CHAPTER XXXIX. A BITTER PARTING.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 363, 27 April 1889, Page 5

CHAPTER XXXIX. A BITTER PARTING.

Dcjlcie's heart gave one great leap, and then stood deadly still. She neither spoke nor moved, but remained there rooted on the spot. No word of greeting passed between them on meeting, for both felt that the situation was too sevious to admit of ordinary conventional civility. Bob strode on, until he stood so close he could almost have touched her, and then for the first time she summoned up sufficient courage, with a timid sidelong glance, to look into his face. It was full of passionate emotion, his eyes shone dangerously, and his whole bearing was that of a man driven to desperation. At she sight, knowingand dreading the coming ordeal, the life-blood seemed to ebb from her heart. Bob was the first to speak. I Dulcie,' he said, holding out Mrs Shepperton's letter in his hand, while even the tones of his voice sounded hoarse and strange, ' I got this on my return to night, but, unless you tell me so with your own lips, nothing shall induce me to believe its contents. For God's sake say that they are n»t true.' j She took the letter and glanced at it hastily. Then several times &he essayed to speak, but the words died away ere they reached her lips, and with a bitter cry of pain that resembled the moaning of some dumb tortured animal, and a shuddering gesture of despair, she turned her head away in silence. Up till this moment he had believed and trusted in her, but now, on a sudden, the iron entered into his soul. That one significant movement confirmed his worst fears. He had expected a vehement denial, an outpouring of quick, impetuous v\ ords, and instead, she could not bear his gaze, but flinched under it as a man flinches from the touch of a hot iron. ' Ah !' he exclaimed tempestuously, ' you need not answer my question, or proclaim your treachery aloud, for I can read it in your averted face, and in your guilty eyes that dare not meet mine honestly and straightforwardly, as thope of true lovers should. You are a bad girl, and a wicked girl, and I have done with you for ever. I was a fool to imagine you different from other women. Thank God ! however, my eyes are open before it is too late, and now — at length — after the lapse of all these years, you stand revealed in your true character — a flirt, a coquette, and,' with ineffable contempt, c a jilt.' They were cruel words, only rendered pardonable by the keen disappointment he had endured, and by the sudden snapping of all the bonds of early faith and trust. It is a hard time for most of us when our youthful illusions are dispelled, and when that which we have worshipped from our childhood upwards appears no longer fine gold, but base metal charged with alloy. The blood in Dulcie's veins ran cold. ' Oh ! for Heaven's sake hear what I have to say in my own self-defence before judging me so hastily. Then perhaps you will acknowledge that circumstances have been too strong for ' ' I don't want any excuses,' he interrupted disdainfully. ' The facts are enough and they speak for themselves. Why, it was but one short week ago you lay in my arms, looked into my eyes and swore that your love was true, and I — poor fool — believed your protestations implicitly, believed that when our lips met, our spirits rushed together, little dreaming how admirable an actress you were, and how cleverly you could dissemble. I mistook for nature what, after all, was only art, and felt happy — oh ! my God ! how happy ! in the belief. Eight days have gone by since then, and now, no doubt, you have transferred your affections to Mr Denver, and tell him, as you told me, that he is dearer than any human being.' ' Never !' she interposed, passionately. 'If I were to see Mr Denver every j day of my lite, and every minute of each of those days, nothing could ever make me tell such a falsehood.' ' Indeed ! I should not have thought the art of deception would come so hardly to you, seeing to what purpose you have practised it already.' I 1 haven't practised it. Oh, Bob,' with a rising sob, * you are very hard and very cruel to me, and I did not believe you were capaMe of such unkindness,' 'Ha ! ha ! It is somewhat of a farce accusing me of unkindness — you who set the example. No, Miss Shepperton, if you want to meet with kindness you must go to Dennis Denver and seek it at his hands, for, since you have changed protectors, surely he is the proper person to apply to.' A burning blu3h rose to her brow. Her patience was being sorely tested. ' I have not seen Mr Denver since you left,' she said, trying hard to keep cool. He relented a little at this speech, but the demon anger still held the mastery over all his better nature, and he hardened his heart against her. ' What a pity !' he exclaimed sarcastically. ' I wonder how you have contrived to exist in the interval. However, 1 suppose it does not much matter, since you appear to understand each other so effectually. Allow me to congratulate you, Miss Shepperton.' He spoke in frigid tones of suppressed passion more terrible to bear than the stormiest outbreak, for they revealed, whilst they endeavoured to mask, intense inward emotion. She had endured a great deal, conscious that his reproaches were, in a measure, natural ; but now the climax was put upon her forbearance, and each biting sarcasm fell like the sharp stab of a pointed instru- A ment of torture. ' I cannot argue with you,' sho said, despairingly, ' but you will break my heart if you continue talking like this. Oh, Bob ! for Heaven's sake show me some pity, some mercy !' And she put up her hands entreatingly, as if striving to ward off a cruel

blow, though no physical hurb could compare with this bitter mental agony. 'Pity? mercy?' he laughed. 'Pray, what mercy or what pity have you ahown me ? Do you imagine yours is the only heart that can break ? Oh, Dulcie, Dulcie !' he continued, dropping his voice, and looking at her with dim, reproachful eyes, ' why did you lead me on step by step to propose, just for the gratification of your own vanity ? Did it amuse you to see me making a fool of myself ? I suppose you thought it was fine fun casting off the great stupid fellow who had cared for you all his life, and showing him how easily other admirers were to be obtained ? Nevertheless, it would have been more decent to have waited a little, for the awakening is horribly abrupt to a man whose eyes were as firmly closed as mine, and who believed in you so implicitly.' He had begun steadily enough, but he ended very huskily and tremulously. She turned and faced him with infinite compassion and boundless lore in her heart, and quick tears of pity — mutual pity — springing to her dark eyes. •Dear one,' she said, tenderly, putting her little hand on his coat-sleeve, ' you are labouring under a grievous misapprehension. Will you not listen to me, and hear all I have got to say ?' He was touched in spite of himself. 'What good can explaining do if the facts remain ?' 'Great good, dear. It will prevent our hearts from feeling bitter towards one another, and misjudging each other's motives. Oh, Bob, darling,' smiling piti fully, « people, when they are as much in love and as unhappy as you and I, cannot afford to quarrel. We have enough to bear without the crowning misery of disunion, and that is why I have listened in silence to the abuse you have showered upon me. I knew how great was the provocation you had received ; but when you accuse meof being false, surely, oh ! surely, Bob, you don't think that I myself am very happy V And she put up her pale face to his. He looked at it long and searchingly — greedily, as a man looks at some treasure that once was his, and now has passed into the keeping of another. And even as he did so he felt his wrath dying away and shame taking its place. 'Bob, are you so blinded by anger as not to see how broken-hearted I am, how thoroughly wretched and minerable? When I told you that I loved you very dearly and truly I was notf speaking a falsehood or acting a part, as you accused me of doing erewhile. I told you nothing but the simple truth, which now — as I stand here, under God's heaven, I tell you again. No other man can ever fill the tiniest portion of my heart. All my love is yours, and yours only. I have none left to give to anybody else. As for Mr Denver's wealth Icare nothing for it. If it depended upon my own will, and you were to say, «• Dulcie, come out to America and live upon ten shillings a week,"'. l would gladly do so ; for I would rather marry you and dwell in a labourer's cottage than have a hundred thousand a-year to spend as the wife of Dennis Denver. Bob, you believe me when I say this, don't you ?' and the sweet truthful eyes looked straight up into his, challenging an immediate answer, whilst the earnest voice, fraught with exauisite passion and misery, carried conviction to his mind. A man must have been worse than a heathen to have doubted her sincerity. ' Yes/ he said, feeling utterly bewildered; * I believe you. But why, oh ! why have you engaged yourself to another ?' * Because we are hopelessly ruined, and have lost every penny we had in the world. We are absolute paupers.' ' Well, Dulcie, I will work for you — for the whole family, if it comes to that.' ' Oh, Bob ! how good you are ! But that's not all. It appears mamma is suffering from some dreadful internal complaint — what, I do not know — only the doctors say it will kill her unless she can go on having every luxury and attention.' ' Is this true, Dulcie ?' ' Alas ! yes. Mamma told me all about it herself, and implored me to save her life. What else could I do, Bob V ' I don't know, Dulcie.' f I thought and thought it all over at night, until I ended by feeling quite ill. Then I had a terrible scene with mamma, and — and — I gave in. ' 'But surely some other means must exist ? Why should you make this hideous sacrifice ? It is downright inhuman of Mrs Shepperton to expect or to allow it.' ' Hush, Bob ! Were the circumstances similar, you would do the same for your mother. People are obliged to, they can't keep themselves, and Mr Denver haa promised to keep the whole fumily.' ' And you, my pretty darling, are the price. Oh ! it is generous of him entering into such a cold-blooded, one-sided, and unrighteous bargain !' ' Yes, Bob, it is in a way, though I wish to goodness he had not coveted poor me.' {To be continued,)