For Honour's Sake.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7964, 15 February 1906, Page 2

For Honour's Sake.

CHAPTER XV.—Continued

a "Dearest, forgive me. I should have ' remembered. 'One moment. Make some excuse not to come to the soiree. I think Pauline has some other ideas besides the intention of mak- • ing you feel her power to wound, but they are probably vague,; she w nob .clover; her will to plan and plot far exceeds her ability." "Do you mean about Basil lone- - •maobe? I thought so," Claude said, '"when she gave him a seat in be; carriage, and he has called on her since.!' . •■ L ... , /■ "And"!," said Stewart, "have iorbidden her to cultivate his acquaintance; it is better rome, my.dar ling, to be forced to see him with you;, but that 1 have no power to forbid. He shall not be received as a frieu3, or even a guest, at my IIQUBG '*' "But what"-01aude half smiled >now-"cau she hope to do? She could not make me marry lolleanacbe." ~ " , _ . "Heavoukuowa!" said .Stewart. •♦•Pauline is'an intriguante by nature end would be a very dangerous one if she had more brains; even '.as it is, she may prove mischievous. As a drunkard, though he be a pauper, will always find money lor drink, or a starving gamester something to stake on.cards, so au un- - scrupulous woman, however small her brain, has always wits enough to work evil. Come, we will go m • no W " ' But first he folded her to him albsely, and kissed her with lingering tenderness, and then be led ler back toward the house. Two .or three couples were still mgerihg .neartho window. They looked after Stewart and his companion as the passed through the open window into ".the drawing room, and one lady said, ina low voice,: to her companioa: "I.wonder-if la belle Pauline approves? Chris Uaveuant doesn't ■seem to care, but I should think .Stewart far too fascinating a man tfor private interviews with my ward, .were I in bis .place." ■ ■ "And she too fascinating for him, , replied <the gentleman. "But all the married men flirt now you know, and he's a soldier into the bargain. "What will Basil Tollemache think?" the lady said, "of Captain Stewart cutting him out with Mademoiselle Vemer?" "Oh! Tollemache hasn't a chance, anyhow; and, after all, you know, Stewart isn't here nearly as much as some of the men.'' ' "But he's easier to fall in love , with than any of them," replied the lady, shrewdly, embodying in her answer pretty well the Basil Tollemache's remark: Me cm win as much favour with a girl in seeing her twice as most men can in a'dozen times." .;,,/" CHAPTER XXVI. , ■" A DETERMINED HUSBA N D. When" Captain Stewart- reached home Pauline bad not yet returned from the ball. He went into the drawing room—how dreary it looked, though it was artistio, glowing with soft tint; he hardly knew why he came here more than anywhere else; He was too restless and excited to lead or to sleep; but he threw himself into a chair, and mechanically caught up a book lying near. Ashe did so. something fluttered out from between the leaves, and fell or the carpet at bis feet. He glanced down and saw that it was photograph, face downward. He stooped and picked it up. - It was a countenance he had never seen, but there, was no need to ask . -whose it was, for the name, "Rich- - .ard Arnold," was Drinted under it. .Stewart gazed steadily at theeoun- ,• teri'eit presentiment, and th«!living face expressed anything but approval of the pictured one. it was taken -evidently in Arnold's London days; the name on the baok was that of a famous" West . End photographer, arid therefore showed tne man at hia, test; but that best, to Stewart's ' keen perceptions, was bad enough. His quick eye at once detected the faults Maida had spoken of to Lady Meidune; which just prevented Arnold being good-looking; the closeset eyes, and nose "out of drawing. "So that is the Ace of Spades, he muttered. He bad of course, heard Arnold's sobriquet. , Well, he looks it! I only wish to Heaven," setting his teeth, "that he lived." fc . He put the pbotograh aside to give it to Pauline. Probably she was not aware of its being in this book, which, he saw, was a French novel, with her former name on the fly leaf. ■ 'r, ■ i. • The novel was vapid, or Pauline would not have cared for it, and Stewart dropped it, after a minute or two, and went to the library; but be did not read there; he only' Spaced up and down, and all his thoughts were of Claude— only Claude. How soon could he see her again? He heard bis wife come in and go upstairs, and bow sharp and bitter was the inevitable sense of contrast. Had it been Claude, be would have been with her, or gone to fetch her. Claude, mistress of his house as of bis heart! Ah! was not that Picture ever before bim from | the "time he knew, and knowing, '. loved her? . Men, are, *ffcer all, more passionate lovers than, women, and the most nomadic of men, if-capable of deep feeling, flfnda an intense fascination in the idea of home, and clings to the ideal even when the reality is ; unattainable. • Kario Stewart, a wanderer by taste, who had roamed over halt the globe, yet cherished* always that passion for home; not only for fthe ancient bails of Lochmohrthougb these were dear to him as only of centuries can be -buo home as an home as not even Lochmobr could be, without love. ■/, : . „ . There were no Lares on.the hearth

• By Bertha-. HE. Clay. ■ Author of « Wife in Name Only," " Wedded and Parted," " Dora Thome," " A Queen Among Women," " A True Magdalene," etc., etc.,

by which Pauline sat; they coqld never be there. Captain Stewart had never known them: never would know them. About half-past eleven next morning, Stewart, on hia way out, knoctced at bis wife's diessing'-joom door, in case she should be' up. Her voice answered him, "Come ifc, and he entered.' She was sitting by a little table on which stood her morning chocolate, and several open 'and some uuorjened letters. "you?" she said, lifting her brows in surprise. v "Good-morniug, Pauline. I only came in to give you tlm 1 don't know if you care for it." He handed her an envelope, in which be bad placed the photograph. "What la it?" said she, and takiug out the picture, an ugly frown contracted her brow. ' "1 don't want it," she said, sharply, tearing the oard up, and scattering the fragments aboafo "Where did ycu And it?" "It fell last night' from a book I took up in the drawing room, which 1, suppose, you had been reading. (To be Continued).