could not say " Yes," with her lips whilst her whole heart said it already ? The word was long lucjnjuig, but the doctor waited patiently for it, and nurae Thorpe opened the door in time to hear his rapturous thanks. • • • • #

" Darling Vera,—We must have changed tea-cups when the postman came that last night when I read your fortune, as I thought, for—and you can't be more surprised than 1 am, dear—it turns out to be my own. ' l l ftm going to be married! Does the announcement look as strange to you as it does to me. 1 shall have to write it a great many times before 1 can understand or believe it. Fancy me in Arcadia! Certainly 1 never expected to be there, nor wished it; and, if I were not so happy, 1 should be vexed now that I am there.

M Yes, I am happy—so happy that I can scarcely write for tue tears that fill my eyes. And this is the end of your strong-minded Allace. Do you regret her Y I do, some tunes."

Here a bolder handwriting intervenes, M Not the end, but the beginning." Ihen AUace tells her story to her sister, and manes it a long one, concluding thus—- " We are to be married next month, when you come back. Ih the meautime lam living with Doctor Stewart's sister—a sweet, good woman, who has accepted me at once as her sister, and spares no effort to win my love and gratitude. Allan is writiug to you by this post to tell you of his plans for the future —your tuture, dearest j they are like himself, all kindness and generosity. So it seems ttiat all our troubles are ended, and that we are to be together again—always together. Oh, Vera, it was worth while to sutler a little in order to know the worth of all this I Sometimes I am so unreasonable that 1 feel as if 1 should like to go through it all again just for the rapture of the denouement. Alow is that your strong-minded Allaoe ? Is anything elte needed to convince you that, as Allan says, ' the disqualification is removed' ? I must tell you one thing more. When little Daisy —my future daughter, and your future pupil was introduced to m e , her verdict to her father was, 'She's just w hat I wanted !' " Good-bye, darling, until our happy mreting." Ni*a.