For Honor's Sake.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7933, 5 January 1906, Page 2

For Honor's Sake.

By Bertha XML Clay. Author of " Wife in Name Only," " Wedded and Parted," "Dora Thome," " A Queen Antony Women," "A True Matjdalene," etc., etc.,

CHAPTER ll.—Continued. Then followed the days of cod valesooncp, and these brought Pau line her opportunity. Majo; Langdale had gone; the patient was just in the 6tato to bo easily iuflueuced by a lovely woman, who adroitly and moat delicately endeavoured to make him undrestand that pi*y had followed its usual course in the heart of bis gentle "nurse"; he was bodily weak, his mind in a halfdreamy state; iron will he had, if there is anything in physiognomy; but bodily prostration relaxed all the mental as well as the physical fibres; besides, why should he want to exert his will against the spell of this entrancing loveliness. It was sweet to look on her beauty to have her soft hand in his; and yet, somehow Pauline never stirred the strong passions that, slumbered in the man's soul; the surface of his nature was touched; that was all; be was deeply grateful, he believed he had cause to be su, and gratitude assumes exaggerated proportions in the heart of a sick man, especially when a charming woman is the debtor. It crossed him sometimes, with a feeling which had in it more pain than pleasure, that Pauline gave him more of her thoughts than be desired. He was anything but a vain man; but he was too attractive in every way, even without extraneous advantages, not to have had it forced upon him that woman were ready to yield him affection. Pauline, so far as he was aware, did not know he was a wealthy man. And then, one day, came the crisis. Captrin Stewart had reached the noi'it of being able to sit out in the "garden in the sunshine, and Pauline, would sit beside the low chair in which he reclined, and they would talk together, or be silent, as the young officer pleased. Mrs Am • old had the tact of guile if not of good feeling, and never tried to talk if she perceived that he was tired. On this particular morning conver sation had flagged. Stewart seemed preoccupied, and Pauline's fair head drooped and now and then her lips trembled, and she made pretence to gather a daisy from the grass, or, some other excuse, contrived to turn away her face from her companion. Not one of thepesigns was lost upon him, though his eyes looked dreamy, and half asleep behind the veil of their long lashes. Few things ever did escape those dark eyes: Pauline had discovered that long ago. Presently he broke the silence, which his soft, sympathetic voice, tut Pauline's soul was deaf to that last charm. "Do you know what Dr Rasseaux told me this morning?" he said. "No." She turned eagerly.' "I feared—that is"—her eyes fell confusedly—"l did not like to ask." He had all the innate chivalry of the Highlander, and perhaps, too, something of the weakness regarding women, as he had also the special of the strangely-gifted race to which he belonged. It seemed so cold and heartless to talk to this pretty creature, to whom he was under lifelong obligation, of leaving her. Was it not his fault if she had learned to give him her heart. And yet he was not iu love with her; he,knew that even while his pulse quickened, and his heart swelled within him; it was tenderest pity, deep gratitude, the sense of having done an unwitting wrong, not love. He laid his hand lightly on hers. She slightly startled under the touoh, but did not try to free herself. "I have been long too a burden upon you," Eerie Stewart began, after a pause. "No, no!" she half sobbed, her bead bent low. A quick &pasm of pain orossed the man's handsome features. He drew in his breath, then he went on: . "The doctor tells me that in a few dayp 1 shall be able to travel, You have made this time of suffering very sweet to me." But here, Pauline quite broke down, sobbing bitterly, though try\na to check the outburst which so entirely betrayed her to her companion. The crimson rushed to the soldier's <sheek. In an impulse born of his ■very manhood he\ threw his arm round the quivering form, and drew it close to him. "Pauline,"hesaid, hurriedly—but even now there was no passion in bis voice—"don't weep such tears for me. I owe you. dear, more than my life can repay. If 1 can make yours happy " And in those rash words, forced from his chivalry, his sense of honor, not his heart, he flung away Jais life for a worthless woman. Heaven knows if, even in the first five minutes that followed that fatal pledge, Esric Stewart repeated it. Heaven knows if it flashed across him while her lovely face, half smiles, half tears, lay on his breast that a' woman should have had more reticence, more selfcontrol than Pauline had displayed. If such a thought rose unbidden, it was banished as unworthy. It was his fault, though not bis wilful fault, that she loved him; bis J fault this humiliation of self-be- ' trayal, She had a claim upon him which, for honour's sake, he was tiound to satisfy. And she seemed perfectly happy, though he did not speak of love, in fact, he spoke hardly at all. Ij his gentle caresses, even iu the kiss he laid on her lips, there was no pasWas she sensible of this? Ay, truly, and in her heart angry. Her'vauity was hurt that she had not been able to win this man even, to a slavery of the sonses. She knew perfectly well to what she owed it that she was the betrothed wife of CJapt. Stewart, of Locbmohr. She had woJI played her part, and won, 4he man she had to deal with be-

iug what he wap; and if she felt resentment against him because she failed to win him to a real surrender of himofilf. it was not that she desired his love, but that she coveted it as a proof of her power. And when, a few hours later, Esric Stewart was alone, he covered his face, and the passionate cry rose iu his heart: "My God! what have I done? What have 1 doue?" He told iau Mac-lan that night "Ask no questions, Jan," he said, grasping the other's hand, "and make no comment, it is too late to draw back." "But it isn't too late!" cried the man. "Captain, listen to me. Ah! forgive me " "lau, spare me! She loves me, and I sail learn, perhaps " He stopped and walked abruptly through the room. No, he could never learn to love Pauline Arnold, not as he understood the word; but ho might in time, be able to give her all she needed; it was too much. Alas! it was less «ven than he supposed; but fuller knowledge was yet to come , "It was an evil day that brought you here!" said lau, through bis teeth. "A curse on the woman!" be added, to himself, as be went out. "For all her pretty ways and pretty face, she's just a fraud. He thinks she nursed him sometimes! Oh! I know the tales she has told him. She nurse him! She'd smile and coo, and get in the way—that's all. Ob captain, captain" and the faithful fellow broke down in passionate grief, "you're silly and rash" Pauline would have liked a speedy marriage, but Cipt. Stewart, so far from urging this, wns in no mood to hurry matters. He bad business and piivate engagements in Paris, he said, and it was therefore arranged that Pauline was, iu a week or two, to set out for London,' where be would join her, and they would be married in the autumn. He breathed more freely when he had turned bis back on the cottage and its mistress, and was fairly eu route for Paris—the city of all cities, for a man who seeks to flee from himself. CHAPTER ill. AN ENTRANCING MAIDEN. "Captain Stewart, delighted to see you" exclaimed a loud and deep bass voice, and the speaker held out his hand. They were face to face on the Boulevard Haussmann—two men as dissimilar as could well ne imagined; the one tall, slight, soldierly in bearing, handsome, and in everyway distinct from the ordinary crowd; the other 50, and, perhaps, more, rather stout, with an everyday face which uo one would look at a second time— geutlemati, r and weil dressed; that was all. A keen observer would take exception to the thin lips, and the close set eyes of the insincere, greenish-grey; but the majority would probably vote this gentleman a frank, hearty, pleasant fellow—no better than his neighbours and certainly no worse. Captain Stewart took the proffered hand, though he was not especially pleased to meet its owner. He had come across Mr Davenaut two years ago in London, and having far keener perceptions than the unthinking majority, and the senstiive,'syin pathetic temperament which is in itself a touchstone for testing character, he had not indorsed the general verdict on "Chris" Davenant. However, he bad no definite reason for giving the man the cold shoulder, and so shook hands with him, and said, smiling: (To be Continued).