For Honour's Sake.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7962, 13 February 1906, Page 2

For Honour's Sake.

CHAPTER XXJ.-.Continued. Tfollemache stared at his companion in silence for a minute, standing Ntill to do so. Was this true? It seemed so, and, at any rate, "payment by results" oould not land him in defeat. "Suppose I consent" he said, "how do you kuow 1 will pay up? You cau't have a contract for such a transaction." "1 don't know that you'll pay .tip," said Fancourt, quietly. "My security is, that if you fail—for I'll have the money before you are actually married, mind—l'll blow the whole thing to Mademoiselle Claude, and make my secret public property; then when where will you ne." "You're no fool!" said I'oilemche, ourtly. "All right, I'm your man. Get the girl to be my wife, by rariy means, fair or foul, and you shall have your five thousand pounds without fail." "Done!" said Fancourt. "Now I won't detain jou any longer. Goodnight." They shook hands and Darted, Tollemaohe going toward the Old Broth pton-Boad, and Faucourt back to, The Ferns. But, somehow, unscrupulous villain though he was, he wasn't so well satisfied with bis bargain as be thought he should be. Claude's youth and beauty were worthy of a better fate than to be sacrificed—sold—to such a as Tollemache. CHAPTER XXV. A SONG AND I,TS SENTIMENT. Mrs Davenant and Claude called at Carlton Housia Terrace, and Pauline was very graoious and asked . them to keep a date in the following fprtnight open for her soiree; and -Claude, though she accepted at the time, decided that she would not go, unless Captain Stewart wished it. ,How could the most magnanimous of wives be sincerely gracious to the woman her husband loved? And Pauline as among the least magnanimous. Moreover, she would have hated Claude for her fivalry in beauty. The girl's line sensitiveness, too, rebelled against the situation—to be the guest of the wife whose husband was, and the wife knew it, in a sense the guest's lover. . And Pauline's hypocrisy hsade it unendurable. Sooner or later, too, when she found her purpose a> failure, Pauline would turn round, and, declining to receive Miss Verner, inevitably link the girl's name with her husband's. "For hia sake," Claude said, in her heart, "1, can bear even that; but i will hot wait for her to brand trie. 1 will not set foot in her house again. JEaric cannot wish that 1 should." Would he come on Wednesday? sbe wondered. She might igot an opportunity tp ask him. How >sho longed to see him! He had only been once sinue that day, which would ever be for her a golden memory, and then, of .course, there were others preaeut, and he bad not spedally devoted himself to her. That ' was for her sake, and sbe honoured Aim the more for that self-denial, for she knew bow hard it was for him to keep away from her side. Wednesday oame, and with it many ♦'smart" people, among ithem Maida Westmon and Qua Langdalo, who, Claude thought, was beginning to find out what a gem the little widow was. « Claude was at the piano when Stewart entered the room, unannounced, iu order not to disturb the ainger; but she knew be was- there, though, from where she sat she could not see the door. She knew by the magnetic rapport of sympathy,,, but abe> would not even allow her voioe to quiver, and it flashed across; her, how strange that she should be singing this sung just as be camo in. It was Goring Thomas' "Une nuit de Mai.'' j Captain Stewart silently greeted his l&stess, arid one or two others,! and paused listening to the rich contralto tones.that be bad told the singer once ware "heart-breaking"; listening with wildly-throbbing heart; and then, when she turned to hina, and gave him her hand, only she could know how close the olasp of his was; only she heard the lowspoken: "My darling! thauks for the song. Was it for me?" "Ah!" she said, softly—what a light in her eyes, what a soft smile on her lips!—" The sentiment wa4 uttered sincerely, because I felt that it applied to my best friend." And then Stewart had to run the gauntlet of numerous greetings, and presently crossed over to where Maida sat, and talked with her a little. Maida was an enthusiast about Claude, and Stewart was more than costent to hear bis darling's praises chantod by the generous lit- , tie woman; it was good, too, for Claude to have such a friend. Stewart, who had his own opinions about the Davenants, foresaw that | their ward might one day need a | staunch friend of her own sex. "By the way," said Maida, after a while, lowering her voice, "have you ever heard of a Mr Fancourt, a friend or relation of Mr Davenant's, who is living here?" "No, never. Who and what is he?" "Oh! a gentleman, I am told; but broken down. An elderly man; he rarely * appears—nearly always keeps his own room; arid he , has no money, but Mr Davenant allows lira to live here for auld lang jsyne." Stewart pulled his qjoustaohe and thought. "Chris Davenant, I'll' warrant, never did a, kindness in his, life. If this Fancourt has an asylum here, it is because he knows too much for Chris to kick him outi" He said, with a suspicion of irony in his tone: \ "People are not usually kind to ( . poor relations. However, 1 suppose 1 this particular speoimen is of no special interest to any of us." Did he fever have reason to remember

By Bertlaa M. Clay. Author of ".Wife in Name Only," " Wedded and Parted," "Dora Thome," "A Queen Among Women," a a True Magdalene," etc., etc.,

those careless words? Gus came up just then, and Stewart resigned his place, with a covert, quizzical glance at hia friend, which the latter saw, and understood; but his glance followed the Scotchman's tall figure wistfully, and he drew a silent breath when he saw Stewart drop into a seat by Claude's side. "Such a man as Stewart can't know that girl and beep from loving her," said the major, iuwardly; "and what can come of It? I was afraid, from what I heard the day I came home, how it was, or would be. But I can do nothing. Love is something terrible in these volcanic nafcurns. And Stewart was bending down to Claude, and saying, in that soft, sweet tone, that was a caress in itself: "A few minutes—if only a tewby your side. It seems as if I had been exiled for months." She looked up, with that vivid smile iu her eyes. "It has been very long to me,too," she said, with a quick look round. ''Sweetheart." "There Is somethiig," she said, hurriedly, "( want to ask you—oh, no 1 can't here." (To be Continued), .