VIOLET LISLIE; OR, A PEARL BEYOND PRICE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 452, 30 March 1912, Page 2

VIOLET LISLIE; OR, A PEARL BEYOND PRICE.

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By the Author of "All or Nothing." "Two Keys," etc., etc. PART 18. George called a cab and in a short time they were admitted into Lady Westall's house. George sent his card up and received in retarn a message from her ladyship that she would see him. " I'll go up first," he said fco Lord Coldenham, "and -will prepare the young lady for your coming." " Don't say who it is that wishes to see her," said Lord Coldenham. " All right." And the chorus master ascended to tho room where Lady Westall and Violet were chatting together. "Well," said Lady Westall, in her firis't way, "what now, George?" " A gentleman has been to the theatre inquiring for a young ladj who answers to "the description of Miss Marsdcn here." Violet caught Lady Westall's hand with a gesture of alarm. "Don't be worried, my dear. Come George, don't be mysterious. What iid you tell the man ?" " I told him she was here." " Oh !" cried Violet in dismay, •' why did you say that ?" '* Hush, dear ! Don't alarm her, George. Why did you tell him she was here ?" " Because I recognised the man. It was Lord Coldenham." " Lord Coldengam ?" and Lady Westall arose to her feet with a superb air of anger. " Lord Coldenham,"' repeated Violet with a shudder in. her voice ; for the name recalled t;he agony of her sacrifice. " What do you know of him child?" Jemanded Lady Westall so vehemently that Violet shrank from her in iismay. " It was he who persuaded me to renounce my —my lover," she whispered. " He ? he ?"- said Lady Westall. '* Oh. the wretch ! what villainy is ae plotting now? Why did you tell him where she was, George ? You fcnew him. Why did you do it ?" " He had already bribed the doorkeeper, and 'I was afraid to refuse aim the information lest he should and out where the young lady was, and do her harm before we could prevent it ;■ but letting him know, and then keeping him under my eye—" " I see, I see. And where is he QOW ?" " Downstairs, waiting to see the young lady." Violet wrung her hands at the thought of having her recent wounds torn open agaJfn, as she saw would be done if she met Lord Coldenham. Then came the- sudden hope that he might be the -bearer of good news. What if Lady DarMngton had relentid ? What if she had sent Lord Coldenham to restore her to Guy ? She ceased wringing her hands and looked at Lady Westall. "Perhaps he comes with good news." " Lord Coldenham ? Never. He :omes to plunge you deeper into distress. Let me thin'k ! Ah, yes. i r ou are wise, George, and as kind is ever. You must see him, Miss Marsden. He shall be brought here and I will wait in the next room where I can hear everything that is said. I shall hear, perhaps, some things that you do not wish me to iear ; but you may trust me. Lord Coldenham you cannot trust, and if [ am to help you I must try to earn his secret ; for. depend upon it, ny child, he has a secret interest in separating you from your lover. Let him come up, George. Compose yourself, Miss Marsden. You need ;ay very little. He will do the talking. Go, Georg®." George left the room and Lady iVestall remained there only long jnoush to reassure Violet. Presently Lord Coldenham was ushered in by George, who immediate.y retired, leaving the nobleman face :o face with his victim. Violet looked at him eagerly, to see if she could discover any ground, lor hope in his face, and perceiving oone, let her hands fall despairingly in her lap and waited for him to speak, " My dear young lady," he said, pityingly, "you cannot knvow how rejoiced I am to find you again." "Why shbuld \ou be?" she asked sadly. " Why shonld. I be ? How can you as 17 that ? As soon as I letrncd that your father had refused you the shelter of his roof, and that you had gone to London in company with Mr. Jenkins, the clergyman, I m,vle it my duty to seek you, in orccr that I might offer my services to assist you in any way that might lie in my power." " You are very kind," answered Violet, gracefully ; " but 50U can dc nothing. I am in the hands of friends and I need no assistance. Dc what you can to clear the pood name of Mr. Jenkins from the odium thai has been cast upon it through hLkindness in escorting me to London. and please forget me. The past if dead —I wish it to be dead, and tin greatest kindness you can do me if to forget that I ever existed." "For Lord Darlington's sake '. would like to be of some assistance to you." Violet trembled at the name of hci lost lover, and pressed her hand tc her bosom as if to repress its heav ing. " Guy I" she faltered ; " Guy Tell me of him. How did he—die he —" " I know what you would say," in terrupted the hypocritical nobleman " How did he i act when he knew hi

had lost you ? He wan furious, at first, and did all he ;ould to find you ; but you will rejoice to know that he is reconciled lo it at last, and has Rone abroad for a time. When he returns, he will carry out liis mother's wishes in .egard to his marriage." Violet clasped her hands tightly together, but did not speak for a moment. Then she said slowly, and )i h an effort : " He is reconciled because, he beieves me unworthy. But I know — .~>h, I know —he did and does love me. But leave me, my lord. Why do yo i come here to torture me with recollections of what I have given ip ? Will you not let the Violet Lisle who was so happy in the past he dead ? I shall never trouble you or Lord Darlington, or any one who have ever known me. My father has disowned me, and driven me from his :loor, and it is my right to pass away from the knowledge of every one that ever knew me as Violet Lisle." "Far be it from me," answered Lord Coldenham, " to wish to do anything contrary to your wishes or your welfare. I only ask the opportunity to assist you. If you will let me do nothing else, at least let me advise you. What do you propose L .o do in the future ?" "It is better that you should not mow." "I understand you,'' he answered, kindly ; " but remember that you are so young and so innocent of the ways of the world —alas ! —all too wicked —and that you are in sore danger of wrecking a life that is full of promise. Who are these friends who offer you help so opportunely ? Are they old friends or new ones ? New ones, I must think, since you say you put all old friends into a past that must be dead." " They are friends that I can trust and that must suffice for an answer," replied Violet. " Pardon me," he said, in the same gentle and fatherly tone that he had adopted from the cammencement : " I do not doubt that they are all that you say ; but when I find that they are connected with the chorus of a theatre, how can I do otherwise than question you ? I will readily promise never to interfere with your life, never to reveal even that you live ; but will you not permit me as an old man and a true friend, to ?uard you against wrong ?" " A wolf is but a poor guardian for a lamb, Lord Coldenham," said a third voice, suddenly. Lord Coldenham turned quickly to where Lady Westall stood, superb and scornful. Violet had forgotten her, and she, too, turned a startled glance on her protectress. "I think you know me, my lord," said Lady Westall ; " and I do hesitate to say that you will agree that [ am a better guardian of this poor, svronged child than you are. Base and cruel as I know you to be, it is a wonder, even to me, that her beauty and goodness did not warm into life within your breast one throb of passion. I have listened to your words to her, hoping you would betray some part of the secret cause for her persecution ; but I have listened in vain, and I have not the endurance to listen longer. So now I say to you, begone from this nouse ! And keep well in mind that [ am her friend, and that I, alas! have that knowledge of the wickedness of the world which she lacks, and that I will protect her from you and your kind. And more —I will make it my part to fathom the secret which is the cause of your interest in her. Go !" For a brief moment Lord Coldenham had the air of a rat driven into a corner, and without any alternative but to fight ; but his confusion was evanescent and was gone almost is it came. He listened to Lady VVestall's arraignment of him with a politeness that was somewhat exaggerated, it is true, but which was without any trace of embarrassment. When she had finished, he said : "It is a long time since I have seen you, but I believe I recognis* Mary Thorne. As to your fctness for -.he guardianship of this young lady, there may be a question. It will be -cttsr for her to decide that. Certainly if one who has passed through :he fire is the best guide for one who s in danger from the flames, then vou are most fitting. Miss Lisle, lo you know who and what this — this —what she is and has been ?" Violet turned to where Lady Westill stood with blazing eyes. She ooked for a glance from her ; but ;he maligned woman stood proudly ;rect and with her gaze fixed on the nan whose slanderous tongue had a;ain, after the lapse of many years, renewed the infamy of his youth. Violet flashed one indignant glance at Lord Coldenham and then glided to the side of Lady Westall, and ivound her arms around her waist. " Lord Coldenham," she said with a haughty scorn that seemed strange to her, " I am rejoiced that you ;ame here to-day. I know you now for something base. It may be a satisfaction to you that for your Dwn or for Lady Darlington's purposes you have ruined my life. But meddle no more in it, or I warn you that I will suffer any humiliation tc have Guy know the full extent o your baseness." Lord Coldenham bowed. For some reason he felt Violet's denunciatior of him more than he had Lady Westall's. And he felt, too, that he was in worse danger now than ever unless he could be sure that the t.'.v; would be content to let the mattei rest where it was. There was almost murder in his heart at that moment ; but he controlled hit tongue and said, in a tone oT grief " I regret that I am misunderstood but I cannot pretend to control you: actions, and I can only say good-byi with the best wishes for your futun welfare." Lady Westall saw the marqui.Icavc the room without utlcrin;: ■

word m reply to his attack upon no jood name. But no sooner \v;is ih? door closed upon him that she clapped Violet in her arms, sobbing. "Heaven bless you for your trust in me ! Who could have believed that the mere sound of those slandernus words would have had the power to bring up in my heart all th? agony ci_the days when they were first Joined and uttered by those selfsame lips ? Heaven bless you! Let us live for each other in the future."

CHAPTER XXV. AFTER THREE YEARS. It was on a day three years and more after the events described in the last chapter, that two strikingly beautiful women stood in front of a neat little villa and looked out on the smiling waters of the blue Mediterranean Sea. One of the women was statuesque and magnificent, and she was older by a quarter of a century. The other woman was hardly more than twenty years of age, and was of a beauty of form and face so exquisite, that the magnificent appearance of the other was scarcely apparent when sontrasted with it. " How much better this is than the fashionable bustle and publicity of Nice !" said the elder of the two. " Oh, yes, dear Lady Westall, ant; the relief of not being every moment stared at and pointed out as a curiosity !" " The price you must pay for fame, my dear Mabel," laughed Lady Westall. Violet Lisle, famous in England and on the Continent as Mabel Marsden, as the possessor of the richest and purest mezzo-soprano on the concert stage, and Lady Westall, had sought the seclusion of one of the little-visited villages of the Riviera for health recuperation after a season of phenomenal success and triumph in London. For Lady Westall shared in the triumph of her young friend quite as much as if she had sung herself, and declared she needed rest quite as much. In truth, however, there was no great need of it in either case ; for Violet was endowed with a vigorous constitution and when blessed time had applied its healing balm to her wounds, had recoveeed all her physical perfection of health. To say that she had forgotten her anguish, or never recurred to it with a pani, would be untrue ; but at least, it did not prevent her leading a" serene, wholesome life. ,On the very day after the visit from Lord Coldenham, she and Lady Westall had left England and gone to Italy for Violet to study. And studied she had, with all the ardour of one who has something to live down. Afterwards she had returnee" to London with a Continental reputation and made her own and worthy George Simpson's fortune with her voice. In all the time that had gone by she had never seen or heard a word concerning the people who had made a part of bxr life up to that time. She had begged Lady Westall to keep anything relating to the past from her. Once, indeed, she had said to her friend : " Learn something about my father and Martin Jenkins. If they are happy and prosperous tell me nothing. If they are unhappy, or in want take my money to the last penny and assist them." Lady Mary had inquired and had never made any report, so that Violet knew that the two.to whom she felt she awed all her duty and gratitude in the life that was past were in no need of her help or care. Sometimes her heart yearned to see one of them—even the father who had so cruelly turned her from her home, to find either death or infamy as if it mattered nothing to him. then old Goody White would come up before her, in all her homely goodness, and she would have given anything to be taken into the kindly old arms again as in the days that seemed so far away. But she had never yielded to her longing, fearing that any recurrence to the past, even in the happiest phase, would but tear open the wounds, at least seared over, if not healed. Anil yet the desire to hear a word of Guy, to know how he was anything, —anything of him—drov< her almost to madness at times. At first she had hoped, within her dread, that she would see him some time when che was singing ; and many a time she had scanned the upturned faces of her crowded audiences in the sxpectation of seeing his. But as the weeks and months went by without a sign of him, she accepted it as one of the things that would nevei be. There was a suspicion of sadness lurking in the depths of her violetblue eyes ; but it was hardly noticeable even to Lady Westall and was quite hidden from the ordinary ob served. Certainly anyone looking at he: that afternoon, as she stood drink ing in the beauties of the landscape would have said that she was sup remely and incomparably happy. "It looks as if we were going tc have some undesirable neighbours,' said Lady Westall presently. " How ? Where ?" asked Violet. Jreamily. " At the little inn, over the hill side, yonder," answered Lady Westall. " I am glad now, that we decided to come to this eottaire inst eac of stopping (here. See ! they an English, too, 1 do believe, from tin amount of luggage. An invalid too. 1 fancy. See how they assist the lady out of the carriage 1 St.ol looking at. that landscape in tha' rapt fashion, Mabel, and give somi attention to the human features a bout us." To In'- Con! imied.