VIOLET LISLE; 0R, A PEARL BEYOND PRICE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 442, 24 February 1912, Page 2

VIOLET LISLE; OR, A PEARL BEYOND PRICE.

AH Rights Reserved.-

By the Author of "All or Nothing," "Two Keys," etc., etc.

PART 8. CHAPTER XII. PUT TO THE TEST. It was the surpassing beauty ct the young creature that stood before him that first struck Lord Goldenham ; but as he looked at her he became conscious of the patrician refinement of her features and the unstudied dignity of her manner, and it occurred to him as a revelation that here was a fitting wife for the high2st peer in the realm. And so great was the charm and winsomeness oi her fair, innocent young face, lighted up as it then was by an expression of wondering inquiry that even the callous heart was touched and he felt —as the hunter often feels when the unsuspicious fawn looks up at tiim from the dead mother's side as if he could not carry out what he atid come to do. But as the hunter steels his heart and plunges h s knife into the side of his quarry, so lid the man of the world set himself to his task. If he had been disinterested he might have brought himself to let scatters continue as they had begun ; but there was too much at stake to Let him pause, and he studied Violet as he would have done a book to decide how best to accomplish his object. " Did you speak to me, sir?" askViolet, in her softly-modulated voice. "If you are Miss Violet Lisle, yes." " That is my'name." " I suppose," said Lord Coldenham with his ordinary courtesy, " It will be best for me to speak frankly to you, Miss Lisle." A frightened expression sprang into Violet's blue eyes and her cheek paled. " Nothing has happened to —" She stopped and looked piteously at him. "To Lord Darlington ?" he said, gently, for it was not in his nature to be unnecessarily cruel to this fair flower. " No ; he is well. But I do not come from Guy ; I came for him." "For him?" repeated Violet wenderingly. " Yes, for him and for you." " I do not understand you, sir; and " she hesitated, for fear of giving offence — " and neither do I know you." " Pardon me for forgetting," he said in his most courteous manner. " I am the Marquis of Coldenham. You may h a ve heard Lord Darlington speak of me." " Oh, yes ; Guy has often spoken of you and of your lordship's daughter, the Lady Sibyl," she answered smiling sweetly, but with a faint frown that denoted she was puzzled. Lord Coldenham bit his lip. How much had Guy said of Sibyl ? Did the girl know that his daughter had been | passed for her ? Certainly there was nothing to indicate such a knowledge in her expression and he could see that she was altogether too guileless to be dealing in innuendo. " Can you not guess ?" he asked, after an imperceptible pause, " why I am here ?" "No sir." '* I have come to ask sou to help me to save Guy." " To save Guy ?" " Yes, my dear young lady, to save him from himself." She looked at him with wide-open Byes into which the pitiful look of fear had crept again. " I do not understand you, my lord," she said, slowly, shaking her aead.

" I might have said to save you. too, for if this marriage takes place you will suffer as well as he." A softly spoken " I do not understand you, my lord," issued from her lips, and she drew herself up with a pride that reminded the marpis of her father. "You will understand me when I say that if he marries you it will be his ruin." " Yes, I understand you, and I must ask you to discuss this with Lord Darlington," she said, with a auiet dignity. " I hope you will sxcuse me if I leave you. Guy will be here presently." She "bowed and would have withdrawn but he stopped her. " I beg of you not to go until you Dave heard me. It is to you, not to Guy that I must appeal. Guy would not listen to me—he would not listen to nis mother, who now Lies ill because of an act of his." "11l ["repeated Violet in a low :one. " Yes, ill ; and I fear it will kill aer if this marriage takes place. Put yourself in her place." " In her place ! I think I should svish him to marrj where he loved, and was loved. I think when she knows how I love Guy she will b< satisfied. Guy says so." The manner in which these three Little words were uttered told the astute man the strengtLi of her devotion to Guy. " Guy says so," lie repeated witli a sad smile. " Guy is self-blinded She will never accept you as his wife and it will kill her." " It does not seem possible ; and Guy says she will learn to love me. Don't you think when she comes tc know me, and to feel that I do love Guy that she will relent?" She looked at bim so pleadingly that his heart almost betrayed him ■JaaalL—man as he was ; but he fell,

" Yes," he said, " and Guy loves you, I can believe that ; but has he not told you that he will be disinherited by his mother ? He has nothing, or next to nothing of his own—-not enough to support his title -and he is dependent on his mother's fortune." A faint little smile flitted over Violet's face.

" We do not care for money. That is nothing. We love each other." ." Speak for yourself, my dear young lady," said Lord Coldenham with such an assumption of deep sadness as would have done credit to any actor; " but do not think you can judge Guy Darlington. Remember he has never known anything but affluence. For a while he will not care ; but bv-and-by he will long for many luxuries to which he has been accustomed, and what can you do then ?"

" Love him," answered the girl, with a simplicity that was divine.

" And he will —hate you," said I Lord Coldenham solemnly. I " Oh, no, no, no!" cried Violet, vehemently. " Yes," said the man of iron, "he svill remember the mother he lost through you, and the money which ivould have been his. Do you think, in your innocence, that he will be indifferent to these things because he has you ? Remember your own father ; and see how privation has soured and made him sad and discontented ; and yet I do not doubt that the time was when he was as bright and as gay, yes, and as handsome as Guy." The poor child listened to him with a growing fear that what he said might be true. She could not understand it, could not believe it ; but there was a sort of inexorable logic in what the marquis said, that appealed to her in a way she could not escape. " What shall I do ?" she moaned. " Think, too, of his mother—"broken hearted, dying perhaps. Can you believe any happiness will follow a marriage that will cause such misery." *' Oh, stop ! in mercy, stop ! How can I give Guy up when I love him so ? How can I ? How can I?" " Ah," said Lord Coldenham shaking his head, " better to give him up now, than to suffer the pangs by-and by of knowing that you have ruined his life. Think of it. With a wife suited to him, by wealth as well as birth and education, what is there that he cannot accomplish ? What is there that he will not accomplish ? He is gifted, and he is ambitious and he may take a foremost place in the affairs of his country if the chance be open to him ; but bind him to inaction by an injudicious marriage, and all the avenues to his ambition will be closed ; instead of happiness there will be nothing for him but misery and discontent." " But I will help him, encourage him," pleaded Violet. " Would it help him to impoverish him ? Would it help to alienate him from the friends that would help him ? Would it help to turn him into a soured, discontented man ?" Violet clasped her hands and looki ed piteously at her tormentor but she did not speak and he went on. " Are you," said Lord Coldenham, " seeking his happiness or your own?'' "His, his !" she murmured. " Or is it true," he went on as if she had not answered him, " that you are marrying him for his station and the wealth you know will be his." "No one could believe that," she said, looking at him with strained eyes. "No one !" he repeated. "Every one will believe it, and in time he will come to believe it, too. He will look back upon what he might have been but for you, and he will come to think that you cared only for your worldly advantage in marrying faim." " Guy would never think that," she said with a melancholy smile. " You do not know what a man will think when he sees the bright hopes of his youthful ambition wrecked by a woman's selfish ambition. Remember, you will bring him nothing but beauty, which will soon wither under the misery of your life, and you make him forfeit his mother's favour —perhaps for life — the means of living as he always has lived, and the opportunity of gratifying the ambition which a man oi his abilities must have."

He spokje with an earnestness that was genuine enough, for it was inspired by the fear that Guy would come in at any moment ; but she could not sound the depths of his cruel nature, and she was deeply affected. "If I thought that—" she said it a strained voice. " Mj poor child," he said with £ kindness that was not all affected. " It gives me pain to tell you thesf things, but it is for your good though I will frankly confess thai until I saw you I thought only o Guy. I believed, as his mother believes, as everyone will believe, thai you have entrapped him into a marriage. And probably the day wil come, when he, too, will think so. " He never will, never !" sobbed Violet. " Then," said Lord Coldenham. " you will not give him up ? 01 will persist, in killing his mother, ii ruining Iris life —all —that you mas gratify an. ambition to be Lady Darlington ? ?I thought when I saw yen that you would be one to think o his happiness "before your own. see I "was mistaken. Let me appea in another way, Release him an< Lady Darrlington will give you fiv< thousand pounds. Surely that wil be compensation enough ?" Violet's eye? flashed through hei she waved her hand , bul

" Then let it be ten tbo:i pounds," he said. " Oh, Guy," she moaned, " wh • do you not come ?" " And this is your love 1h? marqtuis added, half contemptuous-.!y. " You are bartering Ms happiner:; against a larger sum than I have offered you. What, then, is youi price ?" " Oh, Heaven guide me " waile;l Violet as if unconscious of the other's presence. " What shall Ido ? what shall I do ?" " Come," he said, harshly, " name your price." " Forbear your insults, my lord, she answered with a sudden calmness. " I do not know whether you are right or wrong ; but I remember that Guy said he could give me uu for my happiness, and can do as much for him." Then her calmness gave way and she broke down, burying her face in ber hands, and sobbed piteously a child might have done ; but th? woman in her nature was developing in her agony and the misery of her trial. Presently she checked her sobs and with a sad, pitiful composure, said :

"I do not know why Guy's mother should hate me so ; but I will do ?hat she wishes me for his sake." " She does not hate you, and I pity you from—" " Spare me your pity," she interrupted with a certain sad scorn that echoed in his heart through many a remorseful day. " The victim does not look to the executioner for anything but the mercy of haste. Tell me what I must do, and let mc go before Guy shall come and melt my resolution with his generous love. Oh, Guy, will you ever know the love that made me do this ?" It seemed even to Lord Coldenham that he no longer had to deal with the child of a brief time back. But he had no time to waste in such thoughts, and with a quickness that showed he had pre-arranged his plans he answered : . " Without a final word from you, Darlington will not, believe that you have left him." " I am glad," she said, sadly, " that you are willing to admit that much. What shall Ido ?" " Write him a note, leaving it here to him." " What shall I say ?." " You must write something that will turn him from you," he replied with a furtive look at her. " Say that you have learned that he will forfeit his mother's wealth, and that without that you cannot marry "No !" she said, indignantly, " that would be infamous and untrue !" "It would prove you to be in earnest," was the answer. " Oh, Heaven," cried the tortured girl, "is there no way to his happiness but through my misery ? Must I lose him, and the only joy else in the world that I care for—his love ?" '* If you seek his happiness, you will not quarrel with the means to the end." " Oh," she cried, as if it had been forced from her torn heart, " have yocl no pity ? I will not write that infamous lie ! "Write it if you will, and I will put my name to it, and I pray Heaven it will not wreck his life. I cannot see. my way—all is darkness to me " and she covered her face with her little hands. Lord Coldenham waited for no further permission, but sat. down at a table on which were pen. ink, and paper and began writing ; but his pen had hardly touched the paper when he heard a foot on the stairs, and then a pause, ami voices. He looked quickly up and saw Violet listening with, an eager expression on her face. " That may be Lord Darlington," he said, quickly. "It is Guy !" she said, with a ring of joy in her voice. " Remember your promise," he said " Here ! I have not time to write. Sign your name at the bottom of this sheet and I will fill in the letter.' ' She hesitated, and there was a wild look of hope in her eyes. " Think of Guy and his happiness ! Forget yourself !" he said, desperately. " Sign this quickH, and when he comes be true to your promise!" He had hardly hoped to effect anything by his appeal, but. a sudden lcok of despair chased every other from the beautiful face, and she sat in thi? cha.ir she had vacated, and signed her name, breathing a prayer at the same moment,, as he could see by the convulsive movement, of her pale lips. " You will be brave," he said to her. "He will not believe me ; You must tell him that you will not marry him. Think of him ! think of his mother!" " No, I cannot meet him- -l will go away. Yon must deal this blow. I love him —love him raid I cannot give him up ! Let me go." She. took a step towards the d<»ii but recoiled when she lrard hi:buoyant step on the stairs. Sir staggered back a pace and murmured: " He is coming with love and li i;> piness in his heart, and T nui: 1 ; »•> him. Oh, Heaven ! What have "> done that this should fall to meV Lord Coldenham was pale, but hv lips were set. He had hoped In accomplish his mission before the coming of Guy. He had wish to meet the young man ; but, with sr much at stake he could not shirk tin encounter. (To be Continued.)

"My husband," said the pale woman, "is to-day beneath the cold cold waves." Deeply touched, the benevolent gentleman paid ss. for an ornament, in did not want. "Yes," she continued, when the money was safely tucked into hei • "he is stoking on a new sub-