CHAPTER XXXII. "HE IS THE ONE LOVE OF MY LIFE."

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

CHAPTER XXXII. "HE IS THE ONE LOVE OF MY LIFE."

"Come!* said Lady Burton, in response to Violet's faint knock. She was lying on her sofa, resting, and when the door swung open, and showed the little Countess of Leigh, pale as a snow-drop, clad in white, dark nervous rings under her sweet brown eyes, the motherly arms of her friend were held out to her, and Violet with a cry sprang forward, andhid her face on thebosom of the one who truly loved her. Lady Burton softly stroked the silken hair, murmuring : "My darling, my dear little girl, what is grieving you ?" With shrinking shame and sensitive selfscorn, Violet had been hiding her miserable story in her heart, and wearing smiles and cheerfulness, even in her saddest hours, until she had deceived Lady Burton herself. The hour for reserve was passed; her womanly sense told her that safety now lay in this friend and counsellor ; but her only answer for a time was wretchedly sobbing in Lady Burton's arms. "What is it?" said Lady .Burton, caressingly. " What has troubled the lo\ r6ly little chatelaine of the Towers ? Have titles, and fortune, and happiness oppressed you, Violet?" " Happiness ! Oh, Lady Burton, lam the most miserable woman in the world ! ,Who could be so wretched as I am ?" " Dear child, how little, it seems to me, you know of sorrow ! What can Ido for you, my darling ?" *• You can go away ! Oh, go, please go ! Leave the Towers this day, this hour !" " Violet! Have I grieved you in any way that you wish me to leave you ?" •' You ? Oh, no, Lady Burton : you only in all the world have seemed like a real mother to me But you must go. Go, and take Lord Keith with you. Let me never see him again ! Never ! never 1" ', Lady Burton started. •'Violet, what does this mean? How has my boy angered you ? I am sure any cause of grievance must on his part be unintentional. He is most delicate and chivalrous in all his feelings toward women. If he has offended you, let mediate between you. I want to see you two friends. I could not have hate between my son and this little girl that I love." " Hate ! Oh, Lady tiurton, are you so blind ? Cannot you see that it is not hate between üb—but love ! But thank God that you have not seen, that you do not know, for then I am sure, no one will guess this terrible secret of wasted and embittered hearts. Lady Burton, take him away, I beseech you ! I cannot endure the torture of his presence. He is the one love of my life ' And, oh, I am married to another —to love Kenneth is a sin." Lady Burton turned deadly pale. She took Violet by the shoulders, and held her back, Bcrutinising the white tear-wet face. " What!" she cried, *' has my son, whom I have reared to be the soul of honour, come to hia friend's house and employed his time iv making love to his friend's wife ?" "No, no ! Do not blame him, it is not Kenneth, it is all my fault —not his —only mine." "I do not understand. My poor child, what is this ?—have you given your heart so easily —in these les3 than three weeks ?' " Do not look at me so, Lady Burton. Help me, pity me. It, is not in these weeks only that 1 have seen him. But four yoars ago—four years! for cix happy weeks, as never were lived anywhere else out of heaven. I knew him in Lincolnshire, and we loved, and promised each other to be true - and we were parted—and my grandmother cauiebetween, andmade me think him false. Oh, Lady Burton, how wealth and faithless in Kenneth was my heart! I did notsee him again until 1 was married ! And I found he had loved me, and hoped for mo, ail that time. And then it was too late !" What! This that Lady Burton had most de°ired—the honest love of Kenneth and Violet—had been, had ended in utter darkness ; they had loved but to part and be miserable. She folded the sobbing grirl to her breast, and in the safe shelter of her arms Violet breathed out all the miserable story. She hid nothing ; her struggles, her pain, her husband's unlovingness, and the times that Keith had caved her, going to Hombure: to bring home her husband ; and that very day saving her from a death which sometimes she passionately desired. 'It must end," she moaned, " You remember bow I said, I should always do my duty? 5 And you yourself told me on that fatal marriage day, that when all was lost save honour, one must live for honour. lam Lord Leigh's wife, and must be a faithful wife until I die. And Lady Burton, how can I pray to God 'deliver me from temptation* when I daily live in temptation ?" " You are right, my own, sweet, noble love ;we will go. I will spare you this at least—the presence of the man you love. Oh, how wrong it was for him to come here." * ' Do not blame him, Lady Burton. From what Lord Laigh wrote he feared I was ill and unhappy, and he could not stay away; he wanted to help me; to have you help me—but the best help is for him to stay away ! When I see how much better, and handsomer, and kinder he is than—than anyone else ; how can I help loving him more ? and I must not, I will not do that," said Violet, ingenuously, lifting her innocent, child-like brown eyes to Lady Burton's face. "My darling, I honour and love you for this frank confidence. I shall devote myself to trying to help and comfort you both." " Yes, think of him," said Violet simply. "I would far rather be unhappy, than have him unhappy, and you do not know

how sad' his heart ia, He really loves me for myself, Lady Burton. Is it not strange* when so few can do that ?" u Who could help loving yon, sweetest and best of girls ?" aaid Lady Burton, drawing her arm oioser, as she thought of all she had lost in this oharming creature. " It is a comfort to me, in all my sorrow," said Violet, weeping, " to know that I have been loved by a good man like Kenneth ; it makes me feel more sure of myself, and I am resolved always to try to be good and noble, bo be shall feel he was not mistaken: in me. But Lady Burton, do you think I must live yeara and years, so unhappily t Will I live to suffer as Jong 1 as you and my mother did ? It seems that I am not so fearfully strong that sorrow will not be able to kill me quickly." " Dear Violet, neither grief nor joy kill the young quickly. It is the old, those whose natural springs of life and vigonr are weakened, that die of the pressure of heart ache— and you so young and fair ) Who can sympathise with you so well as 1 can ? I have lived through a most unhappymarriage; bub I found comfort in doing my duty, and my child came to console me and to give me something sweet to live for." " But I shall never have that comfort, 1 fear," said Violet. " I'm doomed not to be best loved where I can love." "Do not think that, dear. Your inno cent life, your kindness, may be an inspiration to your husband ; you may save him from evil ways, and win his love ; and you know we are apt to love where we are benefited. When my Kenneth's father, on his death-bed, called me to him, and thanked me for all I had been to him, and said he had learned to appreciate and love me, then I felt xepaid for what I had suffered." " That can never be for me," said Violet, " for Lord Leigh not only does not love me, but he does love someone eke. I have heard her spoken of as a wonderful beauty. She lives near here. He wanted her invited here. Only think of that ! Her name is Mis* Ambrose." "Mies ambrose?" cried Lady Burton with a start. " Yee. JDo you know her?" Lady Burton was silent. Violet insisted. " Tell me— have you ever seen her ?" " Yes, I have," said Lady Burton, reluctantly. " Atter today I may never sac you again much," said Violet ; "let me tell you how I love you, and how I wiah I had been more under your guidance." " But surely we will meet, as ever. You must be in London next season ; you must be presented at Court— that belongs to your position ; and I am to present your friend, Gra^be, when your aunt, the Countess Montressor, presents you. You must take your place in the world, as hero at the Towers, valiantly, if you moan to fight your battle ' well to the end You are young ; these new and changing scenes will help you." <l 1 don't look forward at all," said Violet. " I only take up da\y by day. And i"f lam in London, I shali mcct — Kenneth." *' Not often ; and, believe me, you need fear no moro from him. He shall help you bury a Lwe that fate has eaid must die. Give us until to-morrow morning to leave. When the letters come this evening, I will announce an immediate departure, and no comment will be oxcited."