VIOLET LISLE; OR, A PEARL BEYOND PRICE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 438, 10 February 1912, Page 2

VIOLET LISLE; OR, A PEARL BEYOND PRICE.

AH RigMs ftestnretf.

* £l9 the Author of "All or Nothing," "Two Keys," etc., etc.

PART 4. She looked up with a startled air " Give you up, Guy ? Ido not understand."

" Do not look so frightened, love," he said, sinking down before her or cnc knee, that they might be nearer. " I would not give you up—no, not for anything this world had to offer ; but I have been wondering what you would do X your father should say that you must not marry me. What would you do in such a case?"

Sho looked serious for a moment, and then, with a smile of confidence almost divine —to 4 him it was dii"ine —she said :

" I had never thought of it, Guy ; hut I know what I should do —I should tell you and ask you to decido :cr me."

" And you believe that I am wise aaough, and true enough, and brave snough to decide for you as will be best for you—leaving myself out of the question ?" She put her hand in his and look•d with angel trustfulness into his 2yes.

" I believe that you are all these things, Guj. I know that you would do as I would do —sacrifice yourself to my happiness." " Yes, Violet," lie answered, his /oice shaking with emotion. "I do lot believe that I value your happiness so much above my own that I sould decide unselfishly. And yet I love you so —I did not know — Pray Heaven I shall decide as is best for rou." There was an earnestness now in ais manner that troubled her, and she asked with a tremor in her voice :

" Has anything happened, Guy?" " Yes, my dear love, the most unexpected thing has happened. At first I thought I would not speak of it to you, and then I felt that it would be wrong to conceal from you sven what might ma&e you unhappy. Was I right ?" " Assuredly, Guy. It seems to me that you could not do wrong. What has happened ? You do not seem much troubled."

" No, I am not ; but I fear you will see more of importance in it than there truly is." " Tell me and she amiled as one who is not afraid.

"My mother forbids me to marry

you." " Forbids you ! Oh, Guy!" and tier face suddenly blanched, " Yes, she forbids me ; but why do you look so frightened, my darling ? You did not seem sc? greatly troubled at the thought of your father's displeasure." She paused a moment as if doubtful of herself, and then said r

" That was different. I know my father, and I am sure that, even if he should for any reason say no, he would forgive Lady anything. Do you understand, what I mean ? He is so strong in his pride of blood that while he would fctrgive nothing to my love for .you, he would forgive anything to your title. Is it wrong of me to speak so Df my father ?"

" I think not, Violet. And what you say of your father I cam say with a difference of my mother. She does not know you, and she witll not know you. I know her that well. As long as you are "Violet Lis&a she will refuse to see you ; but when' she unows that you are my wife, .and that she is powerless to have it Dtherwise, she will yield and. ttfcc you to her heart." " Are you sure, Guy?" " As sure as that I live." *' Why should she forbide you to marry me ?"

" Her heart is set on another alliance for me —one that will unite my coronet with great wealth."'

" Pet haps she will never forgive me for standing between her and her will."

" When she knows you she will lovq

" But how will jou bring us to since she refuses to see uie?"

" She refuses to see Violet Xiiste. 3he will not refuse to see Lady Dar-

lington."

Guy spoke in a low tone an.cs took Doth of Violet's hands in his as he said this. For a moment she -did not comprehend ; then a deep flush., suffus--5d her face, anQ she rather gasped than said '

" Oh, Guy !" " Does it startle you, darling- ?" " Oh, Guy, Guy ! it seems Ix me that I could i never do that."

" Does it shock you so much '? It is the only thing I can think of. i v e :annot go to your father and sa> that we wish his consent, and thav my mother refuses hers. You mow that he would then fa?.'bide yc.' tc have anything more to do with roe. My mother would not "yield. What shall we do then ? I will not asfc you to consent to a ' runaway marriage if it makes you . feel unhappy ; but I despair of any ot her plan." " It seems so unmai< lenly a thin? to do," she said, tremi ilously. " Yes, if it could be accomplished in any other way ; I ut I will nol urge it, darling. It si lall he as yoi will."

" How good, how nni selfish you art to me, Guy ! Fernaps 5 I am wron< to feel as I do Tell me how yoi mean to arrange it, i md I will trj and accustom myself to the idea." "You shall not foi 'ce yourself t< agree with me, my dei *r one." She smiled lovingly i it him. " Already it seems less to me,' sho qa-i.d. hi'avclv. " A new though

you. have planned it, for I know ir your own mind you have carried if ill out."

CHAPTER VII. LADY DARLINGTON'S PLANNING

The shocks to Lady Darlington o! Guy's determined stand against hex authority was so great that although -ihe would not permit herself to believe that he would or could hold out she could not for some time recover sufficiently to thinb of the matter calmly.

She saw Guy ride away and knew that he was going to see Violet Lisle. His message that he was going to Houghton did not deceive her, but it roused her to action. It was riuite evident that Miss Lisle had a strong influence over Guy, and for the first time a feeling of alarm mingled with her other emotions. Suppose the girl should persuade him tc marry her ! The thought was a poignant one to the haughty aristocrat, who could see in Violet only a designing person alliance with whom would be degradation for the Earl of Darlington. She was not a hard woman in the Drdinary affairs of life. She was aaughty and proud, but kindly and ;onsiderate towards her inferiors and always ready and glad to do a deed of kindness.

Now, however, she felt towards the unknown girl who had come betweeD her and her son, a bitterness and anger that would have enabled her to crush her remorselessly to the dust under her feet. But what should ihe do ? It was a question she was powerless to answer, and after an notir or more of futile struggle with the vexing problem, she suddenly rang the bell. " If Lord Coldenham is in the castle," she said to her maid who answered, " ask him to be good enough to join me in the drawing-room." The Marquis of Coldenham was a good type of the English nobleman. He had a fine presence, a faultless manner, a face as calm and emotionless as that of a marble statue and was dressed in perfect accordance with the prevailing fashion. He was curious now to know why Lady Darlington had sent for him ; yet that ar:d every other feeling was carefully hidden under an elaborate courtesj of manner.

" I wish to consult with you, Lord Coldenham," said Lady Darlington, with an absence of convention that proved to him at once how much disturbed she was.

"It is an honour, Lady Darlington," he replied with a low bow. " I have taken the liberty," she went on, " as much that you are an old and tried friend as because you are the father of the young lady whom I hoped to see my son marry." Lord Coldenham was instantly full of anxious attention. This was a matter that touched him more closely than even her ladyship imagined ; but his manner never lost its refined courtesy. " Whatever service I can be tc you, Lady Darlington," he replied, " will be an obligation laid upon me."

" You are kind to say so. 1 spoke to Guy to-day of Lady Sibyl."

"Yes?" and the tone was perfectly unconcerned ; but there was a sudden light in the eyes of the man that told of an interest he did not wish to betray.

" Yes, and he told me that he was entangled with some adventuress."

" Not already married," exclaimed the marquis, with rather more quickness, than comported with his usual repose of manner.

" No—oh, no, but determined tc marry her. It is the first time he has ever refused to listen to me and it shows that the woman has gained a strong influence over him." The marquis smiled. He had a supreme contempt for Guy whosf ;haracter was incomprehensible to him.

" If he is not already married and you know the person, there is nc need for distress," he said.

"Do you think so ?" said Lady Darlington, with a sigh of relief; for the worldly wisdom of the marquis was ft thing that even she must bow to. "I know the girl—at least I know who she is. Her name is Violet Lisle, and she live 9 in the villagf with her father, who belongs to a rounder branch of the Lisles oI Iranthorpe." " Poor ?"

" Wretchedly poor, to judge from rvhat Guy says. He could not realise it ; hut it was immediately evident to me that it was his money and title which had attracted her. " Does the father know ?"

" I suppose so. I have no doubt le is fostering the infatuation of poor Guy."

" And you wish my advice ?" "If you will be good enough t< give it to me. I should have askec it even had not the marriage of oui children been involved." "It seems to me quite simple, Ladj Darlington. I agree with you tha< it is Guj's money these people can for more than anything else. It seem; to me the best plan would be to g< to the father and ask him frankl? how much he will take to induce hi: daughter to set Lord Darlingtoi free."

"I had thought of that ; but if let him think he has much power, h may endeavour to extort almost an; sum of money."

"Not if you first tell him that Gu; is dependent on you in a great mea sure for his future." "That is true. And you think ought to go in person ?"

"It would he the most effectua plan. Of course, I should be perfect ly willing to wait upon him from you but, you see, he is a tenant of yours and, no doubt, will be more over awed by you than by any emiesar you could send. You might, indeec request him to come to you ; but ia£lins_ts_ the idea tbat i

would be better for you to call on him." This advice agreed so well wit.V Lady Darlington's own feelings !.!n! she accepted it without a moment hesitation. "You are right. I will go t.i this man this afternoon ; for I shall he uneasy until I have freed Guv from his entanglement. You car imagine, Lord Coldenham, how determined he is when I tell you lh-it in the face of my direct command to him to relinquish this girl he told me that nothing should prevent hi? marriage." "Is she beautiful ?" asked the marquis. " Guy speaks of her as if she were something wonderful. But the poor boy is so infatuated that it would not surprise me to find h>?r th° reverse of beautiful. But it shall he inded at once, and then he and Sibyl can be married at. as early a date as possible. Do you not agree with me ?"

" Entirely," answered the marc, hip. The conference ended with some further desultory conversation, and that afternoon Lady Darlincton ordered her carriage and was driven over to the village, feeling quite at sase with herself. She had no premonition of the reception she would receive from Melville Lisle, a m : \n whose life of poverty had so accentuated his pride that it had become the great feature of his otherwise monotonous existence.

CHAPTER VIII. TWO ARISTOCRATS. Looking at Melville Lisle, it v.-,as-easy to see where Violet .cot h~r beauty ; bvit the same glance wo'il.l also betray the fact that, it was not from her father she got her sweet nature ; for cn his face was the expression of angry, discontents:l pride, drawing down the corners nf a well-cut mouth, and lengthening the curve of the nostrils.

Too proud to do anything manual to lighten his poverty, he yet had a brain too active to he content with sloth, and so he had long since turned his thoughts to literature as a field in which he might without disgrace exercise his faculties. Nothing so frivolous as a tale of love ever came from his pen, however. It was a thing he could not understand, nor could he tolerate it as a factor in a properly-regulated life. His groat work was a disquisition on the correlation and conservation of forces—a work that would doubtless have created a revolution in the th night of the world if it had ever found a publisher, which, for some reason, it never did.

The cottage where he dwelt was a small one, but if it had been half the size it would have found one room for his library, if Violet and Goody White had slept on the roof. Melville Lisle's books were for the most part a portion of the overflow from the library of Granthorpe, which had been given to his father by the then earl, and which typified to Melville Lisle the aristocratic pretensions tc which he clung as to the most precious thing of his life. He was sitting in his library, as he called it, adding a thought- or two to a new work on " diaphragmatic propulsion of impalpable particles," when Goody White in a tremor of intense excitement, burst intr the sacred room without the customary knock of respectful deprecation.

" Oh, Mr. Lisle !" she gasped. "MiLisle !"

" What is the meaning of thiu intrusion ?" demanded Mr. Lisle, with a coldness that should have had iU' effect on Goody, but in this ease, did not.

" Lady Darlington, sir," whispered Goody, shaking her two hands at him in a most impressive maimer

" What about Lady Darlington ?" demanded Mr. Lisle, haughtily.

"In the parlour she is, sir, and her carriage is waitin' outside. An' she asked for jou, sir. I was that dumbfounded, sir, when I see who it were, to be sure —" " That will do." interrupted Mr. Lisle, with dignity. " Tell LathDarlington that I will join her immediately."

And Goody White retired, marvelling at the composure with which her master could receive so startling nr. event.

It would not be true to say that Mr. Lisle was unmoved by the announcement that Lady Darlin'.rtm had come to visit him at his humble cottage—" hovel " as he called itbut he had cultivated an aristocratic repose of manner too long to 1 e 1 e trayed into any expression of feoli n n even when brought into unexpected contact with such intelligence.

He changed his dilapidated smokiiu jacket for his coat, and put hims.'i into as good a trim as lay in h.■ power with the wretched menus al his command. Then, with the aii of an aristocrat to the manner born he entered the little parlour, was pretty and sweet with the re Bnements bestowed upon it by \i" let, but which to him looked especially mean and poverty-stricken no-a as he made a contrast, between il and the richly-clad lady who s.il there waiting for him.

But if he felt the poorness of tlx little room, he did not betray tli ; feeling, but, rather, the higluv mounted his pride, and he bore him self with such an air as the Karl o Granthorpe might have done in hi: drawing-room at the castle. Lad; Darlington was fain to rise to retun his stately salutation, whereas slv had intended to intimate to him thi difference in their positions by re maining seated.

" Lady Darlington does me a grea honour," remarked Melville Lisle but said it with an air of confer ring rather than receiving an hon our - .i « . « (To be continued.}