VIOLET LISLE;

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2928, 25 July 1911, Page 2

VIOLET LISLE;

All Rights Reserved.

OR, A PEARL BEYOND PRICE.

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

PART 3 INTRODUCTORY

Violet Lisle, beautiful daughter of Melville Lisle—impoverished descendant of a proud, noble race —has many male admirers amongst those residing near her father's rustic retreat. Amongst these is true-bearted Martin Jenkins,.country curate and tradesman's son. The social gap between them has kept Violet's clerical admirer silent until the death of a distant relative brings him unexpected fortune. Then he declares his devotion, only to be kindly rejected by

Violet, who will not bestow her hand where cannot give her heart. The two part sadly, protesting that they will remain true friends ever. Guy. Lord Darlington, handsome and dashing, meets Violet romantically, and both are smitten with love at first night. The young peer decides to seei his charmer's father's consent to an engagement, though he is quite aware that there is a feud between their families. Before Guy has

spoken to Mr. Melville Lisle, however. he finds that his mother, the Countess Darlington, has chosen for him a bride, the Lady Sibyl Coldenham, and has, indeed, engineered her own, and his visit to Penarth Castle in order to bring about an engagement between the two. Guy has male himself agreeable to the Lady Sibyl, and it comes as a great shock to the countess to discover that her son has lost his heart to Violet. A violent scene between Guy and his mother results in her vowing to disinherit him should he marry Violet. Guy proposes to Violet a secret wedding, without the consent of their parents. Guy's mother acting on the advice of Lord Coldenham seeks an interview with Melville Lisle, Violet's father.

CHAPTER VIII. TWO ARISTOCRATS. Looking at Melville Lisle, it was easy to see where Violet got her beauty ; but the same glance would also betray the fact that it was not from her father she got her sweet nature ; for en his face was settled the expression of angry, discontented pride, drawing down the corners of a well-cut mouth, and lengthening the curve of the nostrils.

Too proud to do anything manual to lighten his poverty, he yet had a brain too active to be content with sloth, and so he had long since turned his thoughts to literature as a field in which he might without disgrace exercise his faculties. Nothing bo frivolous as a tale of love ever came from his pen, however. It was a thing he could not understand, nor could he tolerate it as a factor in a properly-regulated life. His great work was a disquisition on the correlation and conservation of forces—a wort that would doubtless have created a revolution in the thought of the world if it had ever found a publisher, which, for some reason, it never did.

The cottage where he dwelt was a small one, but if it bad been half the 6ize it would have found one room fcr his library, if Violet and Goody White ~ had slept on the roof. Melville Lisle's books were for the most part a portion of the overflow from th" library of Granthorpe, which had been given to his father by the then •arl, and which typified to Melville Lisle the aristocratic pretensions to which he clung as to the most precious thing pf his life. He was sitting in his library, as he called it, adding a thought or two to a new work on " diaphragmatic propulsion of impalpable particles," when Goody White in a tremor of intense excitement, burst into the sacred room without the customary knock of respectful deprecation.

" Oh, Mr. Lisle !" she gasped. "Mr, Lisle !"

" What is the meaning of this intrusion ?" demanded Mr. Lisle, with a coldness that should have had its effect on Goody, but in this case, did not.

" Lady Darlington, sir," wb spered Goody, shaking her two hands at him in a most impressive manner. " What about Lady Darlington ?" demanded Mr. Lisle, haughtily. " In the parlour she is, sir, a nd her carriage is waitin' outside, An' she asked for you, sir. I was that dumbfounded, sir, when I see who it were, to be sure—" " That will do," interrupted Mr. Lisle, with dignity. " Tell Lady Darlington that I will join her immediately." And Goody White retired, marvelling at the composure with which her master could receive so startling an event. It would not be true to say that Mr. Lisle was unmoved by the announcement that Lady Darlington had come to visit him at his humble cottage—" hovel " as he called it—but he had cultivated an aristocratic repose of manner too long to be betrayed into any expression of feeling even when brought into unexpected contact with such intelligence. He changed his dilapidated smoking jacket for his coat, and put himself into as good a trim as lay in his power with the wretched means at his command. Then, with the air of an aristocrat to the manner born, he entered the little parlour, which was pretty and sweet with the refinements bestowed upon it by Vialet, but which to him looked especially mean and poverty-stricken now, as he made a contract between it and the richly-clad lady who sat there waiting for him. But if he felt the poorness of the little room, he did not betray this feeling, but, rather, the higher mounted his pride, and he bore himself with such an air as the Earl of Granthorpe might have done in his drawing-room at the castle. Lady Darlinuton was fain to rise to return

his stately salutation, whereas she had intended to intimate to him the difference in their positions hy remaining seated. " Lady Darlington does me a great honour," remarked Melville Lisle, but said it with an air of conferring rather than receiving an honour.

" I presume you are Mr. Melville Lisle ?" said Lady Darlington, endeavouring in vain to throw into her manner an air of patronage. The stately, haughty courtesy of her tenant compelled her to a like politeness.

" I am ; prav be seated," and he waved her to a chair.

Much as he hated the shabby little parlour, he would not have uttered a word of apology for it. He wished her to understand that the wretched room, with a descendant of the Lisles in it. was all that could be demanded bj the most fastidious.

Lady Darlington felt all this, and it angered her that this man instead

of being borne down by her presence dared to bold himself, to all appearances even higher than herself. It put her in not the best mood for the conference, and made her perhaps more icy than she would otherwise have been. She felt, in fact, that the individual before her knew her errand, and assumed Ms manner to force her to better terms. It was under this belief that she began, haughtily .

" I presume you know why I am here, Mr. Lisle ?" '• Indeed. Lady Darlington, I am utterly at a IO6S to understand."

His answer was as haughty as her own, and tinged with an exasperating indifference that stung her to add :

" At least yon will understand that it is not a visit of pleasure." It was by this time quite plain that Lady Darlington had not come in any amicable spirit, and Melville Lisle was only too ready to believe in a slight to let this go unnoticed ; and yet his overweening sense of what was due to himself was too great to permit an overt act of discourtesy to a lady. He could not, however, let this pass. "It becomes a erntleman to agree with a lady," he said, ironically, but bowing. " There can be no doubt that this is not a visit of pleasure." Lady Darlington bit her lip. " You have a daughter—Violet Lisle," she said, abruptly. He merely bowed. "It is of her that I came here to speak," continued Lady Darlington, determined now to plunge at once into the subject.

Again Melville Lisle bowed. Lady Darlington became exasperated. " I presume yon know," she said. " of her relations with my son." Melville Lisle rose from his chair, his face white with anger.

" Lady Darlington, you are speaking of my daughter." It was his proprietary interest in his daughter that was touched—not his daughter, but his dignity ; but Lady Darlington could not appreciate this distinction. She only remembered with angry suddenness that she had been rebuked by her son more than rnce during her interview with him for speaking lightly of the same Violet Lisle. It was that that made her say : " I am speaking of the girl who has entangled my son into a promise of marriage." For a moment the fury of the man was almost beyond control ; then he drew himself up proudly and said, with a disdainful quietude : "It would have been well, Lady Darlington to have assured yourself of the identity of the person of whom you speak. My daughter does not know your son. I trust you will pardon me if I wish you a very good-day."

He bowed with ceremonious slowness, and would have left the room, but Lady Darlington staggered by his quiet assurance that she had made a mistake, hastened to say : " One moment, sir. If I have made a mistake 1 shall be glad to offer you an apology." "An apology is quite unnecessary, Lady Darlington, whether you have

made a mistake or not. It will be a waste of words to pursue the mat-

ter. Your son has not the honour of my daughter's acquaintance." Again he bowed as though he would bring the interview to a close ; but Lady Darlington would not have it so.

" I beg your pardon, but are you not of the younger branch of the Lisles of Granthorpe ?" " I am." No Spanish hidago ever showed a haughtier pride in his ancestry. " And is not your daughter named Violet ?" " She is."

" Then, sir, whether jou know it or not, there is an engagement between your daughter and my son—a marriage engagement."

Mr. Lisle smiled with a sort of weary disdain. " Upon whose authority do you make such an assertion, Lady Darlington ?" " My son told me of it this morn ing."

" And is your son in his right mind ?" " I never doubted it until this morning," was the quick retort. "I told him at once that such a mesalliance was not to be contemplated for a moment, and he answered me that he should marry Violet Lisle." Melville Lisle hardly changed colour, but he answered with cutting deliberation :

" Your son's dementia has assumed a singular form, but you need not be alarmrd. If he should present himself to me to ask for the hand of my daughter, I should tell him, as you have done, that such a mesalliance is not to be contemplated."

" I am glad that you see it in that light, Mr. Lisle." " It would indeed be strange if I did not. Lady Lisle. Do you think I can frrtret, Lady. Darlington, that the Lisles were trusted counsellors of the Norman William, while the Darlingtons trace themselves only from one Hugh Darling, who, in the -ipvpnt.h Henrv's time, rose by dis-

honourable practices from the baker's shop to the peerage, to the scandal of the gentry of that day." Lady Darlington turned scarlet. She could not deny tho truth of what was said to her ; but it seemed the very madness of pride in this man which gave him the audacity to say such a thing. She rose from her chair with a stately ignoring of what be bad said.

" Then I may count on you to aid my efforts to prevent this unfortunate affair from going any further ?" " You have my assurance, in the first place, that the affair has no existence ; and, in the next, that I would never permit my daughter to contract so damaging a mesalliance." Lady Darlington departed then ; whereupon Melville Lislc's pent up fury at once burst forth in an angry summons to Violet. Violet, however, was not at home, and Goody White, looking very fearful, appeared in her stead.

Melville Lisle looked at her with rising anger and suspicion". " Woman !" he said, wrathfully, " you heard what passed between me and Lady Darlington in this parlour which was quite true, though it made the good creature almost jump out of her skin to be so sudsenly accused. " What do you know of the matter ?"

" Nothing, sir ; not a word, which I would have known if there'd been any truth in it, sir. Leastwise she always has told me, sir, when — It never were her fault, sir —" " We will not discuss that," interrupted Mr. Lisle. " Send Miss Lisle to me when she comes in."

CHAPTER IX. PARENTS AND CHILDREN

Very much troubled, in spite of herself, by her interview with Guy, yet very happy withal, Violet returned home that afternoon from the abbey woods. She wished for more time to think it over, and walked round by the village, stopping at a cottage here and there, as her custom was, to say a cheery word to some inmate.

She Wad very little but kind words and helpful acts to give, but no Lady Bountiful was ever received with gladder smiles than she was, and it was always an innocent pleasure to her to know that with all the narrowness of her life, she was yet able to do some good. And to-day, as she went from one cottage to another, her heart was filled with happiness at the thought that when she was Lady Darlington, she could do many things to brighten the lives that now seemed to have no sunshine in them. But already she herself was sunshine enough. Not to the old and decrepid only, but to the young and strong ; for, as she passed through the village, more than one heart was lightened by a smile from her, and even the children stopped in their play to look up and greet her. When she turned into the lane that led to her own cottage, she espied Goody White leaning over the gate, and it seemed to her that there was something of trouble indicated in the attitude ; but she laughed softly, thinking the cake had been overlirowned, or that Speckle, the hen, had taken to eating her eggs, as Goody had long suspected. Then Goody looked up and saw her, and with a furtive look behind, to see if she was watched, opened the gate and hurried down the lane to meet her darling. And Violet gaily fell into an old childish habit and ran skipping to meet her. But when they were quite near, an.l Goody cried out in a woeful tone, I " Oh, Mis* Vi'let !" she stopped and waited.

" What is it, Goody ?" " Your father. Oh, he is—" " Not ill, Goody ?" " No, but that ragin'! I never see him like it before, no never. An.l you, my blessed lambi the cause of it ; and you never told me a word!"

A sudden consternation seized Violet.

" What do you mean, Goody ?" " He's found out all about it, every word ; and she's been here too. The Darlingtons, he said, came from a baker man, and she couldn't deny

it. And he's that ragin'!" " Who has been here, Goody ? Who is papa angry about?" " Lady Darlington ; and he wants to see you at once. Oh, my poor lamb ! Why didn't you tell your Goody all about it ?" Through the incoherence of the good creature Violet could determine that something was affecting her happiness had taken place at the house that afternoon, and that her father was angrily awaiting her coming. It was always easier for Violet to face a trouble than to avoid it, and she quickened her step at once soothing Goody with caresses and kind words. She removed her hat and held it dangling as she entered the library, after knocking and being bidden to enter.

Her father had evidently been pacing the floor and his face was dark with anger as he turned and loo'ted from her dusty hoots to her hat hanging by its ribbon from her arm. " You wished rue to come to you, papa ?"

" Where have you been ?" be dc manded, sternly.

" In the abbey woods." " Doing what ?" " You are angry with me, papa ; will you not tell me why ?" said Violet, with a sweet dignity. " Yes ; but tell me first what you were doing in the abbey woods." " Sketching the abbey—part of the time."

" And the other part ?" Violet flushed at the tone, hut answeted, slowly : " Talkinr with Lord Darlington." " And may I ask," he said with a

fury hardly concealed under an elaborate attempt at irony, " how long you have known Lord Darlington, and what you talk about ? I'm only your father, but I should like to know."

The little tremor of dismay which Violet had felt at first had passed awav now, and she found herself wondering at her own calmness.

" I have known Lord Darlington a little more than three weeks." ,

" And what is it that you talk of together ?" " Papa," she said, with gentle deprecation, " please do not speak to me in that way ; please do not be angry."

" Angry !" be # said, " I wonder that I can restrain myself at all. Is it really true t> then, that my daughter has brought such a shame and disgrace upon the name she bears?" " Papa !" she cried in a sort of horror. " How can you say such a thing ? How can you think it ?" " How can I saj it, miserable girl? Is it not true that,you have clandestinely met this Lord Darlington these three weeks—Heaven knows how often ?"

" It is true, papa," replied Violet, with exquisite dignity ; " and it is also true that I have promised to be his wife."

" His wife ! His wife you shall never be !" he cried furiously. "Let it pass that you have held your duty to me so lightly that you meet this young man clandestinely ; that you held your reputation at so cheap a rate. Forget that if you can. But how could you forget what you owe to me—to yourself—in laying yourself open to the charge of inveigling Lord Darlington into a marriage with you ?" "Who can have said such a thing?" demanded Violet. " Who can have said it? Do you know what has happened while you were meeting your lover ?" " I know that Guy's mother has been here."

" Guy ! Use no such familiarity. Yes, Lady Darlington has been here to warn me that she will not have her son marry you ; that she will not permit him to form such a mesalliance. Mesalliance !do you hear? To me, whose blood was noble five centuries before the beggarly plebein ancestor of the Darlingtons knew his father's name. I tell you, girl, I have suffered such an insult this day as I shall never forget, and all through you, and your lack of proper pride." " I am sorry papa, but I did not mean to deceive you. r met Guy —Lord Darlington accidentally, and loved him. He loved me. told me so, and asked me to be his wife." " His wife ! Well, there is an end of that. I will write to him this very day, and you shall enclose a note releasing him from any engagement he has made with you. It shall never be said that Melville Lisle's daughter obtained a husband by intrigue. Go ! write the note now, and let it be brief and formal!" "But, papa, he does not wish to be released, and I love him." " Not a word. Do as I bid you. It is the only way in which you can recover my respect." " Papa," said Violet, her face white with emotion, " I cannot write as you bid mc. I love Guy, and I have promised to be his wife."

"You refuse ! Do you dare to disobey me?" " I do not wish to disobey you, papa. Oh, papa dear, listen to me for a moment. Do not ask me to wreck mj happiness for life for a mere whim—for the gratification of a foolish pride. You do not know Guy. If you did, you would gladly accept him as a son. He will win his mother to see as he does, and then we should be so happy." It is unlikely that he would have listened to her anyhow, but after her words about his pride and his whim he was only more furiously angry.

" Let us have no more words ahout it," he said. "Go to your room and do as I bid you. Write that note and never again look at or speak to him,- You shall not—l say you shall not drag the name of Lisle in the mud."

" I cannot write that note, papa." " Ho to your room, shameless girl" th :nderc<l Melville Lisle ; and Violet left him with indignation in her heart.

Rendered even the more furious by the opposition of the daughter of who?e hidden strength of character he had no conception, Melville Lisle sat down at his desk determined to write a letter to Lord Darlington that should at once and for ever disabuse his mind of the thought that Violet could ever be his wife.

It was not easy to be satisfied ; for before everything he was determined to put his own pride and dignity ; and however angry he might he with Violet and Goodj, he could not permit a descendant of the Lisles

to do an act that could ever be called in question.

So he wrote and tore up sheet after sheet, as lacking in one or more of the essentials to a letter from Melville Lisle, until at last he had produced an epistle which be believed might be put to any test and come forth triumphant. In all his vain fretting there had not come once into h : s mind a thought of the happiness of his daughter. It was all Melville Lisle.

He had given up the intention of compelling Violet, to write a renunciation ; for it had occurred to him that it would be a more dignified course to ignore even any suspicion of right on her part to any voice in the matter. Melville Lisle was the one person injured. Melville Lisle was the arbiter of her fate, and he alone needed to speak.

At the castle Lady Darlington was as yet the only person disturbed by the events of the afternoon. A sense of humiliation and complete defeat rankled in her heart, even though she now felt safe as to Guy. She would not tell him that she had been to sec Mr, Lisle, though she had no doubt that he would learn it in some other way.

He did, just before dinner, when Mr. Lisle's letter was handed to him by a footman, who said it had been brought by a village boy, who said there was no answer.

Gay opened it wonderingly, but with a light heart ; for it did not matter to him now if the whole world opposed. He had Violet's promise to be his wife. He had no suspicion, however, of what was in the letter, and no one was further from his thoughts than Mr. Lisle. He had come down from his room,

and stood in the hall as he read the letter, Lady Darlington watching him with a feeling that it came from Melville Lisle. She saw his brow init as he read ; she saw him reread the letter. That was all. There was no sign of distress or of anger. He shrugged his shoulders almost imperceptibly, and entered the drawing-room. She felt relieved. But if 9he had known what thoughts bad been sent flying through Guy's brain by that perfect letter of Melville Lisle she would have eaten no dinner. Guy did not eat a great deal, but he was so full of jests and merry talk that no one noticed that he ate so little. After the long, ceremonious meal was over, Guy made an excuse for leaving the guests and went to his room, where he passed some time in an occupation very like Melville Lisle's before dinner. He wrote several letters before he could settle upon pne to suit him. That letter he directed to his mother and put on his writing-table. His valet he dismissed for the night ; then dressed himself for a journey and left the castle.

He did not order a carriage, but had a horse saddled and rode out of the yard on it. He rode quietly at first, and then broke into a galloß and went towards the village. " It will seem sudden," he said to himself; "but T think she will be willing."

Lady Darlington, meanwhile, kraew her son had taken a horse and left the castle ; but she only amiled to herself and said : "I think he will not enjoy his visit to the descendant of the Lisles more than I did."

She thought he was going to plead with Melville Lisle.

CHAPTER X. GUY'S REMEDY. The evening meal at the cottageit had been a very uncomfortable one, was over. Melville Lisle was his library, endeavouring to forget the occurrences of the day in his great work on diaphragmatic propulsion ; Violet had retired to her own little room, and Goody White was in the kitchen, discussing, with the dishes she was washing, the difference between aristocratic and plebeian love-making. Another view of the same idea was occupying Violet's thoughts as she sat by her window, looking out at the stars as they one by one crept up to tbe dark canopy of heaven and peeped through. Why should Lady Darlington object to her marrying Guy because she was poorer than be? and why should her father object because Guy was richer than she ? for, after all, those seemed to be the only reasons.

At least she could not see that there were any others besides her father's wounded pride, and it had been that very pride of his that she had considered most. When she had consented to an elopement with Guy her chief reason had been that Guy wished it ; but her second reason was that she felt her father would forgive anything to Lady Darlington. She had never counted on his affection ; for he had taught her never to think of that ; but she had believed that she could count on his pride, and now even that was up in arms against her happiness. It was all so unreasonable to her, and think it over as she would she always seemed to come to one conclusion—that Guy was the only one who thought of anyone but himself. He thought of her first, and found his own happiness in hers. And this was not in her case merely the selfinterested fancy of a capricioas girl. It was really more true than she knew, for Lady Darlington and Melville Lesle were playing with these two young people as if they had been senseless pawns on a chessboard.

What wonder then was it if all her j thoughts centred on Guy Darlington, j and what he would have her do ! ! Her father had never had her con- j fidence, had never wished it, and in her worldly ignorance it seemed to her that the man who was her lover, and surely would be her husband—a warm, happy flush suffused her face at the mere thought—was the one who should guide her. And so she sat with her. elbow resting on the window-ledge and her dainty ch'n in her shell-like palm, thinking more and more of Guy, and less and less of the trouble that compassed them ; listening unheedingly to the monotonous click and rattle of the dishes downstairs, and smiling with the sweet serenity that belonged rather to her childhood than to the womanhood she was entering on in such a stormy way. And down in the kitchen indignant old Goody White was risking the soundness of the china in many an unnecessary fling, each risk representing her emphasised opinion of a man who could interpose between two lovers, particularly when the one of them that she was most interested in would gain so much ; for even old Goody White, to whom Violet was the dearest thing in the world, saw the worldly advantages most clearly. Of course she believed that, her Violet, with her beauty, and her ancient lineage, was good enough for any one outside the Uoyal Family ; and she was not entirely clear that the Lisles were not better off in the matter of blood than even the royalty. Then she chuckled gleefully as she rested from rinsing the dishes and repeated with all the possible unction that the Darlingtons came from a baker man. Still, Melville Lisle, with all his wealth of blood, was a poor man, and it was like flying in the face of Providence for him to lift a hand to keep two loving hearts apart, especially when one of those loving hearts brought with it a title and a good income. Of cousse, it was a great thing to be a Lisle ; but it was not I by any means a bad thing to he Lady Darlington ; and Goody was, for one, for letting the poor young man have his own way. , Everybody said, too, that he was a very proper young gentleman, hand- ; some, kind, and good-tempered. She just wished she had something to say .

about it. If she would not put Violet's hand in his and say, " Take her, and Heaven bless you both !"

" Ay, that I wotild," muttered Goody, taking up a pilfi of plates and carrying them to the cupboard. " And what a sweet Lady Darlington she would make' to be sure ! A bcautifuller they could not find, no, not at the Court itself, if I do say it. Mercy me, what's that !" She pushed the dishes on the shelf and listened. Surely a low knock at the kitchen door. Now, who could it be coming to see her at that time of night ? And Goody stopped at the cupboard to think it out, instead of going to the door. But whoever it was might be modest enough to knock softly, and yet not be over-patient ; for while Goody was still wondering who it was, thferc came another knock. Then she opened the door, and was about to exclaim aloud at the sight of a tall young man standing there ; i but «}the young man put his fingers on *liis lips and said " Sh-h!" and smiled. and so Goody retreated into the room and stood ready to flee if need be.

" I know you must be Goody White," said the joung man so pleasantly that Goody answered in the same low tone he had used. "So they call me who have the right—" "It was Miss Lisle who taught me to call you so," said--the young man. Goody started with a sudden thought, and stepped nearer that she might have a better look at her visitor. He smiled and took a step inside.

" Body o' me ! I do believe it's Lord Darlington." He nodded his head and smiled. " You know all about it, don't you, Goody ? And you are our friend I am sure," he said.

" A very pleasant spoken young gentleman as ever was," thought Goody, and she answered him : " I nursed Miss Vi'let from a baby jour lordsb'p, and the very first blessed words that she spoke—and that not so her own father could un-

derstand, even if he'd cared to which I must say he didn't, bein' so taken up with other things always—that word was " Dood,' which she meant Goody, and the same I've always been to her. Her friend I am, and all that's her true friends, which I hope your lordship is."

"So she has, always told me, Goody, and that is why I come to you to night, when I think you can help us both."

" And help she needs, poor lamb!" " Well, I'm sute, Goody that you and I would do anything in the world to make her happy. She has told me .so much about you, tlyit when I found how crooked everything was going I made up my mind to come to jou. You knew that her father had written to me to say that Violet released me from my engagement to her, and did not wish to see or speak with me ever again." " Nay, I did not know that ; but a wic'ied story it is, to be sure ; for I beard Miss Vi'let with my own ears —her' voice bein' raised a little in consequence of her feelin's bein' so worked up," explained the good woman, recalling how she had happened to hear—" an' she said right out plain, ' I love him,' an' I promised to marry him,' which, if it was my last word I would say she was a blessed martyr." " Then you will help us, won't you Goody ?"

" Only tell me how, your lordship."

" Bring Miss Lisle here, that I may say a few words to her." "So I will ; for he can do no more than kill me for it;" and as if killing was too much a trifle to consider a second time, Goody went softly out of the room without another word.

Then Guy, standing there could hear the movements of feet over his head, and a few minutes later Violet with radiant face, was standing before him.

" Oh, Guy, I know now why I was not more unhappy. My heart knew you would come to me. You know all about it, then ?" " Yes, my darling ; my mother has been here to see your father ; and Mr. Lisle has written to me, saying a number of things, all of which only mean that he will not let you marry me." " But you seem happy, Guy."

" Well, for that matter, so do you," laughed Guy. " But that is because I am here," said Violet, looking up from his breast.

" And do you thinfe that is not also enough reason for my happiness ? But there is another reaaon, dear. I knew you would not be affected bj what lias happened. I know my mother, and I know that I could not make her happier than by marrying you. She will not believe it now ; but she will afterwards. As for your father, dearest, what else could he say but that you must not marry me, after my mother had come to him ? But I am sure that he will be glad when it is done and cannot be laid to his charge." Violet was ready enough to accept anything Guy might, say about, his mother ; but she knew her father better. She shook her head. "If 1 take you, Guy, I must give up papa."

" And yet you would be willing, mv darling," he said, gently.

" I was thinking, Guy. I have a feeling that it might not be quite right—proper I mean, perhaps— but I can hush that feeling and do what you wish me; but, Guy, darling, suppose it should be wrong, and lead somehow to your un'happiness. Ido not mind for myself. I would be glad to suffer unhappiness for you ; but I could not bear to think that joil were unhappy, and I the cause."

" Dear little Violet ! How like you that is ! No. I, too, have thought it out. I have tried to see if it would bring happiness to you

in any way ; but all I could see was that I was not at all worthy of you and that might make you unhappy some time—" " When I found it out," she interrupted with a soft little laugh of incredulity.

He pressed his lips to her lorehead, and stroVied her hair. "Of course, you do not believe it. and I suppose I am very glad of it ; but it is so. lam not worthy of you, darling ; but I do think I would give you up this moment, and let you think me base even, if it would conduce to your happiness. I would give you up even though I know, as I say that it would ruin my life to do so. You believe that, don't you, darling ?" " Yes, Guy"; and she wondered nn she said it if she could be as noble as that. " Then, darling," went on Guy, " let us take the risk. Sec ! it is quite certain that it will make no real difference to your father or my mother, and it will make all the difference to you and me. We love. [ each other, and there is no good ! reasou why we should not marry—jthey only say ' You must not.' Why, ieven if we were to give up our own happiness, what would it benefit them ? I would marry no onv? else but you. Would you marry any one else but me ?" " I could not." "Then sec! We should all be uni happy in that case. But if you and j I make each other happy, they will be reconciled in time."

"It is so easy to think so, Guy. I will do as you say, dear ; for I trust you more than I do myself." " May Heaven bless you, my darling, and guide me to do that which is best for you. Let us go away to-night." " To-night ! Oh, Guy!" "It is sudden, darling ; but. if it. is to be some time why not now ? It will save all the wretchedness of opposition that is sure to be our lot if we wait for it. I have made all arrangements to go, We will walk over to the station, take the ton o'clock train to London and to-mor-row morning will make you La.ly Darlington me the happiest man in all the world."

She looked up at him and smiled; but she shrank from taking such r leap over the edge of a precipice : she had never been fifteen miles from Penarth. And' yet it seemed to her that if Guy stood by her side on tlr edge of a veritable preciricc and had said, " Let us step over together," they would have done it. " Will you do it, darling ?" he asked.

if he had not bent his head until his cheek rested on hers, he could not have heard the faintly-whispered " Yes."

(To lie continued.)