CHAPTER XXIX.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 197, 12 January 1877, Page 6

CHAPTER XXIX.

REPENTANCE AT LEISURE.

Edward Hartland remained only two days at Hawfchorndean Kosine no longer hesitated to return with him; she felt that his old grief, so newly revived, needed the comfort of her presence he had told her so. Dr. Hartland added his advice to the urgent persuasion of Mr? Benton, and the pleadings uf Willie, that" Captain Hartland should remain m the country ; Rosine, too, hoped he could make himself contented at Hawthorndean for awhile, for Ned had told her that it would never do for him to go back to his aimless life in the city ; therefore she helped Willies pleas and her parents' arguments, though she would miss Aleck so much. On getting back to the city, they found three letters waiting, one for Dr Hartland from Harry Greenwood, and one from Marion for Rosine hy the same steamer, besides a package, and farewell note from Dora. The Doctor insisted upon reading his aloud, before she broke the seal of hers. "There was never any thino- in Harry's letters, he said, " which she might not hear," but before he had finished the second page, he stammered and pansed, and was at length obliged to say: " Well, Rosine, I am misUken this time I must not read you all of his; " he had blundered upon something quite serious with regard to Marion and her husband, and which Harry particularly requested him not to speak of. They had met abroad, "the bee and the butterfly," in the French metropolis Marion had soon made herself known to Mr. Greenwood, they were at the same hotel. A few weeks had passed in very pleasant social intercourse, the young man being delighted to meet one who had come so lately from those best loved. Business occupied all his days, but his evenings were mostly given to his ne,w friends and their gay circle. He had already made the discovery that life for the bride, so young, so beautiful, so sprightly, and fond of pleasure, could be a prospect of nothing but wretchedness. She seemed light hearted and happy with the world, but he had twice brought her husband to her, after an absence of three days, in a state wlr ",h required weeks of constant nursing to make him presentable • J&rd he knew there must be v, sad heart-ache under that veil of cheerfulness; "there was a feeling of indignation against such a sacrifice, he added, " through the circle in which they moved." Youn<* Greenwood wrote with the ardor and enthusiara of a soldier, about his wish to protect this lovely young creature from such a brute Dr. Hartland stamped his foot and bent his brow as he read this, and straightway took himself to the library to answer the letter without delay, not waiting to see what Marion would say for herself, in her letter to her sister. She told of her delightful life in Paris, of her meeting »vith Mr. Greenwood, and of her talks with him about home friends, and the flattering remarks he was pleased to make of one of her near relatives; of his kindness and attention to herself, which she attributed solely to his regard for ncr sister • she did once mention her husband, and the quick-sighted reader discovered a vein of effort through the letter, a concealed some thing, that increased Rosine's forebodings of ill ; this troubled her so much, that she forgot for a long while Dora's note ; this calmed her, gave her a look beyond and above this life to that haven of rest, for which even the youngest and happiest, if thoughtful withal, are not without longings. °

"Navy Yard, January, 18 — .

" It is better that -we do not meet at this time, my dear Rosa ; I know you will not doubt my love in leaving thus without a last kiss. My child, it is a great suffering to break ties which are like bands of iron, and now I wish to shun all that can remind me of the past ; you will forgive me — Aye shall meet again. Igo to offer to my dear Lord the remnant of my days. Of those I leave, there aie two that I specially commend to your prayers and to your love; I need not tell you who they are. I send you my muchloved crucifix; it is the last earthly treasure from which it is hard to part. Commending you, my beloved, to the prayers of our >£lessed Mother, I am ever yours in the dear faith, Dora Greenwood" Dr. Hartland's reply to the letter of Mr. Greenwood was sharp and caustic. Dora had said to him, in that last dreadful interview, " You will love Harry still, and counsel him ; " and now he thought only of this request. For Marion he had no pity; he misjudged her in his bitterness, and he warned his friend of her arts, related to him the story of her marriage, her faithlessness to early vows ; berated Stapleton to his heart's content, but still blamed the wife through all ; cautioning Harry to be on his guard ; not to consider himself heart-proof, but to remember that older and wiser heads than his had succumbed to a pretty woman; assured him that there was no more dangerous confidant for a young, enthusiastic fellow like himself, than an interesting woman who lived unhappily with her husband. Mr. Greenwood was very indignant when he read this letter ; he felt the injustice towards Mrs. Stapleton, was very angry with Ned for accusing her of art ; indeed, but for the good common sense and fidelity to truth, which were strong points of his character, the letter of the Doctor would have had an opposite effect to that which he intended. He threw it from him in great displeasure, but the closing sentence drew his heart back to his right honest friend, when he said, " I counsel you, as a man older and more experienced than yourself, but I counsel you for love, Harry, the love I bear the dead as well as the living, to whom I have promised, under all circumstances, be your friend." A second reading of the letter calmed him, he tried to look at the matter from Ned's stand-point ; the third reading, which he resolulutely made, brought him on his right mind, and caused him to own to the monitor who kept constant watch over the citadel of his heart, that the warning was not without its purpose. Only the previous evening Marion had sought his protection from the face of her husband, who was raving under the influence of the fatal cup, and he had helped her, pitied her, and shielded her, and in return she had overwhelmed him with thanks, and confided to him a portion of her terrible trial ; and the censorious world of Paris, though he knew it not — especially the American portion of it — were already making their comments. It seemed unmanly, almost ungenerous to leave a woman in this unprotected position, so abruptly, too ; but fortunately foi this purpose, he received a second and urgent call to Rouen, which he had once refused, why, he could not well say ; he would reconsider, he would at any rate do right His determination was strengthened when Mrs Stapleton sent for him again that evening, her husband still brutalized and violent. During that interview he told her of the necessity of his departure on account of his business, which would call him home in a few months, and he had already lingered in the capital longer than he at first intended. She clung to him with tearful eyes and throbbing heart, and in utter dismay begged him to tell her what to do. Dr. Hartland was in error about her using her arts to fascinate Mr. Greenwood; whatever her faults, she had not sunk to that. She had a conscience which, though it had not hindered her from wronging her lover, was quite too active as yet to admit a thought unworthy of her as a wife.