CHAPTER XXVII. LOST TO HIM FOR EVER MORE. "Oh, my Amy; tender hearted, Oh, my Amy, mine no more."

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 187, 15 January 1887, Page 6

CHAPTER XXVII. LOST TO HIM FOR EVER MORE. "Oh, my Amy; tender hearted, Oh, my Amy, mine no more."

" I supposu thiß means truce," said Hartington, "and my laying down my arms, for with a young countess of Leigh, I foresee a long troop of future Leighs, and an end of my expectations." " Pshaw ! you don't need expectations - you're rich," Baid Leigh. '* It means not only truce, but more. I want to marry you, man. What do you say to an earl's daughter? We have asked Lady Clare Montre3Bor, and mean to make a match between you." But before many days the keen eyes of Colonel Hartington and the motherly orbß of Mrs AinsUe saw that all was not right between the young couple. So did othera. •* If I thought Tom Churchill would care no more for me than Leigh does for Violet, I would say * no ' the minute he asked me," *aid Grace to her mamma. "Tom Churchill is a different manmore freehearted. J eigh always was rather sour," said Lady Fanshaw. "No doubt he has his peculiar disposition from his mother, but the Loigha have always been a very honoured line." " And what about his mother ?" urged Grace. "Oh, I fear she was little better- than .in adventuress. Had been married before, I believe, and her father was a retired officer, living mostly on his wits. Lord Leigh pensioned him. She gambled, so they -aid. She only lived five years after marrying Leigh, and the affair has been hufhei up. She was in London the season I came out— a tall, dark, handsome woman v/ith black eyes, too near together, like her 'cti'?, and features like his. You will see her portrait in the gallery. This Lord Leigh has done well for himself, marrying a sweet creaturo like Violet." Colonel Hartington noticed the coolness of the married pair— the shy sorrow of Violet, the indifference of Leigh — and hugged himself with the thought that he might be Earl of Leigh yet. "If this lady dies of chagrin, or falls in love and elopes, or my cousin Leigh dies without heir — and what with late hours and brandy he is wearing himself out in a ghastly fashion —my turn may come." But Mrs Ainßley, direct of nature, went straight to Leigh. " You and Violet are not so happy as I thought you were. I'm afraid you don't understand the dear child. She looks sad and lonely. No one can make up to a young woman for her husband. I fear you don't pet her enough. She is used to being made much of." " Yes, I see she is a deal spoiled, and fond of her own way. She set herself against some visitors I wanted, for one thing. And I don't like these martyr airs, tor my part. If a lady has dislikes, she should keep them to herself. Perhaps you had better speak to her, to have a little more aplomb or dash— something besides those sudden starts and blushes, and wet eyes and longing looks." "Do you mean I am- to find fault with Violet ? I would not, for the world. I never did in my life." "Not if she deserved it?'

"Certainly not. To begin, I would not believe ehe deserved it/ said the loyal unt.

" A man must be master in his own home," said Leigh. " I wanted to ask a Miss Ambrope, and Violet flatly refused to have her." " Why, that's odd. Is she afraid of too many guests ? Now I wanted Lady Burton and Keith, and she refused me, too. I wanted to bring Keith and Anna together. You see the entire responsibility of these girls is on my hands. Mr Ainslie says he cannot take care of girls' affairs ; he only knows ledgers and markets." " See, now," said Leigh, always fond of intriguing for what ho wanted. " I'll try and manage to bring Keith and his mother here, and you must do as much for Miss Ambrose. She's in the neighbourhood, and you'll make her acquaintance. I suppose the only trouble is a little jealoufiy." I " Violet's mother was rather sensitive and queer, but I laid it to her blue blood and I suppoeed you'd know how to manage such notions in Violet," said poor Mrß Amelia. But while these two were negotiating to betray her into receiving undesfted gueete, Violet, surrounded by the bright faces of her friends, her lately lonely home filled with laughter and song, returned hereelf to the smiles and cheer of six months before. Each morning she came into the breakfa3t-room fresh as a rose. Now dipped in Paphian wells of sleep, her bloom returned, brightnepa lay in the brown eves as sunbeams gleaming on dew ; and Violet's voice led the rest in proposing some new sylvan pleasure. Yet now and then the realipation that Leigh did not care for her, that she was not the one dearest to any one of those about her, that she had no strong heart on which to lean, overcame her, and drove her from the gay group, and brought the ready tears. Grace Facshaw found her thus, in the connervatory, standing in the tropic warmth of the orchid house, the marvellous manycoloured flowers blooming about her, splendid but scentless, and forced as her own life Grace clasped her about the waist. •' Darling Violet, why are these tears in your eyes ?" Violet broke from her, and ran into the next compartment. Grace followed her, and knelt before her, clasping her arms about her again. " Violet, tell me— are you not happy ?" But Violet caught great clusters of Jacqueminot and Rothschild roses and showered the vivid, fragrant petals over her kneeling friend, with a burstof laughter, then ran into the music- room, and played Strausa's waltzes in a dashing, wild way, very different from the dreamy sweetness of her usuf»l playing. And all that day she was very merry and bright among her friends. Grace Fanehaw forgot her fears, and was the liveliest of the group. After dinner she ■went out into the garden to get lilies with dew on them, "to improve her beauty," she said ; "she was such a late sleeper, it was hopeless for her to think of getting morning dews," When she came in, her charming little Psyche head, with its rings of yellow hair, was shininer with dew. '•Oh, mamma," she cried, "fael my heed !" and bending graciously, she extended the pretty pate to the maternal touch. " Vioiet, feel my head, how wet it is. Mrs Ainslie, I cannot leave you out of such a treat." : She was passing Lord Leigh, and, full of mischief, she bowed the round ringed crown before him. "You, too, my ord?" With a laugh, he laid his fingers on the wet locks. Hie smile was full of admiration — as who could help admiring this fantastic, charming creature? Mrs Ainslie suddenly awoke to a foolieh fear She wont f o Violet's room that night and said, anxiously : «•' Why do you have that pretty, gay Grace ? I believe she is trying to flirt with your husband." " Nonsense, aunt ! She is almost engaged to Tom Churchill." •• I've been watching him," said foolish Mrs Ainplie, in distress. " You must look more to him, Violet. I'm sure he id getting in love with some one." •'Not getting !" said Violet, turning white; "it v is done, but it is not Grace Fanahaw. There, aunt, never speak of this again. I can bear my own burden till it kills me." Poor Mi 8 Ainslie cried heartily most of the night, and left her room late next day. Instead of finding Violet and her household shrouded in gloom, the good woman in the corridor met a "rabble rout," nearly as motley as that in Comus. The entire party ■were dressed in thope ancient treasures of the Towers— court and wedding suits of Lordß and Dames of Leigh. Violet's hair was done a la Pompadour, and she wore a ehort-waisted, pillowsleeved, long-trained robe of purple velvet, trimmed in gold lace. Grace Fanshaw was in the dimmed glories of a maid of honour of Elizabeth. Lord Leigh wore the black velvet suit in which one of his line went to welcome William of Orange. And Tom Churchill strutted about in the guise of a Leigh who went to France to convey over the luckless Henrietta. Others had come out in garments of different ages, and a troop of butterflies could not be brighter than they, as the sunshine poured over them when they rushed out on tho terraces. A week of this masquerading and other entertainment, a^d one day Violet chanced to wander off plone toward the grand entrance gates. Along that very walk came swinging with great, eager strides Kenneth Keith. Violet's eyes were downcast, her heart absorbed in musing. Kenneth saw her from afar in the fleching sunshine. This slender shape, eilken and slippered, the trailing iris robe held up in one delicate hand, the head drooping a little on one Bide as a flower oa its stem, soft perfumes stealing about her as she came— this was she, his Violet ; but no, not his ; gone into other and such unworthy keeping. Lost to him for evermore.

Violet looked down and flushed ; she remembered her wedding-day. " Lord Leigh invited both myself and my son — I wrote you that Kenneth had returned — and Kenneth at first refused to come j but as I said I would not come without him, and we feared that you needed me, he came. Where is he ? He walked from the gates. Oh, here, behind the carriage. My son, come and be presented to Lady Leigh." Kenneth Keith stood upon the step of the landau ; they wore in a false position, but it was Violet's place to speak Violet held out her hand, her face crimson ; it was at Lady Burton she looked. "We have met before ; he was in Paris when we were, and " " Oh, that ia delightful ! I hope you love each other." 11 1 had seen him before, too," said Violet, i bravely, "and remembered him; «nd ! Leigh asked him to meet us in Switzer* lland" " And we came to Dover in the same steamer," said Keith. " So, you see, we are old friends," added Violet ; and Keith took his place opposite her, and she sat by his mother's side, and so they drove up to the entrance, and so they might have sat it they had been man and wife, and not two cruelly-sundered hearts. Lord Leigh had invited Keith and his mother in thie secret and imperative fashion, with no thought of any danger or unhappinees in bringing Violet and Keith together. He waa not so deep a villain as to deliberately put his wife in peril ; he did not consider her enough, to think that she might ever be in peril ; he was the centre of his own thoughts ; he fancied if he brought more of Violet's friends about her, she would be less opposed to inviting Miss Ambrose ; and, also, he had secured Mrs Ainelie as an ally for that invitation. He had gone out on the terrace to wait for the landau which he had sent privately to the station, and meant to go and surprise Violet by his announcement of the arrivals. To hia astonishment, she rode up to them, holding Lady Burton's hand, smiling and happy. " See what I did for your gratification," ho whispered, as the party alighted. ♦•Thank you— you are very good, Norman," she suid, softly. "Then remember to be equally good to me." " I want to be good," she said, looking wistfully into his eyes ; "won't you help me — help me all the time, Norman ?" She pressed his arm gently with her little hand, and then took Lady Burton up to the rooms which the house-keeper at Lord Leigh's order had made ready. She had time for scarcely a word with Kenneth until they were all on the moonlit terrace after dinner, when her husband eaid to her : " Take Keith to the great fountain, Violet ; it is very fine by moonlight," "Yes," eaid Violet. "Come, Grace, and Churchill ; a good thing is always better when it is shared." 11 1 hope you are not sorry that I came," said Keith, as they stood by the fountain, Grace and Sir Tom lingering a little behind. " Yes, I am," said Violet. " Then I'll teave directly, on some exeuee," said Kenneth. "I only yielded because from Leigh's note I feared you were in deep trouble, and needed my mother, and she would not come without me." "1 don't know why he wrote," said Violet, " and if I had my choice, I think I might get on better with my lot if you were nor, here. I like to think you remember me," aha said, lifting her ingenuous eyes to , his face. "But since you are here, stay. I prefer it. Norman asked you, and would think it strange if you left ; and it would vex your mother." " Let us fill up the days while I must remain, with various entertainments,'' said Keith, " and I will disturb you as little aa I can, Violet." " Entertainments !" cried Grace Fanshaw, coming up : " did I hear that choicest word in the English language ? Violet, Tom and I have just been thinking of entertainments i in the way of tableaux. Let ue arrange for them. You have such a 3tore of ancient i and magnificent dresses to draw from. Tom and I will do the quari ailing lovers in 1 Tennyson's letters." " Yes," said Tom, " let the scene be • Like torrents from the mountain source i We rushed into each other's arms !' " ! "Indeed, no," said Grace, " we'll have : it at the lines — ' Full cold my greeting was, and dry : She faintly smiled -she hardly moved,' right in the very height of quarrel." "By all means, let us have tableaux/ cried Keith. 1 The theme was a safe one, and that evening and the next day passed in discussion, , and in ransacking the treasures of past ages. , It was very natural that the other t members of the party should suggest scenes . where Violet and Keith would be together, , for the well-developed, Saxon, manly beauty k of Keith was a noble contrast and harmony . placed beside the shy charms of the brown- . eyed, browned -haired Violet , But Violet and Keith were both hard to please ; if one did not object, the other . was sure to do so ; until Lord Keith's [ astonished mother cried out: "Son, you have lived in the Orient, away from woman's society, so long, that . you seem not to know how to behave your1 self!" ; " King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid' '. was a popular choice for a tableau, and , Kenneth waa hailed with acclamation as the , king. But where was the maid? j i Whilo this subject was in discussion Lord , Leigh had laid his plans for making Mrs , Ainelie acquainted with Edna Ambrose, , and by their united efforts forcing Violet to , invite her. He planned in his heart for 3 a tableau of "Rose the Gardener's Daughter," where Edna should be Rope, " a sight to make an old man young," and he the artist. What was his consternation when one , day, at lunch, Lady Burton said : " Do you know, I have found the very ' ideal of the Beggar Maid, if any one knows ' her to ask her. Keith and I met her out . walking. The most exquisite blonde I ever . saw, all arbutus bloom and gold, and eyes ' true violets, if you can imagine violets of > heaven," "You are enthusiastic!" cried Tom Churchill, laughing. ' "My mother is right— she was a perfect nymph," said Keith. " What was her name ?" demanded Mrs ' Ainslie. jealously, for there was her Anna, , to whom Keith had as yet paid only pant . attention. "Miss Haviland," replied Keith, ' promptly. "No one we know !" said Leigh, in a I sudden white fury of jealousy. "We mußt find our Beggar Maid here, I fancy, for Violet cannot make friends promiscuously [ with all the county !" So ! Keith had seen Edna, and had * bowed down and worshipped evidently, us any man must. Not for a thousand poundß [ would Leigh have Edna asked to the Towers > while Keith was there ! What ! have the ] woman he had deserted, and now madly " adored, marry Keith, and so drift for-ever from his own life 1 Selfishly hefelt that aa ' she had not married him, he wished no one else to possess her.

The result was that Violet herself waa forced to be the Beggar Maid . All insisted, so that further refusal was impossible. And a wondetful little image Bhe waB, her silken, brown hair rippling down her shoulders ; her slender, satin-smooth arms folded across her breast ; her lovely, entreating eyes Htted j her face pathetic, sweet— the very ideal of the lines : " As shines tho moon in clouded skies, She in her poor attire was seen." Dangerous indeed the innocent glances that leaped between the young king rising from his throne and this moat fair of Beggar Maids. " Seemß to me, Lord Keith is putting a good deal of heart in hiß acting !" cried Mrs Ainslie, furiously, in Lord Leigh's ear, jealous that the tithe of such admiration had never been in his looks at her plump, pink Anna. Lord Leigh only laughed. The jealousy that could stir him in behalf of Edna could not move him toward Violet. Besides, to do him justice, he had full confidence in. both wife and friend. " I hate tableaux !" cried Violet, as she ran into the dining room to take off her "poor attire," and don her blue brocade, •* I'll never act in another !" " Why, you should be in one every day in your life," asserted Grace. "Yoa loosed simply delectable. Every one wanted to bug you." # But poor Violet, troubled by Keith a involuntary look, and the tumultuous beating of her own little heart, felt that she owed something to Leigh. What I she dare to be jealous 1 She stole to him as he stood apart, and took his hand. "Norman, I have been wrong. Invite Miss Ambrose, if you like." " Miss Ambrose ! Not I. 1 don't like— I'm sick of the name of Miss Ambrose."