EVERY INCH A SOLDIER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9656, 31 October 1894, Page 3

EVERY INCH A SOLDIER.

BY JOHN STRANGE WINTER, Author of "Booties' Baby," "Beautiful Jim," " irniy Society," Garrison Gossip," " The Soul of the Bishop," etc. All Bights Reserved. CHAPTER XXXlV.—(Continued.) It is a good way round from the front of the Cornhill Theatre to the stage-door, which gives up a small and very quiet street, little more than a lane. Jervis kept in the shadow of a doorway and watched John Sylvester anxiously prowling up and down. What a long time it seemed, and the night was so dark ! You could hear footsteps at the other end of the quieb street, and when at last she came, he could plainly from his place of shelter hear John Sylvester say "Have I found you at last? Is it you, Katey 2" They were not then indeed more than a couple of houses from him, bub he saw Katey shrink up against the wall and heard her say, " Who told you where I was ? I have nothing to say to you. Don't attempt to interfere with me."

"To interfere with you !" Sylvester repeated, " I! — 1, who have sought you day and night, who have mourned you, loved you ! And this is all you have to say to me. You shall hear me. I swear to you thab you shall love me."

" Never !" she flashed out at him. " Yes ! I say yes ! Katey I" in a softer voice, " has my love, my faithfulness, won nothing from you ?"

" Nothing !" she cried, " I loathe you ! Your love is an insult, your faithfulness is an impudence, I will have none of you— none of you." " And thab other one he began. .-, "No, you have nothing to do with thab other one. He is nothing to you nor to me. If he were anything to me it would be no business of yours, but I will not hare his name brought into this discussion. I would never have looked at you under any circumstances, you have made me hate you too thoroughly. Why need you force me to tell you all this once more? I have said it to you over and over again. It is perfectly useless for you to waste another moment on me."

"Bub I swear I will," ho rejoined. "I have sworn that my wife you shall be and I mean to keep my word. „ Katey, don't tempt me any further, don't try me too much. Take me, and I shall be as clay in your handsas wax ; spurn me, and I may become even'your murderer !" He advanced a step or two towards her, and Katey made a rush to gain the busier end of the street. Just at tho doorway, however, Sylvester caught her, and in his huge grasp she was as powerless as a kitten in the mouth of a bull-dog. "No, no, don't do it!" she cried, in tones of horror, which would have pub perhaps any other man in the world completely out of conceit with her. "If you dare to kiss me I will kill myself !"

But John Sylvester was gone beyond daring. He encircled her with one arm, and with his free hand forced her face upwards towards his own, and then—something happened, for a hand closed like a vice of iron upon the back of his neck, and the next moment ho found himself flung violently into the gutter. " Lie there, you coward !" said a voice that ho knew but too well. " You pestilential hound ! Keep your loathly kisses for women that want them. Miss Vincent, let me see you safe out of the reach of this amiable relative of yours. Fray don't tremble so ; really, he isn't worth it. I happened to be in the theatro, and I saw him recognise you. I knew he would try t) catch you here and so I followed him, feeling that you would be none the worse for my presence. I know your address, you are much too unnerved to go home by train, do let me drive you home. You see I have not forced myself upon you, and if you will lit me see you safe into your own house I promise you I will not even speak to you on the way." Now Katey', as a matter of fact, was trembling so violently that argument and e?en the legitimate use of her legs were both alike out of the question. She clung to him with both hands, her teeth chattering with fear, her legs shaking under her, hsr hands trembling and her eyes almost starting from her head with fright. " Oh, take me home," she whispered, between chattering teeth, " take me home. I am so frightened." So Jervis supported her to the corner of the street and chartered the smartest looking cab that he could see,, helped her in and got in after her. " Would you liko tho glass down ?" he asked.

" No," she replied, still breathless with the excitement through which she had just gone. Apparently she was minded to keep him to his word, for she sat back in her corner, not speaking, not moving, except the trembling of her limbs. And Jerris sat in his, soldierly, upright, calm, to all outward appearance, that is, nor did he once open his lips until they were passing Knightsbridge Barracks. " Are you cold ? Are you sure you wouldn't like the window down ?" ho asked, as he might have asked his maiden aunt, or the- daughter of his colonel, or anybody with whom he was on polite bub distant terms.

"Just as you like," she replied. "I am not a 5 all cold."

" You are o! course thoroughly upset and frightened, but I am only anxious that you should not take cold. We have a long way yet to go, you know." " I like it up," she replied. Then they relapsed into silence once more, until they had got a littlo way beyond High-street Station. She looked at hire once or twice, at first furtively, then with an imploring expression which, as he was looking straight ahead, he did not see. Once she half pub out her hand, and then she said, in a very meek voice : "I am really very much obliged to you." "Nob at all," said he politely. "I am only too glad that I was able to be of any use to you. That fellow is really quite a dangerous sort of person. I think he ought to be pub in a lunatic asylum myself. lam afraid ib will be rather annoying for you if he chances to wait on other nights. Of course, it was lucky that I happened to be there, but I have only three days more leave, and really, I think it would bo best if you were to speak to the police about it." " Yes," she replied, and then they relapsed into silence again. On they went, down the broad Hammersmith Road, pa.nb the great gilded gates at Holland Park, on between the twinkling rows of lights, still in that polite and dreadful silence. Ab lasb Katey could stand it no longer. " Phil," she said, in a very small voice, "aren't you even going to speak to me?" Well, need I write any further? I don't think so. That one little simple question, asked in that tone of pathetic misery, was quite enough for a man like Jervis. He no longer leant his arms upon the door of the cab, staring out into the gaslit night, oh, no, for in a moment all the past was blotted out, all the future became assured, all the present was turned into Paradise, and yeb be only uttered one word-— "Katey." THE END.