CHAPTER XI.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1155, 20 June 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XI.

A SISTEB'S ADVrOB.

" The? are my people, Vivian ; and though they may not be the same kind that yoa are aeoastomed to, still I love them."

"I should be sorry if yon did not love them, Ailie— family ties are the strongest in the world. Mind, I have nothing to say against them, not one word. Your father is a good, honest, simple-minded man ; I respect him— indeed, I rather like him than not; but there can be nothing in common between as, and I still think that the best plan will be to keep oar secret faithfully." This little conversation took place in consequence of Ailie's having asked her husband if she might tell her parents, not her Bisters, the troth about her marriage. She did not like the concealment, and it could not matter, she argued, they would never speak of it. Lord Carsdale was unwilling. If they knew his true name and title, he argued, it would lead to many unpleasant things; besides which, it would not be fair to the doctor ; he would lose all his reputation if it were once known that a pupil of his had married in that fashion.

"We cheated him, Ailie," said the young husband, laughingly ; " but he most not suffer for it. No ; I think that it must be as we arranged— we must keep our secret; and, Ailie, I will spend a few days here with you, then I must go home. Yoa will like to stay with your friends while I am away." She looked muoh depressed at the thought of his going; but whatever changes come over Ailie's face, the last idea that entered Lord Carsdale's mind was that love for him bo changed it. There are some men who make honor their ideal and their idol— he was one.

" Ours was such a peculiar marriage," he continued; "one might call it a marriage from honor, not from love. Peculiar oases give rise to peculiar effeots." Ailie looked at him wistfully. He did not see the pain in those beautiful eyes, or the quiver on the sweet lips, as she said : "Honor— yes, yoa have sacrificed muoh for honor. Will love never have anything to do with it?" He looked up in wonder. " Will you ever love me, do you mean ? I cannot tell, Ailie ; it is a vague speculation. I am sure of one thing, we shall all be good comrades and good friends," he replied. She turned away in anguish too deep for words. The probability that he might love her never seemed to enter his mind. She saw it, and knew her fate. So it wae arranged that they should re* main for three days at the Budeswell Arms hotel, then the young husband was to join his friends, leaving his wife with hers. He did his best during that time to win the good opinion of Alice's friends ; bat, as he himself had expressed it, there was nothing in common between them. Hettie proclaimed open war against him. He was alt very well, said Hettie ; he might be as rich as he liked ; but, for her part, she liked some one who seemed to understand the world was made for others as well as themselves ; while Frank'publicly avowed him a 'aughty swell. "He looks at me as if he knew I had to black my own shoes," oriel Frank. "You need not blacken his oba'raoter, if yon do your own shoes,*' retorted Hettie, who oould not refrain from contradiction, even

Bose, on the contrary, liked him. She, perhaps, more than the others, suspected some mystery in her sister's marriage ; she felt sure that Mr. Nelson was a man of noble birth He was different to themselves as a Malay differs from a fair Saxon. " And we are all well-born," thought pretty Bose ; "at least on my mother's side." Hettiewas piqued and annoyed because her sister's husband had gone to a hotel ; because he constantly refused all their invitations to dinner and to tea. "We are not grand enough for him," she would say; "he wants French dishes and Spanish wine. Mamma's greatest idea of a feast is roast pork." She was bitterly annoyed, too, when Lord Carsdale invited the whole family to a grand dinner at the hotel, to which Mrs. Derwent went with' all the remnants of finery she conld collect — among other things, a pair of light kid gloves that had not one whole finger between them. "I would rather go with clean hands and no gloves," said Hettie scornfully, "than amuse Mr. Nelson with such gloves as those." " You are a bad, ungrateful girl. I know what is due to sooiety," said Mrs. Derwent, with the air of a martyr, " and I shall do my duty." The whole family reached the hotel soon after the appointed .time, rather flushed with the struggle, but conscious of looking their bast. Frank wore an injured appearance, in consequence of having been requested to go in a pair of his father's dancing-pumps. " As though a man oould not have shoes of his own," he remarked, more than once. That dinner was a source of great offence to Hettie. She was quite sure that Mr. Nelson had ordered French dishes because he knew they could not pronounce foe names. Indeed, Hettie was so fiercely sarcastic so abrupt, so purposely vulgar, that it was a relief to most of them when the dinner was ended. Even then she was not content; she followed Alice to her room. " So, Mrs. Nelson, this elegant young husband of yours leaves us to-morrow, I understand ?" " Yes : he goes to-morrow," said Alice. "Do you feel quite sure that he will return?" she asked, sneeringly. "Sometimes when those fine birds fly away, they never come back again." "Hettie," asked the young wife, sadly, " do you not like my husband ? " " No ; Ido not. He uses scent and talks languidly ; Ido not care for such men. Besides, he looks down on us all; you may think he does not, but I see it in a hundred ways. I Bhall not cry when he goes." Alice raised her fair face; she laid her warm, soft hands in her sißter's. "Now, Hettie," she said, "look at my hand ; oould you wound it a hundred times each hour with the point of a sharp sword ? " "No," said Hettie; "you know that. I may talk, butrl would not hurt you." 11 Yet each time you say one word against my husband, Hettie, you plunge a dagger in my heart, the pain of which is sharper far than any wound you oould inflict. If you love me, Hettie, try to love him." Hettie was a little touched by the pleading words, but it was not her way to show it. She turned sharply to her sister. " You make a great fuss about loving him, Alice," she said, " but I am sure he does not love you so very muoh. Mamma said the other evening that, for a love marriage, it was the queerest she had ever seen." Alice recoiled, as though some one had struck her a terrible blow. " Did she— did mamma say so ? lam so sorry 1 Why, what made her say it ? " Hettie looked quite important at having something to tell which was worth telling ; she tossed her head high in the air, as though she would say, " See, I can tell you Bornething you do not know." " Mamma said it, Alice. I heard her tell papa how strange it was that Mr. Nelson never kissed you when he went in and out ; that he never asked you to go out with him ; that he did not seem to care much about your ! sooiety ; he never calls you my love or my darling ; and ma says that even now pa does that." Hettie paused, having spoken so rapidly I she could say no more. The shocked, white look on her sister's face was a tribute to her powers of oratory. " Did mamma say that, Hettie ? " said the poor young wife. "lam so sorry ; I did not know people spoke of me in that way. I shall never feel at ease again." " I do not see what there is to turn so pale about, Alice, unless it may be that you love him and he does not love you quite so much." It was so terribly near the truth, this random Bhot, that Alice reooiled afresh. " How very touchy you are," said Hettie; 11 you make one afraid to speak." "You need never be afraid to speak to me, Hettie ; but if you wish to be kind, you will say nothing against Bay husband." Hettie was moved by the sweet, patient voice. " I promise yon one thing," she said; "I will not say one word more than I oan possibly help, and I will treat him as though he were made of wax or honey, and a word would break him. Alice, lam the younger sister, but I really believe I oould give you some very sensible advice." "I shall be glad of it," said the beautiful young wife, sadly. " What is it ? " " It is just this, my dear: Enjoy your life as muoh as yoa oan, but never set your heart on a man ; if you do, you will have nothing in the world but vanity and vexation of spirit. From my little bit of experience, I should say, expeot stability from a weathercock, heat from the North Pole, light from night, rather than love, oonstanoy, and fidelity from a man." " Hettie, how shooking ? " cried Alice. "Yes, very shooking, but most certainly true. The shooking part of the business does not lie with me ; I am only giving you a rough little bit of sense. Take my advice, Alice — never waste your trust, your love, and all your thoughts by day, all your dreams by night, on any one man, because there is not one worth it." "But what of my husband, Hettie?" she asked, trying to smile. "How am I to help loving him?" " Well, you please yourself. I tell yon that it is wasted, and you will find it out some day." She had found it out already, as she knew in the bitterness of her heart ; but she was so staunch and so true, she would rather have died than that any one should know hers was a marriage of honor, not of love. ■' You are all muoh mistaken, Hettie," she eaid, with quiet dignity. "In our house, unfortunately, I know it ia the custom to speak out brusquely— to profess great hatred or great liking. My husband belongß to that class who know how to keep their feelings under their control, and do not • wear their hearts upon their sleeves, for daws to peck at.' " " Thank you, Alice ; lam not a daw." "You need not be offended, Hettie; it is only a quotation ; " and the young wife turned wearily away. It must indeed he patent to all men that he did not love her, if her mother had spoken like that. Returning home late that evening, after a capital game at pool, Lord Carsdale saw that his wife's face' was very pale, and her eyes bore traces of tears, " What is the matter Ailie ? " he asked abruptly, Ht could never «ndnra tears in a

woman, and that this woman, to preserve whom he had sacrificed so much, should shed them, amazed him. " What is the matter ? " he repeated. " Nothing, Vivian, but that I felt dull." "Dull, with all your friends about you ! " he cried, in amaze. " Why, I thought you were the happiest of the happy. Ido my best to make you so." " You are very good to me," she said, gratefully. " Then, Ailie, do not cry. I think if one thing in this world irritates a man more than another, it is to see his wife cry.". " Then you shall never be irritated, Vivian," she said ; and he smiled, with content. " I am going at noon to-morrow, Ailie," he said, " you had better begin your arrangements for remaining at home."