CHAPTER IX.—Continued.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 12924, 1 August 1905, Page 6

CHAPTER IX.— Continued.

two years 1 ago on the Boulevard llaussmann, went through him like a shock.

"•For a hunting, country squire," said Stewart, through 'Ms { teeth. Maida, °nty thought he knew more of Tollemachie( than, he chose to say ; men are slow to! run each other down. She could not guess at tjhe ) jealousy} that gripped his heart like an iron hand. "Yes ? And he is delighted with Miss Veriner ?»

"Decidedly, 'i\ returned j\ { Maida* latigfoing*'; "**. would be a good! tiding for her, in a. worldly point of view. Tollemache ' lias lots ;of l^ioney, and she, I hear, has little or none. I dare say, thej Day enants encourage him. Chris is just the sort of man to look upon a beautiful girl as a marketable commodity. I wonder he hasn't succeeded in getting her off before} now ; they have been flashing about in Paris, Vienna, Rome, everywhere !" Ah, that cruel life ! How had Claude come through the ordeal ? But he could not endure the agony of hearing, her 1 discussed as one might any butterfly of the season ; hie changed the " subject back to Tollemache. "And now they are trying London," he said. "But when did, Tollemache come' out as a London! mam ?" "Oh, at the fag end of the winter season. He went the pace like the best of them — no doubt he did that at home, too," said Mrs Westmore. "Then he ' ; vanished, . and came \ip to town ten days ago ; knocked up against Davenant at a oluib, and Davenant invited him to their house at South Kensington. But you can never make a Xondon man out of Squire Tollelnache— he's so heavy ! always, to me, the scent of the hay about his Bondstreet clothes !" -*«Poor- Tollemache ! How unmerciful you are, Mrs Westmore." "Am I ? Women are censorious, you ktoow.^ 'Here come Lady Meldune and your wife; and we must be trotting. . I have . enjoyed! our chat so much." , "So have I," he said, smiling. "I shall renew the pleasure at the earliest opportunity." "•Mind you do !" And just then the other two ladies came in, and the visitors took tlieir leave. Stewart sa.w them to their carriage, thett went straight to his study, and flung himself down, covering his face. Claude so near to him ! so near ! and he worn , spent with the long agony, the hopeless ! strife ! What use to avoid her ? He might meet her in any ballroom^ at any fete or garden party ; and, -h ! for one touch of her hand,j one look into the sweet eyes that were ever gazing at him from the depths of his soul ! He was mad I—mad'1 — mad' with pain and longing, sick with heart hunger. That he,t of all men, should be denied even a little love —he to whom love .was a paramount need ; he must have it — he was growing reckless,, desperate. He dreamed of no wrong to Claude ; his heart was her shrine, Ijefore its saint he knelt in, worfehip. Had not his love for her been his salvation ? Without it, he was loyal to this love, as only the finer, more ideal natures can be to a passion whose object is "lost to sight."' He could not listen now to the^ voice that had called him back a thousand times from] the all but overmastering temptation to seek Claude — the voice that pleaded for , her peace— that bade him remember the wrong he would do her to win her love ; such love as his was a compelling power, the more so when given to one whose whole nature was in affinity with his own. ' . "Let me suffer," he had said, "not her— my darling !" and had turned back in time. But he gave no heed to that voice to-day ; he heard it, but its accents were faint atidJ uncertain, 'lrowned in the tempest of .his passion and his anguish. Temptation was by Ms side, within his grasp, and His strength was weaker to oppose it. He gave up the battle —he yielded himself captive — he stretched out his hand, and caught temptation to his heart, and held it close— close ; and heard only the passionate cry of his soul for its supreme need ; saw only the wistful eyes that looked into his across the desert of those two years that were as a thousand ' for the aneuish they. held, and said to him "Come!""