"STAR" TALES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8830, 17 January 1907, Page 4

"STAR" TALES.

THE MAYNADIERS. (By GEORGE BRONSON HOWARD.) CHAPTER I. They had ooine directly up Calvert Street in the waning twilight ; and now they turned off into North Avenue, where the spacious green lawn, behind the iron railings of the Home for the Blind, lay before them, its stretch broken only by the clustering cedars and laburnum trees, over the tops of which the huge pile of the institution reared itself . To the right lay the lodge-house, overgrown with ivy and morning-glory vines, and it was in this direction that they turned. Here, at least, the 6ky was not shut from sight by huge buildings, and one caught the scent of new-mown hay. The blush-red of the dying sun was creeping into the ultramarine horizon; and for the moment the two were silent, the sight of Nature bringing a temporary calm. From North Avenue their steps were traced up the extension of a 6ide street. It seemeja strange that, one should leave co satisfying a neighbourhood to find at a short "distance another, shabby, illkept, speaking of respectable poverty in all its .meanness. The broad, asphalted sweep of the avenue with its comfortable structures, its wide pavements, its lawns; -was forgotten in the narrow- : ness of the cobble-stoned side street. Perhaps the very forgetting brought the sigh back to the girl. "Irs all so hopeless— and impossible _^aud_ " Her lips trembled. . When one looked at her only cursorifly it. seemed that" she was inconspicuous. Looking again, and this time not cursorily, one saw that she. was handicapped by conditions. Nature had hardly intended her to wear cheap black stuff. It was not very difficult to conjure up a picture of her in an evening gown, one which -would lie close to her tall, slender figure, cut away from the rounded shoulders and full bosom, and exposing the slim neck, now so badly disguised in the low collar and white ruff. The gown should be pink, say— that was her colour— and there might be several pink rosebuds in her dark masses of hair. Then she would not be inconspicuous. , One would note the way in which ahe held her head; note, too, the big, blue eyes, at first so oddly at variaricei with her clear, olive skin; imagine the caressing touch of those full, red lips, and tryvto- think of her smiling, showing her •dimpled left cheek and her white, even teethe- - Perhaps hers was not the sort of beauty to attract the oasualoiie"; it was not showy, nor had Bhe the appearance of a girl easily won. "So hopeless," she said again. , "vHopeless^— rrhy, jno "—the man was •peaking slowly^" not hopeless, Aileen. We've not thought of it as being hopeless at times — when you believed in me and 1 believecTin myself. There's so much to be got out of the world —and think how little of the world I've ygt touched!" -She shook her head. " You're not getting tired of me, Aileen?" he asked gently. • Somehow one always seemed to think of him as a man who would do things gently. He was so quiet, so unassuming, almost shrinking at times. Hie huge bulk towered over her, and she was a tall woman. Yet his size in Ispired no feeling of awe. One instinctively knew that he was strong of lihew and 6inew;and knew at the same moment that he was as kind as he was strong. Those broad shoulders of his had borne many burdens not hi 6 own ; but there was always the same anxious smile on his face as though he were not performing his acts of sacrifice as his beneficiary might wish. She had turned suddenly when he asked her. the question," and was looking at him with reproachful eyes. He did not see her, for his head was turned away ; so he asked again : v "You're not, are you?" Then, after • pause: " Nothing really matters except that — and little Hugh getting well; but — well, I gu^ss I'm selfish, Aileen, but I've tried to be honest with myeelf . You know how I love little Hugh — but I guess your caring matters more than " .. He faltered on the last word. " Reid, dear," she said quite- simply, "you know I couldn't care for anybody biit' you — how could I, after I'd known you? You— selfish?" She smiled a