CHAPTER VII.—Continued.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 10558, 7 March 1896, Page 4

CHAPTER Vll.— Continued.

§KNOW why my3elf, " she said; "but you are the last person to whom I could ex- . plain my reason. You tauct me with worldly knowledge; but let me assure you that I would not marry Lord Rhysworth for money. When I marry, it will be solely for love. " " Yon surprise me, " he said. The rose-flushed face and dark eyes were dangerously beautiful just then.

" Yes, I can believe that, " she remarked. " Yon think there can he no sentiment unless it is associated with a fair type of beauty. Yon are mistaken. With all your idealization of Dolores Cliefden, I feel sure that I have irore real sentiment, more romance and feeling, than she has. Do you not think so, Sir Karl? "

" If yon had asked me that question yesterday, " he said, •' my answer would have been 'No;' now lam puzzled* I must repeat that I am a little surprised at this marriage. '

She could not help seeing the pique and vexation in his face; she felt more sure now than ever that he had cared very much for Dolores, and that she must do her best to lower his estimate of Miss Cliefden's character.

"It very often happens," she observed. '• that the fairest and sweetest of faces covers the coldest and most mercenary of hearts. With all her fair and fragile beauty, I honestly believe no girl in England is more keenly alive to her own interests than Dolores. "

She knew when she uttered the words that they wore quite untrue; she knew also that to a man like Sir Karl nothing could be so repnlsive as a mercenary marriage.

" Dolores will be happy enough," she continued. " She will make a splendid mistress for Deeping Hurst, a bandsome wife for Lord Rhysworth. She will be the Lady Bountiful of the neighbourhood, the queen of the conuty. As the years roll on, she will grow placid and more contented every day; and she will die without ever having known the real sorrows or tho real joys of life. "

" What an existence you forshadow for her, "he said — " calm, passionless unoventful — never to know the rapture of happiness or the keenness of pain! it seems to me that a woman may as well be dead as never love. "

" But Dolores will love her husband after a quiet calm fashion of her own. Still I should not care for such a life, " she confessed.

'■ Give me greatest pleasnre, keenest pain; give me love or death. I should dread such a life as hers. '

"It is not very likely to fall to your lot, "he said. " You will have pleasure and pain if you have love. "

" I have them now!" she cried impetuously, and then paused abruptly.

Their eyes met. Some vague idea of her meaning came to him, and with it came a certain shrinking from her, in spite of her beauty, and a feeling of dislike to her that he had never known before. He rose from his seat by the window and looked round uneasily.

" I have not seen madame to-day. Is she woll? " he asked.

" Yes, quite well, but overcome with grief; she has received some dreadful political news from France. She never forgets Prance; nor do I. Some day I shall go back to it, and the remembrance 'I shall take with me will be of the cold hearts and icy nature of Englishmen, " said Lola slowly; and nith those words she left him.