THE ROMANCE OF WALLIS COURT.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1091, 26 September 1883, Page 4

THE ROMANCE OF WALLIS COURT.

LITE RATUHE.

. (Continued.) \ The whole summer passed hotly away,; and l never sawf, him again, I a’ode’ across all the old we had gal-; loped over so mahy times together, until the son and the trees and the birds, and the aif ’hectime; hateful/‘ and in ! ‘ the. ahtumu ’T.£pt ill, bnVrio name;, cpuhLhe; giiren tb 1 my ailment*.: X could not §leep| or eat properly, and . everything ceased! to atnuse or interest me, although I; rtried to fight against.tbis feeling for the: sake n pf lu mj aunt; and governess. Ati last Pecember came, and the doctor: having suggested that a little change ; Was absolutely necessary; aunt Belle j Absented '-to my 'going to 'stay Svi’th' |he < Harchmonts .for a fort-’ night.'. ; r lj,, was . glad ; pf ;tbis, i for X , iwearied;v byi .the ■ very >sight of the view I had Puce Id'ved so much, but which now seemed to me irksomely mbnofonoUsi The Marchmoiits. ‘were kindness itself,,and. thocomplete change from a /monastic life to a comparative gay one did me good, fr I had no lime to tlnhfe' t I'weVd 1 chhtmudlly employed in shopping, driving, calling, dinner parties, and actually a dance ! One afternoon Mr Marchmont came home rather earlier than usual, joining tflMt-b.ucafternoon tea:. . We^inust , ‘ dine a little earlier tonightjbhfarion/ rsaid ■ he, addressing his wife; ‘I have got a box'for the play/ and we are going to see Moretori Temple in the * Lady of ! Lyons/’ ft©h J\ papa, what a dear yon are!’ exclaimed Ethel Marchmont, enthusiastically ; * think of that, Pauline 1’ But I was no tup in theatricals, never having dh/my life, anti M/oreton Temple conveyed nothing; to*my mind worth an emotion., 1 knety perfectly Well thnt nnnt Belle would not have consen^d^tp.jpy. go*ng .to a theatre, and so I said 1 AflXvt* nSUst •all/ tell /me all about dtlwhen you come bome.’ • -* Mr Marchmont looked discouraged. * My.dear |Pauline,?!he said,/ I shall not go without you. There is no harm whatever in your seeing this play, and I will take all the blame on my shoulders.’ C ■

. Aft6r a little more hesitation oh my part I consented. And so-we dined rather earlier, and drove off to the play.. I-was Certainly 5 pleased Shift Lwbsgbin'g and ihycrowd'bf/carriages and people in front of the theatre looked promising. It was altogether a novelty that pleased nap npk-a There was ®n air of; pfeasure , about .>all * the ; people f as; they came ‘ trooping m _jthat seemed to make, ,onp r ,jfeel ; something enjoyable was coming. The band was: playing a, lovely overture. We bad a diox oii.''(he first, tier, next the stage.* The certain wept up,, and the,play began.; X Was , disappointed with the be-, ginning, and. sp.l watched; the audience,; who interested me very much by their silent attention; when all of a sudden lieir-, gniet demeanour gave. wajj and a burst pf,simultaneous, applause caused n(e.lp look at (he, stage; again. >< A n{ah was . standing ip the- middle of.it, with' his head, slightly i bent in acknow-' lodgment .of . the vociferous, applause. His,face was deadly pale, but hot more so -iffah. mine, when, as he lifted his eyes tp . bur .box, and our eyes met, 1, recognised ‘ Thornton : £ool; ’ It, , was ,; all , so 1 , sudden and so . extraordinary to .me that I could hardly realise it. I felt the whole place: /swimr round,, but I never moved. The people .were, still applauding, he was still, bowing, and no one could see or know, lyhnt Ijfgjt, This comforted me so tbat . my emotion, passed unnoticed by my. companions. iffhe play went on : all through Claude Idplnptte’g, passionate love-making my mind,, eyes,, and. heart were rivetled in a Way-j can; hardly ..express. I felt th’pt his yoice, was i addressing/ me, ah thongh. be never looked; up again until just before the, curtain ; fell on the last act, and onr eyes met again. The curtain u ,£ent pp .twice; he cameforward to answer jlhecall made for him, and as It went /down the last time. And shot him out, as J,thought, from my view and my life, I felt I loved him above all things in this world. , I drove home in a daze. They all praised j Mpretdn Temple, who, I discovered, had made a sensation in London somb ■'five years ago,’ and was the most popular actor of the day. They gave him a wife and a few children, from hearsay; they quarrelled about his exact nationality and parentage. While 1 was silently- listening in the corner of the carriage, arid accounting to myself for his jerky disappearances in our .past tides; ! x ; 1 As/Seveu o’clock drew near he was due at > the theatre. We ' had frequently talked about theatres, and I had told him of aunt Belle’s horror of them, and had hinted that the sorrow of her life had been caused by a person connected with the stage/ I now felt tbat jail these conversations wonld come back tp him, and that we should never meet again. r T fqde over our favourite haunts in the hope of seeing him, but nnsnecessfnllyv Was it really true that he Was married ? Why should he not be ? He had never made love to me. Somehow, I know not why, I felt that he had no tie of that kind. He did not remain very*long; in 1 Wpslville '■ ’but went back to London, where I followed him in imagination, and read all about him in the papers. . • '•;=: - \To be Continued.)