TALES AND SKETCHES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6126, 12 March 1898, Page 1

TALES AND SKETCHES.

THE FIGHT FOR THE i CROWN. ] [By W. E. Noeris.] 1 •Author of "My Friend Jim," "Misad- j venture," "Marcia," "Baffled Conspirators," "Matrimony," "Saint 1 Ann's," "A Dancer in Yellow," "No 1 New Thing," &c, &o. i i {All Bights Reserved.) < ! Chapter XXVII. UNIMAGINABIE. Lady Virginia always went over to Paris ' at Easter, and always managed to be s 'accompanied by [a small party of friends ! whom she thought likely to add to her ' amusement on the other side of the 'Channel. Possibly it was because she ] did not think Wilfrid Elles likely to pro- ( mote amusement on this occasion that she refrained from requesting the favour of his society; but she had a less unflattering ■ ieason than that to offer him. "Of course you can't take a holiday— , poor you !". said she, compassionately f "your holiday taakfor the recess is plain and unavoidable. Well, give my love to the ( good people at Heekingley, and tell them ( • Sot-to bother then? heads about any non- ( fcense tbat they may happen to read in lead- ' '»ig articles. The party will stick to its f , cnjef, though a few weak-kneed brethren ' mi, faU>away : the cause is sure to ( mun_ph," and their member will faithfully, . 'carry 6ut~the mandate entrusted to him of voting for Irish autonomy. I don't think I would tell them more than that, if I were j you, because one doesn't quite kiiow yet J what modifications and compromises may ( jbecome necessary after the second reading" « Wilfrid felt anything but certain that j he could'truthfully tell themes muoh ; nor as a matter of fact, had he accepted any ( mandate to vote for _tome Rule. However, j he went down, as in duty bound, to address , his constituents, and had no great trouble , with them. He deemed.it only right to J announce that he must reserve complete ( liberty of action and that the twin measures brought forward did not seem to merit un- ( conditional support as they stood ; but al- ( though tbis statement evoked some mur- . murs, his meetings passed off, upon the j whole, smoothly enough. Perhaps, like i himself, the electorate at large had scarcely ( made up its mind, and no doubt a good many reflective persons wondered how , certain politicians whom Mr Gladstone J had for sO long vehemently denounced, and had even sent to prison, could suddenly have become fit to undertake the govern- ( ment of a turbulent and distracted country, j But it was not very sasy to discover what • was the real drift of that fluctuating j quantity known as public opinion, nor, at ( the end of the recess, could the representatives of either party boast confidently of ( being backed thereby. A letter, addressed by Mr Gladstone to the electors of Midlothian, in which the " classes" were ac- j cused of endeavouring, after the manner of then? kind, to impede all good and useful legislation, seemed to produce no great effect beyond that of widening the breach ( between, him .and sundry of his,, former colleagues. Returning to London in the early, days j of May, Wilfrid at once found himself surrounded by a host of other Parliament ; men and their wives, whose conversation i waa not particularly interesting. Most of them appeared to him to be curiously , ignorant, and the various rumours which they poured into his ear sounded haTdly ( worth listening to. However, they did not _ —Kir perhaps it was their wives who did ; not — confine themselves exclusively to j political rumours, and thus_ they had at ; least one thing to say which interested j their hearer a good deal more than it ■ pleased him. Everybody, it seemed, was ■ talking about Lord Southfield's conspicuous and undisguised attentions^ to the, popular actress at the St Martin's , Theatre, and everybody was wondering . how that affair would end. To speak more correctly, nobody doubted that it could haye — or had already had— but one termination; wonder was reserved for Lady Virginia Lethbridge's conduct in the matter, and a little for that of Mr Power, who, it was charitably assumed, must be ignorant of what was going on. Wilfrid contrived, not without difficulty, to hold, his tongue while gossip of tbis nature took place in his presence ; but he could not bring himself to go quite the length of disregarding it. He felt, indeed, that he was not entitled to do so, and that Miss Power ought at least to be warned of what was being said behind her back. If — as was more than probable I—her1 — her informant should be snubbed for bis pains, none the less would he have discharged one of those disagreeable duties which no true friend has a right to shirk. It was, doubtless, through some iincon- . Bcious obedience to the above-mentioned call of duty that the hero of this narrative was pensively wandering in the neighbourhood of Warwick Crescent one warm and brilliantly fine afternoon. He had not set out with any intention of calling upon Miss Power (who had told him long ago that she was not at home on week-days), but thinking about her had drawn him insensibly in the direction of her abode, and, now that he was so near, he had half a mind to ring at her door and take his chance of What might be in store for him. ' What, to begin with, was in store for _ him was the surprise of suddenly hearing £ i her voice close behind his shoulder. And I her voice, he immediately noticed, was the ..xy q\_ RatbfUman -voice, not -that -which, he \ jad learned to associate of late with Lon- / don and the theatre and other unsuitable \ . environments. . " What are you doing such a long way from Pall Mall and Belgrave Square ?" she asfryd. "Are you simply taking a walk, like"' me, because it is such glorious weather?" He took off his hat and clasped for a moment the gloved hand which she extended to him. She looked fresh and beaming and adorably pretty. No doubt Bhe was also very well dressed ; but his eyes had never.been educated to appreciate niceties of costume. He replied by bestowing upon the weather the praise to which it was entitled, and added that, having nothing particular to do, he had strolled across tbe Park and through Kensington Gardens. " After which, I suppose, a spirit in my feet must have led me —who knows how ?— to a quarter of tho town where I certainly didn't expect to meet with such a stroke of good luck ,as this." She evidently did not consider his quotation impertinent ; for she smiled and re- . joined: "It must be confessed that tbat spirit doesn't get into your feet so often as to be •inconvenient. How long is it since you last honoured Warwick Crescent with a "I should have been in Warwick Crescent with monotonous regularity every Sunday •since that day," Wilfrid declared, "if I could have flattered myself that my presence would not be inconvenient; but you intimated bo very plainly to me that it would ! Besides -" "What besides?" He sighed. . " Well, if I had come, I should only have had to say some disagreeable things. I believe, with your permission, I am going to say them now." But there waa no putting Nova out of temper that afternoon. They had been

walking along, side by side, and were now 1 within sight of her dwelling. * . ''Come in and say them then," she re- 1 burned, quite good-humouredly. " I know in advance what they are; but, never 1 mind ! You will feel easier when you have bad your say, and I am in a mood < to submit to anything. In the first place, 1 the sights and sounds and smells of spring i always intoxicate me with delight; then i Lord Southfield has just sent us a whole basketful of flowers which have been for- < warded to him from the dear old Bathfinnan garden ; thirdly, and lastly, my salary 1 is to be doubled. So now is yoiu? time to i iall me any names that you may think appropriate." ! Thus encouraged, Wilfrid soon acquitted himself of his task. Sitting in the little '. _rawing-room, to which she admitted him : is a matter of course and without any apparent idea that conventionality might demand the presence of a chaperon, he said what he had to say, and was not interrupted. When he had quite done, Nora anly remarked : ( " It really doesn't signify." " But it does signify ! That is just what , I can't get you to understand." " I assure you it doesn't; — and I perfectly understand. When I took to the stage, I : foresaw that there would be certain troubles and drawbacks. As matters have fallen out, they haven't proved to be nearly as .erious as I anticipated. Lady Virginia, '■_ don't you see, is a tower of strength. You are not fair to Lord Southfield, whom I think I know rather better than you do and to whom we are more deeply indebted khan you realise, perhaps. Gossip is inavitable; the only way of dealing with it is to take no notice of it. And," she continued, with a smile, " you need not be — is I see you are — alarmed about me. I should not be in tho least danger oven if Lord Southfield's designs were what you mistakenly suppose them to be." Wilfrid became a little red in the face. Sho had certainly relieved him, and yet — : ac wa3 not altogether pleased that his ', thoughts should have been divined, nor iid he altogether like to hear her allud- , ing to them with so much composure. It was necessary to apologise ; it was necessary to explain ; perhaps it was also necessary — at all events, he could not, when ance he had begun speaking, resist the impulse — to avow his own utterly hopeless , md long-concealed love. He described it is utterly hopeless ; but it may be that some vestige of hope had nevertheless Eound foothold in a cranny of his mind, For her reply had the effect upon him of a deluge of ice cold water. "I am sorry," she said; "I really am sorry, and I hate to seem ungrateful. But .f course the kindest thing is to tell the truth,- and the truth is that I could never, by any possibility, marry you. Just think Df the incongruity of it ! I am an Irish landlord's daughter, you are a Radical Some Ruler ; my tastes are Bohemian, or . beginning to be ; yours are strictly humdrum " "I look upon all that as the merest detail." Wilfrid interrupted. " Well, I am afraid I don't, and can't. But setting all that aside, there remains the Eatal fact " " That you don't love me." She nodded. "At one time it might have been imaginable. I will be quite honest with you and confess that when I first saw you at Rathfinnan it did seem to me to be imaginable. Even after that — but not now! And, Mr Elles, there is another thing that I should like to say to you, if you won't be hurt." " A little additional pain won't matter," answered Wilfrid, ruefully. " Well, then, you aren't as much in love as you think. That is, not with me — aot with Misa Power, of the St Martin's Theatre. You are still a little in love with a certain girl of the name of Nora, who has ceased to exist ; fortunately, for you, you aren't called upon to make that painful discovery for yourself after marriage. Ob, I don't say that lam aiiy worse than the defunct Nora; in some ways I think lam rather better. Only I am not in the least what she was, and I am not in the least what you will want your wife to be. You will acknowledge that, I am Bure, after the Home Rule Bill, for which you are going to vote " " I don't know that I am going to vote for it." " Well, after it has been rejected — with or without your help. Then, I hope, we shall all be good friends again, and I shall not live in constant terror of a quarrel between you and my father." He interpreted her glance in the direction of the door as meaning' that Mr Power might at any momenfoe expected to appear, and he agreed with her that, until the Home Rule Bill was passed or defeated, there could be little prospect of a renewal of friendly relations between him and her ' father. He, therefore, took the hint and retired — not ungracefully. "You haven't surprised me," were his last words ; " I told you that I had no hope. But I had fears-j-which you have partially removed. So lam to that extent better off than I was an hour ago." Por all that, he carried a heavy heart away with him. His fears, as he had said, were but partially allay sd ; she had not quite convinced him of the innocent character of Southfield's assiduous attentions, nor did he believe very much in the transformation which she professed to have undergone. However, that might be, he was certain that he himself had not changed, and that there was no shadow of ground for her assertion that he was enamoured of a non-existent person. " And she as good as confessed that she was very near loving me before she came to London," he sighed. " Why, if I was imaginable as a husband then, should I be unimaginable now? Of. course there's only one answer. She may say what she likes, but if s evident to me that she does care for that fellow ; and I very much doubt whether she understands that he is clean out of her reach." He looked at his watch. It was not too late to call in Tilney street, whither he knew that Lady Virginia had now returned from abroad, and he thought that he would like — if she should be at home and in an amiable humour — to talk things over with her. In other words, he wanted very badly to be comforted, and felt irresistibly impelled to seek comfort in a quarter where experience had taught him that quick comprehension and sympathy were to be looked for. Nora Power might have pronounced that inclination of his significant ; and so, very likely, it was — although, in • truth, it did not signify much more than that he was a lonely mail, with only one woman friend, besides Nora herself, in the world. Her ladyship was still out driving, the Tilney street butler informed him, but would probably be back very soon. Mr Lethbridge and Lady Laura were at home. So, after hesitating for a moment, Wilfrid stepped across the threshold, and was presently shaking hands with two acquaint--1 ances who were kind enough to say that thoy were very glad to see him again. "Virginia," Mr Lethbridge announced, "has a crow to pluck with you. I need not tell you that the local newspapers are always forwarded to her, and she considers that your speeches lacked fh. and enthusiasm. Por my own part, I thought them .highly creditable. Sit down and fortify yourself with a cup of tea against the wigging that awaits you." - Lady Laura poured out his tea for him. She was more loquacious than usual, and W. Strange and Co. aro now showing enormous, stocks of carpets, floorcloths and linoleums, and invite inspection.

had plenty to say about Paris, where, it appeared, that she had been enjoying herself. "" And what have you been doing all this time ?" she inquired. "Nothing in the least pleasant or interesting/ answered Wilfrid. " I have been busy, of course. This is really the first free day that I have had since tbe House rose." "And what have you been doing today?" Before he could reply, a card was brought to Mr Lethbridge, who glanced at it and muttered : - " Oh, bother ! "Well, I suppose I must see the man. Don't get up, Elles ; Virginia will be here in a minute or two, I expect, and you may a. well face her rebukes, now that you are on the spot." Chapter XXVIII. TWO CONFIDENTIAL STATEMENTS. As soon as her brother-in-law was out of the room, Lady Laura repeated her question : "Well, what have you been doing today ?" " I wonder whether it would interest you to hear," answered Wilfrid, yielding to one of those absurd temptations from which even tho stupidest women are exempt, but -which frequently assail onr simple, purblind sex. " I have been asking for an irrevocable sentence — and getting it ;that's all." " Asking whom ?" " Oh, Miss Power. I didn't start with any intention of the kind, but I met her in the street, and she invited me into her house and so — the whole thing came out before I could stop myself. Not that-post-ponement would have made any difference ; she told me in the most unequivocal ternis that nothing ever would or could induce her to marry me. I came here, all forlorn, to tell your sister about it." Lady Laura, who was eating a piece of tea-cake, appeared to have swallowed a crumb the wrong way. It was some moments before she subdued her access of coughing aud was able to ejaculate : " How extraordinary of you !" "To propose to Miss Power ?" "No; I daresay thero Avas nothing extraordinary in that — though, I confess, it hadn't occurred to me that you were smitten there — but to think of applying to Virginia, of all people, to bind up your wounds !" "Why not?" asked Wilfrid, slightly nettled. " She has always been a kind and sympathising friend to me, and I believe she had an inkling of the truth, if you hadn't." "Not she! — you may take my word for that. I thought — but it doesn't much matter what I thought, What I think is tbat, if you are wise, you will say nothing to her about' this little disappointment of yours. Virginia doesn't like her — well, shall we say her friends ? — to incur such disappointments. She doesn't mind inflicting them, if necessary ; but she would find it difficult to pardon another woman for poaching upon her preserves, or you for allowing another woman to be a poacher." "I wish," said Wilfrid, rather plaintively, " you wouldn't talk like that. _ You have taken up a totally erroneous notion." But Lady Laura persisted in talking like that, and declined to admit that she had fallen into any error beyond the trifling one of imagining that Mr EUes's interest in Miss Power was of a purely unselfish character. And even with regard to the strength and permanence of that attachment of his she was pleased to express a certain degree of scepticism, which had to be overcome by vehement protestations and a full recital of her confidant's history during the past year. Nor, in spite of the encouragement which she gave him to amplify details, did she appear, when he had made an end of speaking, to be as full of commiseration for ' his hard lot as a really kind friend should have been. "It won't take you a very long time to recover," was her rather unfeeling remark. " I think I remember telling you once before that your common - sense would never allow you to fall over head and ears in love with anybody. I suppose, after what you have said, there can he J no doubt * that you are as much in love with Miss Power as you know how to be ; but that doesn't mean that there is cause for serious alarm." For the rest, she remained convinced that cause for serious alarm was equally non-existent in her brother's case. " Virginia has her eye on him, and he knows it. He will behave himself. Of course I can't answer for the girl, who may have been foolish enough, or unlucky enough to lose herheartfto him ; but then I don't see how you or Virginia or Southfield or anybody else could havo prevented that sort of catastrophe. One doesn't lose one's heart for the pleasure of losing it." As Lady Virginia did not appear, and as the foregoing conversation had somewhat discouraged him, Wilfrid took his leave at tbe end of half an hour. In the hall he was intercepted by Mr Lethbridge, who stopped out hastily to beg for a word of information and counsel. " 1 wish you wouldn't mind telling me in confidence, Elles, whether there is really anything — anything that signifies, I mean —between Southfield and your fascinating young friend from Kerry. That old ass, Bland, has ; been here, asking a lot of questions and wanting to know the truth about current reports." " Has he any right to ask questions ?" Wilfrid inquired.' "He has none whatever to come bothering me," replied Mr Lethbridge, with an evident sense of ill-usage upon him, "but I suppose Virginia would say that he had rights of a. kind. As you probably know, she proposes to welcome his fair daughter into the family, and there, seems to be some difficulty about bringing Southfield up to the scratch. All these manoeuvres are quite outside my province. Still I'm bound to admit that I shall think Southfield rather an idiot if he chooses this particular moment to create some fresh scandal." " I cau only repeat what I have said more than once already," Wilfrid declared. "Miss Power is a lady by birth — " "Oh, that's no security!" interpolated the other. " And, to tho best of my knowledge and belief, she is absolutely incapable of disgracing herself in the way at which you hint. But I don't miud telling you that I saw her this afternoon, and took the liberty of pointing out that her intimacy with Lord Southfield laid her open to misrepresentation and calumny. Her answers convinced me that at all events lie hasn't been guilty of— of anything like disrespect towards her, "H'm ! Well, let us hope it's all right, then. I referred old Bland to Virginia; but he said he didn't like speaking to ladies on such delicate subjects. The truth, I suppose, was that he thought he could pump me, and knew he couldn't pump her." Whatever may have been Sir bamuel Bland's calculations, Wilfrid was destined for some time to come to hear no more about them or him, and very little more about the other personages concerned in the small social drama which occupied his thoughts a. all leisure moments. Of leisure moments he had, to be sure, but fow in thoso days; for the second reading of the Government of Ireland Bill was now in full swing, and Liberals who were wavering, or supposed to be wavering, were the objects of such constant, and careful nursing, that they could scarcely call their souls their own. Still, he was not so busy but that he could have found

time to run round to Tilney Street, had he boen begged to do so, anci the somewhat emphatic lack of any such solicitations on Lady Virginia's part hurt him a little. Ho had frequent notes (dealirig chiefly with political topics) from her, in which she deplored the multiplicity of engagements which at that season of the y.ar always prevented her from seeing the people whom she wanted to see ; but it was quite evident to him that, for some reason or other, he himself was not, just then, one of those people. Did she fear that some of the arguments employed by Opposition speakers in the House of Commons might be found unanswerable in private conversation? Was she reluctant to discuss her brother's relations with Miss Power ? Had she guessed, or been informed of, Wilfrid's own defeated aspirations, and could she really be annoyed with him for having entertained them? These and other questions of even greater moment had to go unanswered; for he did not care to seem importunate, nor could he very well take any steps towards ascertaining whether Nora had profited by his warning or not. Rather more than a fortnight had elapsed when Wilfrid, lingering over his solitary breakfast one morning in tbe big dining-room, which always seemed to him to be peopled with the slightly disdainful shades of his late uncle's grave intimates, was made aware through the medium of a visiting-card that the Earl of Southfield requested the favour of an interview. He at once rose and betook himself to the library, where he found the owner of the card readiug the morning paper and smoking a cigarette. " How ;aro you, Elles ?" said Lord Southfield, without getting up. " Don't mind my smoking do you ?" "Of course, not," answered Wilfrid, " I am going to smoke myself." " I ought to apologise," his lordship went on, "for looking you up at this time of tho day ; but one must catch you Parliamentary beggars when one can. You seem to havo had rather a big meeting at the Foreign Office yesterday.^ I suppose you wero there to receive your orders?" Wilfrid had been present at the historical gathering alluded to, having been summoned thither, in common with other members of his party, to listen to a pronouncement from the lips of the Prime Minister, but he could not say that he had received any precise orders. "To tell you the truth," he frankly owned, "lam rather more in the dark than I was. We were told nothing at all about the Land Purchase Bill, and the other Bill, it seems, is to be dropped, if it passes the second reading. A plain man doesn't see the meaning of such a policy as that." Lord Southfield was of opinion that it presented no serious difficulties to the average intelligence. " Your leader is like one of those faddists who come round pestering one to sign some senseless petition or other. Signing can't do any harm, one is always toid, because the whole blessed thing is only going to be shoved into a pigeon hole ; all that is wanted is to insert tho thin end of the wedge. Well, it's just the same argument. 'Keep us in office by voting for the second reading, and we'll undertake that the measure, as it stands, shall never become law.' , Immoral, if you like, but' scarcely incomprehensible." This view, which happened to coincide with Wilfrid's own, caused him to shake his head. But he could not suppose that his visitor had called for the purpose of elucidating Mr Gladstone's instructions to doubting disciples ; and, indeed, it soon became clear that Lord Southfield had [ come to Rutland Gate upon some other errand. Despite his habitual nonchalance, ! which was fairly well maintained, he was not quite at his ease ; nor did Wilfrid feel called upon to make him any more so. At length — perceiving, perhaps, that he would get no help without asking for it — he plunged rather abruptly in medias res. " Look here, Elles ; I want to ask your advice. I know you are in Virginia's confidence, and it can't be any secret to you that she has determined to marry me to Sir Samuel Bland's daughter. Well, I can't do the thing — I really can't." " Then don't do it," was the obvious advice which this announcement appeared to demand. "All very fine; but one must give reasons, don't you see ? The worst of it is that 1 did, in a sort of way, agree. That was in the summer ; that was before — in short, before I discovered that it was impossible." " I don't wish to insult an absent lady," said Wilfrid, " but really, I should have thought that Miss Bland's face might have furnished you with a sufficient reason." " Bless your life, no ! She was as ugly as sin a year ago, and she hasn't grown any uglier that I know of ; whereas her father, I believe, has grown a good bit richer. Oh, it isn't her faco that's the difficulty ; it's — well, in fact, it's somebody else's face." No doubt it was, and nothing was easier than to divine above whose shoulders the face in question was nightly visible to an admiring public ; but surely the ironical Fates had exceeded all the permissible limits of a joke in despatching Lord Southfield to make such an avowal to his present hearer ! " I presume," said Wilfrid, rather grimly " that that is a graceful allusion to Miss Power." " 1 don't know about its being graceful," Lord Southfield replied, "but you may score a bull's eye for your shot. It is on account of Mis 3 Power that I shall have to refuse the Bland moneybags and got myself into the devil's own row with Virginia." "You are indeed to be pitied !" said Wilfrid. "But perhaps things are not quite so bad as you think. Perhaps, after all, you will screw yourself up to marrying the heiress, and will overcome your unfortunate passion for the actress. You have already managed to subdue a considerable number of such passions, haven't you?" = " Never was in love with any woman on earth until now !" Lord Southfield audaciously declared. " Really ? Well, lam afraid you have come to the wrong place for assistance. You forget, I suppose, that Miss Power is a personal friend of mine, and that the very last thing lam likely to do is to intercede with her on behalf of a man who has no intention of marrying her." " But that's exactly where you're wroncr, my dear fellow. I have every intention of marrying her— if she'll tako me." Confronted by an announcement so startling and so unexpected, Wilfrid could only stare silently and stupidly. It appeared, moreover, that his intercession with Nora was neither requested. nor required: what Lord Southfield wanted was to be advised how to deal with his sister, of whom he seemed to be ludicrously afraid. He was he confessed, at his wits' end ; he had been ufctiag hor oif with one ex cuse after another, but now she held him at bay -■ Sir Samuel had been indirectly induinnjr his intentions, and it behoved him to say something—anything that a clever chap like Elles might suggest. "Is there any particular reason " Wilfrid ask . e I d '_„" why you sh °«l&n't tell the truth ? "My good man I .simply daren't! The truth, of course, wiU have to be told; but that wont te until Miss Power has accepted me-which she hasn't done vet and perhaps never will do. Meanwhile .Virginia must be kept quiet somehow, and I believe that if anybody can keep hor quiet you can. *? TVilfrid hastened ; to disclaim the flat-

tering imputation. He did not for one moment believe that he was clever enough to deceive Lady Virginia. " Added to which, if you'll excuse my saying so, why should I try? What business is it of mine ?" " You are a friend of Miss Power's," said Lord Southfield. " I don't know, I'm sure ; Home Rulers are no friends of hers, she says. Bnt even assuming that I am " " Then from a common -sense unromantic point of view, you ought to wish her to marry me. I don't pretend to be what you would call a brilliant catch ; still there's the title and, between ourselves, I'm not so hurd up as some people think I am. You may say that my record is a bit queer : but that's all over and done with. What I told you just now is quite true. I have never really cared a straw for any woman before, and if Nora will have me, I'll undertake that she shall not repent of her bargain." Wilfrid sighed. " Well ?" he said, after a pause. " Well, my honest belief is that any true friend of hers would say that she was unlikely to do better. So, if you're a true friend of hers, you will lend me a helping hand with Virginia." " Do you seriously mean," asked Wilfrid, " that your sister can force you, against your will, to propose to Miss Bland and loave the girl whom you profess to love in the lurch ?" " Not quite that ; but I mean that Virginia is tbe most resolute human being of my acquaintance, and that, supposing the truth were to dawn upon her, she would stick .at nothing to get Miss Power to refuse me. All I want is a little more time, and all I ask of you is to help me to keep her in the dark a little longer. She's sure to question you about me. I could see yesterday that she was beginning to smell a rat." Some further conversation resulted in a promise on Wilfrid's part that he would do what in him lay. It seeme^l after all, to be his duty to give Nora, if he could, the chance of becoming Lady Southfield, and he did not care :to play the part of dog in the manger. Nevertheless, after his visitor had left him, he muttered : "Well, this is true friendship with a vengeance !" (To be continued.)