WOMAN'S SOUL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12523, 16 March 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

WOMAN'S SOUL.

BY CHARLES GARVICE, Author of " Claire," "Her Heart's Desire," . "Her Ransom," "Elaine," "Nell of Shoroe Mills," " A Coronet of . Shame," "The Story of a Passion." etc.

CHAPTER (Continued.) After this chcerful remark the conversation rather naturally languished. Lord Cecil was hungry, and devoted his attention to his plate; the servants moved to and fro waiting with subdued and watchful assiduity; the marquis ate his dinner with slow, wearied glance, his eyes fixed on the great golden epergne in the centre of the table, as profoundly silent as if he never meant to utter another word. Now and again Lady Grace raised her eyes and scanned the handsome face opposite her, and Lord Cecil would have returned the compliment, but while he ate his dinner he was thinking of that other face with the dark hair and blue eyes, which had bent over him by the brook, recalling the sweet voice, which still rang in his ears like distant music. , He started when the low, soft voice of Lady Grace said: " Have you been at the Towers long, Lord Cecil?" • It was rather an awkward question, for this was his first visit to any house of the marquis, his uncle, for ten years. " Two days," he replied, simply. Lady Grace's eyes grew keen, and she glanced from the young man to the old one. ; "I have just been tiying to tell the marquis how intensely I admire the place," she said. - The marquis inclined his head to her in courtly acknowledgment, but without a word. "It is the prettiestno, the grandest old place J have ever seen. I am quite surprised to hear that the marquis seldom visits it. The view from the terrace is simply magnificent. The country round about must be very beautiful." " I think it is," said Lord Cecil; the marquis made no sign. "I haven't seen much of it." . ' " I shall expect you to act as guide to what you have seen," she said, with a smile that seemed to flash like a beam of light from her white face. "I shall be most happy," he responded. "I think the country is at its best in the spring,, and I am always glad to get a little while, a short breathing time, before the Loudon ' season commences. Let me see, you are in the Two Hundred and Fifteenth, aren't you, Captain Neville?" ■ "I was," said Lord Cecil, with a momentary embarrassment and a • glance at the marble-like face at the head of the table, j " I have retired." "What a pity!" she said, and her eyes seemed to take in at a glance his broad chest and* stalwart limbs. "Do you extend your sympathy to the army or to Lord Cecil?" asked the marquis, in a voice too smooth for the sneer which his question conveyed. Lord* Cecil's eyes flashed, and his colour ;rose, but he contained himself and smiled. ' "Oh, for both of course. Surely the Commander-in-Chief cannot afford to lose a good officer, and Lord Cecil must be sorry to leave the army." J. - "No," murmured the marquis. "I do not suppose the Commander-in-Chief can . afford to lose a good officer. Lord Cecil must have been a great loss," and his icy glance rested for a moment, without a spark of expression, upon the handsome face which had flushed again under his cruel taunt, " The loss was all on my side, 'Lady Grace," he managed to say, with a smile; 'VM any . rate, the duke bears hp wonderfully well." * , :: Once more the marquis had succeeded in freezing the conversation, and Lady Grace, after toying with a strawberry, rose to leave the, table. And as Lord Cecil opened _ the door 'for her, she put up her fan, and in a remarkably low voice murmured: " You'will not stay long?" " I certainly sha'n't," he replied, emphatically, and in an equally low voice; but, low as it was, the marquis appeared to have heard it. - '<" I shall not detain you long," he said.; " You drink, of course?" and he touched the decanter. The tone, and not the words, again seemed to convey an insult, and Lord Cecil shook his head, feeling as if he would rather have perished of thirst than drink a glass of the wine thtt-- offered. "No?" said the marquis, and he managed to make even this single word offensive. " I thought it was the present custom with young men." said Lord Cecil; "we have ■ " No, sir," said Lord Cecil; " we have changed the fashion." _ The marquis inclined his heqd as if the retort were a compliment. " Ah, the present age ha* no vices, I.presume. Is it because they have no strength for them?" '• ' , " I don't know,"' said Lord Cecil t almost coldly. . , , The marquis filled a glass with the rare and costly wine, and as he sipped it, allowed his eyes to stray over the rim to his nephew's face. "I think I told you Lady Grace was expected?" he said. "I think not, sir," said Lord Cecil. "Ah, it escaped me. Her father is an old—friend of mine." The pause conveyed the sneer which lay in almost every sentence he uttered, and was expressed by tone or word. "He did me a great service, and I owe him a debt of gratitude." Lord Cecil looked up inquiringly. The marquis dipped his white fingers in the fin-ger-glass, and added, smoothly: _ "He ran off with a girl to whom I was going to be married. This is her daughter, and I am naturallyattached to her." : The idea of the marquis being attached to any human being on the face of the earth almost raised a smile on Lord Cecil s faoe. He might have laughed outright; the marquis would have made no sign. He sipped his wins slowly, then he said : "She is What people call a beautiful 81 This was put as a question, and Lord Cecil hastened to' reply : ? " She is very beautiful, sir. , " If you say so!" said the marquis, with, an: inclination of the head, which brought the colour to Lord Cecil's face, and caused him to mutter -. _ , „ "I can't stand this much longer. ; "I beg your pardon?" said the marquis, blandly. , „ . . - In his embarrassment Lord Cecil seized i the de«toiter and poured out a glass of wine, : and the ghost of a smile crossed the marquis " If is rather singular that Lady Grace should have mentioned the army," he said. " It reminds me that I wanted to speak to you on the subject. First thank you for complying with my desire." Lord Cecil smiled, but rather grimly. "I don't think I could have done otherwise, sir," he said. ■ • " Ah! true—yes. I think, if I remember rightly, that I made the continuance of your allowance subject to your resigning. No doubt you thought the condition rather arbitrary..: Permit me to explain it. I coultl not afford it." „ , . . • Lord Cecil started in an unfeigned astonishment, which appealed to give the marquis immense satisfaction. "I generally avoid business matters, he said, slowly, and as smoothly as ever; "I leave them .to my steward and lawyer. But I think we had better speak of them—it is a good opportunity! It will, surprise you to hear, no doubt, that I am a poor man!' Lord Cecil certainly looked surprised. The marquis smiled. ; "Y—es," he said, slowly,, as if he enjoyed making the statement. " It appears that I have spent rather more than double my income for, say, fifty years since; and I imagine that- my father and grandfather must,have done the same; at least that is the only way in which I can account for the fact that the whole of the free estates are mortgaged up to the neck.. Up to the neck," he added, as if it were a line of especially beautiful poetry. Lord Cecil sat silent and attentive. . " The land that couldn't be mortgaged will, of course, come to you," continued the marquis, and his tone conveyed his infinite regret j "hist even the income from that

will be drawn upon to pay/the interest on the ( others. Consequently with bland and icy'politeness, "you will probably be the poorest; peer of the realm." , Lord Cecil remained silent, his eyes fixed gravely on the pale, set face, which bore. not the faintest indication of regret. "It is an uncomfortable position! I canI not imagine a more deplorable one, can you?":.' •--':;' ' - Lord Cecil nodded. , r "I-I don't think I have realised it yet, i sir," he replied. '-. ■"Ah I" said the marquis.,...." But you will. I haven't felt it because, you see, I have been able to raise money for myself! That is unfortunate for you, of course, but, I imagine you would have done the same in my place." Lord Cecil did not reply. The heartlessness of the speech simply staggered him. The marquis waited, as if to give him time to digest this charmingly candid statement, then remarked, in as casual a voice as if he were commenting on the weather: .. "Lady Grace's grandfather made his j money and his title out of beer. She will be immensely rich, I believe, and will not require the small sum—though it will be my all—which I shall leave her." He paused and looked at his white hands, then in an utterly wearied voice, as if he had exhausted all the interest in the subject, 'said:; \ ■"'' ;;; ' " : "■' "--' > i "I am glad you think her so charming! Pray do not let me keep you from her any longer!" and he rose and stood like a statue. Lord Cecil pushed his chair back and rose, his handsome face rather pale, his eyes flashing.' "Do I understand, sir—do you want me to understand that you wish me to—" He hesitated a moment, then brought it out, bluntly— marry Lady Grace?" The marquis surveyed him from under halfclosed eyelids, as if he were some insignificant object at a distance. "Certainly not!" he said, smoothly. "I was merely making an attempt, I fear a vain attempt, to amuse you by giving you some information. It is"—the words dropped with icy, contemptuous indifference from his scarcely moving lips—" a matter of profound indifference to me whether you marry Lady Graceor one of'the maids in the kitchen!" A fierce retort trembled on the tip of Lord Cecil's tongue, but he closed his lips tightly, and, returning the courtly bow which the ■marquis at this moment accorded him, with a short inclination of the head, left the room. The marquis gently sank back into his chair with the placid and serene air of a man who has spent a remarkably pleasant quarter of an hour. . * (To be continued, daily.)