CHAPTER XXX. "THESE WORDS ADD AN INSULT TO ME."

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 188, 22 January 1887, Page 6

CHAPTER XXX. "THESE WORDS ADD AN INSULT TO ME."

And where had Leigh been on that eventful day? No Booner had the plumes of the riders, and the particoloured parasols of the landau, disappeared along the road, than his headache disappeared with them, and he made straight for the little villa of Miss Whately. The sound of a piano, softly played, led his steps to a window opening to the ground, and draped within with white lace, and without with climbing roses in abundant bloom. In the cool and shaded apartment the graceful figure of Edna Ambrose and the golden glory of her hair were seen. Leigh stood watching her for a few minutes, until the mysterious consciousness of a fixed gaze drew the player to turn around, and she rose. "Is Miss Whately at home ? I have not had time until now to call upon my old friend," said Leigh, smoothly. ** My aunt went to London this morning," replied Edna. That was no news to Lord Leigh. It was the accideutal hearing that Miss Wiately had been seen buying a ticket for London at the station that morning which had given him his suddenly cured headache, and turned his feet toward Rose Lodge. When Edna answered him, he dropped uninvited into a chair, leaned back his bead among the cushions, aud said : '•Play for me, Edna. It was in this room I fir6t heard you and saw you. You were all in white, a white rose in your hair, and your aunt was leaning back in this very chnir, listening to your playing a nocturne. How particular she was not to introduce me ! And you slid out of the room as a sunbeam withdraws its shining ! But that look waB enough. I found out where you lived, and in three months followed you to Cornwall, you remember ?" " I remember." " And, warned.by your aunt, how hard you were to get acquainted with ! Why had she warned you so ?" " Because she foresaw that things would turn o»t just as they have, and did not see that I might be left heart-whole as 1 am," eaidEina, with a quiet smile. Lord Leigh looked into that lovely, radiant face, and saw that smile that was like nothing so much as a sunbeam. The gates of paradise seemed open to him, and its glory flooded his soul. " How cool, and calm, and sweet it is here," he said ; "so very much better than the Towers, with its lively crowd. Did you not meet some of our visitors the other day ?" " Yes; a most charming elderly Lady: she saw me sketching, and though I am shy of strangers, she won me before I was aware. And then her son came up—a very handsome young man—a kingly Saxon; he should sit as a model for King Alfred's youth. Leigh ground his teeth with rage. "Don t speak so !" he cried ; "he may be dancing attendance on my wife, but I cannot hear you praising him; it drives me mad !' "Ido not understand you," said Edna', coldly. " May not a were friend praise whom she pleases? And if he attends too Cloaely on your wife, is it not that you abandon her to any attention that may come her way ? Why are you not with that lovely young wife this minute ?" " Because I wanted to see you, because your voice is as music of heaven, and your face an angel's to me. Oh, Edna, how much rather would I be living with you in such a sweet, quiet home as this, than lord it at the Towers ! vTby, why have I lost you ?" A noble indignation crimsoned Edna's face and anger leaped from her blue eyes. " These words are an insult to me. Leave me, Lord Leigh, and never venture into my presence again." But while they had been speaking the sky had darkened, and now the thunder and lightning and flooding rain—which later in the morning swept on the party at the Druid ruins—broke over Rose Lodge. " You will not drive me out in the storm, will you ?" said Leigh. " No ; but I can leave this room to you until the weather permits your departure." She turned, offended, queenly ; but Leigh in a tempest Of passion, flung himself at her feet, and seized her white robe in his eager trembling hands. " Edna! do not leave me to ruin and despair ! Stay where I can see you. Has love no claim ? Does grief deserve no pity ? Oh, cruel heart, to be deaf to love like mine!" He forgot he had coldly scorned and rejected the equally passionate love of Helen Hope for himself. " Listen to me, Lord Leigh," said Edna. fl Less than three months the husband of the sweetest of women, your free choice, whose acceptance has saved you from ruin, you dare insult me with protestations if your love! Heaven knows I never expeoted to fall so low as to hear such a shameful appeal as thie S Every word you apeak shows me that God was good wheu he kept me from being your wife. Listen ! 1 shall leave this place, and go where 1 cannot see yon or hear you. My indignation at you *,i» only equalled by my compassion for your wife. If ever we meet again, it will only be| because If see some? way *of helping and comforting her. I have always loved art, and now that I have an ample fortune from my uncle, and from him a changed name, I shall go and pursue art with all my soul. For you, Norman, go and repent!' She wrested her garments from his grasp, and, darting from the room, closed the door behind her. When he heard her fleet foot running up the etair, he dashed out into the storm, and drenched and bareheaded, fled back to the Towers, and locked himself in his own apartment. Hie rebuffed love consumed him as a frenzy. *******

Three days passed— days in which Leigh was sullen and retired, because he learned through Adam's chat about the loss to the cottage people, that Miss Ambrose had gone away, not expecting to return. "And they do say," continued Adam, " that, though she's not married, her name is changed, and she is Haviland, taking her uncle's name, with his fortune." During these days Lady Clare arrived, and Colonel Bartington began to pay her attentions, which were amiably received. •'I don't believe Lord Leigh will live three years," said Lady Clare, calmly regarding her former suitor, and summing up his life chances. uHe looks consumed by some inward fury or fever. I may be Countess of Leigh yet." Grace and Sir Tom were also absorbed in each other. Grace had said "Yes," and she and Sir Torn seemed floating round in a heaven of happiness, like a pair of triumphant gods borne on rosy clouds. Violet was left usually to Kenneth Keith, with the simpering, undiscerning Anna for a third, about like a dummy at a game of cards, Very often Violet fled, away and^eft Keith to endure Anna's smiles, and platitudes, and serene silences, alone. On such occasions she walked in the plantations by herself, and Keith, in terror lest some evil overtake her, would follow her ignorantly," and be himself her greatest danger. He found her so one day, sitting on a mosßy bank, from which a beautiful wood path opened. The pain she felt at seeing him stung Violet to brief anger. M Why did you follow me 1 Why do you always follow me? I love to be alone !" "It soems so lonesome, and perhaps hardly safe for you." "Not safe? Surely there can be no danger here, and by day ?" *f Certainiy not," admitted Keith : " but it looks so forlorn." " And if I wish to be forlorn I—if1 — if it is my destiny?" cried Violet. "I hate being always followed. My aunt, and grandmother, and governess always did it. Why are you actiug juBt like them ? Stay with Anna, and let me a'one." "It is not prudent— not proper," began Keith, offended that his society was so evidently odious I "It is a pity if Ido not know what is prudent and proper, when I am nearly nineteen," said Violet, contumaciously. " I am going to walk up this path, and / am going by myself!" and she rose and walked her choaen way. Keith did not follow her, he eat plaiting grass, and writhing with rage and mortification. He did not know exactly what amount of guardianship a pretty damsel needed ; but when her olive green gown with its fluttering ribbons had disappeared aloDg the path, he felt he must not be too far from her. Tho path taken by Violet was deeply shaded, and on either side rose steep banks, crowned by thick copse, loved of rabbits. Lord Keith ascended the left hand bank, and moved along above the path, but hidden by the bracken and hazel bushes. He went in deep gloom, hie head bent, his heart sore, and temper irritated. Violet pursued her elected path— finding it, for all its beauty, anything but pleasant. She had never been ao unhappy in her life. The cruel bitterness hidden iv her young heart sent a mist of tears across her wide innocent eyes, and the woe welled over and ran down the pink and dimpled cheeks. Both the honest young creatures were miserable following their divided ways. Finally Violet came to a granite column almost as high as her shoulder. It had been a milestone years ago, when this lane was a frequented bridle-path. Tho top of the stone was covered with lichens, and a great striped snail was crawling on it. Violet stopped with her hand on the stone, looking at its minute life of lichens and beetles— but seeing nothing clearly. Then she hoard a fearful noise, between a howl, a cry, and a roar, and looking up saw a terrible creature rushing towards her. An enormous man with ragged red hair and beard flying to the winds— eyes bloodshot, red, scintillating under bushy browe, a great row of white teeth like fangs glittering in his open mouth, head and feet bare, his body naked from the waist up, coming with long leaps, his arms held high, and both hands grasping the handle of a large hatchet ! This appalling figure whirled down upon the pallid little countess, screaming : " Die ! witch, die !"