CHAPTER XV.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 179, 20 November 1886, Page 8

CHAPTER XV.

" TWO HEARTS THAT| BEAT AS ONE." An evening at the Grand Opera House. All Paris ia gathered there to hear the great S aredish songstress", Christine Nileaon, where she is to appear as Ophelia in "Hamlet," and never had a more brilliant throng assembled to witness tbe triumph of an artist than on this night that was to bring joy supreme to two hearts and lives in which we are particularly interested. Mrs Houghton's party occupied a conspicuous box, and attracted much attention and admiraior, Margaret Houghton had never looked more lovely than to-nigh*, arrayed as she was in the palest of pink silk, with great clusters of white roses and green leaves in her belt and clasped in her faultlessly gloved hands, Not a jewel could be seen upon her anywhere, but her peerless face, all aglow with a wondrous light and beauty, held every eye spell-bound aa it was turned toward the box where ehe was sitting, Mrs Houghton looked regal in black velvet, relieved by diamonds of purest light, and ap peared a eupremely happy matron aa she sat beside her handsome and dignified husband, whose glance often turned and lingered upon her with a fondness that is rare after more than twenty-five years of married life. Ada Parker, bright, piquant little beauty that she waa, looked like some gay bird from ft southern clime in her dress of crimson satin, relieved by delicate white lace, and string of pearls on her smooth, fair neck and arms ; while Mrs Parker, in lady like grey, with ornaments of opals and diamonds, was bot by any means the leaet attractive of the party. The only other occupant of the box was Louis Dunbar, who sat a little in the rear of Margaret Houghton, and who, if one could judge from the expression of his face, was more absorbed in his fair companion than in the vocahsm of the great prima donna. '• What a grand, magnificent voice she has !" Margaret said, with a deep indrawn breath, after a auperb effort of the great sougstres?, while she lifted her lustrous eyes to the handsome face beside her. ■' She ha 3, indeed," Louis assented, but meeting her look with a glance that sent the rich blood bounding to her chaek, "Do you know," she went on, but dropping her white lids a trifle, "when I hear such a voice as that, I am thrilled through and through ; every fibre of my being is stirred, and I felt a deep and tender affection going forth from my heart toward the singer. Were you ever affected like that?" Leaning a trifle nearer her, he bent a thrilling glance upon her, and replied, with an earnestness that made every pulse in her body throb strangely : " Yea s Miss Houghton, 1 have," Something in his tone made her flash a quick look at him, and if ever a man's face betrayed a tender, yearning love, his did at that moment. He knew it, but it was beyond his power to help ifc, and he paw that she recognised it by the shy drooping of the golden lashes and the rosy, conscious tide that again swept upward and was lost beneath the waves of her Bhining hair. " ' Till the sun grows cold, And the stars are old, And the leaves of the Judgment books unfold.' An expressive silence fell between them. Meanwhile the great songstress was being recalled by thundering applause, and then came forward to respond, bowiug her thanks for the appreciation evinced by her audience. There was an instantaneous hush, every being in that great house banding forward with breathless attention, eager to catch the first tone of that ravishing voice. She sang a simple ballad— sweet, expressive, impassioned : "I love tbee: I love thee. With a love that shall not die Till the sun grows cold, And the stars are old. And the leaves of the Judgment books unfold." To Louiß Dunbar, sitting there, one shapely handresting lightly upon the back of his c 'mpanion'B ohair, his eyes riveted upon the beautiful face he loved so well, that song seemed like an open confession of the pastion that was surging in his own heart for her — of the worship that, for weeks, had been struggling for expression. ' During the first verse Margaret's . eyes were fixed upon the singer, but gradually as the vocalist'B blue orbs drooped until the white lids hid them entirely, while the soft lace which shaded her neck rose and fell with the quickened throbbing of her heart.

She could feel the trembling of that strong' hand upon the back of her chair, and eh© , knew that it waa from an intensity of* emotion which her lover was striving forthe moment to curb. She knew that. his* eoul, like her own, was responding to every sweetly intoned word, and a feelings of triumph took possession of her thattheriches of a great, deep, paßsionate, enduring love, such as this grand man was capable ofc bestowing, were all her own. "I love thee ; I love but thee. With a love that Bhall not die carolled that magic voice in its last fond* refrain, and then the gifted artiet glided^ from the stage while her audience sat spellbound as the last tone, so strangely, so almost painfully sweet, died dreamily away, leaving that great multitude enwrapped in a silence that waa akin to the hush of death. 11 Margaret J" whispered an impassioned yet tender voice in Miss Houghton's ear. The utterance of that beloved name had been involuntary ; it broke from the lips of her eager lovei almost before ke knew it ; the song had catried him out and beyond himself, and in that one word he had told her all that there was in his great keart. Her sweet lips trembled, the hands that were toying with her elegant fan fell nerveless upon her lap, then, as if attracted bysome mysterious influence stronger than her own will, she raised her flower-like face, and for brief second her glorious eyea flashed. up to meet his. Ah, me ! " thua the hands of invisiblespirits touch the strings of tbafe subtile instrument, the soul, and play the prelude of our fate." Here were "Two hearts in sweet accord, Each for each caring," lost to time and place, and all things save thajb they loved and were beloved. One blissful moment those fine brown eyes held the blue, then the quick, modest, maiden flush told that the startled girl feared she had betrayed too much. But Louis Dunbar had read the tender secret in hia darling's brief glance, and hia heart hai leaped with ite transport of joy. He had won her. He felt it in his soul. He knew that henceforth she would be all his own ; and, thus crowned with the gbry of her priceless love, he felt richer than any king. Just as the parties were passing out of. the opera house they were joined by Arthur Aspinnall and Mr Forest. Arthur ignored the fact that the latter evidently desired an introduction after he had greeted the others of Mrs Houghton'a party, while this neglect caused the quick blood to leap to Louis's face, and placed him. in an exceedingly awkward situation for a momeutr. He was struck by the noble face and bearing of the stranger, while something in the keen yet kindly glance which Mr Forest bestowed upon him made him instinctively trust him, and recognise in him a congenial spirit even before he knew him, Mrs Houghton, observing Louis's embarrassment, hastened to perform the introduction which Arthur bad purposely avoided, and then, after a few moments spent in friendly chat in the vestibule, they separated, going their different ways. Upon reaching home Mra Houghton gave Louis a cordial invitation to "come for a while," and then excusing herself upon the plea that she had some orders to give the servants, she passed directly upstairs, giving her husband a hint to follow. Louis led his fair companion into the parlour, where, with tender hands, he removed her cloak and hat ; then bending down to look into the sweet flushed face, ho whispered: " My darling, I love 3 ou with a love that shall not die Till the sun grows cold, And the stars are o'd. And the leaves of the Judgment books unfo'd. And not even then shall it die, dear," he continued, passionately, "lor it is a love that must last throughout eternity, because it has become a part of my very soul. Mprgaret, my pearl, my fair, white New England lily, have not your eyes already told me that I need not cue tor your love in vain ? I believe so ; but, dearest, let me hear your lips confirm it, then my cup will be full." He knew what her answer would be, for there could bo no mistaking the light on that fair, beautiful face, and he drew her into a fond, close embrace, laying one hand lovinglyj yet nervously, upon her golden head, hi 3 whole being thrilling with th© mighty love that filled his heart. And she ? She stood for one minute thua encircled, then she lifted her tender face to hia, while tears trembled upon her golden lashes — tears of wondrous joy which this Strand, inspiring love had called to her eyes.. " Louis ! Louis !" she murmured, and the very intonation of his name betrayed an affectioD as deep and true as his own. There was no need of words ; each knew that each belonged to the other for all time. Aye, and if in the misty future wedded souls could belong to each other — - for all eternity, too, " From the moment of our first cneeting, love — from that hour when you thrust thisdear hand between the iron bars of your - father's gate and dropped this little coin lin the dust at my feet— you have been the lodeatar that h&s drawn me onward and upward toward an honourable manhood, toward success Dnd — yourself," Louis said a little later, when both had become more familiar with the new, great happiness that had come to them. " Ab, Louia, you must have been already somewhat charged with honour and manliness, else you could have been drawn neither upward nor onward," Margaret replied with such fondness that he could not ! resist bestowing an appreciative caress upon the lips that had given utterance to the tender words. "Margaret," Louia said, suddenly and very gravely, "I am afraid I have done wrong in not telling you before this what I know of my history ; there is one blot upon my life which may make you hesitate to give yourself to me." " A Mot upon your life f" she repeated, lifting her startled eyes to his face and growing slightly pale. ' " Well, not exactly that, perhaps ; but a blot upon a life connected with mine." - " Ah, that is different !" she said, with a sigh of relief. "So long as you are good and true, what others may have done cannot, affect you." Tears sprang to the strong man's eyes at; these words, for nothing could be more touching and beautiful than this pure, unselfish love that he had won for his simple worth alone. ' But he told her all his story, not omitting the fact that his father was a man of whom he had reason to be ashamed ? and -with whom he could never be associated in any way, except to relieve his necessities if he should ever need such relief. " "What he has done or what he 'is cannot affect, you personally, dear," she said, with tender sweetness, when he had concluded ; "it is Louis Dunbor whom I love, and whose wife 1 hope "to be." ' For answer the young man* befit forward ■ and touched those, sweety reel' lips with his own., He had no language with which to answer her words of simple "faith 'and noble , trust. (To be Continued,)