CHAPTER LXIII,

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 195, 19 March 1887, Page 7

CHAPTER LXIII,

" ENOUGH ! THAT ENDS ALL BETWEEN US !" <\t that sight, Satan entered into the heart of Norman, Lord of Leigh. "For love is strong as death, and jealousy is cruel as the I grave." He felt ready to sacran'ce all honour, humanity, manliness to keep the beautiful and innocent Edna from his rival's arms. Then a most malign, dastardly pUin sug gested itself to him, and in the whirlwind of his rage he was carried away to accept it. For a minute the good blood and breeding th«*t had been his, the remnants of manliness, revolted at his vile treachery ; but as he hesitated the waltz ended, and the marquis led Edna back to the Lady Barton ; but as her hand left his arm, the eyes of the noblo ycung pair met, under the iutense gaze of Leigh. The marquis looked into the blue orbs of Edna, adoration intense, beseoching, and from these lovely eyes an unconscious flame of pure and tender love leaped towards him The marquis surely needed no fuller an swer to his suit ; that look should have told him —did for the minute— that Edna's heart w aa his, Leigh read that much, and hie madnees culminated. The marquis passed along toward a window, and stood leaning against it, watching the forming of a now set or dancers on the floor. Not far from Alwold Colonel Hartington and Gore were standing. Leigh went over to them and whispered to Gore : " Anna i% in the conservatory." Gore, obedient to the hint, moved away and left to Lei^h hia placo by Hartington. Lord Leigh did not see Alwold, but stood with his back to him, but certain that he was in full hearing. •'A splendid assemblage of fair women and brave men, cousin," said Loigrh to the colonel. "In such a gathering it is hard to toll where to award the prize of beauty. Lady Grace Churchill ia charming in her gold brocade." •' She is indeed. But—with all reepect to your wife and mine, Leigh - Miss Haviland is surely queen of the ball." "She 13 — looking very well," said Leigh, tranquilly surveying Edna, who had just given her hand to Keith : " culling homage from every parti, as a bee honey from every flower, But Miss Haviland is an old story to me. I was engaged to her for a year once," " What, Leigh ! You and Miss Haviland engaged ?" " Yee. When -'ou were in India, I had that happiness." ' In tho name of wonder, how did you give up such an houri ?" " There's the old song, you know : '"If she bo not fair to me, What caro I how fair she be !' " But then Bhe was fair, very. But I told you wrongly. I offered her my hand - and — phe is very coquettish — and she put me on a year's probation— it is a fashion ehe has — waitiug for whatever might happen, you eoe, and— what happened was— l saw Violet, and that finished me. Violet is certainly to-night in white lace and wild roses, and the boy thrives in wondrous fashion.",. Having thus doubly stabbed Alwold and the colonel, Leigh walked away to Bpeak to other guests, and the lovely and innocent girl whose fair name and simple history he had darkened, unconscious of the wrong done her, finished her dance with Kenneth Keith. Edna'a heart was swelling with joy. She loved Alwold intensely. To be in the room with him, to have heard hia voice and looked into hie eyes was a whole heaven of joy to her ardent aoul, Ho still was true, and the swift weeks would roll away, and she could yield her heart to him who was its chosen king. Her face lit with redoubled beauty ; her eyes shone like stars. The Marquis of Alwold saw the illumination of tho face he loved, and his heart, grieved and filled with dire suspicion, repeated the words of the poet : " A beam upon tho myrtle fell, From dewy evening's purest sky ; 'Twas like the glance I love so well, Dear Eva, from thy moonlight eye. "I looked around the summer grove ; On every tree Its lustre shone, For all had felt that look of love The silly myrtie deemed ita own !" If there was a man on earth whom the Marquis of Alwold doubted and disliked, that man was Norman, Lord of Leigh. He believed him to be a thoroughly bad man. He had greatly pitied Leigh's beautiful young wife ; he wondered how Violet could endure the society of such a man. And now he heard that Edna, his beautiful, spotleee, high-minded Edna, had for a year been engaged to this Lord Leigh i He shivered at the thought. •• Putting men on probation of a year was a way ehe had," Leigh had courted—

left her ! Lord Alvrold had often said that hia own heart had been pure and free of other loves, and that be would not marry a woman who had been engaged to other than himself. He had elected the dignified, gracious, lovely Edna queen of his heart. She had been Leigh's love before his ! Could he love her more ? No !no ! Fickle, vain, capricious, coquettish, capable of listening to love's words from Leigh —she was not made for him ! He rauat tear that cherished image from hie soul-— at whatever price. Edna wondered that she did not see Alwold again that evening. But then she had seen him, and Bhe was Bure ehe was beloved. That was enough o? happiness for one day. Love's young radiance filled her soul. For Leigh, he had shot his poisoned arrow, and waited to ccc his victim fall. Od sweet dreams of her lover Edna's tender heart was fed during several days when they did not meet. Then he was present at one of Lidy Burton's morning concerts— buc grave, constrained, '"unlike him&elf. It wa* when one of Bach's finest fugues was thundering through the room that Alwold, who hal placed himself by Edna in a window, said to her, in a low, stern tone : "Tell me, was Lord Leigh over your suitor in Cornwall?" Edna flushed crimson. The memory ot her girlish foolishness of nearly tour years before distressed her. Oh, why had he heard of it from Home stranger? But she lifted her lovely, troubled eyes to his, and faltered "Yea.' "Yea! Ho wa3 your lover, and you put him on a year's probntion, as you have me !" cried Alwold, indignantly. "If I cou'd only explain," began Edna, tremulously " It neada no explanation, only the timple fact," said Alwold, still in low, but increjsingly imperative tone. " Was it so, or was it not?" 11 It was so," eaid Edna, simply ; " but ' ~ehe lifted her eye 3 in imploring .shatno but Alwold was carried away by hi* jealous pain. •'Enough. That ends all between ue," he said. Wounded to the heart, Edna mWered herpelf so far as to bow, and cay toCtly ; "Yes, Lord Alwold." He turned abruptly from her. Tha room seemed to reel, but she grasped the window draperies for support, and looked out into the street. A mist swam bnfore her eyus, and the blood surged heavily through hor heart. She did not know what music pealed about her, or what praiso was said. Then she heard one verso of a ballud some one was singing : " Fair maid, boho'd thine image there As fair as falsa thy «lanoaa fall ; But who the worthless sm I* would share, That sheds its light alike on all." She turned, the words reiterating in her brain. She only saw that Alivold had departed. She stole from the room with faint, unsteady steps. When the guests were gone, lady Burton found her lying on her bed, cold, white, almost rigid. She was not able to meet that evening's engagement, nor the next ; but the third day, hearing, casually, from Keith that "Alwold had gone to France," she summoned her courage, and reappeared in society. But the lovoly Edna visibly drooped. Her soft shell tint paled ; her voice had a mournful melody ; hor lovely eyes were as violets drowned m dows ; and Lidy Burton, shocked at a chango which she could not explain, loft London before the season was over and took Edna to Keith Castle. There was then no temptation to Violet to remain in London ; and Leigh, triumphing in his dastardly work, agreed to roturn to the Towers. Ho had been gambling heavily, and wished to go over his steward's accounts. The results were far from satisfactory ; they shocked him, and as usual, when he was moody, he went to hjdo himself in "The Earl's Folly." He had not been there sinco the fatal day when Bart Kemp had come thoro to him. When he entered tho upper room, the sunlight was falltner over the leopard skin lounge, and over Helen Hope, who lay asleep, (To be Continued,)