For Honor's Sake.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7942, 17 January 1906, Page 2

For Honor's Sake.

CHAPTER IX.—Continued. "Decidedly," returned Maida, laughing; "ifc would be n good thing for ber, iu a worldly point of view. INllemacbe has lota of money, and she, I bear, has little or none. 1 dare say the Daveuants encourage him. Chris is juat the sort of man to loik upon a beautiful girl as a marketable commodity. I wonder he hasn't succeeded in getting her off before now; they have been flashing about in Paris, Vienna, Borne, everywhere!'' Ah, that cruel life! Uow bad Claude oame thro ich the ordoai? But he could not endure the agony of hearing her discussed as one might any butterfly of the season; ho changed the subject back to Tollemacbe. "And now they ara trying London," be said. "But when did Tollemacbe come out as a London man?" "Oh, at the fag end of the winter season.' He went the pace like the best of them—"o doubt be did that at home, too," said Mrs Westmore. "Then he vanished and came up to town ten days ago; knocked up against Davenant at a club, and Davenant invited him to tbeii house at South Kensington. But you can. never make a Loudon man out of Squire Tollemaohe—bo's so heavy! There is always, to mo, the scent of the bay about bis Bond Street .. clothes!" "Poor Tollemaohe! How unmerciful you are, Mrs Westmore." "Am I? Women are censorious, you now. -Here comes Lady Meldune and your wife, and we must be trotting. 1 have enjoyed our chat so much." "So have I," he said, smiling. "1 shall renew tbe pleasure at the earliest opportunity." "Mind you do!" And just then the other two ladies oame In, and tbe visitors took their leave. Stewart saw them to their carriage, then went straight to his study, and flung himself down, covering bis face. Claude so near to him! so near! and be worn and spent with the long agony, the hopeless strife! What ÜBe to avoid her? He might meet her in any ballroom, at any fete or garden party: and, oh! for one touch of her hand, one look into tbe sweet eyes that were ever gazing at him from tbe depths of his soul! He was madfl—mad with pain and longing, sick with heart hunger. That he, of all men, should be denied even a little love—he to whom love was a paramount need; he must have it—h« was growing reckless, desperate. He dreamed of no wrong to Claude; bis heart was her shrine, before its saint he knelt in worship. Had not his love for her been his salvation? Without it, he was loyal to tbis love,, as only the finer, more ideal natures can be to a passion whose object is "lost to sight." He could not listen now to the voice that had called him back a thousand times from the all' but overmastering temptation to seek Claude—the voice that pleaded for her peace—that bade him remember the wrong he would do her to .win her love; auob love as his was a compelling power, the more so when given to one whose whole nature was in affinity with his ownr "Let me suffer," he had said, "not her—my darling!" and had turned back in time. But be gave ho heed to that voice to-day; he heard it, bat its accents were faint and uncertain, drowned in the tempest of his passion and his anguish. Temptation was by his side, within his gra&p, and his strength'/was weaker to oppose it, He gave up the battle—he yieldei himself captive—he stretched out his hand, and caught temptation to his.heart, and held it close—close; and heard only the passionate cry of his soul for its supreme need; saw only the wistful eyes that looked Into his across the desert of those two years that were as'a thousand for the anguish they held, and said to him "Come!" CHAPTER X. "I HAVE YOUR SECRET NOW AND I SHALL MAKE USI OF IT." It was past one o'clock whei Esrio Stewart entered Lady Allis ter's crowded salon, and was re ceived with effusive delight by th hostess, and by all, and they wer who knewhim, aa he made hi way through the^rooms. It was not difficult to find hi wife; she was always a centre of at traotion, and he soon discovered hei seated on a couch, surrounded b a group of men; she looking radi ant in satin and diamonds galore. "Ah, there is my husband!" sh said. "I am not going home yol Earic." "1 wiil look you up again pr< sently," Stewart said, and was tun ing away, when the loucl, heart voice that had greeted him tw years apo on the Boulevard -Hausi mann, went through him like ahock. "Captain Stewart—by all that lucky! Well met again! So you'i turned up without a scratch, el What in tbe world made you go oi to such a place?" And Stewart ht to resign his hand to the ample graf of Chris Davenant, while bis bea stood still with the mingled dret and Hope of meeting face i face. Yet be'eaid, smiling: "I beard that you were town. Are your wife and ward wii you to-night?" ' "Mj wife, not' Claude. She'll I pleased to know I've met you. Y< must come and see us. There Julia, yonder; come and talk to he will you? and you will run down ns?" added .Davenant, as Stewa turned away with biro toward whe Mrs Davenant sat.. "The Ferr Cranmore Road, South Kensingto We shall expect you soon." '"lhanks.-I will oertainly give m self the pleasure," Stewart answere

By Bertha M. Clay. Author of (i Wife in Name Only," *' Wedded and Parted," "Dora Thome," " A Queen Amonff Women," " A True Maydalene," etc., etc,,

as he might have accepted au invitation to which the conventional form of the answer would apply; and every nerve of his being was quivering with the thought of ail that answer hold for him. Julia Daveuant. who looked very handsome in red satin, shook hands warmly with Stewart. "Sunh a treat to see you!" she said. "1 am so sorry Claude is not with us this evening; but, of course, you will come, over and see us. We are always at home ou Sunday and Wednesday evenings, and generally, at present, in the afternoons. Your wife has been pointed out to me. How lovely she is!" Ho bowod. The truth was too obvious to be treated as a mere compliment. "She is surrounded by admirers,"' be said, laughing; "I have hardly spoken to her." "The penalty of having a beautiful wife," said Mrs Davenant. "How odd that we never mot abroad! were you in Vienna, after your marriage?" "For a little while; before you went." "You heard of us there, then? Claude made an immense sensation. She had splendid offers, but she is romantic, and refused them all. The world doesn't seem to have changed her intrinsically odc bit." "Thank Heaven for that! my purehearted darling," said Captain Stewart, inwardly. Aloud: "1 suppose by 'romantic,' you mean she thinks love an important factor in marriage?" "Well, yes; I'm afraid I'm very worldly, Captain btewart; besides, I think a airl will learn to love any man «?bo is kind to her." (To be Continued).