Selina's Lady Story.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8207, 10 August 1906, Page 2

Selina's Lady Story.

CHAPTER V.- Continued.

ODC3 again George Dnrnstone was touched, and whon he spoke his voice was softer. 'Believe me,' he said, from my heart that I an sorry for you. If 1 could do so with a free conscience I would stretch nut rry band and sav to you, "Snare cur happiness ' But 1 am an old fashioned man; with mo black i* black, and white is whit*. X can . nufc '. ,al.ahßwipe away from Dorothy s mind the knowledge tnal, baa so blighted her, tat I can koep ht.r away from all contact of that which is not as it ought to be. I beard it only just lately said that you were a good woman. So in a sense I should like to believe you-so I am o - vinoed you are by instinct. You could net have borne such a sweet child it you bad beou bad t tit there can be no sin without punirMnent, and your punishment comes now. In your hand lies the chance of a great atonement; you have robbed another woman all these years-it la but jastice that you should do your best to restore you have robbed. The wemau he addressed was sitting crouched in a char, with her face ; hidden in her hands. Sir George paused a while before spoke again. n ;11 1 'Once more, 1 be said then, tell you that I am going to marry Dorothy, thai Dorothy chooses me for her husband, that once she is my wife she belongs to me absolutely May I go away from you satisfied that you understand this? Satisfle that you will respect ray wisi e . If ever there has been real love iu your heart for your child, you will not hesitate to answer me BOW - Mrs Baraldine uncovered her face and looked at hirr, . ,1 'Just now,' she said, in a voice, "I told you that I had been preparing mi self for this great sacrifice 1 did not think it would come so soon, and now that it has come realize bow miEerably untrepared am; still, 1 see that what you ask me is just, and so ■ promise. bee, she opened the throat of her gown and pulled out a jewelled looket, roughly she broke the chain from her neck and flung the locket mio ' the "fire—'that has not lett -e night or day since Dorothy was torn,' she said, in a strained voice. •Little by little it baa ga:rnered to it small relics of ,hei baby The first curl that was cut from her head, the first tiny scrap of writing that she did, a little slip of white ribbon that tied her hair at her first communion; they are all from me. So, Sir fito-e veu may go satisfied. I am i J bio Jn for 1 no longer a ohild I' She made a creature with her hand that he should go, the man obeyed that movement. He bowed and walked to the door. There he.paused, and he a lm ° s * yielded to the weakness of offerl °J himself as a friend in need should the future presß this need, but r.ne mockery of such a pretense came to him, and leaving Caroline Baraldine huddled in the chair like one stricken witn sudden age and feebleness, with a frown and a sense of ex- ' treme discomfort, Selina s brother walked down the sunlit garden and let himself out of the old fashioned gate. As he drove Kway there was little of triumph in bis thoughts rather he had on him a feeling that might have rested upon him if he had just left the presence ot the dead. %

CHAPTER VI. [A MYSTERIOUS LEJTTEK. Mrs Silohester imagined that she had found a very sympathetic friend in Mr Delaval; certain'.y Mr Delaval listened to all that Mrs Silohester had to say without interrupting her - or making any comment, and his manner was so gentle, his appearance so attractive, that Mrs Silohester felt quite comforted when she hud poured out till her worries to him. " It was Mr Delaval who had escorted Lady Duo worthy to the station early in the day following the dinner party at the Gate Bouse. 'Of course, Maria did not want me to go, 1 Mrs Silohester confided to him. 'When sho suggested Fleaving ] was much relieved. 1 have had enough of her. Sho used to be rathe l ' amusing, but now she is only tiresome.' But it was not merely the subject of Lady Dunworthy and her eccentricities which Mrs Silohester desired to dieouss with her guest: it was her son about whom was exciting herself. 'I do beg of you to t&lk to Michael seriously, Mr Delaval,' she said. 'Of cuurse, he has tuld you what he intends to do? It is simply madness! lie will loose any amount of money if be goes abroad; his uncle tied up his Jsgncy to Michael so tightly. If my boy had refused to go into the bank he ■would not have got a penny.'! Of course, I know a life in a country bank iB a very dull business, but other people endure it, and Michael cannot beeuch a fool to loose ".everything he has. fie shan't!' said Mrs Silcheater, rather viciously. 'I know,' she added, 'what is at the bottom of it all—it's not 1, or this business of Ladv Dunworlhy; it's that odious girl, at the Gale House! You can't think what a bad influence she has on Michael's life.' Mr Delaval smiled faintly as he listened to this. tie made no etfort to defend Selina. Indeed, §Mra Si,lchoster laboured under the supposition that he shared her opinion. He did not think it necessary to inform his hostess that he had been spending the greater pait of his time talking, and walking, and looking at

By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. Author of "An Inherited Feud," "Brave Barbara " A Splendid Heart » "Temptation of Mary Barr," 4< The Interloperetc., etc.

the odious girl at the Gate House. It had given curious sense of pleasure to meet Selina, having the knowledge that there existed between them a seoret. Miss Lascombe had been present when he had arrived to make a call of ceremony, and he had given the information that Lady Dunwor'hy had deoarted in the same casual way, and asked after Miss .Baraldine in a perfunctory way. It amused him to realize that this middle aged woman friend of Selina's regarded him with a good deal of'doubfc. It seemed as if Mary Lascombe intended to give bim no opportunity of being alone with the young mistress of the Gate House, but he lingered so long that the knowledge that she had a number of letters to write drove Miss Larfcombe upslarie. '1 shall never-be able to thank you, Selina said, as they found themselves alone. 'How strange that you should have been so near this morning! How you frightened me!' *1 have iraay bad babitr, 1 said Dolaval, with bis fascinatim; t-mile, 'and wandering In the night houis is one of these. 1 require very little sleep. I have gofle for days without closing my eyes.' She looked tired and depressed. There was something infinitely sweet about her to-day; the sensation of lassitude that one could see rested upon her was most attractive. The night before he had been struck by her fresh and vigorous youth, hy her ready spirit and strong will. .§ He was not a.man who admired a sickly woman, but abour Selina this afternoon Ibere was an even greater charm than there had been the night befdtte. Then she had baen a child; now ahese emed to have reached womanhood. He chatted to her about all sorts of things, and found her an enchanting listener, but he said nothing about Michael. It was a new sensation for St. John Delaval to feel envious of any man, but he did envy Selina's friend his im.iraaoy in her home, and this though he knew that Michael Silchester's day was at an end. Michael had called early the same morning. He had not asked to see Selina, but he had looked about him as he stood in the familiar doorway, with almost painful eagerness for even a glimpse of her. Usually Selina was to be found flitting about the hall or gardens at this time. They had had many a pleasant chat as be had called at the Gate House on his way to town; but a great change seemed to have fallen upon the familiar old house this day, and Michael turned away feeling as if he had taken farewell of all that had hitherto made life so sweet to bim.

He trudged the liltiildy lanes into the town, dreading the routine of the day that stretched before him. It was always trying; now it threatened to be almost more than he could endure. It was) not a new thing for Miuhael Silohester to ohate at the restriction 1 ! of his working life. He was not one who oared for money, or the grandeur that money could bring. If be could have followed j in his brothers' footsteps, and gone j out into those strange lands to | whioh men such as St. John De- < laval i>ad been the pioneers, Michael would have gladly done this when he had been a mere lad. Indeed, Selma, as a child, had lived to incite him to deeds of daring and adventure. But the powers that existed were too Ktrong for Michael. His father died suldenly, and his mother remained as it were, on his hands—a helpless, an extravagant, and an exacting woman. From the first Mrs Silchcster had arranged that Michael should step into the shoes of her eJc'er urother, the head of the old-fashioned banking house that had been eetablished in the old country town—near which Michael had spent all his young life —for {nearly a century, and she carried her wish into action. It was well understood by the neighbourhood Jthat young Miohael might be regarded as his uncle's heir, and though this was not quite the case, still, when old Georee Silcheater died he left behind liim a generous legaoy for the boy, who had been his godson, but he left it only in the uondition that Michael followed absolutely in hia footßteps and defied his whole life to the business which liad made of himself a such prosperous individual. And just at that time same news had been brought to Mrs Silcheater of the untimely death of her eldest eon, Edward, who lost his life of a virulent fever on the western coast of Africa. (To be Continued.)