The Storyteller.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7940, 2 October 1905, Page 4

The Storyteller.

o HIS HEART'S DESIRE. Under the shady sycamore tree in the garden of her father's house, tkty were sitting—he ami the girl he thought he had won. She was softly singing, in the voice he loved so much to hear, Kipling's song ol the flowers : "Boy my English posies. And I'll sell your heart's desire.'' Ronald Hammond Strang swiftly to his feet, and cried with a fervour that was wholly strange to him '. "All your posies—every flower in the world I'll buy—if y'ou will sell me my heart's desire !" Doris Chipperficld had a difficult' task to cloak her truej feelangs under a mask of disinterestedness, tor his words could only be interpreted into one meaning, an interpretation which she feared. So she answered, twite naturally, it seemed : •

"Indeed, Mr Hammond, I can scarcely thinW that your heart could possibly desire more than it has already. Everybody says that you are so proud o( your IHerarv successes,| everybody says—" "The thousand and one thinss Ihcv are totally ignorant of !" broke in Hammond hotly. "Everybody sav.-' that I am a fool and a cynic ; even - Uo*l>" says that 1 am selfish, self-cen-tred. Hut I am not too selfish to love. Miss Chipperffehl, nor hope, to lie loved. Can you not guess who it is that I love? Can you not ivaLsthe one thing above all others for which my heart cra\cs ? No ■' Tt js you, Miss Cliippcrfieid ! Tell me 1 have not loved in vain ?" For a few seconds thocc was not a sound in the garden. Hot even a leaf of the trees seeuied to stir, not ?ro,!! ar n 0W ~ 0, chir "- No *" ril «*<««•■ Irom Doris lips, until, suddenlv a and li' * nc I , .K hbOUllI 'B kennel ».ar:,e.i, and the sntl. was broken. "Really. Mr Hammond, it Is Impossible!! It is ofiyour own good I am Ulinliing. Your ambition, the realisation of which you prize so highly, must not be allowed to take second place in your thoughts. Were you to think seriously of love, with its final result in marriage, how handicapped you would be in lire great ra«c after fame ! You honour me by your avowal ; you would please me fry dismissing at once any thoughts of love (between us. The obstacles arc so many that it is Impossible." The light of burning love that had shone in Hammond's eyes had by now <juite disappeared. He again was the passionless man, with the passionless fate and the passionless vo:ce, that all but his most intimate friends (and they numl>crcd but tbree) thought him to be. He hated showing emotion, and, in cons»-

quence. hms oflcn misjudged. His pride alwavs loihadc lli.u he should show a sclUms rebuff, and. even now, lie spoke hatd and cruelly to avoid signs of great sorrow. i "Sd u is impossible, is it '.' The I obstacles ate too great, the hurdle ol ! wealth is too high for the runner of [poverty t'> leap to win the coveted •|iiize ! Perhaps, alter all, 'everyjbody' is right ; perhaps I am selfish, ; too' selfish even to love. Perhaps it .is ior the best ; perhaps there will 'tome a day when Hut such a speculation is useless, so I will bid you ('Good-morning !'—l will hid you I'Good-bye!' Here comes Jeffrey Tra'vers. His company will he doubtless ; inure agreeable, Good-bye !" I He bowed to Doris.,ami left the I garden. He went siiaight to his moJdest little Hammersmith flat, neatly furnished, and tilled with cherished 'mementos ; here he (lung himseli inJto an armchair.

"How I love that,girl !" he muttered. "1 believe she half loves me, yet is afraid of the old man. She knows he'd never sanction . the marriage if his daughter to a fellow Who lives on the piicaiious earnings of his pen, with no other prospects in store. 1 wish I hadn't been such a tool with Uncle Henry—lie might have left me something. I'll clear out of England for a couple of years. lien will take this li.it. .>ml keep it as it is now till I come hack. Then I may have forgotten that I ever loved, that it was ever, like a common manuscript—tejected !" In less tliau a week, he was ready to go. He arranged that his chum, Rert Kali-liner, should take his flat during hi- alisence, and keep it without disarranging it at all. Hut not a word did he sjv as to the reason of his going. His address,- lie said. was nowhere; his destination where Destinv should carry him. At the last moment Ronald decided to see Doris L'hipperiield for the last fareWell. Grimly he thought that the next time he saw her she might not be Dons Chipperfiehl. On the way to her house he entered the park, and. thanks loan adverse iate, met Jeffrey Travels. "Good-afternoon !" said the latter. ("Where are you off to '.'" ' 'Til now, to goodness knows where to-uujirow '" Travels started. A gleam or triumph flashed into his hard,. discerning eyes. "Why. what's the mischief? Are you in trouble '.' fan I help you at all.' Tell me all al>mit it, old chap. What's happened .'" Into the trap set by this modern Judas, Ronald lell. The whole story, from the beginning to the possible end—it was a lurid end—he poured Into the welcome ears.

He mushed. Travirs. during Hie iriU.il, ha-l been thinking lianl. maliciously haul. Hi- had a scheme on foot—a grand scheme, a Napoleonic scheme—a scheme which Ronald Hammotfl Was going to help. "Sony, so sony, old dial- '" lnsaid. '•Under tin- circumstances, you perhaps will not fully appreciate the honour you have of being tin. fust to congraiiilaic me on mv encasement to Miss Doris Cliippcrfieid.' liul no dou'il you will prove a brave vanc/jisln-d Half an hour ago she ronscnud to Income my wife !" It was a lif well told. So possible a lie that it was hound io sue cecd as lully as it did. "You—Doris—you. Then '(iod help ■ Dons !' is all ihe congratulation von will get irom mo :" He turned on l.:s heel, and strode rapidly back towards his Hat. I'ehind, on the paik seat sal ,Jeffrey Travers. I "Kool :'• he laughed. "He will not trouble to call on Ihe fair Miss Chiu.perfield now' And now for Emmie and success !" ' • Begin .ling Ronald he was- right. That veiy evening he iourneved " to Liverpool, and the next dav' started in the Teutonic for N>w y,,,!. u c might not have gone ii Travers told

him the truth, if lie had known that that very afternoon Doris, for his sake, had said "No!" to his rival. When Hammond hart passed out sight, Travels rose from his seat, left the park, and hailed a hansom. He drove home, and found there his sister, dressed to go out. "One moment, please, Emmie !" he said. "1 want to speak to you. A matter of importance."

His sister obeyed him. She always did, for she had no other choice. The only sister of a tyrannous orphan son cloes not lead a very enjoyable life. Her brother spoke rapidly, ingly"You ate to leave London af once —to-day. You must go straight away somewhere in the heart of the country, where it is absolutely certain you will meet no one you know. Not a soul except myself must know where you are. Do you understand ? You will go, won't vou dear, lor me ?" She had never refused him in his life; even in this she would not, could not. She simply replied '. "I suppose 1 must. Put why -all this secrecy '.'"

"To forward my marriage with the daughter of the monied Cliippcrfieid, my dear sister ; that's all. One Utile other thins >'"" »> usl ' ,O - Perhaps it will give you a little light on the subject. Hefore you go you must write a little note to me and leave it on your dressing-room .table. That note will be found by me tomorrow morning, and it must read : 'I have eloped with Ronald Hammond.— Emmie.' " Emmie's soul revolted at playing such a low-down trick as that, but she was not strong enough to withstand her brother's will, and so she did everything she was bid. Another month, had passed. Travel's had made full use of the '.iticf note ihat,had been left so ( suddenly by his erring sister. Travels of the sorrowful face. Travels mourning his lost .sister, disappointed. Ihat she should not ha\c come to him for advice. Travels, the lying hypocrite. Into the ears of Doris Cliippcrfieid Travels had poured all his woiv All his condemnation was vented on Ronald Hammond. It was he who was to blame for everything that had happened. If must have been he who had persuaded Kiiimie to mart, him surreptitiously. All along, Travers avowded, he had suspected Hammond of being underhand in his actions, lint, he loftily declared, h,| would not fake steps to trace his sister or the coward of whom sinwas the wife. They had euf their own course ; ihey must (read it ,>y themselves. In spite of the continual poisoning of her mind against Ronald bv Traver». Doris herself could not think anv evil of the man who oven-one hid said was so cold, hut who hid once proposed to her. Terri Sly she repented now that she had not spoken words o| encouragemen! to him instead of treating iiis avowal so insincerely. She felt now ihat she deserved the hitler Wolds iie had afterwards snoki n to h.-r. She knew now tlu-t Ronald was all in all to her—in spite of his many aults, in spite of his c.uiseic tongue. Now that lie was the husband "of some other girl, she saw that she had loved 100 late. Absence mav make the hear! grow fonder, hut i'l .■iiijdiayises a thousand limes Die .oeuness ol fell sorrow's tooth. Jcfircy Travels' scheme was working out badly, from his point ol iiew. II t . lud thought that, Doris' dol having been eflecluallv shattered hy his well-planned lies, in reaction her affections would ihe turned to ■dm. Hut in ihat he was doomed to drink the. bitterest cup of all—to train to the dregs the cup of Inmvillatiou !

Hi- had proposed for tln- liist iinn' <in the fateful afternoon that In- had met jltiJuald. ' A curl refusal iud been !iis reward. Three weeks later lie essayed again, with a like result. Another two weeks, anil he tliouslit Ins insinuations ajjainsl Ronald had (•'line into full maturity ; he decided to try yet once more.' (To be Continued),