A WOMAN'S SOUL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12524, 17 March 1904, Page 3

A WOMAN'S SOUL.

BY CHARLES GARVICE, AnOior of "Claire," "Her Heart's Desire," " Her Ransom," . " Elaine," " Nell of Shorn© Mills," "A Coronet of Shame," "The Story of a "■'.•■ '•-. Passion." etc.

CHAPTER (Continued.) Outside, in the hall, Lord Cecil pulled nimself up and drew a long breath, as a man does who has kept a tight hold upon himself for about as long as he can manage; then he paced up and down the full length of the hall-—much to the concealed, amazement of the groom and th*e footmen, one of whom stood ready to • open the drawingroom door for him—and, at last, remembering that Lady Grace was, waiting for him, gently relieved the footman's feelings by entering the room.. Lady Grace was reclining, almost completely lying, on a couch near the fire. At a little distance sat a middle-aged lady, bent over some kind of needlework. It was a distant connection of the marquis, who acted as a kind of housekeeper and who was more like a shadow than a living, breathing woman. Beyond his first greeting when ho had arrived Lord Cecil had not succeeded in exchanging a word with her. As he entered now she just raised her head like an automaton and let it fall again over her work. Lady Grace looked across at him with a smile and ho went and leaned against the mantelpiece of carved marble and mosaic, and she let her eyes scan his face in silence for a moment, then she said, with a smile: "Have you been enjoying yourself, Lord Cecil V" "Oh, very much!" he said. ':> She laughed a low, soft laugh. " Shall I tell you what you are thinking?" she said. ; He looked at her inquiringly. ; .; " You were wondering what train you could catch to-morrow morning." He started. '•Right the first time he aekuowledged, with a short laugh. She moved her fanit was a large one of fancy blue feathers— in juxtaposition with her face made its fairness seem dazzling. ■'"•:. "Well, don't." she said, " for my sake." " For your sake?" he said, half-absently. "Yes. Don't you see that you would leave me alone? You would not be so cruel! And after two days only." '• It seems about two years," he said, grimly. She, laughed softly, her eyes still fixed on his face, as if it were a book whose pages she was reading. " How charming the marquis is, isn't he?" "Charming!" he assented, with a volume of bitterness in the word. You must be so glad to be here with him, and it is the first time for ten years!" .. "And the last for another ten," he said, under his breath, but she heard him. "Don't say that. After all, he is not so bad when you know him." . "There are some people one doesn't wantto know, Lady Grace." "And then we must make allowances," she said. C Why do thev call him Wicked Lord Scoyle?" she asked him, not abruptly, but in the same soft voice that most people found acted upon them like a caress. "I don't know. For good and fully sufficient reasons, I've no doubt," he replied. "Do you think he has murdered anybody, now?" she inquired, with a smile. . "I don't know. Perhaps. I daresay. At any rate, I'm quite sure a great many people'must have longed to murder him." "Oh, fie!" she said, touching him with the edge of her fan; " and your uncle, too! I wonder what he has done?" "I was just wondering what he hasn't done," said Lord Cecil. She laughed. " You amuse me, Lord Cecil." "I'm awfully glad," he said. ."I didn't think at was in me to amuse anyone tonight-" - - "You have had rather a bad quarter of an. hour—yes?" she said, softly. "What a ! happy woman the marquis' wife must have i been." ■ '■ ■

Lord Cecil started. "I didn't know—" he said, inquiringly. She laughed, and the fan moved to and fro ip rhythmic curves. • "No? Oh, yes, there was a marchioness once. Years and years ago. I believe he killed her—with kindness." " Poor woman!" he said, under his breath. " Yes. But that's the mystery. No one knows, you see, and never will know. Everybodv knows about his ruining his cousin, Lord Denbigh, at cards; he committed suicide, and so the marquis inherited the Denbigh title; and about his shooting old Lady Dalrymple's son— say that the marquis fired before the word was given ; and about his running away with that foolish Lady Penelopeshe died in a garret at Dieppe; but nobody knows about the marchioness. How shocked you look!" "Do I?" he said. "I didn't think I was capable 'of it. But surely that isn't all he has done?" he said, with great sarcasm. ! "Oh, no; these are trifles which 1 hapi pened to remember hearing about. They rare only trifles."

"That is all," he said. They were silent for a moment or two; then she said, in the same voice, too low and soft to reach the. old lady sitting at the other end of the room: "And now shall I tell you what you are thinking about, Lord Cecil?" "Don't! I'm afraid!" he cried. . She laughed. _ ._ ~' ■ " You are wondering why I am here.' His eyes replied in the affirmative for him, '•Because— But, wait! I am cleverer even than you suppose! Shall I tell you what the marquis has been saying to you in the drawing-room; and why you look so grim and gloomy?"

He did not answer. She let her eyes rest upon his face with a serene and languid expression of amusement. ... "Well, then, he has been advising you to marrv me." Lord "Cecil was almost guilty of a start. He could not speak. The colour rose to his face, and his eyes dropped from hers to the diamond pendant that glistened on the white neck. ; ; ■'■ She laughed softly, and the diamonds seemed to laugh with her, as they scintillated in the subdued light. "Am J right? You need not answer— vour face is eloquent enough! And now I will tell you why I came here—l came to see you." ; . '■'.>, '■■'■ ~ ■ He tried to speak, but she held up her fan to command him to silence. "You see, I know the marquis and his charming ways better than you do. I knew that he wished us to meet, that we mighthow shall I put it?—respect each other. Well, Lord Cecil. I have seen you, and you have seen me. But"—she rose with slow and graceful ease and took up the train of her dress—"but von are not obliged to marry me, and I"—she haughed softly up at hi's handsome face—" I am certainly not obliged to marry you. ' And now, in reward for my candourl have been candid, haven't I?—you will not leave, me alone in this castle of Giant Despair?" She did not wait for his answer, but with a soft "Good night'-' and a smiling nod glided from the room. With the smile still on. her face Lady Grace went ; slowly up the great ; staircase | to the magnificent apartments which had been prepared for her. The smile was still on her face while her maid brushed the long tresses of silky hair that fell like a shower of gold over the white shoulders, and even when she was alone she smiled still as she leaned forward and looked at her face in the glass. "Yes," she murmured, falling back and -closing her eyes. "He is worth winning. There is only one thing I fear. She paused, with a faint sigh. "I am afraid that! shall love him too well!" . Lord Cecil stood with his back to the fire for twenty minutes after Lady Grace had left him. To say that he was amazed would be only inadequately to describe the state of his feelings. At last, as if he were making an effort to cast off the bewilderment which had fallen upon him, he wished the old lad'y good night, and went, not to his room, but out on to the terrace, for he felt o kind of craving for the open air, m which he might rid himself of the effects produced by his insight into his uncle's character and the extraordinary candour of Lady Grace. • ' He drew a long breath as he leaned over the balustrade, and his brain cleared some-

what. .';■>; ; ;::.-. ■ •'.. . . : " If Lady Grace is reading my thoughts at this present 'moment,", be murmured. "she'l' • know, I'm: thinking of that train still! Yes, I'll be. off the first thing tomorrow, morning !">. . ■ , '

And with this firm resolution he turned to go back to the house. As he did so something white fluttered past him, blown by the faint night breeze. . He Stooped and picked it up, and absently glanced' at it by the light from the window. It was a small handbill, on it in red letters: , Theatre iloyal, Barton. " Romeo and Juliet." - . "Romeo and Juliet It was that she had Deen reading by the brook. Instantly her lovely face rose before him, and dispelled all memory of the events of the night. He stood, looking down at the paper dreamily, wistfullyseeing, not it, but the dark hair and blue eyes ot the girl who had bent over him, whose hands his lips had touched. "No!" he said, with a sharp sigh; "no. I can't go, for she is somewhere, here, and I must find her!" CHAPTER V. , 'AN IDEAL OTIJ.IKT. The hour was approaching. Doris, still in her hat and jacket, sat in the tiny apartment behind the stage which served as her dressing-room. She was paler than usual, and her eyes looked of a deeper and darker blue than*usual; but she was calm, with a calm which Jeffrey could not attain to. With his hands folded behind him, his head bent upon his breast favourite attitude—he paced lip and down the narrow limits of the room, like a tiger ill its cage waiting for his supper. "Will the house be full, Jeffrey?" asked Doris, presently. "Yes." he replied. "The pit and gallery are full now ; they were waiting at the doors as early as six o'clock. They are not fools, these Barton people. In some places you would be sure of playing ' Romeo and Juliet' to empty benches, but not here. It is a . flourishing place, and they are intelligent and educated. They have a theatre they may be proud of, and they are proud of it. In some towns the theatre is a neglected barn, and when that is so you maytake it that the people are uncultivated and barbaric. Yes— will have a fair and patient hearing ; I knew that when I chose Barton for the scene of your great trial. In London there are so many new Juliets that the critics and the audience have got incredulous and suspicious—they have seen so many failures that they go-prepared for disappointment; here it will be different. They love Shakespcre,ithey know you, they will hope for the best, and you will not disappoint them," and his eyes glittered down upon her. Doris smiled. " Perhaps they will hiss me off the stage !" she said, but she did not say it very fearfullv. lie shook his head, and went on in his monotonous pacing ; and presently a familiar sound- struck Ids ear. " The curtain is up on the farce," he said. " You had better begin to dress. Is there anything I can doanything I can suggest anything you would like to ask me?" he inquired, with his long, thin fingers on the handle of the door. Doris shook her head. " No, Jeffrey, dear ; I don't know of anything, unless you would get into my skin, and play Juliet instead of me." " You are not nervous?" he asked. Not a bit," she answered "and that is strange, isn't it? No, I feel as calm and easy as if I were going to play a waitingmaid's part; but I shall be all on the quiver when I am standing at the wings/ready to go on." ...■-'■ He nodded as if he understood, am? went out, sending her dresser to her. Doris dressed quietly and slowly. Jeffrey had impressed upon her the importance of avoiding all hurry just before her appearance, and she had finished, and was sitting before the glass, not looking at herself, but musing, as it seemed, when he came in again. "Dressed? That is right! The house is crammed! The manager says it is the best house he has had since Mr. Irving was here. The boxes look like London boxes, people in evening dress, and ladies with flowers. He stood in front of her, and scanned her dress and get-up keenly. , ; The dress was of white satin, made quite plainly, with a long train, its only ornament a row of pearls, which were not stage jewels, but real, and of great value, and a present from Jeffrey himself. Her dark hair, looking black by the light, fell round her, exquisitely-shaped face like a frame, and, caught up by a white ribbon behind, swept in curving tresses to her shoulders. The faint touch of rouge—every actress must rouge, whether she likes it or notgave the intense blue eyes an added depth and brilliance, which the long dark lashes veiled now and again but to rise and render the brilliance and colour more marked by their temporary concealment. It was not his way to praise her beauty, but- as he turned away he muttered something that sounded like approval. • " Did you see anyone you know, in front, Jeffrey. she asked. No," he said, almost impatiently. "I know ac one! I suppose all the people in the boxes are county people, I do not know ! I only care for the pit and gallery ; it is from "them you must get your verdict, the boxes will follow suit." "Poor county people!" she said, with a smile, but absently. • "Of what are you thinking—the third scene?" he asked. (To be continued dailj'.)