A Tardy Wooing.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8133, 7 May 1906, Page 2

A Tardy Wooing.

CHAPTER XVII.— Contined,

■ "It cannot bo called lost if you deliberately gave it away I" "Perhaps not; but, on the other Land, you must remember that, till Collison's skill relieved the pressure on my brain, I could not havo been aooountable for what I did or said." "And yet you are tolerably certain that you presented ■your ring to someone; will not your memory supply the name of this person?" He did not speak and Oyrilla's eyes began to sparkle. "Ahl It was to a woman!" she cried jealously. "Yes, 1 think it was to a woman. My impression is— or rather was—lor in this .you say I am mistaken—that I took it off my finger to place it on yours 1" "you must have bad curious fancies in your delirium," she remarked, with a curl of her oosy lip. "Were you brought straight to London to Dr. Collison's?" "I qnnpoae so," w«h th* reply. "You are not sure? How very odd! And nursed there—by whom?" "flis servants. Good souls i They ■were indefatigable i" "His* servants, and oo one else? I should very much like to hear something more definite respecting the angelic creature who hovered about your bed, and whom you mistook for me." "My dearest Oyrilla," - said Harold, gravely, "1 am sorry I mentioned that vision to you. That it was a vision you will believe, when I tell you that Collison operated on my head as soon as I reached his house, and I did not relapse into insensibility after that." "But the ri"g!" exclaimed Oyrilla. "If spirit hands did not take its, who has it? Harold, I shall not be satis fled till it is in own keeping." fle was beginning to chaff at her persistency ; and. disoemng this, she laid her head on his shoulder, mar muring, sweetly: < "It is because it was your mother's, my Harold. Call me foolißh and superstitious if you will, but I shall not feel that her blessing is on our union if the ring that was the badge of her engagement, does not hallow mine, too." It was so prettily said 'that Mr Outram was touched by this proof that Oyrilla cherished the memory of his mother, and he kissed and thahked ber, pledging himself that the ring, should yet be found, if advertisements and proffered rewards would effect it. He was no sooner gone than she obided herself for her folly in urging him to take these 'What if the ring was gone? He could not have lied to her about it; he was incapable of such meanuess.l She would recall him; she would beg him to think no more of her whim; and if he eiitrcated her to name the day, she would consent, and bo should take her 10 Vienna—a gay city sho longed to visit—there to spend the honeymooD. Bug ere she had reached the door Chris Kennett stepped in at the low window opening on the lawn. "You here again!" she said, not attempting to conceal her annoyanoe. "I have been just outisde for the last ten minutes," he answered, "listening to the pretty little lovers'. quarrel you been carrying on.. Did you know I was there? and was it for my edification you rested your head on my lucky rival's shoulder." "The question is as insulting as it is absurd!" was the haughty response. "Is my father's house 'always to be haunted by yon. Can I never receive a visitor withuut linowiTig that every word he or I may speak is overheard by an interloper?" "Old Jas won't forbid me in his bouse; 1 might make it unpleasant for him it he did," said Keniett, speaking with his usual coldness,, but still with a throat in the swift glance he bestowed on the angry. Oyrilla. "It's a pity you persist in Quarrelling with me. If you wouldn't have your faithful Chris for a lover, it would have bee 3 more prudent to make a friend of him. than an enemy." This was so true that his auditor winced, and found herself wishing she had acted with more policy;, but it was too late, now, even if she had felt disposed to retrieve her mistake; she knew that Harold Outram would never permit her to number among her friends or acquaintances such a man as . ChrL Kennett. "Had you a spark of self-respeot in your crmposition,"she oripd, tauntingly, "you would have acoepted your dismissal, and not come near me again. .1 have made my ohoioe. After seeing Mr Outram. you canpot feel surprised that it fell udoh him instead of'you; and aDy man who knew what is due to himself would cease to annoy me with a persecution from which he will never reap any advantage." "I am not going to give up my old friends because their daughter has chosen tp jilt me," he retorted, doggedly. "It amuses me to see the new 'Sir' strut about and show bis consequence, and my lady try to feel aB much at home iu her fine bouse as in the cottage where she used to live. 1 let you alone, don't I. It isn't often 1 come near you, especially when you've got your last new suitor by your side. J've uothing to say against him. He's a good looking fellow, and mightily taken with you ; but why doesn't he tell you the truth?" 'iWhat do you mean?" and Oyrilla taraed upon the speaker with looks that would have killed him Jbad it beeb possible. "How dare you find fault with Mr Outram?" "Keep your temper, my beauty—•keep your temper!" she was exasperaiingly adjured. "1 find no fault witb the young man. I only asked a plain question, to which I expected a civil anwser. 1 said, 'What's his game iu telling you fibs?' If he

By Charles W. Hathaway. Author of " 3lavjorie's Sweethearti" "A Long Martyrdom," (i A Hash Vow," t( Joseph Dane's Diplomacy," etc., etc.

knew you as well as I do he'd be tolerably certain of being found out sooner or later. Catch anyone deceiving youl" Kennett chuckled as if very much amused at the idea, while Cyrilla grew red aid pale alternately. At, one moment her faith in Harold was iu the ascendant, at the next she tnought of the ring, and her doubts revived. "Mr Outram is the soul of honour!" she exclaimed. "Who said he wasn't?" she was asked. "And what has that lb do with it? Men may be fair and square in their dealings with their fedow men, yet think it no sin to cheat the nretty girl they are oourting. Ha, ha!" "Explain yourself" cried Cryilla, imperiously. "What do you mean?" "Lor', nothing that need vex you" he answered, apparently more interested in the mechanism of a clock on a bracket than in satisfying her curiosity. "I'm not sure that I can remember what it was he said or did, but it was something about his being at Oollisons." "Well, do you pretend to deny that Mr Outram was there?" _ "Uertainly not, though it's nothing to me whether he was or wasn't. Ic only struck me as odd that he should lead you to believe he was there all the time—when he wasn't!',' "It is false" she oried agitatedly, "he was." "Who's false? Not me. Your handsome, gentlemanly'lover landed at Dover on the tourteenth of June, but it was the nineteenth when he reached London and put himself under che okre of the surgeon. I should very much like to know who brought him to towndo you? And it might be interesting to enquire where he spent the time between bis landing in England and his arrival in London."' "Yoa are quickly answered. Mr Outram was hurt in a railroad collision." Chris Kennett laughed and rubbed his hands together. , "What a remarkblb circumstance it is that no one has heard of thiß collision, and that the railroad peo? pie declare there was no acoident of any kind, let alone a serious one, on either of the lines between those two dates., I'm very ourious, Oyrilla, I won't deny it, to know whether Mr Outram oame to London alone. Arn't you?" "No, because I trust him," she proudly responded. "He is incapable of deliberately deoeiving me. I have such confidence in him that 1 can afford to laugh to soorn your paltry endeavours to sow the seeds of distrust between us. I shall not ask Harold another question on this subject." "What a sweet, confl ding angel you have suddenly become," sneered Kennett. 'Too good for m 7 society, so I'll go and inflict it on your fatbetf. Be sure you keep in the same mind, beauty: Its just as well not to be too ourious." He went away still chuckling. He knew that Oyrilla was already tossing on the stormy sea of jealouß doubt. Harold's admissions that a woman had watched over him, and that it was to her that he bad given bis ring, were brought into greater prominence by Chriß Kennett's scoffing queries, and she began to 9uspect even while she persisted that nothing should induce her to do so. Always uneasy, always inclined to question eiVery speech and action of her betrothed, she now began to evince suoh irritability that he knew not what to say or do to please her. Though infatuated with her beauty when she smiled upon him. Harold Outram was too high-spirited to be the slave of anyone's caprioes, and they were on the verge of a' serious quarrel when Lady Dartison was taken ill. To know that Oyrillß'a mother was in danger sufficed to bring him to her feet, as tender, as devoted, as sympathising as of old. H<» detested Sir Jasper, and felt no pleasure in the thought of having to recognize him as a father-in-law, but the goodnatured, homely, motherly Lady Dartison be' had always liked, in spite of her vulgarity, and he was sincerely sorry for her safferings. It was at this juncture that Linda brought Wynnie to Chistlehurst. What would Oyrilla have said could she have known that, ere she aould beoorae mistress of Outram Towers, a marriage must fce annulled in which tbia quiet, pale girl was the bride and Harold the bridegroom?

CHAPTER XVIII. A WITNESS OF THE MARRIAGE ' Linda soon tired of the work of nursing. Her own unspoken griefs, so bravely borne, unfitted her to bear with oatience the childish complainings of her aunt, who certainly was most exacting. Until now Lady Dartison haa enjoyed what may be called rude health. As long aa she had swept, scrubbed, and washed, she was hale and strongjbut the change to a life of luxury and iadolence was killing her, and, always weak-minded, she soon sank into a captious, fretful invalid. She had some cause for her murmurs. Sir Jasper considered that he had done his duty when he bad paid Mb wife a morning visit, and begged her to have anything she fancied, while Oyrilla was too deeply immersed in pleasure to have more than a few minutes to devote to her now and then. (To be continued.)