CHAPTER XXXVII. A FATEFUL DRUGGING.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 131, 5 December 1885, Page 3

CHAPTER XXXVII. A FATEFUL DRUGGING.

Lady Melkoss was possessed of an iron will and a mighty ambition that defiled Heaven, but she was only human. Neither will nor ambition was proof against the action of drugs. Sho had fallon asleep a determined though sorrowing old woman. fier whole nervous system unhinged, she awoke a feeble, timorous, and dependent, one. Sho was sitting up in bed when Lillis entered, and received the girl with a burst of weak tears. The unnatural chango was heart-breaking to Lillis. She flew to her side. She folded her tender arms about the thin form, and pillowed tho groy hoad against her loving breast. ct Mamma ! dear, darling mamma i" she criod, brokenly, '"you are ill !" "No ! dearest child, only strangely weak and shaky," sobbod Lady Melross. And then something like passion in her quivering tones ; "My dear • my dear ! you shall have your own way. I won't force you into this marriage with Robert. This was to have been your wedding-day— Ah ! you shudder ! and so do I. Such frightful dreams as visited me last night. They haunt me yet ; and I promise, love, that all shall be as you wish. Only try not to think and say the terribly wild things you did lis*; night, and you will got over the morbid fancies. Try, child, for mother's sake ! the poor old woman who needs your care." Sho pciused, clinging to the girl in sobbing entreaty and distress. For a moment Lillis was mastered by her emotions. The next, she said, caressingly : " Have no fears, darling mamma ! I will think only of you ! I will say nothing tn worry you ! Trust me implicitly ! And now, mamma, let me help you prepare for breakfast. You will go down as usual ?" " 1 must. Robert must be told. It's a dreadful thing to do ; but it would be more dreadful to coerce you, as I inhumanly intended. Oh, child, forgive me !" "I forget, mamma," smiled Lillis, with toarful eyes and joyous accent. She kissed the hands Lady Melross had again clasped around her neck, and with all the deft aptitude of a maid, and the gentle tenderness of a daughter, assisted her to rise and make her toilet. As it was finished she again looked appealingly at the girl. i " You will go down with me, Lillis ?" she faltered. " I will go to the world's end with you !" answered Lillis, passionately. ''You shall not even be separated from me while I dresp. Come to my boudoir." She drew the trembling old hand to her arm, and they left the room. The boudoir was reached without meeting any one, and found empty. After making Lady Melross comfortable there, Lillis retired to her dressing room. She moved with elastic step, and her heart bounded high with joy and hope. Still there was an under-current of terrible anxiety. She knew Hood to be a reckless and desperate man. In what way would he receive Lady Melross's change of decision ? That shuddering, boding question was speedily answered. Refreshed by a careful but rapid toilet, Lillis rejoined her mother, and they immediately descended to the breakfast-room. Arrived there, Lady Melross suddenly checked the girl in the act of taking the knob. " I have been thinkiner," she whispered, nervously, tremulously, "thatwe must leave the Abbey without unnecessary delay. But oh!"— a s Lillis quickly assented- -"I wish it were all over ! I really feel quite - quite fearful." •'Fear nothing, darling," returned Lillis, her brown eyes aglow and pale cheeks flushing with proud courage. Speaking the words, she threw open the door. As both expected, Robert was in the room. He was standing at one of tho nearer windows, elate with exulting anticipation, and watchfully impatient for Lady Melross's appearance. His first thought as the two entered was that Lillis had been won over : his first impulse to spring forward and joyously meet them. But half way towards them he paused in the involuntary act. * The change in both was too apparent to be anything less than startling. The feeble, shrinking air of the aged mother ; the calm proud, hopeful cousage of the daughter, Hood's brow grew blaok as night. " How now ?" he breathed. The words were few, but the look was one to make both Lady Melross and Lillis quail.

For an instant both stood overcome by a sense of their helplessness, and the knowledge that they were at the man's meroy. Then, suddenly encouraged by the quick pressure of Lillis's arm upon her clinging hand, Lady Melross spoke. With a nervous timidity, strangely and affectingly in contrast with her ordinary manner, she said in her hurried tones : " Robert, I am Bincerely grieved, but I cannot coerce my child. If you wish to marry Lillis you must firßt win her heart. Do it if you can. I consent to that— but, Robert, to that only." •' You consent !" Hood uttered those two words with indescribable malignity of tone and aspect, and then slowly advanced. 41 My good lady," he went on, as he fairly confronted her, " your consent is nothing ! lam master here ! With or without your . parental blessing I marry Lillis this morning. Lady Melroas, if need be, I shall lock you up till the—" " Lock me up !" gaspod Lady Melross, in shockod incredulity. " Come away, mamma dear !" murmured Lillis, gently. " You have said all that is necessary. " Hood roughly interposed upon both word and act, seizing Lady Melross's other arm and crying fiercely : 11 You stay till I bid you go ! Lady Melross, knowing your ambition, I did not anticipate this hour, but I have none the less held myself prepared for it ! There is not a servant at the Abbey that will refuse my bidding ! Hey, Black," glancing at the butler, who that moment entered, "my will is your law 1 You would even handcuff her ladyship if I should so command ?" "I never hesitate at orders, my lord," answered the man, quietly. And, with a grin, *' ' all's fair in love an* war !' " " You see !" cried Hood, turning again to Lady Melross. "You are in my power! If you refuse to continue my pliant tool, I shall make you my slave !" AU the haughty blood in Lady Melross'e veins came totherescve of her feebleness. She lost her fears. Her eyes flashed fires of anger and astonishment. " You threaten me ?" she cried, even her voice steadying itself under the gross disrespect of his language. "You dare to say you will marry my child against my will ?" " Your will !" laughed Hood, mockingly. " You have none ! You have placed yourself in my power, and never doubt I shall use it !" Lady Melross's flash of spirit died out in a rush of anguished fears for Lillis. Freeing herself from Hood's grasp, she cast her arms about the girl, piteously : "Oh my child !my child ! May Heaven be your protection !" •• Heaven is my protection !" answered Lillis, with pallid lips, but sweet composure. " Thip man is as a grain of dust only in the Almighty's hand !" Hood's dark face grew livid with mingled awe and rage. " We shall see !" he burst out, and then all at once raised a swift, attentivo hand, and looked towards the hail. A loud rap was sounding from the great bronze knocker at the front entrance. He looked again at Lady Melross and Lillis. Joy, triumph, expectation suddenly transf orminghis countenance and ringing through hia high tones, he cried quickly, almost fiercely : I " You hear that ? It is the crack of your doom, Lillis -the wedding note of your exaltation to a countess's coronet ! That knock means the appearance of the Rev. George May ! Lady Melross, in five minutes you will be the proud mother of the Earl and Countess of Langdon. Ho ! Black," turning tumultuously to the man, " call some of your fellows ! We'll have a merry though a hasty wedding, my trusty valet. You'll raise a long loud cheer for j the happiness of the bridegroom and bride, and wash it down in a dozen apiece of the choicest old vintage of the cellars. Quick ! Knave, quick ! Here is the parson !" He leaped to the hall door. Black, with a smothered " hurrah !" vanished on his errand. Lillis, pressing closer within Lady Melross'a enfolding arras, buried her eyes against her ladyship's breast. At the same instant the hall door fell open. Hood fell back. What could have brought the man before him to Langdon Abbey ? (To be Continued. )