CHAPTER LXI. SHE LITTED HER EYES, AND KENNETH STOOD BEFORE HER.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 194, 12 March 1887, Page 6 (Supplement)

CHAPTER LXI. SHE LITTED HER EYES, AND KENNETH STOOD BEFORE HER.

For a timo the vagrant heart of Leigh eaetned to turn to Violet with gratitude, almost with lore. He spoke kindly to her, had some thoughtful care for her com- " You wanted Magery Rogers for tho boy's nurse," he said, "and you shall have her. Adam shall go and bring her '■ here. You shall not be frightened again by | a stranger," He aent Adam for Magery, telling him to bid her be silent about her insano lodger, Bart Kemp. In a few days Magery had returned to the scene of her childhood, and the nursery where she had been little maid to the late lord's sister. Her passionate devotion to Yiolat and her child knew no bounds. " My lord," eaid Adam, seeking a private conference, the day after hig return, " while gone, 1 saw an advertisement asking news of Bart Kemp, and describing our man exactly. I went to the address given, and I found a little grey, shrewd lawyer. He told me what the man was like, oven to the big plaid suit, which is up in my closet now, for I put other things on him when I took him away. He told mo, my lord, that Kemp had been over twenty year 3 in Australia, and had made money, and that he had funds and papers belonging to him in his office. He says Kemp ia rather rich, and was with him the middle of November, and eaid he was going to Sussex, to hunt up a relation who wa3 ' high quality.' " •'Confound his impudence!" cried Leigh. "If he was rich, Adam, why did he come hero? Whit did he want from me? Why threaten me ? For, T admit to you, he did threaten me, and held up papers that were dargercus to me, he said. And when ho heard Helen Hope, as he came in, threaten to ruin me, he promptly promised to help nor." "Did Helen Hope see you together, my lord ? ' " Yes." "She saw me in the wood, aud said you had ridden by an hour before," Adam held down his head and pondered. Then he laid hU long forefinger on Lord Leigh's c^at-cuff, and said, earnestly : " Master, I have it She saw him fa 1 ! ; pha thought you did it : eho meant to screen you frcm others, and have you in her power." "Ib i-3 Adam. She has already accused mo of murder." "Of murdor? You! a Lord of Leigh? Thon, taster, as soon as aha heara of thia advertisement, eho will bo back to make son trouble. Oh, mi3ter, master ! in what a hopole-s net doa? a man entangle himself when ho puts himself in the power of a bad woman ?" Lord Leigh paced up and down. Tho iron wa3 in his soul. Then "he stopped abruptly and asked : "How much did you tell the lawyer, Adam ?" "I told him Kemp went to Sussex, and I being out in a wood, ono day, saw him fall as in epilepsy, and ho struck his head, and I did what I could for htm, and as he was out of hie mind I took him to my eiater, to be cared for till ho recovered, and that some months ago he escaped, I gave him my references and my sister's ; and I told him it was done out of kindness— and so it was -to you." " Well, "nhat will he do about it ?" asked Leigh, eagerly. "He cays he must advertise for his man, and if that does not succeed, must set the police to search for him, He has fifteen thousand pounds of his " " Then why did he come to mo 1" "My lord, perhaps curiosity; perhaps with the money he desired to get into some society ; or he may have wanted your aid to get a government position in Australia!" said Adam, who, from long living with his foster-brother, Leigh's father, was educated above his class. " If he could have found me alone I might have aatisfied him peaceably," said Leigh, with a sigh. Lord Leigh felt that some attack was likely to be made upon his birth and title.

What it could be he did not know, as he felt firmly established concerning both ; but there was his tenderest point, and there he believed that Helen's vengeance would wound him. He would need friends and helpers in such an emergency, and he sought to consolidate friendships with such men as Sir Tom Churchill, Lord Keith, and the Marquis of Alwold. If an attaok were made on his title, it must bo tried before his fellow peers. He concluded that it woold be well for Violet to renounce her resolution of withdrawing entirely from society and remaining in Sussex during all the season. She would come to town with the child for at least a month. "I am sure you must be lonely here, Violet," he said, when he made one of his brief visits. "I am, a little," said Violet, "though darling litflo Rupert is co lovely and amueing. But now the weather is better, the woods are beginning to leaf out, the earliest spiing flowers are blooming, and our gardens are full of crocus, hyacinth, and tulips- -it is fo pleasant here, I have been begging Edna to come here, and she will not ; the positively refuses me, and yet she loves me— l know she loves me." "No doubr ; but she doea nob love me." " But why cannot she come here, if she does not cue particularly for you, Norman?" \ " I'm always ploying the fool, Violet, and when she was here last summer I offended her with leferences to our earlier acquaintances, when she did care for me. I have not made you bappy myeelf, Violet, and I have succeeded in cutting you off from your frieud3. I'm sorry, upon my word 1 am, for you try to be good to me. Edna will not come here, but you can see her in town, and perhaps convey my apologios, and make a peace between us. You must cpme to town for a month or so, and entertain my friends. I supposed Miss Haviland's wedding would illuminate this season. Is Keith the happy man ?" " No : it is the Marquis of Alwold," said Violet, flushing. ! "So, she will be an earl's wife in time? Tho little Cornwall beauty, whom I won, and cast away," said Leigh, bitterly, "Do not epoak so, Norman ; if you had over really won her, tbink it would have been for ever, Edna is not a woman to love lightly or forget easily. It was merely a child's fancy, not a womau'a love, she had for you ; and surely, if you had really loved hor, you could not have left her." "Loved ! 1 believe, on my soul, it is not in my nature to lovo anybody," said Loigh, roughly, and hurried out of the room. But his jealousy of Edna and his frantic passion for her wero remembered. If he had Violet in London they must attend and give entertainments, which would at least bring him where he could see Edna, if even it was far off, and tho joy of seeing her was dashed with the pain of watching others worshipping at her shrine, or beholding a favourite suitor by her aide. ; Violet dreadod to go to London : her country home was so safe, quiet, and happy for her and for her child. But Leigh insisted, and when the primroses were all abloom, she went back to her Belgravian repidonce. Tho morning after her arrival she drove to Lady Burton's, taking Magery and the little tfupert, desirous of showing the datling to the friends whom she most valued. Her coming was as a festival. Mother and babe were overwhelmed with caresses and praises ; Edna carried the infant up to Lody Burton's boudoir, and Lady Burton came up, clasping her arm around Violet's waisb. '* You must have off your wraps and stay to lunch," said Lady Burton. "We are alone. Kenneth ha 3 been at the caatle this week, overseeing plans for new achoolhouses. We have an undisturbed day before us. I will give orders to admit no one. Tell us all your new joys and experiences, my little Violet ! How young and sweet you look, with the mother-joy in your shining brown eyes !" i"And look at this love of loves!" cried Edna, dancing the baby free of his satin and down cloak, and his marvellous Trench cap. "He is our Violet all over again. See! he bap her dimples, and her short upper lip, and her pretty brown rings of hair, and her eyes, all r°ady to laugh or cry. Oh, the pet !" And Edna caught the Jauifhing ir.faut to her bosom and smothered him with lueses. " Dearest Violet," eaid Lady Burton, tenderly, "I know how to feel for and Your experience is mine, I know hoW^thia child comforts and soothes yodr heart, and heals its wounds, and sweetens your bittor cup." "Ho does indeed, dear Lady Burton; and 1 am trying, oh, so hard, to improve, and to be a good, wise mother to him. He is so bright you cannot think. Let me have him, plaaso Edna ; I want to show you what he can do !" Violet took her child on her arm, and atandiug, an imago of gracious beauty, in tho cautre of tha room, said, coaxingly : "Now, Rupert, kiss your hand for mamma. Only see him ! ' She liffed her eyes. Kenneth stood in the doorway. (To he Continued )