Young My Lord

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 18030, 27 May 1930, Page 12

Young My Lo rd

=SERIAL STORY —

By Colonel H. Curties.

CHAPTER XXXV.—(Continued.) “They are going towards Lovers’ Corner,” Mrs Westgarth observed to 'her husband. ‘‘We had ■ better leave them alone. I hope there are not too many lovers there to crowd them out.” ‘‘We’ll just take a turn back and forth for the sake of propriety,” remarked the cautious Mr Westgarth, "so that we can say we were here to look after them.” The two old people walked up and down the terrace in the perfect night, but they had to wait a long time before Edward and Mary returned. “I suppose it’s all right,” remarked Mr Westgarth after a time. “Don’t you think we had better go and look for them?” His wife laid a restraining hand on his arm. “Let things be as they are, Hiram,” she said. Presently the missing couple appeared. Edward was talking earnestly to Mary-r—they were not too far apart. But there was a difference in Mary which her mother noticed at once. She walked with her head erect and a sparkle in her eyes, which the old people noted, standing in the shadow. She walked firmly, as if she were proud of something. They did not re-enter the club—gambling was not for them —hut moved away to the right, towards the Hotel de Paris.

The situation was truthfully summarised by the old people, who decided that they were going to continue their conversation in the lounge of the hotel. “Well, Roxanna,” queried Mr Westgarth, taking off his pince nez with a click, when they had passed: “What do you make of it?” Mrs Westgarth gathered her silk shawl about her shoulders, for it was getting chilly, and turned a beaming face towards her husband. “What do I make of it, Hiram?” she repeated. “Why, I make this of it: Edward has been kissing our Mary in the Lovers’ Corner l”

CHAPTER XXXVT. “Because 1 Love You.” Few men or women have the gift of controlling their own heart. Edward was an example of it. He set forth from the dinner table at the club, walking sedately beside Mary, and his determination not to speak to her until he had won a position and paid off his father’s debts was as firm as ever. He had suffered from the perfidy of an unprincipled woman; that wound had healed, and was almost forgotten in his love for Mary. Ho had met a woman whom he believed to be the soul of honour; he loved and revered her above anything in the world; and yet he must not tell her of this love. It was hard, very hard; but he was never more fixed In his resolve than when he descended the steps with Mary and -went intuitively towards the Lovers’ Corner. But he had not. reckoned that palpitating organ of his body—called the heart—in this deal. They strolled almost aimlessly along the terrace of the Casino towards its westernmost end.

“I don’t wonder at people belns fend of the Riviera," Edward remarked, “especially this part of it." “Yes, it is very beautiful.” Maryreplied. “The nights here are more lovely at this time of the year than any night, of summer in England." “Yes, the stars shine brighter here,” continued Edward, his gaze fixed upon Venus, “than I have ever seen them shine before.” Now, in the ordinary way, Edward and Mary should have walked to the end of the terrace, turned, and come back again. But when they reached that little corner at the end, like a balcony overlooking the bay, they were attracted by- the celebrated red and green lights of the harbour —those lights which are said to have such a wonderfully fascinating effect upon lov.ers. _ They stopped for a minute to admire the scene; it was very beautiful, with the myriads of lights on the Rock of Monaco, across the little bay-. For a minute or two they said nothing; then Edward burst forth almost involuntarily— “l shall miss you terribly, Mary, he said, “when I am away.” “And I shall miss you, too, Edward,” she replied. “But why have you avoided me lately?" He was silent; he could not tell her the reason. “Have I offended you?” she asked again. He turned to her and took her hand in his, his own trembling with the emotion he was trying to repress. “I kept away from you,- Mary,” he burst forth, as if the w-ords leapt to his lips without his will, “because I love you I” She looked at him almost in amazement, but he felt her hand tremble within his own. They stood alone, in the dim light, looking at each other for perhaps a minute; then in a moment she was in his arms, and his lips pressed to hers. The harbour lights looked upon it all, placidly, as usual; there was not an extra twink in them —they had seen it too often. And yet in those few moments the destinies of a man and woman were changed for evermore 1 f CHAPTER XXXVII. Tho Sweets of Love. When Edward at last released her he and Mary fell to talking of their future, the first thought in the minds of each—and perhaps in the minds of all honest newly-declared lovers in this world. “Dearest,” he said, “you asb#d me just now why I avoided you. I will tell you. The reason was this: I did not want to tell you that I loved you before I had an assured position in the world." “But you have an assured position,” argued Mary. “Are you not going to the States to do business for father?”' He shook his head. “Yes, I am certainly going; but I owe that position to your father, and a great deal more, too; but I could not build on that position to ask him for you—-I should be maintaining my wife on her father’s money.” He put it that way to her, but she gathered the truth quite clearly; he would not marry her for her father’s money. She clasped her hands on the wall before her. “Money has been a trouble to me ever since I was a child,” she said, “and now it is going to be a trouble again at the happiest time of my life.” But she respected Edward and loved

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him all the more for the delicacy of his thoughts. “No, dearest." he answered, talcing her hand; “I must do something. I must succeed in some such enterprise as your father is sending me on now. I must show him that I am capable of good work before I ask him for his daughter.” Mary made a little moue. “‘Then we are not to be engaged?'’ she asked. “We will not publish it formally,” he said; “it will he quite enough to satisfy me to know you will wait for me. You will, won’t you, darling?" She turned to him and put her two hands over his. “i will wait for you, dear, till I am an old, old woman if you wish it,” she answered. The green harbour lights winked this time, for the lighthousekeeper had come round to test it, otherwise its emotion might have been attributed to what was going on in Lovers’ Corner. “And 'how,” said Mary decisively, “we must go back to mother and father.” “Shall I speak to your father and tell him how we stand, dear?” he asked as they turned away. She pondered for a few moments. “No, I don’t think I would tell father,” she answered presently. “Leave it to me to tell mother.” “But you will let me buy you a ring, won’t you?” he asked. “Yes," she replied; “I should love to have a ring of yours.” “And you will wear it?” he continued. “Yes, proudly,” she answered.

CHAPTER XXXVIII. “Good-bye, Sweetheart.” There were now a very few days before Edward’s departure. These were spent in some more interviews with Mr Westgarth, and the remainder of the time with Mary. Mr Westgarth’s final instructions were these—- “ When you get to New York don’t go near any other firm than Chalcedon’s; things soon get about. And, above all —keep your mouth shut.” Mary had duly and dutifully conveyed Edward’s proposal to her mother.

“So he does not want to be formally engaged,” repeated Mrs Westgarth, “‘until he has done something worth while in business? Well, dear,” continued the mother, “I think that is very noble of him. I think he will make a good husband, Mary.” This conversation was duly passed on to Mr Westgarth, and seemed to tickle him immensely. “Say, Roxanna,” he commented, “I believe that boy’s got grit, how much we shall find out later; but I like his independence.” To Mr Westgarth and his wife the trip across the Atlantic was nothing; to Mary it was a great deal. She was so anxious that he should succeed. One question was always cropping up: • “Supposing he does not, will he retain his Quixotic position and not consent to our engagement being made public?” Her mother reassured her on every possible occasion, for she saw that she was losing colour. “We must leave it all to father,” she advised. “He is a clever man, and will see it through somehow.” Edward did not scruple before he entered the wagon-lits to take Mary in his arms and kiss her, • whispering a few reassuring words, for her eyes were full of tears; but on her left hand was a very beautiful diamond ring. Then he shook the old people and a few friends who had gathered with them warmly by the hand, including Verna, Weston, and stepped into the train. As it moved off Mr Westgarth stood there beaming, but when the good-bye waving was over he dug his hands into his pockets and started chuckling and rattling his keys., “I guess that boy’ll succeed, Roxanna,” he commented. “I’ll go one better —I’m sure he will. And you can tell Mary that from me straight.' He ought to. Why, cert’nly!” And then the old gentleman was one more seized with mirth, and stood there chuckling and rattling his keys as long as the train was in sight. (To be continued.)