CHAPTER LI.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 101, 9 May 1885, Page 4

CHAPTER LI.

" VELLA." " But I have a secret T keep from J^nny. And ahe baa a secret she kpeps from xr\& !" K. J. MoPhbmm. \ clear, cold night, blue and bracing. Through the heavy hulfdrown Syrian curtains Evelyn Ga^e glanced now and then at the vast vault sown " with fretted fire of many stars." Within her own particular sitting-room the gas burned low. In the subdued light the room was a picture. It was not burnished with the modern magnificence which characterised the remainder of the bouse ; for that very reason, perhaps, was more attractively home like. A few of Evelyn Gage's inartistic acquaintances sneered at her fancy for the Dcaut.y of by-gone days.

"She has developed a craze for the antique," they would remark, " because to affect such things is the rage just now, and Evelyn will drift back with the current," But their injustice would not permit them to add that, in her clear, critical eyes, the mere fact of a vase or a chair having j been fashioned a couple of hundred years ago did not make it beautiful if it were not so intrinsically ; that her taste was above reproach, and her judgment beyond cavil. Here she had gathered her treasures, and, as has been said, the room was a picture, with its huge, soft- toned Persian rue in lieu of a carpet, its purple and dull-gold hangings to match, its few choice "first- proof" engraviugs, its numberless books, its little Louis Quinze writing table, its exquisitelytapestried chairs, its quaint, epindle- legged piano, which hod belonged to Evelyn's mother in her girlhood. At it eat, as night darkened, the occupant of the room. She was playing softly, and without notes. Snatches of anything, everything, morginpr a merry waltz in a wailing dirge, a martial tune in a rattling racquet, and airily drifting away from all in the strains of "Bonnie Prince Charles." Rat-a-tat. Her fingers fell from the yellowish keys. •'Come I .' A servant entered. " There's a lady below to see you, Miss Evelyn." 11 To see mo ! Who is sho ?" " She refused to give her name, miss." "It is not the dressmaker's girl?" "Oh.no. A lady, miss." " Well, show her up." " Here, Miss Evelyn ?" "Yes." She rose and stood waiting, a itately, gracious figure, in her simple, pretty homedress of some soft reddish material, with bands of snowy linen at throat and wrists. The door opened. A girl came, a little diffidently, into the room, a girl in a brown cloth havelock, black skirt, and demure, bird-breastod, bewinged hat. " Evelyn !" The timid word aroused her from her stunned surprise. She started, rushed forward, caught the travel-tired stranger in her arms with a glad cry. •' Vella ! my dear, Jear Vella ! is it really row 1 Are you sure it isn't your ' fetch ? When did you arrive? Why didn't you write me you were coming ? And not a soul to meet you ! Sit down and give me your things. Such a surprise !" Off in a twinkling came hat and havelock. Then her hostess turned her round so that the light fell full upon hr with another welcoming hug. " Let mo look at you. Gracious, child, where are your roses gone— and your dimples? You've been ill! And, oh, if I wasn't forgetting— whore's your husband ! I'm just dying to see him." « My—who?" gasped Vella. " Your husband. Tbo first glimpso I got of you standing at tho door there sent all recollection of him straight out of my head. I saw only tho little girl I knew at school, and forgot she was now a dignified married woman." "Evelyn ! Whatever are you raving about !" And now it was Evelyn's turn to sit and stare. 11 Why, about you, of course, and your husband !" " My dear, I'm not married." Her hostess sat aghast. " Not married ' Why, I read it in the Chicago papers, dear ; it was copied in the papers here, too." " Lefc me tell you about — " she began. But Evelyn's exclamation stopped her. " You've been ill !" "111?" with a sad lifctlo smile, "that I have, dear." " When ! lately ? What was it ? Did you come to Philadelphia for change of air' But wait ! You must not toll me yet. You must have some refreshment first." Sho touched the old-fashioned bell-cord by the mantel and mot at the door the servant wjho cam 6in prompt response Her orders given, she came back to the low, many cushioned lounge where Vella sat, and sank down beside her. " Now !" she said. During the journey she had deliberated much as to what she should tell Evelyn how far confide in her. And she had not been able to decide. Now, with the dear, friendly arms of her childhood's heroine around her, those loving, blue grey eyes so tenderly meeting hers, she told herself she would tell her all. Surely she hrd a right to know. She to whom she bad fled for refuge from her trouble was worthy her confidence. So there in that quaint and dainty room wherein the upturned gas lurned brightly, while without the autumn night darkened down, she whispered to her the story of the last five months, only she said no word of Marc Tracy. She could not. Oh, she could not speak yet of him. Their meeting, their love was too sacred, their estrangement too recent, too gad. No, no ! Some time she would tell her, but not just now. Of course, ib would all bo fair and smooth again soon. She would meet him, or hear of his whereabouts. Then she would write and tell him to come to her, that never for one instant had she been aught save loyal and true. Then she would let Evelyn know how happy she was -how happy. But all concei'ning the marriage, which was no marriage at all — her flight, the collision, her Btay at the Starr's, her friend heard Of the reason which induced her second and successful attempt to reach Philadelphia she did not speak, though. During the relation Evelyn sat very still and attentive, patting now and then the little blue- veined hand in hers, nodding sympathetically when she paused, but saying never a word When she had quite finished she pushed back the big, shining curls from tho white forehead and looked into the lovely brown eyes. "My poor little girlie ! That was a capital way to defeat the scheme of your scoundrelly old uncle and his accomplice Crony. Don't look shocked. You know I will call a spade a spade. I would laugh at the ridiculous side of the masquerade were 1 not too grieved for all your trouble. I am heartily glad you had sense enough to come to me. Now you're going to stay with mo always, and be my own dear sister 1 ' Vella's old, swiffc, sunshiny smile lit up her face. She shook her head. ' Oh, no ! You \\ ill soon be offering me half your kingdom." Evelyn laughed shyly. She, too, shook her head. On either colourless cheek stole out a soft carnation bloom. Half her kingdom ? But so recently hers, and such a glorious domain, where she should always reign solo queen. Oh, no ! "I am not going to wear out my welcome, as runs the saying," went on Velia, in her gay, gentle way. "One of these days I shall hear from Voyle. When Ido I shall go and keep house for him, and we will forget there is such a person on earth as Mr Jonas Claflin." And in her heart she innocently planned they would, till her wedding. Evelyn bent her head a little and looked up at her with an arch smile. " Are you sure there is no one save Voyle whom yon've promised to keep houpo for, Volla.!"

Vella smiled and sighed in the same breath, and blushed rosily. But she parried the question skilfully. " That was just what 1 was about to ask you, Evelyn." She would keep her secret a little while longer, Evelyn decided. It was all so new, so bewildering new and sweet yet, she would not lightly reveal it— not even to this loved friend of hers. '•What do you lake me for?" Bhe answered gayly. "To think that I should surrender my liberty, which I so dearly enjoy f Vella think better of me !" "If thinking bettei of you means considering you vowed against such surrender, I won't !" came the merry assertion. " I'll think worse of you." Evelyn gave a prodigous sigh. " Dear mo ! what an eloquent champion of matrimony. My child, it is easy to see that the noose which throttles but does not kill has never been around your own white throat." " You tried hard enough to convince me it was a few minutes ago," laughingly. " Now let us talk sense !" "We'll begin by diseasing the most unajsthetic and sensible things—food !" avowed Evelyn, as the servant entered with a tray. Five minutes later she laid down her cup with a quick ejaculation " Now, I understand ! If I wasn't forgetting to tell you about it. Your detention at the Starr's— was that the name ?— explains Voyle's telegram." vella started. "Voyle's telegram!" sherepeated. "Did he despatch you? From where? About me?" Evelyn nodded. " Yes. From Chicago. He askod if you were with me ? To reply if you were not I did so." Vella pondered. " That is very strange 1" " Why ? Did you write to him since you left?" ' " No, but I wrote Aunt Dolly, and if he is in Chicago he must have heard of me through her." "Well, he may have at the time, and be anxious now to know of your arrival here." " That may be .'" musingly. "In any case I shall telegraph him in the morning.' " But where '. He would kmlly go back 1 to your uncle's after his infamous treatment of him." "No, he would not. You are right. I had not thought of that. What had I better do ?" "Sleep on- it!" suggested Evelyn, promptly. " Your brain wlil be clearer in the morning, and you will be better able to decide." " But if Voyle is worrying about me " "My dear, he won't be ! He will think as you are not with me you are still at Starr's " A nd that settled it. Soundly and peacefully she slept that night. When she awoke late next morning Evelyn stood by her side a newspaper in her hand. "Look!" she cried. "Was it not well you decided to sleep on your dilemma? You can telegraph Mies Dorothy now without fear of detection by your uncle. Read that despatch to the papers !" Vella sat up in bed, her big brown eyes drowsy, her cheeks flushed with the delicious pink of healthful slumber. She took the extended paper and read : "Society hero is stirred to its foundations at the discovery of the marriage of one of ita wealthiest and most widely known citizens. Colonel James Vcrnell, known on 'Change as ' the lucky colonel,' to Mrs Chant, a dashing widow of tbi? city, The ccromony was si 'ictly private Colonel »nd Mrs Vornel'l are en route to Florida." Vella dropped the paper in blank astonishment. Her uncle married ! And ahe had always considered him far too old to think of him as a possible Benedict. He was married! And to that flashy widow she had met at Mrs Sylvia's ball. Goodness —uracio us ! "Well?" laughed Evelyn. " But beyond the bare, bald fact that he was married, her imperious, cold-hearted, grizzly headed old uncle, she could not even think.