NOVEL

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 412, 7 April 1904, Page 2

NOVEL

(Continued.) She sank back into hex corner of the carriage with a miserable sense of disappointment, yet is a few minutes the brave girl was reasoning with herself against this feeling. The Weltons were rich people; cffen of help meant something from them—of course Herbert must be quite as sorry for her as Ted Welton was. but he had not the power to iffer any practical help. Possibly that was one of the chief causes of his gloom—that others might be of use to her father, but not himself. She strove to console herself with this reflection. It was not many days later that the blow fell upon her. The house of Boss and Co. was bankrupt, and at first it seemed likely that Mr Boss would be absolutely a beggar. Later on it was fouad that there wu still a modest competence left for him out of the wreck of his fortunes, these were some settlements and investments which were safe from the claims of the creditors, and which were smmment to secure him, his wife, and daughter from destitution; yet in the first week of the craeh even this mitigation of the situation was not apparent. The daily papers were full of the great smash, and from them it appeared that the man who had been believed to be a millionaire had not a shilling left in the world; and it was linriag the** f£s£ dajs cf panic and Mary's great trouble fell Tlii|aatiiii"iijiiili ber a letter from Doisat* abire which with a cruel and heartless plainness put £u end at once and for ever to al| the illomoss of her love. It was as answer to a Utter she had written to Captain Bawls—* letter breathing of love and trust, sxd full of pluck and confidence in tbe man she loved. 'lt I am poor in all else,* she had written, ' I am, at any rate, rich in one thing—that I possess your love. 1 am net afraid of poverty with you by my side. I have a good musical education 1 it will' serve me in good stead now. I intend to give music lessons. Already I have been promised two pupils, Mrs. Hartley's little girls, and no doubt more -will come. Papa thinks Mr Welton will be able to get jcu something to do in the city, sad don't you think we had better wait a year or two, dearest Herbert f It will be wise, I am sure, to postpone our wedding. Meanwhile we can both work, and meet often, and be true to one * another, aad the time will pass quickly . enough. Oh, after all, dearest, what does * sapmey matter, as you have often said to St, if we love each other truly 1* tbea, after two days, there came 1 Captain Bawle's reply : ' Bear Mary,—At the risk of giving you pain it is better that I should be perfectly fia:k with yea. It is quite out of the question that our engagement can conbaas. I am too poor a man to venture upm matsimoay under the sadly altered eircuniatances, and 1 am totally unfitted for wcrk of the kind to which you allude, area if a situation were already awaiting me in the city. I have no business capacities, aad I have, moreover, a very strong disinclination to venture upon wl at is called ? love in a cottage.' It is much better for us both to face the facts atd to accept them. Cur marriage cannot possibly take place, eith-r now or in a few

years t inn. I should not think it right to tie you doirn to a long engagement, exd to 1 ell you the truth I should be very ' acixj to pledge myself to anything of the kird. It ia much wiser to wish each other farawell at once and for ever. I ■hall slwajs remain jcur true and sincere friend, and ratain a grateful recollection of joar affection and your many kind- £■*«•»« to me.—T(.urs sincerely, Herbert yßiwta.* .. * Mary Uoea waa very ill indeed after the receipt cf th*c letter. For days she was -del&iov*. life waa in danger. The lcse Of her money had left her brave and on touched, but the loss of her lore brtogkt her to the point of death. Afhcgth, youth and a naturally good constiiotloa palled her throngn the fever, 'Bad el e came back slowly to her maimed and altertd life- Acd aimott the first newt that had to be broken to her when the waa sticsg enough to bear it, was the news of Captain Herbert Hawk's marriage to Mrs Txelawney! He had gone afcftet quickly enough to his first love, and ia the desperate atate of hie affaire had been- fain to content himself wife her hundreds in the place of Mary's vanished thonsandi. B When hey health %*a restored Mary '-■. • ■ -■■

PUBLISHED BT SPECIAL ABBANGEMENT. MARY'S FIRST LOVE,

BT Mrs Lovett Cameron

COPTBiaHT

took op the burden of her life again unrepiaingly and bravely. Her parents went to live at Hampatead, in an oldfashioned house surrounded by a large pleasant garden, and here for many 3 ears Mary was the light and life of the simple home life. Mr Boes had began tbe world again, and went daily into the City. Mrs Boss looked after the housekeeping and the cookery, and superintended the domestic arrangements of the small establishment, and Vary gave music lessons to several little pupils in the neighbourhood, and made aad altered her own _ and her mother's dresses in the evenings, For a long, long time she ctrried about a very sore heart, and ceased to believe in men or in love at all. let there is no evil under the sun for which Time has not a remedy, and when six years had come and gone, and Ted Welton asked her for the third time whether she would not change her mind and marry him, Mary consented in the end to reward his faithful love and to become his wife. • tfou know, Ted, that I can nt v-r 1-vo you in the way that ysu deserve to be loved,' she said, with tears in her eyes, as she laid her hand in his. 'I am very fond of you, for you are very good and kind to me. but I can rever feel for you as I did for him. It is not in me any more, I suppose 1' ' I know, Mary, dear. I quite understand, and i will expect no more from yon than you can freely give me,' answered Ted, as he lifted her h»ad reverently to his lips.

Mary is a happy wife and mother today, and the Weltons are quite a model couple. Yet for all that, the memory of that first love and of its disastrous termination has left deep scars upon Mary's heart and character, which she will carry with her down to her grave. . (The End.;