A Tardy Wooing.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8140, 15 May 1906, Page 2

A Tardy Wooing.

CHAPTER XXlll.—Continued. Wynnie, from the window of Lady Dartison's apartment, saw her go, and almost envied her. She had looked in for five minutes to lend a cureless ear to the invalid's complaints, and abruptly doparted without staying to hear them out. Her indifference wns su exasperating that Lady Dartison shed a flood of angry tears. "<[f she wasn't my own daughter I'd run after her and Bhake her. She's like her father; she thinks that because I've an expensive doctor, and am served with all sorts of messes which I can't eat, I ought, to get well and not be such a trouble to them." "Shall I read to you?" asked Wynnie, opening one of the most interesting of the volumns with whion Harold had supplied her. , "No, you ahau't. I'm flick of being read to; it always sends me to sleep. Do you think I want to spend all my days in sleeping?" "Shall we get on with the pretty crochet wrap of wbiob Mrs Pernbury taught us the stitoh?" "No 1 wop't touoh it any more. It's you thflt do th« work; I only cobble it. My hands are more used to scrubbing and cooking than, to making fancy goods, and I ain't going to deny it." "Let me wheel your chair nearer to the window that you may set. how beautiful the trees are in the park, with their leaves turning to nil the shades of crimson, orange and brown," urged Wynnie. "I don't oare to see'em; they're not mino. I don't suppose there'll ever be a welcome at the Towers for me. When S'nrilla is mistress here she'll not be troubled wtih her dowdy, vulgar, old mother. It's no use your putting on that look. I am dowdy and vulgar, and she has good reason to be ashamed of me. I'm a miserable old creature, and 1 wish 4 were dead and out of the way," *S a last Wynnie .pressed ber to take a duse of the sedative mixture wbiob generally had the effect of soothing ber irritability, and after some time she consented. ■, ,• But this only led to mo:e trouble, j It was a fresh bottle, prepared by tbe druggest in the small town about a mile and a half from the Towers, and Lady Dartison insisted that it bad not been made uy correotly. "It leaves a strange taste in my mouth; there's been something poisonous put in by mistake. 111 not swallow another drop of it! It will surely kill me!—l know it will!" In this strain she continued to wail and grumble, till, not knowing how else to paoify, her. Wynnie. offered to walk to th-3 druggist to hear what he had to saj. To this Lady Dartison consented. "Ves, you shall go at once, for I dare not take any more of his stuff till I know what he has put in it; and mind you make him fill up another bottle exactly according to the Carry that in your hand," she added; "and watch him carefully to see that be uses tbe right medioines and no other. Now, you do that, won't you?" Faithfully promising to obey all her ladyship's injunctions, away went Wynnie,, rejoioing in the prospect of a long walk and a couple or hours freedom. She was retained in the town for a considerable time. The owner of the shop was absent, and she dared not intrust the oonooction of the prescription to the mere lad left in charge. The consequence was that rain began to fall before she was halfway back to the Towers, and twilight came on so rapidly that she was in danger of being benighted. This did not alarm Wynnie; she had. entered on a bypath on the Towers estate that would lead her to the principal avenue, und knew it was not probablo she would meet anoyue—save, perhaps, a labourer going home from his work. ' But she was vexed that she had not taken the precaution of providing herself with an umbrella; the wet would spoil her hat—a gift from

Linda—and she had not the means of replacing it. j She took shelter for a while under- j some trees, but the rain gave no sign of abating ; and although Lady DarMson bad promised to lie down until she returned, she was always as impatient as a wayward child, and as unreasonable, and might even now bo fretting at the young girl's absence. At last, Wynuie >ook off her bat, slung it on her arm, covered her bead with a large scarf her ladyship bad forced upon her, she ran on, and soon had the satisfaction of disoerning through the gloom the regular rows of tr-ees that maked the drive leading to the prinoipal entrance of the mansion. On she went; thoroughly enjoying her hurried walk despite the dripping skirts, and was wibin half a dozen paces of the broad gravel road between the limes when she Baw that " a man was standing in the centre of ; itjlooking after a brougham that bad just dashed up it. In spite of the deepening shadows, Wjnnie reodgnized this man aa soon as ber eyes fell upon him. It was Chris Kennet, and her heart seemed to stand still. JThat he was here to complete hia murderous work she did not donbt. It was he who had stolen on Harold Oatram before; he would do so again, and no one might be near to detect hia 'purpose and provoDt the outrage. In bis hand he grasped the thick stiokthat had already been raised to strike bis victim. Ob, that she had strength to wrest it from him, to seize and bold him, in de- ; fiance of bis struggles** - till be could ! * be bound and dragged to the prison ' tie so richly deserved 1 But what could she doT She who bad no power to detain him? The very consciousness of ber weakness helped to drive Wynn ie

By Charles W. Hathaway. Author of " Marjorie's Sweetheart," "A Long Martyrdom," "A Hash Vow," "Joseph Dane's Diplomacy," etc., etc.

She had no conception till afterwa d, when she entered the bouse and caught a glimpse of herself in a passing mirror, that she was masked beyond all possibislity of recognition. The scarf she had wound about her head was semi-trans-parent, being made of blaok network. One of the folds hasd slipped over her face, although in her hurry and. agitation she knew it not It was, therefore, a featureless phantom, hideous in hue an wild in its gestures, that stood over the quaking craven.

frantic, and, soaroaly knowing what she was about, she sprang out of the darkness, appearing before Ohris Kennelt bo suddenly and unexpectedly that in retreating from this startling his foot slipp«d; he could not regain his balanue but fell backward, and lay at full length at her toet.

"Miscreant!" panted the exoited girl, hurling at him the most powerful words in her vocabulary, "are you here again? Do you think that because you have esoapeJ t»ioe you shall escape the third'time? Murderer as you are in your soul, take enre, for there has been a witness of each of your (attempts on Harold Outram's life!" Never had Ohris Kennett been so tboroujjhly frightened as he was at this moment. He had been absorbed in watching tbe carriage, tor within it, cosily nestled among its cushions he had seen Cyrilla, on car way back from Mrs Maolnnis'. Always a ooward at hoart, and a devout believer in supernatural appearances, he had closed his eyes to shut out the ghostly ligure bending over him, when the phial of medicine slipped out of Wynnie's grasp, and struck him a violent Wqw in the faoe ere it smashed into a score of pieces, covering him with the contents as woll as fragments of j the broken glass. j Too much alarmed to have any idea of what had really happened, be uttered a howl of pain and terror, rolled over on the ground, cutting his hands by, so doing, and, scrambling to his feet, rushed away in the direction of the village, shouting for help as be went. Scarcely leas frightened than he, Wynnie fled also, though in a different direction. As fast as her trembling limbs "would carry her abe flew towards the bouse, and just outside the porch came upon Mr Outram and bis cousin. They had been in the preserves for an hour with their guns, and were stopping to unload them before carrying them indoors, wbtn Wynnie presented herself before the astonished young men, almost too breathless to make herself understood.,, "He is here again!" she gasped, addressing herself to Harold, but glancing over her shoulder to ascertain whether Chm Kennett had recovered fronvhis alarm and followed ber. "Come away, for you are in danger as long as be is near you!" "Of whom are you speaking?" Harold took a step forward instead of returning to the house, as she would base had him do. "Has anyone molested you, M'.ss Moyle?" "Me! Ob, no; it is you whom he seeks to kill. He is the most wicked of men !"

"Have you seen the fellow who •was lurking here two or three weeks ago?" asked both ner auditors in one breath. Where? where? In the avenue? then it may not be too late to catohnim!" Their guns in their hands they rushed away, followed by a game keeper. Wynnie contrived to catch Mr Outram by the sleeve as he was striding past her and to cry in agony: 'Oh! beware of him; he is your enemy!" But she had not the consolation of making any impression. Indeed, she oould not be sure that she was heard at all, for Eustace Leyland was shouting to liis kinsman to come on, and two or throe of the menservants, scenting a chase, were hurrying after their master.

The still trembling girl stood listening till their footsteps died away in the distance, hoping, and yet dreading, that they would succeed in pounoing on him they sought. If they did effeot his capture she would feel compelled fto denounce him for his earlier attempt to do Harold Outrani bodily injury, and this would involve telling the tale of that strangest of marriages. She oovered her face with her bands and shuddered anew as she pictured herself standing before the scornful Uyrilla, and seeing disgust and incredulity depicted not on her face only, but on his; then drearily wondered what they would do to her for having had the audacity to consent, though it was under compulsion, to take part in such' a nefarious transaction. Would it not be less painful to d'e outright than to see Harold Outram shrinking from her, horrified to learn that he had ever stood at the alter with bis band clasping that of a ragged, ignorant OUtOHBtI

But the exigencies of the present aroused Wynnie from her dreaming. She had oome back without the medicine for which she had been sent. How was she to aooouot for the loaa of it? or if Ehe simply said that she bad broken the bottle on the way, would t peevish, exacting Lady Daitison bear the loss patiently? , She went to her own room ; to change her wet clothes, but bad scarcely reached it when a housemaid dame tapping at the door. She mast go to Lady J'artisoa without delay. Her ladyship had been asking for her repeatedly. 'Aware that it was no use deferring an evil moment, Wynnie made a 'feaat s .: toilet add tan downstairs,; to reached the invalid's apartment. (To be OontinaedO