NEW SERIAL. “UNDYING MUSIC.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17026, 27 April 1923, Page 11

NEW SERIAL. “UNDYING MUSIC.”

(By L. G. MOBERLY.) CHAPTER XII—-Continued. “ I wanted to ask first Lot forgive-, ness.” She fluttered a glance at him. but hi» face remained quite imperturbable. “ And then I thought 1 should like to tell you of my new. great happiness.” Once more her eyelids fluttered; she lifted eyes full of appeal to the very unresponsive eyes which met her glance. “I know I. don t deserve to be happy; nobody is more conscious than I am of how little I deserve it, but 1 couldn't resist the wonderful gift that was . offered to me-” Brian did not pause to analyse the reason why at that moment his.wife’s face flashed before liis mind- - why her restful eyes, with their straight, clear glance, seemed to be looking into liis; nor did he stay to ask himself why a wave of thankfulness for Hester’s sincerity all at once swept over him. “ I am glad you arc happy,” he said, wondering vaguely why M.aisie wished to confide in him at all. and why that wave of emotion caused by his first sight of her had so completely ebbed “ I don’t know what people will say ’• —Maisie’s smile was rather, coy ai d deprecating -“ but. after ali. the opinion of other people matters ho very -little; only i do feel I am too old for. the dear- boy, as f told him over and over again. But he simply swept me. off my feet, he is such a deliciously ardent lover—no woman could resist him.’ ’ “ You are perhaps thinking of marrying again?” Brian was not a little surprised at hie own matter-of-fact tone. “"What a silly, flighty little thing I am!" Maisie laughed—-the ?oft laugh which had once had power to stir Brian's pulses. "I am telling you my story all anyhow and upside-down. Yes—l am going to be married again. The dear artist who painted my Dorothy. who is painting Mrs Martindale. lias made me promise to be his wife.” “Young Dickson!” The words leapt to Brian’s lips in accents out of which he could not keep a sore of stupefied amazement. “ You are going to marry young Dickson?” 0 “ Oh, you think T am too old—you think a man should not marry his grandmother.” Her laugh was shaky, the ready tears which were -so well under her control dimmed her eyes. “ But J am not so very, very much older than Philip, and he is old for his age. And I—l am so terribly lonely.” She dropped her voice upon a note of extreme pathos, and her head drooped in a way which, as Brian suddenly remembered, he had once thought flowerlike and lovely. The quiet poise and dignity of his wife’s bearing thrust it self before his mental vision, and the attitude of the little woman standing there with drooped head wore the appearance of an artificial po.se. “ I am very glad your loneliness will soon be at an end,” he said with courteous though cold formality. “But you blame me, you think 1 am doing a silly thing, you think me a “ Not at all.” Brian’s voice was still. chillingly polite. “My opinion, if : may say so, really has nothing to do with the case. 1 hope .you and Mr Dickson will be very happy.” It was plainly Maisie's intention to continue the discussion, but Brian wav no less determined to make his escape, and he lifted his hat and turned to wards the gate. “ 1 must be getting on,” he said. “ Please accept my best congratulations.” And. giving Maisie no time to reply, he opened the gat e and passed into the coppice beyond, walking with firm, quick steps which very soon took hiln out of the little woman's sight. When he had passed through tlv. coppice he walked more slowly across the sunny open space of meadow beyond, his thoughts' in a curious turmoil. He would have found it difficult to disentangle them even to himself, but he knew very definitely that the sensation uppermost in his mind was one of relief. And when, as he came in sight of the Manor House, and saw Hester walking slowly down the garden to meet him. he was conscious that some of the turmoil in his soul abated, and instead of it came the sense of peace always brought to him by bis wife. Directly she reached him she was aware ot the trouble in his eyes, and she put her hand through his arm and walked silently beside him towards the house, refraining from worrying him with questions whilst subtly conveying ber unspoken sympathy with whatever, had moved him. “What a blessed woman you are!” he exclaimed, stopping still in the middle of the path that skirted a wide herbaceous border, and looking at her with a smile. “ You so thoroughly understand the golden quality of silence.” “ I knew you would talk to me if you wanted to talk.” she answered “And I thought you were a little bit worried.” ? “ My mind was rather in chaos,” he answered with a sho-rt laugh. “ I scarcely knew what to make of myself or of my own sensations. T don’t xactlv know even now. But—l think I can' say with truth that I am discharged—cured. ’ ’ Hester repeated his words in i|pme bewilderment. “ Discharged—cured?” she asked, and again Brian laughed “ Mv dear, you may well jump to the conclusion that I am mad as the mad hatter.” lie said. “But the truth is that I am cured of my madness, and suddenly realise 1 am sane. Just now in the lane Airs Chalmers met me. and we actually had a talk—and 1 know now that 1 am not in the least afraid of meeting her again. She rouses nothing more formidable in me than a sort of wonder at my own folly and a certain contempt for her. T meant what I said when I told you I was discharged cured.” “T am .so glad.” They \ver e the only words Hester spoke, but there was a clear shining in her eyes which said far more than words. and her hand gently pressed her husband’s <To be continued).