A Runaway Husband.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1032, 11 December 1891, Page 11

A Runaway Husband.

(Concluded.)

Xt was not, however, till the next season, when she was taken up to town and formally brought out, that she fully realised what she had done. One of her elder sisters had married, and Mrs Fane could not resist showing Stella’s piquant beauty to the world. She was a worldly ambitious woman, and quite intended her youngest daughter to make a good match, as she soon let her see. Stella’s heart sank within her as she thought of what her mother would say did she know that her child had already tied herself to a man of whom she knew nothing. She felt she had no l’iglit to go about among other girls, and receive the attention and admiration that fell liberally to her share. He girlish fancy for Frank "Vavasour had died a natural death when she realised how he had deceived her; and then, to complete her unhappiness, she fell genuinely in love with Colonel Endecott, a grave-faced chivalrous soldier of about thirty-five, who was considerably puzzled by her conduct, as she sometimes showed what was surely love in her truthful eyes, and sometimes shrank from him unmistakably. One evening, however, he had made up his mind to know his fate, and had arranged to meet the Fanes at a ball, where Stella’s look of pleasure when he greeted her made his hopes rise. ‘We won’t dance this if you don t mind, Miss Fane,’ said he, when his waltz with her arrived. ‘ Come into the conservatory; there is a flower I want to show you.’ Stella looked up at his resolute face, and realised that it was useless to oppose him ; he was a man who would have his way. * I’d better get it over, she thought sadly. But when she found herself alone with him, and heard his words of tender, protecting love, she felt her regret too bitter to be borne, and burst into a flood of wild ‘ Oh, Colonel Endecott, I can’t marry you; indeed, I can t, she said brokenly. ‘ But, my child, I was vain enough to fancy you loved me,’ he said, bewildered by her emotion. ‘ I do, I do,’ owned Stella, frankly ; * but I can’t marry you, and pler.se, please don’t ask me any more now. I must go home. I can’t stay here. ‘Shall I tell your mother you are not well ?’ he asked, kindly, but still puzzled, aud by no means hopeless, and Stella nodded speechlessly. She drove home in silence, and went quickly upstairs glad to be alone to indulge her grief. As she went to the toilette table a letter caught her eye, black-edged, and with a French postmark, and with a little vague curiosity she opened it, but as she read the first words she gave a little gasp, and when the full intelligence dawned on her, she fell on her knees and burst into thankful tears ; for it was a letter from a Doctor Dupont, saying that Ralph Vavasour had died at Nancy a few days previously, and had desired that his much-wronged wife, Stella, should be informed of his death, having confessed that he had shamefully decived her, and that on their very wedding day he had simply gone away at the summons of a woman whom he had always loved.

It was late next season before Colonel Endecott and his lovely girlwife came up to their town house. *We really thought you and Hugh were going to ruralise all the summer, said. Mrs Harding, her married sister. «Well, we were really very happy down at Stoneleigh,’ said Stella, blushing. ‘ It seems a shame to be in town all the spring.’ ‘ But this has been such a lovely season, so much going on,’ said Mrs Harding. * You and Hugh are absurdly lover-like for a couple married six months. I and George soon got over that.’ ‘Perhaps we shall if you give us time,’ said Stella, laughing, but secretly thinking that time would never come. She was utterly devoted to her grave, strong-willed husband, and she so valued hi 3 opinion that she had

never found courage to tell him of that secret wedding in Brighton. < I hope so,’ said her sister ; ‘it is very unfashionable. I hardly evei go out with George. Now you must come to my dance to morrow. There is a man coming about whom all the women are simply wild ; he is superbly handsome. The men are jealous of him, or course. They say no one knows anything about him, nor where his money comes from. Just like men, isn’t it ?' t x don’t know, I’m sure,’ said Stella. < You know more about them than I do, Catherine.’ «Ah, that’s true,’ said Mrs Harding complacently. She was by way of being a fashionably fast young matron, and looked upon her younger sister as very antiquated in her notions. The Endecotts were rathei late in arriving at Harding’s ball, and Stella cculd not but be aware that people were glancing admiringly at her. A dress of some filmy, deep yellow material set off her brunette beauty to perfection, and diamonds sparkled m her hair and at her throat.

‘That’s right, Stella,’ said her sister approvingly ; ‘ you look very nice tonight. I'll bring my pet man up to introduce to you directly. You are never going to dance with your husband ?’ , ‘ Why not ?’ said the girl, laughing at Catherine’s unfeigned horror, and laying her hand fond ly on her husband s arm.

Later on in the evening she was waiting for a partner in the conseivatorv when.she heard Mrs Harding saying', ‘ Stella, let me introduce to to Mr Vavasour. Ralph, this is my sister, Mrs Endecott. Now I must leave you two to make friends, as I have a heap of tiresome girls to find partners for , and she was gone, leaving Stella gazing in unspeakable fear at the man she had married in the Brighton registry office ! ‘ I am sorry to give you such a shock, my dear !’ he said, looking down smilingly on her white face and. terrified eyes. ‘ It was unavoidable.’ ‘ But—but I heard you were dead,’ she stammered, feeling her brain whirl. « Yes, it’s wonderful what a, lot of lies get about, isn’t it ?’ he said pleasantly. ‘ Well, won’t you give me a kiss now I have come V ‘ Don’t you know I am married ? she said, wildly. # ‘ Yes, of course you are—to me, said Mr Vavasour coolly ; * and, ’pon my word, I believe you are prettier than ever.’ ‘ But I am married to Colonel Endecott,’ she gasped. __ _ . ‘ Hardly, I fear. You see the idiotic English law does not allow a woman to be married to two men at once, and I have a prior claim.’ ‘ But you don’t want me to come back to you? You left me without a word. I heard you were dead, and I could not help loving my husband, and I married him. I must be his wife, cried Stella, hopelessly. ‘ A mistake, my dear; a mistake. You are my wife, till death do us part, as the Prayer-book says; but as you are so happy I won’t disturb you. Of course you will tell Colonel Endecott of your little error ?’ Stella turned still whiter, _ if possible. * Oh, I dare not,’ she cried despairingly, thinking how Colonel Endecott, with his stern sense of rectitude, would bid her at once depart. ‘ And, oh ! I couldn t live without him. 1 know I ought to leave him ; I know I shall be dreadfully wicked, but I can’t te>l him. Mr Vavasour’s handsome face was watching her’s keenly, and he said slowlv r ‘ XYell, I expected as much ; and now what recompense do you propose to make me for the loss of your charming society ?’ * I don’t understand what you mean. ‘"Well, you see, I could make you return and live with me if I chose, he said carelessly, e and, naturally I expect something for giving you up._ For you are deucedly pretty, my darling wife. ‘ I am not your wife in the sight of heaven,’ she cried, roused at last. ‘ You deserted me at the moment we were married, and never let me hear of you again till now.’ * It suited my plans, you see, my dear. As for whose wife you are in the sight of heaven, as you dramatically call it, I know nothing. I only know vou are mine in the sight of the English law, and I want to know how much money you will give me to keep silent towards your lover, Colonel Endecott?’ Stella’s face flushed at the insulting words. ‘ I have not very much money of my own,’ she said, ‘ Colonel Endecott

gives me what I want for dress and amusements.’

< Then you had better ask him for some to-morrow, to pay a dressmakei s bill that has long been overdue.’ ‘ But how can I tell him a lie ?' she said piteously. ‘ That is not for me to suggest my dear; but as you are going to act a prettv large one, I think you might manage to tell a much smaller one.’ ‘ How much do you want?’ she said. ‘ Well, a couple of hundred would do to begin with.’ ‘ Oh, I could not ask him for so much at once,’ she cried aghast. ‘ Well give me some of those pretty trinkets you have on.’ ‘ Oh, they are his family jewels, all but this bracelet,’ cried she. ‘ Look here,’ said Mr Yavasour. 1 1 am not going to spend my time haggling over trifles. If you don’t make it worth my while to keep quiet, I shall claim you, that’s all.’ Stella unclasped the bracelet quickly and laid it in his hand. ‘ Oh, I will do anything, if you will give me time,’ she said wildly. As Colonel Endecott and his wife drove home that evening, he was afraid she was not well, so silent and subdued did she seem.

‘ Yaur sister keeps her rooms too hot,’ he said, stroking the curls back from her forehead ; and, by the way, I gave George a hint about a man I saw there to-night—a man n® decent woman ought ever to speak to.’ ‘ Who was that ?’ she said.

‘A man named Vavasour; he has a very unsavoury past, and I can’t think how a heap of silly women can ba running after him, as 1 hear they are. 1 leai’nt something about him in Paris. I hope Catherine did not introduce him to you,’ said he, sternly. ‘ Yes, she did,’ said Stella, mechani cally. ‘ Then I am extremely annoyed ; not with you my darling, of course ; you knew nothing of him, and could not help it. But I don’t wish you to acknowledge him when you meet.’ ‘ Very well, dear,’ she said, thinking to herself. ‘Oh ! I could never dare tell him all the awful truth. He would spurn me from him, and'l love him so. It would kill me. It would kill me.’

Her loving, rather weak nature seemed to have found its complement ih Colonel Endecott’s prim, stem character, and she fairly worshipped her grave, quiet husband. ‘ Why, where is your bracelet that I gave you on your birthday?’ he asked her as she was taking off her jewellery in their bedroom

‘My bracelet! Oh ! I must have lost it,’ she cried, white to the very lips. What shall Ido ?’ ‘Well, don’t look so scared about it, darling. Perhaps you dropped it at your sister’s or in the brougham,’ he said, kindly. ‘lf not, I will advertise for it. My child, you are never crying about it,’ lie added, in surprise, as Stella, completely overwrought, burst into a flood of tears.

‘ Oh, no, no, it isn’t that, Hugh; but I’m tired and don’t feel very well. And oh ! Hugh, you would never leave off loving me, would you ?’ sobbed she, as she felt his strong arm around her. ‘ Never, of course, you foolish little child,’ said he, lovingly, but puzzled. ‘I shan’t let you go out to any dissipations if they knock you up like this.'

Henceforward Stella found herself bound- by a dreadful slavery. She dared not disobey Ralph Vavasour’s every whim, and to meet him where they were secure from observation taxed her ingenuity to the utmost, while his demands for money were endless. Sometimes he amused himself by making careless love to her, from which she shrank in horror, and all the wliile her conscience reproved her for living in sin as she thought. The tortures the poor child endured were enough to undermine her reason. Every lie she told her husband as to the objects for which she wanted so much money, and as to where she had been seemed, to weigh down her soul. One morning Colonel Endecott came down to breakfast in evidently a disturbed mood.

* Is anything the matter, Hugh ?’ asked Stella, timidly. ‘ No; well, not much, only I met your sister last night, and she made some jesting remark as to you having “ fallen a victim,” as she called it, to that Vavasour’s good looks, and having been seen walking with him in Richmond last week. I can’t think how she can circulate such untruths,’ said Colonel Endecott, irritably. ‘You have a double though, perhaps.’ ‘ Perhaps I have/ said Stellftj trying

hard to smile. But he was busy opening his letters, and did not notice her face.

‘ Hullo !’ said he at length, * it strikes me that dressmaker of yours must be trying to swindle. I distinctly remember you,' asking me for the money to pay her bill last week, and here she has sent it in again.’ ‘ I have not paid it yet,’ said the girl, falteringly, and turning such a vivid crimson that her husband gazed at her in surprise. ‘ Why, what is the matter with you, Stella?’ he said, kindly; ‘surely you can’t think I was blaming you about that stupid bill ? You can just as well pay it now.’ He handed it over to her as he spoke.

She had an interview with Ralph arranged for that morning, and she went to it nearly desperate; and when, according to his custom, he began to press her for money, she answered decisively that she would find no more.

Now Mr Vavasour had determined within himself to have the value of the Endecott diamonds before he had finished with Stella, and he thought that by sufficiently working on her fears lie could force her to have them copied in paste and sell the real stones. He did not quite understand the girl’s nature, and when she said passionately, ‘ I will die before I will rob my husband like that !’ he merely laughed, and said sneeringly, ‘ Oh, it’s easy to talk, my dear wife ; but unless I hear from you to-morrow morning that you will do as I wish I shall be reluctantly obliged to explain matters to your lover, and ask him at what he values your societ}'. Come, my dear, don’t try to look tragic ; it doesn’t suit your style. Give me a kiss and let us part friends.’ ‘You contemptible coward !’ was all Stella answered, as she turned away with one last despairing purpose in her mind.

Colonel Endecott was engaged to dine with an old friend at his club that evening, but somehow his wife’s changed looks and strange manner haunted him. Excusing himself, he went home early. He let himself in with his latchkey, and, after a passing glance at the drawroom, went quietly up to his wife's room. Surely there was a sound of low sobs from within? He turned the handle gently and as he entered the room Stella sprang up with one hand held behind her and the other trying to cover a sheet of paper on which she had evidently been writing. There was a look in her lovely eyes that fairly frightened her husband. ‘ Stella,’ he said almost sternly, ‘ what is it ? What are you doing ?’ And as she continued speechless, and trembling, he passed an arm swiftly about her, and taking one hand in his firmly, opened it. He grasped a little bottle marked * Laudanum,’ and with a cry like a wounded animal she fell face downward on the floor and did not speak, while Colonel Endecott gazed silently from the phial to the sheet of paper, on which was written in pencil a few unsteady words, ‘ Darling, when you read this try to forgive me. I don’t know what else—’ He stooped, and raised her tenderly, yet trembling himself.

‘Stella,’ said he, in tones she dared not disobey, ‘ tell me all the truth. Remember, child, how I love you.’ So in tones of moving pathos the girl told her miserable tale. ‘ Child,’ said Colonel Endecott, eagerly, ‘then you were never actually his wife. You parted from him at the registrar’s ?’ ‘ Oh, yes, yes,’ said she, blushing. ‘ Stella, you are not his wife; you never were. The villain had a wife alive then. He only married you to have a hold upon you by which to extort money. Oh, if you had only told me ! Curiously enough, I was mixed up with a similar case in Paris, in which he had married another girl; but we were able to prove the marriage null. To avoid a scandal he was not prosecuted, and he reckons on the same reason for keeping others quiet. The girl's brother was an old chum of mine, and between us we managed to hush it up, The scoundrel only lives on blackmail, I believe ; but I will take care he shall not show his face again in London. But, oh, my darling, why didn’t you trust me ? To think, if I had been ten minutes later, you would have been lost to me for ever.’

* And you forgive me all, Hugh V she asked, still wistful.

‘My child, I have nothing to forgive, since you are still here. Don’t you know I couldn’t live without my Stella V