THE YOUNG ARCHDUCHESS

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16681, 13 March 1922, Page 4

THE YOUNG ARCHDUCHESS

OUf SERIAL,

(By WILUASI Lt QUEUX' CHAPTER 1. Colonel Ashdown looked down the long dining table with his pleasant and genial smile. He was the soul of hospitality and he loved to gather his friends round him. Some dozen persons were assembled, nnd it was a gay and animated scene. All the. men, with one exception, wore in pink,’ the vivid red of their coats contrasting with the charming and, in some cases, brilliant costumes of the -women. On the right hand of the host sat the lady of highest rank m the party, a-handsome, middle-aged woman, who still rode straight to hounds, in spite of her forty years and slight tendency to embonpoint. Lady Gertrude Wintcrton was devoted to sport, and she was also very intelligent. with a keen sense of humour. Some little joke she had made about certain newcomers in the Market Harborough district had brought a certain twinkle into the colonel’s eyes and provoked that genial smile. The lady on his left was a beautiful, statuesque young woman of about, twenty-five, who was reckoned the belle of the. countv. She had no great sense of humour and she was not brilliant at conversation, but she always had a sweet smile that covered a multitude of deficiencies. She had not understood a word of T.ady Gertrude's rather subtle remarks, hut she had looked very bright all the time, and remarked in her slow, languid voice to the speaker that she had finished - How wonderful .you are! I can t understand how you "think of all these witty things. 1 do so wish I had been horn clover. It must make one feel so superior to ordinary people.” Lady Gertrude did not condescend to answer- She never suffered fools gladly and the beautiful Mrs Somers, in her opinion, expressed foolishness to the ninth degree. Colonel Ashdown stepped into the breach. He knew well there was no love lost between the tw,.. ladies. He spoke in his somewhat blundering fashion. ' One can’t have, evervthing my dear Mabel.” Ho had known from a child and always called her bx her Christian name. £- There xvere plenty of good fairies at your christening. Don’t grumble if one or two failed to turn up.”

tt was a left-handed compliment, but the beautiful young woman was not subtle or exacting. She sighed contentedly, and sipped her champagne She was fairly pleased with her lot. She hardly ever met a mrmber of her own sex who could compete with hei in good looks, and she had married on ' of the wealthiest men in ’England. She had no reason to envy T.ady Gertrude. ft was at this moment that the host turned from the two ladies, and directed liis glance down the long table, bright with flowers, sparkling with the lights of rare glass and silver, which’ alternated with the flashing radiance if diamonds, emeralds and rubies on the lingers of the beautifully attired women. His glance travelled slowlv from guest to guest, every one of whom was in intimate friend, till it fell upon lh ; male figure at the other end. the solitary male member of the party who was not in ' ‘ pink. ” The genial smile died awav f„t the usually kind eyes there crept a hard gleam. for a moment the pleasant lace took on an austere explosion. There was only one person in tltwide world who could produce such an efiect upon this honourable, upright and clean-living English gentleman " 1 l:lt Person was his son Hugh, the only oflspnng of Ins marriage. On that son. as a child, he had centred nis loudest hopes. When Hugh grew to manhood he should cairrv [he -promt traditions of his ancient an I honourable family; the traditions „ tact, of both families, for .Mrs AshdownHf,c "’ell born as her hnsbnml. But there was an essential difference between the two families. Erie Ash down a younger so , „f the tenth Karl or B.versdaie. could boast that from the days of Charles the First his fore, ooars had exhibited a blameless record His Wife was not unite so fortunate A little his superior in antiquity of linens;*-, she <ouhl point m rnnrr His tinguisbed progenitors. to anewsto™ who had won distinction in ,1m Field nnr] the Senate, far bevon.J rnvtliincr ever achieved by the Ashdowns.' But. and it was an important hut:, her farm d.m at certain intervals, had produced some very notable blackguards, men who had thrown decency to the winds Cheated at cards, eloped with their neighbours’ Wives, and committed othen bom, nations which made respectable people shake their heads when th e name oi J.*astcote Trnc mentioned. ~S he , had - herself, escaped this stiangely recurrent taint She was a vmuan of average intelligence, verv r> oud, very reserved, very cold. All the virtues, some of them slightly repell ant, of the Eastcote family- ’were Wc™ dUC<?d ’ n hf “ r not ° ne of Their And she had given birth to a son who was to be the pride and glory of both parents. She was a cold and' unresponsive wife, but the instincts of maternity were strongly developed in her. Ihe birth of her child woke her i to new feelings, new interests in life I new hopes. He would he a. link he- I tween her husband and herself, drawing them nearer together. As she held the rosy little creature in her arms him dreamed of a future for Alas for these fond and pious hopes ! T-m r destmed to To realised! As a | child. Hugh revealed the fatal taint of his unhappy race: he was rebellious, stubborn, sly and dishonest. Airs Ash-I down wept bitter tears over him. Tea- i soned and expostulated. To no avail, j His father s sterner rebukes only I roused increasing obstinacy. The slen- | der body shook with storms of blind I passion. The growing mind seemed j distorted by malignant influences. He was sent to Eton, after being the despair of private tutors, in the "hone that the stern discipline of a publicschool would bring him to reason and tame his devilish propensities. His career at Eton was brief and disastrous. Idle, vicious and insubordinate, be was equally unpopular with Inis schoolfellows, many of them sons of his father’s eld friends, and his masters At the end of a couple of terms, the Colo no was politely requested to take his soli ayvay . to avoid drastic measures on the part, of the authorities. <Tu lie continued.)