CHAPTER XVI.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 411, 16 October 1889, Page 6

CHAPTER XVI.

' O MY COUSIN SHAIXOW-HEARTED '' The middle of the day is past; before one by one they straggle down. Breakfast awaits each new-comer, hot and tempting. Trix eats hers with a relish. Trix possesses one of the chief elements of perpetual human happiness — an appetite that never fails, digestion that, in her own metaphorical American language, 'never goes back on her.' But Edith looks fagcred and spiritless. If people are to be supernaturally brilliant and bright, dashing and fascinating all night long, people must expect to pay the penalty next day, when lassitude and reaction set in. ' My poor Edie !' Mr Charles Stuarb remarks, compassionaiely, glancing at the wan cheeks and lustvele c s eyes, as he light* his after - breakfast cigar, 'You do look most awfully used up. What a pity for their peace of mind, some of your frantic adorers of last night can't see you now. Let me recommend you to go back to bed and try an S. and B. •An "S, and 8.,"?' Edith repeats vaguely. * Soda and Brandy. It's the thing, depend upon it, for such a case as yours. I've been seedy myself before now, and know what I'm talking about. ' I'll mix it for you, if you like.' There is a copy of Tennyson, in blue and gold, beside Miss Darrell, and Miss Darrell's reply is to fling it at Mr Stuart's head. It is a last effort of expiring nature : ehe sinks back exhausted among her cushions. Charley departs to enjoy his Mania out under the waving trees, and Sir Victor, looking fresh and recuperated, strolls in and bends over her. * My dear Edith,' he says, l how pale you are this morning — how tired you look. If one ball is going to exhaust you like this, how will you stand the wear and tear of ' ondon seasons in the blissful time to :ome?' She does nob blush — she turns a trifle imfttiently away from him and looks out. he can see Charley and Hammond srnokig sociably together in the aunny disance. 'I will grow used to it, I daresay. ' Sufficient unto' the day is the evil .hereof."' 1 Have you had breakfast?' ' 1 made an effort and failed. I watched frix eat hers, however, and that refreshed 'i 6 quite a3 well. It was invigorating only co look at her.' He smiles and bends lower, drawing one long brown silken tress of hair fondly through his finders, feeling as though he would like to stoop'a'mi'kiss the pale, weary, face. Bub Trix is over yonder, pretending to read, and kissing i? not to be thought ot. 'I am going-over to Catheron Royals,' he whispered; 'suppose you come — the walk will do you g*ood. 1/am'giving orders about the fitting up of the 'old place. Did I tell you the workmen came yegterday ?' ' Yes ; you told me.' • Shall I ring for s you¥ hat and parasol ? Do come, Edith.' ' Excuse me, Sir Victor,' Edith answers, with an impatient motion. 'I, feel too tired — too lazy, whichever you' like — bo stir. Some obher day I will go wibh pleasure — jusb now I ,feel;like'lyino 'here'" and doing the dolce)far hiente. Don't let me detain you, however.' He turns to leave her with 'a disappointed face. Edith closes her eyes and takes an easier position among the pillows. The dour closes behind him ; Trix flings down' her book and bu,rsts > forfeh : y „ , ( ' Of all bhe Heartless, "cold-blooded 'animals it has ever been my good fortune to meeb, commend me t\p Edibh Darrell !' The dark eyes unclosed 'and iooked up at her. ' . - •My dear Trix ! what's the matter with you now ? What new enormity have I commitbed ?' •Oh, nothing new— nothing new at all,' is Trixy'3 scornful response ; 'it is quite in keeping with the rest of your conduct. To be purely and entirely selfish is the normal state of the future Lady Catheron ! Poor Sir Vicfor ! who has won you. Poor Charley ! who has lost you. I hardly know which I pity most.' 1 1 don't see that you need waste your precious pity on either,' answered Edith, perfectly unmoved by Miss Stuart's vituperation : ' keep ibfor me. I shall make Sir Victor a \ cry good wife as wives go, and for Charley— well, Lady Gwendoline is left to console him.' 1 Yes, of course, there is Lady Gwendoline. 0 Edith ! Edith ! whatare you. made of ? Fiesh and blood like cJthsr people, or waxwork, with a stone for a heart '! How can you sell yourself, as you are going to do ? Sir Victor Catheron is no more to you than his hall-porter, and yet you persisbin marrying him. You love my brother, and yet you hand him over to Lady Gwendoline. Come, Edith, be honest for oYice ; you love Charley, don't you ?' *It is rabher late in the day for such tender confessions as that,' Edith replies, with a reckless sorb of laugh; 'bub, , yes — if bhe declaration does,, you any good, Trix— Hove Charley.' ' And you give him up ! Miss Darrell, I give you up as a conundrum I can'b solve. Rank and bible are all very well — nobody thinks more of them than I do ; but it I loved a man,' cried Trix, with kindling eyes and glowing cheeks, ' I'd marry him. Yes, I would, though he were a beggar.' Edibh looked up at her kindly, with a smobhered sigh. ' I believe you, Trix ; but then you are different from me.' She half-raised herself, looking dreamily out on the sunlit prospect; of lawn, and coppice and woodland. ' Here it is : I love Charley, bub I love myself betber. O, Trix, child, don't let us talk about it ; lam tired, and my head aches.' She pushed back bhe heavy, dark hair wearily off her bemples with both hands. I am what you call me, a selflsh wretch — a heartless little "brute — and I am going to marry Sir Victor Catheron. Pity him, if you like, poor fellow ! for he loves me with his whole heart, and he is y a brave ,and loyal gentleman. But don't pity your brother, my dear; believe mp* he i doesn't need ib. He's a good fellow, Charfey, and likes me, bub he won'b breaik^hw heart or commit suicide while he has a cigar left.' ' Here he comes !' exclaimed Trix, 'and I believe he has heard us.' ' Let him come,' Edith returns, lying listlessly back among her cushions once more. 'It doesn't matter if -he has. It will be no news to him.' 'It is a pity you should miss each other, though,' Trix says sarcastically, as she turns to go ; '.such thorough philosophers, both ; I believe you were made for each

other, and, as far as easy going selfishness is concerned, there is little to choose be--tween you. It's a thousand pities Sir* Victor can't hear all this.' ' He might if he liked,' is Edith's answer. ' I shouldn't care. Charley !' as Charley comes in and Trix goes out, ' have you been eavesdropping ? Don't deny it, sir, if you have ■' Charley takes a position in an easy-chair some yards distant, and looks at her lying there, languid and lovely. * I have been eavesdropping — I never deny my small vices. Hammond left me to go to the stables, and. strolling under the window, I overheard you and Trix. Open confession is beneficial, no doubt ; but, my dear cousin, you really shouldn't make it in so audible a tone. It might have been Sir Victor instead of me.' She says nothing. The sombre look he has learned to know is in her dusk eyes, on her dark colourless face. ' Poor Sir Victor !' he goes on ; « he loves you — not a doubt, of that, Dithy— to the depths of idiocy, where you know so well how to cast your victims ; but hard hit as he is, I wonder ivhat he would say if he heard all this !' ' You might tell him, Charley,' Edich says. ' I shouldn't mind much, and he might jilt mo — who can tell ? I think it would do us both good. You could say, "Look here: don't marry Edith Darrell, Sir Victor ; she isn't worthy of you or any good man. She is full of pride, vani y, ambition, selfishness, ill-temper, cynicism, and all uncharitableness. She is blase at nineteen — think what she will be at nine-and-twenty. She doesn't love you — 1 know her well enough to be sure she never will, partly because a heart was left out of her hard anatomy, partly because — because all the liking she ever had to give, went up long ago to somebody else." Charley, I think he would give me up, and I'd respect him for it, if he knew that. Tell him, if you have the courage, and when he casts me off, come to me and make me marry you. You can do it, you know ; and when the honeymoon is over — when poverty stalks in at the door and love flies out of the window when wo hate each other as only ill-assorted wives and husbands ever hate — let the thought that we have done the " All for love, and the world well lost " business, to the bitter end, console us.' She laughs recklessly ; she feels reckless enough to say anything, do anything, this morning. Love, ambition, rank, wealth — what empty baubles they all look, seen through tired eyes the day after a ball I He sits ailenfc, watching her thoughtfully. 'I don't understand you, Edith,' he cays. 'I feel like asking you the same question Trix <iid. Why do you marry Sir Victor ?' ' .Why do I marry him?' she repeated. t ' Well —a little because of his handsome face and stately bearing, and the triumph of carrying off a prize, for which your Lady Gwendoline and half a score more have battled. , A little becauae he pleads so eloquently, and loves me as no other mortal man did, or ever will ; and oh ! Charley, a greaodeal because he is Sir Victor Catheron of Catheron Royals, with a lentioll of twenty thousand a year and more, and a name that is older than AJagna Charta. If there be any virtuein truth, there — you have iiy plain, /unvarnished. I like him— who pould help it ; but love him no !' She clasped her hands above- her head and gazed dreamily out at the sparkling sunlit scene. 'I shall be-.very fond of him,, very proud of him when I am his wife — that 1 know. He will enter Parliament, and make speeches, and write political pamphlets, and redress the .wrongs of the people. He's the sort ot man politicians are made of— the sort of man a wife can be proud of. And on my wedding day, or perhaps a day or two before, you and I shall shake hands, sir, and see each other no more.' 'No more ?' he repeats. • " ri Well, for a year or" two at least, un"til all the folly of the pa3t can be remembered oniy.as a thing to be laughed at. Or until there is a tall, handsome Mrs Stuart, or, more likely, a Lady Gwendoline Sbuart. And Charley,' speaking hurriedly now, and not meeting the deep grey eyes nhe knows are fixed oii-on her, ' the locket with my picture and the letters — you won't want them then — suppoee you let me have them back.' ' I won't want them then, certainly,' Charley responds, ' if by " then " you mean when I am the husband of the tall, fascinating Mrs Stuart or Lady Gwendoline. But as I have not that happiness yet, suppose you allow me to retain them till I have. Sir Victor will ne\er know, and he would not mind much if he did. We are cousins, are we not ? and what more natural than that cousins once removed should keep each other's pictures ? By-the-by, I see you still wear that little trumpery pearl and turquoise brooch I gave you, with my photo at* the back. Give it to me, Edie ; turquoise does nob become your brown skin, my dear, and I'll give you a ruby pin with Sir Victor's instead. Perhaps, as turquoise does become her. Lady Gwendoline will accept this as love's first timid offering. The rubies will do twice as well for you.' He stretched out hi 3 hand to unfasten it. She sprang back, her cheeks fiusning at his touch. ' You shall not have it ! Neither Lady Gwendoline nor anyone else 'fchall wear it, and, married or single, /shallkeep it to my dying day if I choose. Charley — what do you mean, sir ! How dare you ? Let me go !' For he had risen suddenly and caught her in his arms, looking steadily down into her dark eyes with a gaze she could no ( t meet. Whilst he held her, whilst he looked at her, he was her master, and be knew it. ' Charley, let me go !' she pleaded. 'If anyone came in ; the servants, or — or — Sir Victor.' He laughed contemptuously, and held her still. • Yes, Edith ; suppose Sir Victor came in and saw his bride-elecb with a sacrileuiouß arm about her waist ? Suppose I told him the truth — that you are mine, not his ; mine by the love that alone makes marriage holy ; his for his title and his rent-roll — bought and sold. By Heaven ! I half wibh he would !' Was this Charley — Charley Stuart ? She caught her breath — her pride and her insolence dropping from her — only a girl in the grasp of the man she loves. In thab moment, if he had willed it, he could have made her forego her plight, ahd ! pledge herself, to be his whoJy, and he knew it. ' Edith,' he said-, ' as I stand and look at you, in your beauty and your selfishness, I harclly know whether 'l, love, or despise you most. I could make you marry me — make you, mmd — but you are hot worth it. Go !' He opened his arms contemptuously and released her. ' You'll not be a bad wife for Sir Victor, I dare say, as fashionable wives go. You'll be that ornament of society, a married flirt, bub you'll never run away with his dearest friend and make a case for the D.C. " All for love and the world well lost;," is no motto of yours,-my handsome cousin. A week ago I envied Sir Victor with all my heart— today I pity him with all my soul !' • ' X He turned to go, for once in his life, thoroughly aroused, passionate love, pas-t sionate rage at war within him. She had sunk back upon the sofa, her face hidden in

her bands, humbled, as in all her proud life she had never been humbled before. Her silence, her humility touched him. He heard a stifled sob, and all his hot anger died out in pained remorse. ' Oh, forgive me, Edith !' he said, ' forgive me. It may be cruel, but I had to speak. It is the first, it will be the last time. lam selfish, too, or I would never have pained you — better never hear the truth than that the hearing, should make you miserable. Don't cry, Edith ; I can't bear it. Forgive me, my cousin — they are the last tears I will ever make you shed.' The words he meant to soothe her hurt more deeply than the words he meant to wound. 'They are the last tears I will ever make you shed !' An eternal farewell was in the words. She hoard the door open, heard it close, and knew that her love and her life had parted in that instant for , ever.