ROGER VAVASOUR’S MISTAKE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 29, 16 July 1892, Page 720

ROGER VAVASOUR’S MISTAKE.

BY

CLYDE RAYMOND.

ELL, your book is bound to be a great success, 1 hear,’ said Toni Barrows, breaking a silence of several minutes which had fallen between himself and Roger Vavasonr, as they sat smoking on the verandah of their hotel. ‘ All you need now, my boy, is a charming wife to share your coming honours.’ ‘ Thanks. I’m afraid, however, it’ll be a long time before that need is supplied,’ returned the handsome young author, quietly, an almost imperceptible sarcasm in his even tones— * that is, of course, supposing the “ coming honours ” ever actually arrive. It will be necessary, you know, to find my ideal first, and, having met her—’ ‘ Why, I thought that was already an accomplished fact,’ interrupted Mr Barrows, lifting his eyebrows with an expression of genuine astonishment. ‘lf you haven’t found your ideal in Miss Carroll, then I have gone fearfully wide of the mark in translating all the signs. Why, man alive, where could you hope to find a lovelier, more bewitchingly attractive woman ’’ Roger Vavasour shrugged his broad shoulders slightly, while a faint, half-mocking smile passed over his dark, expressive face. ‘ I don’t for a moment dispute Miss Carroll’s matchless fascinations,’ he returned, with perfect coolness, intent upon knocking the ashes from the cigar which he had removed from his lips ; ‘ and were my fortune a thing of the present instead of a dream of some far-off, indefinite future, I might possibly look upon the fair lady with other eyes than those of a mere beauty-worshipper. But you, Tom—l’ve been wondering, as we sat here talking of her, whv you don't try uoitr own luck in that quarter. You are certainly one of her most enthusiastic admirers.’ * But unfortunately the admiration is not mutual,’ retorted Tom, with a good-natured laugh. ‘lf I had only

half the encouragement she has given you, I might. But then ! talk of the angels, etc.—she has iust made her appearance on the verandah. Shall you come with me to join her circle of courtiers’ No? Well, stay where you are, then, and envy me while you smoke your old cigars in cheerless solitude !’ And tossing his own half-consumed cheroot over the railing, Tom Barrows sauntered away toward the further end of the long verandah where a small group of gentlemen had already gathered about the reigning beauty of that great, fashionable hotel. Although Roger Vavasour resolutely kept his solitary position, and smoked away, as if utterly unconscious of anything in the vicinity more interesting than his cigar, yet his dark eyes followed Tom’s retreating form to the spot where Sydney Carroll sat, like some fair young queen among her courtiers, and a strange, unreadable look swept over his stern, dark face. ‘ Men of wealth, all of them.’ he muttered to himself, his glance flashing from one to another of the group surrounding her. ‘ Some of them worth their millions. Yet Tom spoke the truth when he said that she had given me encouragement. Yes, she has. She has smiled on me with those perfect lips, those dangerously beautiful eyes, but so did Lady Vere de Vere smile upon her victims, 'if she is false it will be the easier to tear her from my heart, and I must do that in any case. If she were sincere—if she cared for me, I must not be so weak, so contemptible, as to take advantage of her weakness. Whac right have Ito lure the heiress of the Graham millions to a match with poverty? No ;in any case I must leave here—l must forget her.’ Even as he said it. he saw her glance wander toward him with that look that he ever found irresistible. Rising slowly to his feet. Vavasour reluctantly yielded to that unspoken summons and traversed the long verandah that led him straight into the peril which he had determined to avoid.

Tom Barrows glanced into his face with a little amused ‘I told vou so ’ laugh, as he approached, that brought a flush to Roger’s cheek. All were so busily engaged, however, in vying with each other for a monopoly of Miss Carroll’s attention that it passed unnoticed, and she turned toward him with her sweetest smile. ‘You are a rather tardy arrival, Mr Vavasour, but you shall have the place of honour, nevertheless !’ she exclaimed, with a bewitching, laughing glance, as sbe waved her white hand towards a cozy seat very near her on the right. With a stifled groan, he sunk down in it and listened, in almost unbroken silence, to the music of Sydney Carroll’s voice, and watched, with a kind of sullen,' half-angry delight, the lovely, changeful face that he was even then vowing to forget. How charming she was ! Every glance, every smile, every movement, seemed to have gained some new fascination since Roger had held that rigid self-examination and resolved to steel his heart against her. As he sat beside her now, a restless impatience took possession of him. Why did he hover, like a doomed moth, around the fatal flame, near the danger of that peerless face ? The shining threads of her golden hair seemed to draw him with a spell-like power ; the magic of her velvetbrown eyes held him against the force of that grim, iron will which had always, until now, proved his unfailing shield. He lived only in her presence ; a life that held more of pain than pleasure now, and which every passing hour would only make the harder to bear. ‘ It has got to end, and the sooner the better,’ he resolved abruptly, starting to his feet. ‘ I’ll go to-day.’ Miss Carroll glanced up wonderingly at the suddenness of his movement. ‘ I startled you?’ he said, smiling slightly as he met her look. ‘ Pardon me ; I know I have been but a dull and uninteresting fellow among your brilliant courtiers’—with a charming bow—‘ for the last half hour or so. But the truth is, a very important matter claimed my attention, and I was forced to decide upon it without delay. I have decided and must, therefore—much as I regret it—say good-bye to this pleasant place, and this pleasant company, at once to-day !’ ‘To-day!’ echoed two or three voices simultaneously, and among them was the sweet one of Sydney Carroll—and surely there was a sound of tears in it, too. ‘ Oh, Mr Vavasour,’she added, coaxingly, ‘couldn’t you wait just until to-morrow ? You know we have planned a riding party for this afternoon, and it will be such a disappointment to us if you do not come !’ Her lovely face was quite pale, and the deep-brown eyes uplifted to his had a look in them that went straight to Roger’s heart. ” But he shook his head with a firm gesture of dissent. ‘ No,’ he said, very quietly. ‘ If I go if must be to-day, and I think it very necessary that I should go. Ender other circumstances, Miss Carroll, I should be only too happy to oblige you.’ And, bowing himself gracefully out of their presence, be hastened to his own rooms and busied himself with preparations for his sudden departure. From one of his windows he saw the equestrian party ride away, and waved a smiling salute to Miss Carroll, who, bright and bewitching as ever, cantered gaily down the gravelled driveway at the side of a handsome, boyish young fellow, a son of one of the resident cottagers. • For the last time,’ he murmured, with a sharply-drawn sigh, as he turned from the window. ‘Unless Fate takes it into her head to make a football of me, I shall never look upon that beautiful face again. Oh, my peerless love ! if you were only Sydney Carroll, as poor as myself, and not the heiress to a million, how happy we might be ! for something tells me that you are not playing the role, of

Clara Vere de Vere. But happiness at the expense of honour—no, not for Roger Vavasour !’ An hour later he was tramping through a pretty woodland road to the railway station, having sent his belongings on ahead, and as he followed its windings down through a rugged glen he was thunderstruck to come upon a tableau he was least prepared to see. Two horses were wandering about the little cup-like hollow, grazing contentedly upon the rich grass, while against a large rock on one side of the glen, apparently quite insensible, reclined the graceful form of Sydney Carroll, with her youthful escort kneeling beside her, his fair face the very picture of distress. At sight of Roger, he sprung to his feet with a glad cry of relief. ‘ Oh, Mr Vavasour, thank Heaven you have come!’ he exclaimed, excitedly. ‘I was just wondering what on earth I should do. You see, we left the rest of the party a little while since, to follow up a new road we came to, and Miss Carroll was in the wildest spirits—l never saw her half so gay before. Well, she insisted on making her horse take every obstacle he came to, and when we reached this ravine, she sent him flying over the creek there—you can see for yourself what a jump it is. He took it all right, but just as he landed on this side, Miss Carroll seemed to swoon away, all in a second, and had fallen from the saddle before I could spring from mine to assist her. I don’t know whether she is hurt or not; but if you’ll stay and watch over her for a few minutes, Mr Vavasour, I’ll jump on my horse and get a carriage somewhere in which to take her home. ... To the hotel- its the nearest place—and ride for your life; we don t know how badly she mav be injured,’returned Vavasour hastily, his handsome, dark face growing almost as white as that one lying so still there on the grass. Was she dead ? His own heart almost ceased to beat at the very thought. kne i Ovv . n beside her, clasping the little, unconscious hands tenderly m his. For a moment his face, so full of yearning love, bent over hers until his lips almost touched the white, exquisitely perfect cheek so near them. But he drew back with a sudden movement, a tingling thrill of shame. & ‘No, no,’ he muttered, flushing, all unseen though he was, she is helpless ; I can tbe such a coward. But how’ Ido love her ! My God ! I would give half my life to kiss—’ But his warm breath on her face seemed to have thrilled her senses back to life. The velvety brown eyes flew open, and the pale, sweet lips parted with a smile. • ‘ y° u ~ love ™ e st ? e whispered, as sl.e might have spoken in the midst of some happy dream. ‘ I have often thought you hated me. & ‘Hated you!’ he echoed, bitterly. ‘Ah! would to Heaven it were so ! It would be better-for my peace, at least, rorget what you heard me say! I had forgotten, for one instant, that you are the heiress to the vast wealth of your uncle, Mr Graham ’ She had raised herself to her elbow, and was now staring at him, her brown eyes dilating with intense surprise. si<m° me ° ther eDlotion ’ to °’ seemed struggling for expres- ‘ And did you believe that, Mr Vavasour?’ she questioned slowly, watching his face intently as she spoke. ‘ I never dreamed of such a thing before. I am not the niece to whom Aunt and Lnele Graham will leave their fortune • she is not yet old enough to enter society, and we left her at school in Europe only a few weeks before you met us here. Indeed, lam not their niece at all—only a distant cousin to whom they have been very kind, and it is merely an affectionate fancy of mine to call them aunt and uncle, aS l aV- 1 am not an heiress > Mr Vavasour,’—her brown eyes flashing proudly- 1 and if you would prefer now to have me forget what I heard you say ’ ‘Sydney’-he took the privilege now, which a moment before, he was willing to give half his life for—* Sydney, my beautiful darling, all I ask is this : Do you love me ? Will you be my wife ? We may never be rich, dear, but —’ ‘ I am rich at last, in the possession of the heart that is my all —more than that I do not need to complete my happiness. If I had been the heiress you thought me ’—smilin<» through her happy tears— ‘ I should have lost you, Roge" think of that ! . ’ ”