A Storyette...

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 148, 2 May 1903, Page 12

A Storyette. . .

<^V9 (By Cara Gwy.nne.)

(For thl Frel Lance )

THE naau standing upon the "Gothic's" deck, scanning the gray horizon, with his fine upright figure, tho nobl© iron-gray head, and soldierly bearing, stood strangely silent and still. The other passengers weie amusing themselves with the usual games. Girls lay idly upon their deck chairs, books were thrown carelessly aside whale an occasional officer leaned forward to speak an idle word in their ears. Here and there a man could be seen smoking a cigar, while twos and threes indulged in a game of cards But the man of my story stood apart from all these, and his mind was deep m thought. Just ten years ago tomorrow he had been on this same deck talking in ]ust such a way as: the second officer w as doing to the pretty girl in, blue. He could smell the subtle perfume site always used, the faant whiff of a violet. Memory had woven her web so closely about him that the scene of ten years ago was moving vividly before him. The girl stood leaning against the vessel's side, her white hands clasping the gleaming rails. The tall, slender figure, in its dark gown, the dusky head with its wayward curls, and beneath the pale face, with its beautiful, luminous eyes, the short, straight nose, and dimpled chin. He had journeyed from England to New Zealand with the intention of visiting the far-away colony with its weird, grand beauty, stories of which had reached the other side. She was returning from an Enerlish trip to her home, and it was the old story again — the man had loved her truly, only she did not know it. She had told him iust before landing her address, and he had promised he would call and s-ee her. After the formal good-byes were said, they parted, and Captain Geoifrey Wynne left for Rotorua. While there he received a cable from his people, announcing the failure of the bank in which all lus money was invested Crushed and broken-hearted, he took the first boat for the Old Country. How could he see Nina Grant without confessing the great love that filled his heart' for her? And a man of honour could not ask a girl to trust her life to a penniless man. Yet, for all these years he had loved no other woman And, after a fierce struggle wibh fortune he had made enough money bo revisit the colony, and live the remainder of his life in idleness and luxury. Why he had undertaken this journey he scarcely understood, unless it was the ever-hvinp- thought of the srirl he had met on the "GothicV deck before Of course she had married, and forgotten his very existence. This was but the natural course of events, he thought. Out of has breast pocket he took a little miniature There she was the woman of his heart, smiling tenderly up at him. A grreat ioy suddenly filled his heart. Suppose suppose she was still free and he found her. After all these years was it nossible 9 He looked at a scrap of paper he held m Ins hand and read the address siowlv

'Caie of Reginald Grant, 'The Beeches,' Riccarton, Chnstchmch." Three weeks later Geoff ley Wynne was driving to tho lovely little suburb of Riocarton. How beautiful the river \\a& with its winding course, its green banks, and the flow en ing gaadens. How different to the oold, gray land of England. The driver stopped abruptly, and, pointing to an old-fashioned house, surrounded by ecreatt, green trees> said 'That is the place, sir, where old Grant lived for twenty years His widow is living still." "Theie was a daughter, I think — a tall, dark earl slender, and very beautiful Can you tell me anything a,bout her?" He spoke hoarsely, for now the time was so near he felt a. coward and w r as half afraid to hear the man's reply. "Yes, there was a daughter sir but she died three years ago. She "was the prettiest girl in these parts, and a good one, too. I remember her well, for I drove her many a time to a,nd fro. A proud girl, who carried her head high, but she queened it over all the other girls about. Aye, she was a high stepper, and just about as sweet." The man sDoke lmgeringly. as if he liked to think of her youth and beauty when she was in the springtime of her life. But. he didn't notice the droop of the man's head at his side, or the twitching of his hands.