CHAPTER IV. LOVE UNDER THK LAMPS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 410, 12 October 1889, Page 6

CHAPTER IV. LOVE UNDER THK LAMPS.

'How charmingly cool it is here,' Miss Dangorfield's fresh young roice was saying, as they came in ; ' how bewitching is this pale moonshiny sort of lamplight among the qransre trees aad myrtles, and oh ! Mr Daritree, how delicious that last waltz was. You have my .step as nobody else,has it, and you waltz so light — -"so light. It has been a heav.enly evening altogether !' She threw herself jnto^a rustic .chair as she spoke, where trailing vines and mircsori bloom formed a brilliant- arch over her head, and looked upat4iimVith eyes that shone like stars. * I wonder if it is only because balls and parties are such rare thipgs to me that I have enjoyed this so greatly, or because I am jusb seventeen, and' everything is delightful at seventeen ; or because — because — Mr Danbree, I wonder if you have enjoyed yourself ?' -I 1 [ have been in paradise, Miss Dangerfield.' ° ' And how gloomily he says it— and how pale and wretched he looks,' laughed Kabherine. 'Your paradise can't be any great things, judging by your lace at this moment !' . , ' Miss Dangerfielct, is it b'eeause my paradise has been so perilously sweet tliab I loolf gloomy ? The world outside, bleak and barren, must have "looked 1 Ctfebly bleak y d Eve when she lefb Eden.' ' Eve shouldn't have le t ft7 it then— she should have had sense and left the tempting apple alone.' ' Ah, bub it was so tempting, and it hung so deliciou'sly within reach ! And Eve forgot, as I have done, everything, the fatal • penalty — all the heavenly sweetness of the passing moment.' ' " • Well,' Misß Dangerfield said, fluttering her fan, and looking ap>vard, ' I may be stupid, Mr Danbree, but 1 I don'b quite , catch your metaphor. Eve ate that apple several thousand years ago and was very properly punished, and what lias that to do with you ?' ' Because I, like Eve, have eaten my apple to-night, and to-morrow the gates of my earthly paradise close upon me tor ever,' Divested of its |cPjun.cfc3, there wasn't much, perhaps, in this speech ; but given a young lady of seventeen, of a poebic and sentimental turn of mmd — soft, sweet music swelling in tne distance — a dim light — the fragrance u< of tropic flowers and warmth, ' and d. remarkably goodlooking young man — it implies a great deal. He certainly* looked dangerously handsome at this moment, with his pale Byron'ic face, his fathomless dark 1 eyes, his whole air of impassioned melan1 choly — a beauty as fatal as the serpent to Eve in his own allegory. No doubt that serpent came to our frail first mother in very beaubiful guise, else she had never listened to his seductive ' words. 1 The soft white lace, the cluster of blush1 rofids on Katherine's breast, rose and fell. ■ Sho was only seventeen, and over head and ' ears in love, .poor child. She laughed at his romantic words, but there was a ! little tremor in her clear tones I as she spoke' : [ 'Such a Sentimental speech, Mr Dan- ' tree. Sussex is a very nice county, and "' Scarswood a very agreeable place, no doubt ; "but 1 neither quite constitute my 1 idea of paradise. And what do you mean by saying you leave to-morrow ?' ' I mean I>dare stay no longer. I should ■ never have come here at all — I wish to Heaven I never had !' It was drawing near ! Her heart was } throbbing with rapture ; she loved him, I and she knew what was coming, but still J she parried her own delight. r 'Please don't be profane, Mr Dantree. You wish you had never come ? Now I call that anything bub complimentary to the J neighbourhood and to me. Be kind enough to explain your&elf, sir. Why do you wish ' you hadne.ver come?' ' • Because I have been mad — because I am mad., OOr»h r » Katherine ! can't you see ? Why 1 will you make me speak what I should die ' rathef than, utter? Why will you make ' me confess my madness — confess that I love you V ■ He made an impassioned gesture, and 1 turned away. Macready could not have :' done it better. His voice, his glance, his 1 passionate words, wers the perfection of first-class drama. And then there was dead f silence. c You do not speak !' he cried. * I have t shocked you ; you hate, you despise me i as l deserve !' He was really "getting " alarmed in spite of his conviction that she C was hopelessly in love with him. ' Well, I » deserve it all ! I sband before you penniless, - with neither 1 noble name nor fortune to 3 offer you, and I dare to bell you of my hopec less passion. ', Katharine, forgive me !' 3 The rich )green carpet was soft, there C was no one to see, and he rank gracefully > on one knee before her, and bowed his head i over her hand. b * Forgive me if you can, and tell me to \ go I 1I 1 Then his soft tenor tones died away

pianissimo in stifled emotion, and he lifted her hand to his moustached lips. It trem- • bled — with an ecstasy too great for words. He loved her like this — her matchless darling— and he told her to bid him go ! Her fingers closed over his, tighter and tighter — she bent down until he could almost hear the loud throbbing of her heart. 'Go !' she whispered, faintly. ' Gaston, 1 should die if you left me !' He clasped both her hands, with a wild, theatrical start, and gazed at her in incredulous amaze. 'Katherine ! do you know what you say ? Have I heard you aright ? For pity's sake, do not mock me in my desperation — do not lift me for a moment to Heaven only to cast me out again .' It cannot be — it ia maddest presumption of me to hope that you love me !' Her hands closed only the more clo°ely over hie ; her head drooped, her soft, abundant brown hair biding its tremour of bliss. , •• . 'I never hoped for this,' he said ; 'I never thought of this ! I knew it was my destiny — my madness — to adore you ; bub never — no, never in my wildest dream — did I dare hope you could stoop to me. My darling— say it just once, that I may know[ lam awake !' He was very , wide-awake, indeed, at that moment. ' Say ,just once,, my own heart's darling, . " Gaston, J love you ." She said it, her face hidden in his superfine coat-facings, her voice trembling, every vein in her body thrilling with rapture. And Mr Gaston JDantree smiled -a 1 halfamused, a half -exultant smile of triumph. ' I've played for high stakes before,' he thought ; * but never so high as this, or with half so easy a victoiy. And — oh, powers of vengeance !— it Marie should ever find this out ! There's only one drawback now — the old man. The girl may be a fool, but he's not. There'll be no end of a row when this comes out.' She lifted her head,froin his shoulders and looked up at him, shy and sweet. ' And you really care for me like this, Gaston, and you reallj thought I would let you qo — you really thought the difference in wealth and rank between us would be any difference to me ? How little you know me!' • ' I knew you for the best, the dearest, the loveliest of all women. But your father, Katharine — he will never consent to a poor artist like me coming and wooing his darling. ' ' You don't know him, Gaston ; papa would do anything on earth to please me — anything. When he discovers how we love each other, he will never stand between us. He lives but to make me happy.' ' You are sure of this, Katberine ?' ' Certain, Gasfcon ; your, poverty will be no obstacle to him.' - ' Then he's a greater fool than I take him for,' thought Mr Dantree. 'If I were in his place, I would kick Gaston Dantree out of the room. Good Heavens ! if I should marry this girl and it should get to Marie's ears ! If — I shall marry her — come what may. Eight thousand a year at stake, and Marie the only obstacle in the way, and hundreds of leagues of sea and land between me and that obstacle ! There is no turning: back now ; come what may, I shall marry the heiress of Scarswood.' He turned to her with almost real passion in his voice novr. 'Katherine,' he said, taking both her hands in his and looking in her eyes, ' whatever betides, for good or ill, you will not 1 draw back — for good or for evil you are , mine ?' ; She met his eyes full for the first time. - She was pale, but there was no tremour in L her voice as she slosvly repeated his words. i Clearly and firmly they came : ' Yours, Gaston — yours only. For good 1 ' of for evil, to the end of my life — yours !' For good or for evil ! — ominous words. For good or for evil the vow was plighted ; I and she stood under the lamps pledged to 3 become Gaston Dantree's wife.