VIOLET LISLE; OR A PEARL BEYOND PRICE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 439, 14 February 1912, Page 2

VIOLET LISLE; OR A PEARL BEYOND PRICE.

tili RoGsrvoa

l>y the Author of "All or Nothing," "Two Keys," etc., etc.

PART 5. " I presume you are Mr. Melville r.isle ?" said Lady Darlington, endeavouring in vain to throw into lier manner an air of patronage. The stately, haughty courtesy of her tenant compelled her to a like politeness.

" I am ; pray be seated," and he r.-aved her to a chair. Much as he hated the shabby little parlour, he would not have uttered a word of apology for it. He wished her to understand that the wretched room, with a descendant of the Lisles in it, was all that could

be demanded by the most fastidious. Lady Darlington felt all this, and it angered her that this man instead of being borne down by her presence dared to hold himself, to all appearances even higher than herself. It put her in not the best mood for the conference, and made her perhaps more icy than she would otherwise have been. She felt, in fact, that the individual before her knew her errand, and assumed hSs manner to force her to better terms. It was under this belief that she began, haughtily " I presume you know why I am here, Mr. Lisle ?" " Indeed, Lady Darlington, I am utterly at a loss to understand." His answer was as haughty as her own, and tinged with an exasperating indifference that stung her to add :

" At least you will understand that it is not a visit of pleasure." It was by this time quite plain that Lady Darlington had not come in any amicable spirit, and Melville Lisle was only too ready to believe in a slight to let this go unnoticed : and yet his overweening sense of what was due to himself was too great to permit an overt act of discourtesy to a lady. He could not, however, let this pass.

"It becomes a gentleman to agree with a lady," he said, ironically, but bowing. " There can he no doubt that this is not a visit o? Pleasure." Lady Darlington bit her lip. " You have a daughter—Violet Lisle," she said, abruptly. He merely bowed. "It is of her that I came liere to speak," continued Lady Darlington, determined now to plunge at once into the subject.

Again Melville Lisle bowed. Lady Darlington became exasperated. " I presume you know," she said, " of her relations with my son." Melville Lisle rose from his chair, his face white with anger.

" Lady Darlington, you are speaking of my daughter." It was his proprietary interest in his daughter that was touched —not his daughter, but his dignity ; but Lady Darlington could not appreciate this distinction. She only remembered with angry suddenness that she had been rebuked by her son more than once during her interview with him for speaking lightly of the same Violet Lisle. It was that that made her say :

" I am speaking of the girl who has entangled my son into a promise of marriage." For a moment the fury of the man was almost beyond control ; then he drew himself up proudly and said, with a disdainful quietude : "It would have been well, Lady Darlington to have assured yourself ©f th!e identity of the person of whom you speak. My daughter does not know your son. I trust you will pardon me if I wish you a very good-day."

He bowed with ceremonious slowness, and would have left the room, but Lady Darlington staggered by his quiet assurance that she had made a mistake, hastened to say : " One moment, sir. If I have made a mistake I shall be glad to oSer you an apology." " An apology is quite unnecessary, Lady Darlington, whether you have made a mistake or not. It will be a waste of words to- pursue the matter. Your son has not the honour of my daughter's acquaintance." Again he bowed as though he would bring the interview to a close ; but Lady Darlington would not have it so.

" I beg your pardon, but are you not of the younger fhranch of the Lisles of Granthorpe ?" "lam." No Spanish hidago ever showed a haughtier pride in his ancestry. " An'd is not your daughter named Violet ?" " She is."

" Then, sir, whether jou know it or not, there is an engagement between' your daughter and my son—a marriage engagement.'' Mr. Lisle smiled with a sort of weary disdain. " Upon whose authority do you make such an assertion, Lady Darlington ?" " My son told me of it this morning." " And is your son in his right mind ?" " I never doubted it until morning," was the quick retort. "1 told him at once that such a mesalliance was not to be contemplated for a moment, a&« he answered me that he should marry Violet Lisle." Melville Lisle hardly changed colour, but he answered with cutting deliberation :

" Yoi:r son's dementia has assumed a. singular form, hut you need not be alarmed. If ho should pre-

mesalliance is not to be contemplate a." I nr. 1 . glad that you see it in I'.vafc I'ght, Mr. Lisle." "It would indeed be strange if I .".id net, Lady Lisle. Do you think I can forget, Lady Darlington, that the Lisles were trusted counsellors cf the Norman William, while the I? aldingtons trace themselves only .'rem one Hugh Darling, who, in the seventh Henry's time, rose by dishonourable practices from the baker's shop to tbie peerage, to the scandal of the gentry of that day." Lad / Darlington turned scarlet. She could not deny the truth of what was said to her ; but it seemed the very madness of pride in this tarn which gave him the audacity to say such a thing. She rose from her :iiair with a stately ignoring of what he had said.

" Then I may count on you to aid my efforts to prevent this unfortunate aliair from going any further ?" " You have my assurance, in the first place, that the affair has no existence ; and, in the next, that I would never permit my daughter to contract so damaging a mesalliance." Lady Darlington departed then ; svhereupon Melville Lisle's pent up ivry at once burst forth in an angry summons to Violet. Violet, however, was not at home, and Goody vV'hite, looking very fearful, appeared in her stead. Melville Lisle looked at her with rising anger and suspicion. "Woman !" he said, wrathfully, " you heard what passed between me and Lady Darlington in this parlour " which was quite true, though it made the good creature almost jump out of her skin to be so sudsenly accused. " What do you know of the matter ?"

" Nothing, sir ; not a word, which I would have known if there'd been any truth in it, sir. Leastwise she always has told me, sir, when — It never were her fault, sir —" " We will not discuss that," interrupted Mr. Lisle. " Send Miss Lisle to me when she comes in." CHAPTER IX. PARENTS AND CHILDREN. Very much troubled, in spite of herself, by her interview with Guy, yet very happy withal, Violet returned home that afternoon from the abbey woods. She wished for more time to think it over, and walked round by the village, stopping at a cottage here and there, as her custom was, to say a cheery word tc some inmate. She bad very little but kind words and helpful acts to give, but nc Lady Bountiful was ever received with gladder smiles than she was, and it was always an innocent pleasure to her to know that with al: the narrowness of her life, she was yet able to do some good. And to-day, as she went from one cottage to another, her heart was filled with happiness at the thought that when she was Lady Darlington, she could do many things to brighten the lives that now seemed to have no sunshine in them. But alreadj she herself was sunshine enough. Not to the old and decrepid only, but to the young and strong ; for, as she passed through the village, more than one heart was lightened by a smile from her, and even the children stopped in theii play to look up and greet her.

When she turned into the lane that led to her own cottage, she espied Goody White leaning over the gate, and it seemed to her that there was something of trouble indicated in the attitude ; but she laughed softly, thinking the cake had been overbrowned, or that Speckle, the hen, had taken to eating her eggs, as Goody had long suspected. Then Goody looked up and saw her, and with a furtive look behind, tc see if she was watched, opened the gate and hurried down the lane tc meet her darling. And Violet gailj fell into an old childish habit and ran skipping to meet her. But when they were quite near, and Goody cried out in a woeful tone. " Oh, Miss Vi'let !" she stopped ant? waited. " What is it, Goody ?" " Your father. Oh, he is—" " Not ill, Goody ?" " No, but that ragin'! I never see him like it before, no never. And you, my blessed lamb, the cause o! it ; and you never told me a word!' A sudden consternation seized Violet. " What do you mean, Goody ?" " He's found out all about it every word ; and she's been here too. The Darlingtons, he said, came from a baker man, and she couldn't denj it. And he's that ragin'!" " Who has been here, Goody ? Whc is papa angry about ?" " Lady Darlington ; and he wants to see you at once. Oh, my poor lamb ! Why didn't you tell youi Goody all about it ?" Through the incoherence of the good creature Violet could determine that something was affectins her happiness had taken place at the house that afternoon, and that hei father was angrily awaiting liei coming. It was always easier foi Violet to face a trouble than to avoiel it, and she quickened her stej at once soothing Goody with caresses and kind words. She removed her hat and held if dangling as she entered the library after knocking and being bidden tc enter.

Her father had evidently been pac ing the floor and his face was dart with anger as he turned and lookee iom her dusty boots to her hat hanging by its ribbon from her arm " You wished me to come to you papa ?"

" Where have you been ?" he de □landed, sternly. " In the abbey woods." " Doing what ?" "You are angry with me, papa

rare doing in the abbey woods." " Sketching the abbey—part of the time."

" And the other part ?" Violet flushed at the tone, but answeted, slowly : " Talking- with Lord Darlington." " And may I ask," he said with a fury hardly concealed under an elaborate attempt at irony, " how long you have known Lord Darlington, and what you talk about ? I'm only }>-our father, but I should like to tnow." The little tremor of dismay which Violet had felt at first had passed away now, and sbe found herself wondering at her own calmness. " I have known Lord Darlington a little more than three weeks." " And what is it that you talk d together ?" " Papa," she said, with gentle deprecation, " please do not speak to me in that way ; please do not he angry." " Angry !" he said, " I wonder that I can restrain myself at all. Is it really true, then, that my damrhter has brought such a shame and disgrace upon the name she hears?" " Papa !" she cried in a sort of horror. " How can you say such a thing ? How can you think it ?" " How can I saj it, miserable girl? Is it not true that you have clandestinely met this Lord. Darling! on these three weeks —Heaven knows how often ?"

" It is true, papa," replied Violet, with exquisite dignity ; " and it is also true that I have promised to lie his wife."

" His wife ! His wife you shall never be !" he cried furiously. "Let it pass that you have held your duty to me so lightly that you meet this young man. clandestinely ; that you held your reputation at so cheap a rate. Forget that if you can. But how could you forget what you owe to me —to yourself —in laying yourself open to the charge of inveigling Lord Darlington into a marriage with you ?"

" Who can have said such a thing?" demanded Violet.

" Who can have said it ? Do you know what has happened while you were meeting your lover ?" " I know that Guy's mother has been here."

" Guy ! Use no such familiarity. Yes, Lady Darlington has been here to warn me that, she will not ha'-'c her son marry you ; that she will not permit him to form such a mesalliance. Mesalliance ! do you hear? To me, whose blood was noble live centuries before the beggarly plebein ancestor of the Darlingtons knew his father's name. I tell you, girl, I have suffered such an insult this day as I shall never forget, and all through you, and your lack of proper pride." " I am sorry papa, but I did not mean to deceive you. I met Guy —Lord Darlington accidentally, and loved him. He loved me, told me so, and asked me to be his wife." " His wife ! Well, there is an end of that. I will write to him this very day, and you shall enclose a note releasing him from any engagement he has made with you. It shall never be said that Melville Lisle's daughter obtained a husband by intrigue. Go ! write the note now, and let it be brief and formal!" "But, papa, be does not wish to be released, and I love him." " Not a word. Do as I bid you. It is the only way in which you can recover my respect."

" Papa," said Violet, her face white with emotion, " I cannot write as you bid me. I love Guy, and 1 have promised to be his wife." " You refuse ! Do you dare, to disobey me ?" "I do not wish to disobey you, papa. Oh, papa dear, listen to me for a moment. Do not ask me to wreck mj happiness for life for a mere whim—for the gratification of a foolish pride. Y r ou do not know Guy. If you did, you would gladly accept him as a son. He will win his mother to see as he does, and then we should be so happy." It is unlikely that he would have listened to her anyhow, but after her words about his pride and his whim he was only more furiously angry. " Let us have no more words about it," he said. "Go to your room and do as I bid you. Write that note and never again look at. or speak to him, You shall not —I say you shall not drag the name of Lisle in the mud." " I cannot write that note, pap; l .."

" Go to your room, shameless girl" thundered Melville Lisle ; and \ iolet left him with indignation in her heart.

Rendered even the more furious by the opposition of the daughter of whose hidden strength of character he had no conception, Melville Lisle sat down at his desk determined to write a letter to Lord Darlington that should at once and for ever disabuse his mind of the thought that Violet could ever be his wife.

It was not easy to be satisfied ; for before everything he was determined to put his own pride and dignity ; and however angry he murht be with Violet and Good;*. lie could not permit a descendant of the Lisles; to do an act that could ever be called in question.

So he wrote and tore up sheet after sheet, as lacking in one or more of the essentials to a letter from Melville Lisle, until at. last he had produced an epistle which be believed might be put to any test and conic forth triumphant. In all his vaii: fretting there had not come once into his mind a thought of the happiness of his daughter. It was aU Melville Lisle. (To be continued.)