ALL OR NOTHING.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 601, 10 September 1913, Page 6

ALL OR NOTHING.

(Copyright.)

—By ihu Author of ''A Bitter Bondage," '"Two Keys," "Stella," "Tke Unknown Bridegroom," &c.,

A THRILLING ROMANCE,

PART 32. Mrs. Morton laid the girl down on the little couch, and knelt by her side. What prayers rose from that sorrowful heart to the. just Judge ! What bitter tears fell on that white, cold face ! "My lovely, loving: child ! Oh, Mabel, wake np, and come back to me !" Many long minutes elapsed before the white eyelids moved ; Mabel looked up with a startled glance at her mother's face. "Am I ill, mamma?" she asked. Then a sudden wave of memory swept over, and she covered her face with her hands.

"Mabel," whispered the loving voice, "I know I comfort you ; but for my sake, and because I love you, try to bear it—try to be brave."

"I love him so, mamma," she said. "'And I am sure he loved

"Tell me why you say so, Mabel?" asked Mrs. Morton. "Did he ever say so to you in words ?" "Not perhaps in those words. He did love me—he does love me, mamma. He has kissed my face and called me darling so often. I am sure that he loves me as I am sure of my life."

"I think so, too," said Evelyn, gently. "But, Mabel, why has he done this ?"

"They have taken him from me, mamma," she cried. ''Alice always tried to win him —his mother did not like me. I see—i understand."

"He must be very "weak if women's influence could take Mm from you, my darling—too weak for a noble heart like yours to grieve over, Mabel. Dearest —it is hard to say—shall I tell you what I think ?" "Yes," said the girl, drearily, "if you will, mamma."

''l think he loved yout, but had not the courage to marry you, because you have no fortune, I think he does not love Miss Leyton, but is marrying her for her money. If that be the case, my darling, you are much more happy than she ft&n be." "I cannot believe it," cried Mabel. "Oh, mamma, you do> not know him, he is so noble, so true !"

"You believe him to be so because you love him ; you have idealised him, Mabel, as I idealised the man who marred my life, as all girls idealise their lovers, making very commonplace men heroes. Leonard Ainsleigh is no hero, Mabel. He loves you ; yet he is marrying Miss The only answer mas a despairing cry.

"I see now, Mabel. He knows he has done his best to win your heart; that is why he has written to me. He fancied if the :news were told you by a stranger suddenly, you might show sorrow or emotion, which would be talked about. He asks you to forgive ; he has reason to do so. He has behaved meanly to you, Mabel —meanly, cowardly, as men will behave /when they have not loyal hearts. He is not worth these tears, sweet. He is no hero, after all !"

"But I loved him," she said. "Mamma, listen —you will, perhaps, think me very fanciful—<lo you know, I have never looked my life in the face without him.. From the first day I met him, and "his eyes seemed to shine love in ir'iine, I have always thought the fu/tare would be for us. I used to thin A: we should be buried together in tlvj green churchyard, and* I always br Sieved we should go hand-in-hand to heaven. Mamma, what am I to do with my lile ? It is as thoug- fa m y heart had been divided wit'a a sharp sword. How shall I for a s long as I live bear this pain ?'*

"It w* ,ii not be for as long as you live, M.- A bel. It will grow numb and dead i- a time—most pain does." A d fep fever-flush had taken the place 0 f the dreadful pallor. Mabel's eyes shone with bright, wild light that alarmed Mrs. Morton.

" T t have not done wrong to love hir ii, have I, mamma ? I have seen nr> ane else like hims —no one so kind oj- s/d gentle. I have dreamt it ; am ■I di earning of wide awake ? My bra/in burns so, J cannot tell. One night, at the garden gate—it was when the laburnums were in flowerhe bent down whien he said ' Good night,' and kissed me. How I loved him, mother ! J cried for happiness. I could cot help caring for him. It was not wrong, w, as it ?"

"No, my darling ; it was wrong o.f him, not of you. Hie should not have tried to make yoi a care for him ii he knew that he did not mean to marry you. 1 cannot forgive him !" "You must !" slue cried. "It is bad enough without tbwit, mamrx.a. We must fur give him. He will suffer so much, for I know he loved me. I shall always say ' God bJ.fc»s Leonard ! God bless Leon aril !' " She spoke so wildly ; uul looked so flushed and ill that. Mrs. Morton was alarmed. "Mabel," she cried., "' uo not :-'ivc way. Try bard to co Uect your strength. Let me take . yw U. your room.' 5 "I can go mytself." mlci!. springing up. "1 am not: to die, mamma, because Let mard is ;.oing to marry Alice '" The next, minute they v, 'ere in lira room, and she staod in t be middle, with burning face and Mas eyes. "MJabel," said Evelyn, gently. "corne and say yti ur prayers to me, like you used to.'* S'ae knelt down iiasta-ntly. and Lsid

3d l)'.'a.l on her mother's \ncp, leoeating "the wi.nls. and growng calmer as she said them. "Our father" did not forsake them. CHAPTER LIII. Mrs. Ainsleigh had decided that, inder the circumstances, the sooner ;he wedding took place the better ; lelay might be fatal. If she were "o go away in the present juncture ~>i ail'airs, it might be that Leonard tvould prove weak after all. and give lp his engagement She could not help seeing how miserable he was. He made no attempt it concealing it. He went, about ivitli a gloomy look on his face, inite unlike the gay, gallant young :loctor, who, a few days since, looked like happiness personified. " The pain is good for him," she said to herself. "I remember when he was vaccinated I cried myself sick aver him ; yet I knew the pain was beneficial to him, and it is the same now."

She tried her best to keep up his spirits. There was no hour in the day during which she did not paint the future to him in glowing colours. One morning it was very warm ; the air was sultry, the sky copper-coloured, the flowers and birds faint with heat, and Dr. Ainsleigh had to attend a patient at some distance.

"How tiresome for you to be obliged to go out on such a morning, Leonard ! How thankful I shall be when the need for hard work •eases !"

"The need will never cease for me," he replied, gloomily. "You have money enough to dispense with it. You will have every luxury and all comfort." "Curse the money!" he' cried, fiercely. "It will cost me the happiness of my life." "You will not think so always," she replied, startled by his fierce words, and anxious to soother him. As he walked through the woods he remembered the morning, not'so long ago, when he had met Mabel, and they had lingered in the shade—his talking of the flowers they both loved. No more such lingering for him ; no more looking in the sweet, bright face to read love for himself there ,; never again could he kiss the sweet lips or touch the golden hair — it was all over. It seemed long months since that happy morning. He had sold himself since then —sold his honour, his manhood, his loyalty, his love, and his happiness for so much gold—sold himself. He loathed himself this warm summer morning as he walked through the woods and realised what his life without Mabel must be. The world was no longer the same, the golden glowhad gone from the sunshine, the beauty and fragrance ' had left the Bowers —a dark, funeral pall seemed to have, fallen over the world, and this black pall was to shroud his manhood and his life ' for the sake of gold. Money ! how he hated it ! Yet for it he had parted even with honour. He came to that part of the wood where he had met Mabel. The lovely young iace rose again before him in all the light of its beauty. He cried aloud with pain and rage—with madness at his own folly. "How will she bear it," he cried—"my darling, who loved me ? My God ! If I might but see her , and tell her, and ask her to forgive me." But it was not to be. He was not to see the pain he had caused. People began to talk of the change in him, but , they ascribed it to the wrong cause. Some said he was growing proud because he had won the great heiress ; others said he was growing serious because of the great responsibility that lay before him. No one ever dreamed that he was unutterably wretched because he had deserted the girl he loved with his whole heart for one he disliked, with money. It required all Mrs. Ainsleigh's skill to keep matters straight. She was thankful when Alice invited her to Woodlands, feeling sure that if she left Carsbrook all her schemes and triumphs and hopes would come to an cud at once.

Once settled at Woodlands, she was not one easily to relinquish her advantages. She did not flatter Alice, as did Mrs. Welford ; on the contrary, she took the upper hand at once, making Miss Leyton clearly understand that there was, after all, a great difference between a descendant ,of the Romneys of Wentworth and the daughter of a country banker, be she as rich as she might. r, You see, my dear," she was wont to say,, "money can puirshase every luxury, but it cannot buy good birth, and, after all, there is a charm about a long pedigree that belongs to nothing else." In which sentiment Alice, whose pedigree was by no means long, cordially agreed. "I don't know," said Mrs. Ainsleigh to Alice, "whether you agree with me, but I have a great detestation of long engagements." "I have never thought much about the matter," replied Alice. "'An engagement is quite as binding as n marriage, I suppose."

From the very depths of her heart Mrs. Ainsleigh wished it were so. She resolved upon a second bold stroke.

"I hope, my dear," she continued, "you will not think a ioner probation necessary. My heart quite aches iot Leonard. Of course, as his mother. I must feel intensely for him. J car understand his anxiety. I do not think yon know how devotedly he loves you. Poor hoy, his engagement has quite, cbenged him. any time been used, my love. to) your marriage ?'"' "No," replied Alice. "To tell yoi the. truth.. I fancied Leonard seemed to avoid that part of the business. He has never even ever so distantly alluded to it !" ' \h. vuii do not understand hi,iNin tit in t<\ It 1" f ><- ii<!» tl nd "Hi 'at' "o foil ui he ni o ''

Tfcu'ld lu.ve ' n--v-cj .hi u.'j. bu ho would ii.i e : uiin M , ■ i.. ia ~( possible. i h.-pp'n u> i.uuw that much." '"Weil, there is no impediment," said Alice, smiling with delight. "01 course. ) cauiun mention anything of the kind." "Y lin not kiii/w," said Mrs. Ainsleigh. thoughtfully. "Vou see, mj dear, whatever advantage belongs tc Leonard by his birth and connection, you have all the advantage in th« way of money. 1 happen to know he feels it intensely, poor boy." "1 am sure he has no need," re plied Miss Leyton. "I am verj glad that I have plenty of money tc give him. He need not feel sensitive about the matter. I do not." Constant dropping wears away s stone. Mrs. Ainsleigh talked sr often to Alice about an early marriage, that at last it became a set tied point in that young lady's mind The task with Leonard was fai more difficult ; it required all his mother's diplomacy. She held no account with truth it these conversations. There was e certain end to be gained, and by fail means or otherwise she was resolved upon attaining it. There was no thing like boldness. One August evening, when Leonard came in tired. and quite ready for all the soothing and care his mother knew how tc give, she began :

"So, Leonard, I hear a great event is to happen this autumn ?" "Indeed," he said. "What is it mother ?"

"You to ask me that? Mr. Ley tor said something to me this morning, or I should not have known it."

"What do you mean ?" he asked, impatiently. "Do speak out, mother. I dislike that way of hinting. What is it?"

"I am sorry to have displeased you Leonard. Mothers' must not expect much courtesy ; but some little is di« to every lady. I heard this morning for the first time that the preparations for your marriage have begun, and it is supposed to take place in the autumn. Tfee news made me very happy, my dear."

"As well then as at any other time," he said, gloomily.

She was thankful he took it so quietly. "I think, Leonard," she said, " as Miss Leyton has no mother, perhaps she might like me to go to London with her for the purchase of her trosseau. Shall I make the offer do you think ?" "By all means," he replied, ah* sentlv.

He was wondering where Mabel ft-as. He had passed by Beechgrove twice that day, yet had not seen lier. Was she ill or had she gone away ? He would have given all the wealth he had in prospect to have bad one word from her. Armed with this authority, Mrs. Ainsleigh feared nothing. She went directly to Alice, and told her thai Leonard had desired her to offer her services if she intended to go to London for the purpose of her wedling outfit, adding that he hoped it would all be prepared by the end 3f September, thus tacitly fixing the wedding day. Then she had a long confidential interview with Mr. Leyton, telling him the young people had arranged the last week in September for the marriage, urging him to see about the deeds and settlements at once.

"The settlements will he very simple," he said. "Her aunt's money is settled upon Alice and her children, should she have any ; what I have to leave her • will become hers unconditionally at my death. W T oodlands, Df course, will be hers then." Mrs. Ainsleigh's next movement was to' tell Leonard that Mr. Leyton wanted to see him about the marriage deeds, and that the day was fixed—the 28th of September. "It would never have been done without me," sighed the energetic lady. "It is quite a blessing that I was here."

So she schemed and plotted and manoeuvred, and she had better by far a thousand times have :>nt by her son's death-bed, and have buried him, than have done as she did. Alice was delighted with the offer, and it was arranged that tho two ladies, attended by a maid ;vm\ footman, should go to London i'.i the course of a few days, there to make the purchases the occasion required. Mrs. Ainsleigh gave some lit'. 1c hint as to Leonard's going with them. He shuddered at the bare idea, and she thought it as well not to press the matter. "Once married," she said to herself, ''' s?ll would be well ; untii then, as wel) be careful."

They started, and Leonard was left alone for the first time since the engagement was formed. Then the full horror of his position came home to him. He looked as he felt —wretched ; and daring all thin time he never heard one word of Mabel. Carsforook was too much occupied with the wedding that was to be to give much time to Mrs. Mori or and her daughter. Of course, there was the usual amount of talk. Illnatured people laughed at the idea of ever having thought the doctor admired Miss Morton. They all

agreed that from the very first, they had felt sure it was Miss Leyton and no other. The only one whe seemed angry or annoyed was kindly Mrs. Stanley. had seen more than the others ; she knew how the young doctor had sought Mabel ; she remembered the sunny mornings it the garden, ihe walks and drives. '•I am si.ee he Leech her." she saic to her husband, "and 1" third; Mabel liked him ; depend upon it. inat ambitious mother ei his has made nr. this maidi. ' (!•> n.-t like Mrs. Ainslcich ; she is too vain and worldly." She Went lo >..-c i lie huilcS :,i Ht'c-cll erove. I'n'il of kindly sympathy. and she found Kwlyn atone. (")'o he e.'oiua'iin'-ii)