THE GAME OF LIFE; OR THE MASTER OF MILLWOOD HALL.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXII, Issue 2796, 29 May 1911, Page 4

THE GAME OF LIFE; OR THE MASTER OF MILLWOOD HALL.

By Hedley Richards, Author of "Time, The Avenger," "The Mine Master's Heir/ etc., etc

PART 22.

Stella shot one quick glance at him —then in a voice that was tremulous but which she tried to make playful, she said :

"I must put in the scales money, position, possibly a grand marriage. I might even secure a title ; but it would only be my hand I would give so that to the money and position you could add a starved heart, and in the other scale the love of a man I honour, whose love is priceless to me, a happy home without luxury, a work-a-day life. Why, really, Miles, the happiness and joy will dump the scales down, in spite or the narrow means."

"Thank God," he laid, as he kissed her, gravely.

" When is your birthday, Stella?" he asked a minute later. " A fortnight, to-morrow," she replied.

" Will you marry me that day ? I have • a friend who is without a church ; he would come here until my time is up ; my people know it Is my intention to go to London and I think it quite likely Frank Leonard may be asked to take my place permanently. If he came it would allow us time for a three weeks' honeymoon while my mother gets the house ready. What do you say ?" he asked, taking Stella's hands and looking down at her with eyes that were full of love.

"I say yes," low tone.

she answered,

in a

He kissed her gravely; it was no Light thing to him that lie had won the love of this beautiful girl, with such a fine nature that prosperity and great wealth had failed even to tarnish it. '

A moment later he turned to his mother saying :

"It only remains for you to promise to get the nest ready. Can you leave your business j long enough ?"

" Yes, that is all right, but would not Stella rather choose her own furniture; you could take rooms for a week or two."

"I would rattier you got our house ready ; I am sure you would make it lovely," said Stella.

"I will do my best; it will be a work of love, and I will make it as dainty as I can," said Rachel.

"You will make it look a home, and that is what a lot of the grand houses lack ; they are very beautiful but not home-like," said Stella.

" Well, I have saved enough to give mother a chance to make it cosy, if not grand," said Miles, smilingly.

"Oh, I have some money in the bank. Won't you let me help to furnish ?" aßked Stella.

Miles shook his head.

" No, I must find the nest; you can save your money for a rainy day " then as his mother left the room he drew Stella into his armß, saying, "What a wise mother mine is ; she has not forgotten that lovers like sometimes to be alone."

Half an hour later Mrs. Ford returned followed by the tea, and Stella thought she had never had such good tea or cakes, but when she said so, Miles laughed and told her that was just how he felt, and happiness glorified everything; then after the tea things had been removed the three had a long talk when it was arranged that Mrs. Ford should remain with her son until after th« wedding then go to London to get the house ready.

" Miles, you will come to the Hall to see me? I shall stay there if Lady Annette will let me until my birthday," said Stella Mushing brightly as she remembered that her birthday would be her wedding day.

" I will come sometimes, but I think it will be wiser not to come too often, it is no use arousing comment and as Lady Annette is known to be a proud woman people will not understand how it is she will receive a man in my position, but if we only see each other a few times during the next fortnight them is the post and after that a lifetime together."

As he spoke they heard the sound of horses' hoofs and Rachel said :

■'." My dear, the groom has brought your horse. I wißh you could have stayed longer."

"So do I, it has been a happy time. You will come and see me at the Hall?" she added. .

"No, my dear, I shall never go to Millwood again. I went for the sake of truth and right, but it Cost me something to go there where I had expected to live as the wife of the man I loved—the only man I ever loved. Barry Stirling! I never cared for, he had a fascination for me,;,. 1 was very young and he made me believe that the giamour he cast over me was love, but I soon found put my mistake. You understand why I cannot come to the Hell ?"

" Yes, I should feel as you do. Good-bye." Then Stella follow*! Miles downstairs, and soon Rachel saw her ride away, slowly, looking back at Miles who stood at the door watching.

When Stella reached the Hall sfi« went at once to the drawing room, where she found Lady Annette and Jack, and she confided to them what bad been arranged about her marriage.

"If you don't mind I should like to stay here until then. I think 1 Grace would be very vexed if I was to go from tbeir house to be married to Miles.."

Lady Annette laid her hand on the girl's.

" Stay here until you are married, and when you are, try to persuade your, husband to let Jack allow him an income."

"Yes, do your best, and of course you must stay here," said Jack.

" I don't think anyone would per* Guade Miles to take any money front you, and, to tell the truth, I like the idea of having to look after my own house and being a thrifty careful wife."

Lady Annette smiled half sadly a» she said :

" I'm afraid you will not find it so easy as you think, but you have a fine spirit, and will bear being pool better than most people. I have an awful shrinking from hardship of any kind. I must confess I like to live in clover." ■ Stella smiled, but Bhe only said .

" I shall go to the Court and arrange for Hortense to bring my things here, and explain matters to Grace." Then she laughed as she said : "Poor Hortense, I must give her notice ; she's one of the luxuries I shall have to dispense with."

CHAPTER XXXVI. " Our deeds determine us as much as we determine our deeds."—G. Eliot. " Do you mean to say you are not coming back to the Court ?" asked Grace Doyle looking at Stella in surprise. They were seated in the morningroom at the Court. " No, never no more," replied Stella in a playful tone.

Grace looked still more puzzled

" I don't understand it. Your father said we were to expect you to-day ; that you would remain here until the house in London was ready for you, when he would fetch you. Father has written to his cousin, the Countess of Spennithorpe asking her to take you about. You will have a glorious time in London."

" I am not going into society ; when I go to London I shall live in the East End," said Stella quietly, but there was a twinkle in her eye as she waited to see the eflect of her words.

"In the East End ? Are you going to,join a sisterhood?" Grace asked in dismay. Stella laughed.

11 No, I don't think I'm cut out for that kind of thing ; all the same I do hope to help the poor and those who have to struggle to get daily bread," she said in a graver tone.

" What do you mean ? you would speak plainer." "Very well, then, I'm going to be married to Miles Ford, though he isn't a Cathcart; that was a mistake. He has got a church in the East End."

1 wish

" You are going to marry that horrid dissenting minister !' You must be mad !" exclaimed Grace.

"No, I'm perfectly sane and very happy, because I love that horrid Dissenting minister with all my heart."

"What does your father say ? I'm sure he doesn't approve of it, because I heard him tell my father the man was a sneak and a cad. I wonder if he had been telling him about you being in love with him for he stopped abruptly as I joined them."

Stella's face flushed, and her eyes flashed as she said :

" Miles is the soul of honour."

"Whatever he may be jou cannot marry him," said Grace coldly. "I certainly shall be married to him, and my father knows it; at least, he has been told so, and I think he knows I do not tftange my mind easily. If what my father had wanted had come to pass he would gladly have agreed to the marriage ; now things are not as he hoped he wants to prevent it, a nd as I shall certainly become Miles's wife I do not intend to come here and get you into trouble, so I shall remain at the Hall. Jack Cathcart and Lady Annette both like and admire him," said Stella.

"Lady Annette admires Mr. Ford ! I think the world must, be turning topsy-turvy," exclaimed Grace.

Stella was silent for a v minute or two, then she said : 11 Grace, you made a terrible mistake when you were so cruel to Jack Cathcart that day you met him, because—-"

"I wasn't cruel, I only told him the truth, that a Doyle couldn't marry a nameless man," interrupted Grace.

"You were cruel, and as it happens you didn't speak the truth when you called him nameless. Jack is a true Oathcart and Lady Annette was his father's lawful wife." Grace turned pale as she said : " Why did you tell me that tale about Jack and say that Mr. Ford was the real owner of Millwood Hall —what does it mean Stella ?"

"Only that a great mistake has been made, a mistake that would never have been discovered or set right if Mrs. Ford had not explained the mistake and given ample proof that Jack, not her son, is the true owner of the Millwood estate."

Grace's face brightened, "Mrs. Ford ? Do you mean the minister's mother ?" she asked.

" Yes, she came from Wales on purpose to set the matter right; it was a noble thing to do, because it she had just stayed at home and remained silent the estate would have been her son's, and I know she would have liked him to have it, but, as she said, she could not do otherwise than speak the truth. Oh, Grace, I wish you could have heard her tell the story of the past. She was so brave, and took such pains to make everything " clear, yet I could see it hurt her awfully to say what she did; she's a woman who would have gone to the stake rather than do what she believed to be wrong."

" And you say she made it quite clear that Jack is legitimate ?" asked Grace in a low tone.

"Yes, and by doing so she made her own son nameless."

"It won't make any difference to jou—l mean you are going to marry him just the same ?" said Grace, hurriedly.

" Oh, yes, it makes a lot of difference, I feel that I love him more even than I did, and I long to do something to sb.ow him that his loss has made him dearer to me," said Stella, and there was a tenderness in her tone that struck the other girl.

"Does he mind about it? Would he rather his mother had not spoken ?" asked Grace. "Of course he minds. What man or woman wouldn't? But I'm sure if his mother had not told the truth and he had discovered it later, that he would have been deeply grieved, and he would never have thought the same of her again. You don't know how good and' unselfish both Miles and his mother are," said Stella. "Do you mind telling me what Mrs. Ford said. How the mistake arose ?" asked Grace. After a moment's hesitation Stella began to tell the story of the past, as Mrs. Ford had related it, only leaving out the fact that her father had known the truth ; she felt that it was not necessary to reveal the fact that he had been playing his own game and caring nothing for the feelings of either Miles Ford or Jaclt Cathcart. " What a strange story," exclaimed Grace; then she added in a lowei voice ; "Do you think that Jack will ever forgive me?" " I don't know, I think he has felt your cruelty very much. Yeß, it's no use denying it, you were cruel You '.flaunted' toljfe kce, the .??«'

that you were a Doyle of Doyle Court, while he was a nameless man. If I know anything of Jack he will resent it bitterly."

" Oh, Stella, you are very hard. 1 only wanted him to understand that I could never marry him."

" Well, I don't suppose he'll a sk you again. I expect you'll live and die a Doyle of Doyle Court and be the last of them," said Stella with energy. She wanted Grace to suffer in return for what Jack had suffered.

"You are very cruel/and-^and I have suffered. You don't think I could send him away like that and not suffer ?" exclaimed Grace.

" I don't know, I begin to think you are a very hard-hearted girl."

" Perhaps I am but I have longed to go and tell Jack how sorry I am and that I would join him in America as soon as he had got enough money to keep a wife."

"Why didn't you? He would have believed you then, now he will only think you were saying it because he was Cathcart of Millwood Hall," said .Stella.

"I wish I had, but I couldn't forget that I was a Doyle."

" Well, I don't suppose you are likely to forget it now, as you'll probably sign yourself Grace Doyle to the end of your life, unless you choose to marry some other man whom you don't care a rap about," said Stella, who was determined to make Grace suffer for the way she had treated Jack.

For answer Grace burst into a flood of tears, and as Stella saw her grief was really genuine she relented and tried to soothe her friend tellingl her that it would all come right in the end.

" You are just saying it to comfort me but I feel that Jack will never forgive me and I deserve it," she sobbed; then, as she heard her father's voice at the window she said:

"1 cannot let him see me like this, Stella. Good-bye," and, Grace left the room as her father Btepped through the open window into the room.

" Why is your horse waiting, Stella ? I understood you were coming here and I was hoping you would cheer Grace; she isn't in the best of spirits," he said.

"I'll come over pretty often, but I've arranged to stay at the Hall for a little while."

" Of course, if you prefer it," and the Major's manner stiffened. "Peryou will be taking up your residence there permanently ?" he said, in a tone that puzzled her.

" I live at the Hall ! What do you mean, Major?"

"I thought you might remain as Mrs. Jack Cathcart," he said, trying to speak indifferently, but she saw that he was in reality very much in earnest.

" I shall never marry him ; we are very good friends, but that is all. I shall marry the man I loVe, and he is Miles Ford."

The Major looked incredulous, then he whistled softly.

" I beg your pardon, Stella, but you surprised me," he said. " Didn't my father say anything to you ?" she asked.

"Not a word. In fact, he said he expected you to make a first-class marriage. I don't think he'll ever consent to your marrying Miles Ford, will he ?"

"Perhaps not!" Stella replied. She thought it just as well not to tell him she was going to take the law into her own hands, so she said good-bye to the Major who accompanied her to the door and watched her mount her pretty brown pony, then he stood gazing after her.

" What a pity for such a lovely girl to be in love with a fellow like Ford, with her moneji and face she should marry a duke. But Swift won't allow her to have this person," he reflected as he re-entered the house.

While he was thinking of Stella and the blunder he thought she had m a de his daughter—who had locked herself in, her room—was weeping bitterly. She had repented of her words to Jack, and now she knew they were untrue, that,he was not the nameless man she had scorned, she repented still more, and Stella's words that unless she married some other man she would probably live and die Grace Doyle of Doyle Court had convinced her that Jack would never forgive her.

CHAPTER XXXVII. "Yes, you will give me the kieys of your heart, Yes, we will be married, and never part. Yes, I will walk, yes, I will talk, Yes, I will walk and talk with thee." The sun shone brightly on Stella as she stood at the altar in the Congregational Church On her birthday. She looked very lovely in her simple white serge gown and large white straw hat with the white silk scarf wound round it. Miles looked radiantly happy, and the words he uttered as he took her for better or worse promising to love and cherish her, were spoken in a clear distinct tone, that had a ring of triumph in it.

Lady Annette and Mrs. Ford stood behind the bride, while Jack stood near the bridegroom. None of Ford's people know that their pastor was to be married, A rumour of his engagement to the American lady who was staying at Millwood Hall had got abroad, but the fact that they were to be married soon had been purposely kept secret as they did not want Swift to hear of it and try to interrupt the ceremony. It had been as easy matter to keep the event qiuiet, as Miles's friend who was to take his place was to marry them.

At last the ceremony was over, Stella had signed her maiden name for the last time, and, leaning on her husband's arm she passed out of the church looking like a sunbeam, her face was so full of joy and happiness. Then before getting into the carriage that was to convey them to the station, Stella said good-bye to her friends. As she and her husband took their seats in the carriage the clock chimed the half-hour after eight.

" Now, I must put this cloak on, or the good folk in the station may think I look, like a bride ; you see I haven't the slightest touch of colour about me," said Stella, as Miles helped her to fasten the long dust cloak of pale grey. " Look, there's that girl !" she exclaimed as she pointed to Julie, who was standing, gazing after the carriage, with an expression so malevolent that Stella shuddered.

" Don't look at her," said Miles Then as the carriage turned a cor ncr they lost sight of her.

{To be continued.)