A Tardy Wooing.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8149, 25 May 1906, Page 2

A Tardy Wooing.

By Charles W. Hatfoaway. Author of if Marjorie's Stveetheat%" "A Long Martyrdom," "A Hash Tow," "Joseph Dane's Diplomacy," etc., etc.

ÜBAPTEK XXX.—Continued. She flew to the study in search of Sir Jasper, unaware that he bad dri vea oat to collect some rents. But Ctuis Kennett had already caught sight ot her father, slowly approaching the house, and unceremoniously poshed open a window opening on the lawu, and stalked across it to meet him. It suited hia policy to be the first to tell his tale, and, little dreaming that he was rushing on his fate, exulted as ho went on the victory over Cyrilla he expeoted to obtain. As Sir Jasper drew near he caught at his rein boisterously. The horse, like the driver, was easily startled, and the consequences may be foreseen. Sir Jasper tugged at the reins just as he should have foreborne. > There was a brief confusion, and men came running up m haste, for under the feet rf the kicking, plunging steed lay a human form 1 , Was it Sir Jasper's or Chris Kennett's? CHAPTER XXXf. A DEFEATED SCHEME. It was when Oyrillia rushed away to demand the support of her father, and Kennett also departed in searon of Sir Jasper, that Wynnie awoke from her trance of astonishment. Beooa here I At sight of the girl who had "once tyraaized over,her as 'much] as Mrs Marby had ever _don'e, all the sad dest momenta ofgthat life of misery and semi starvation came back to memory, and she was once more the slipshod, frightened girl, who dare not return homo, however cold or weary, till some charitable person had purchased* her fading flowers. Sho found herself quailing at sight of Becua, just as she had been wont to do when rough words and blows were meted ouc to her for every offenoo. And then up sprang within her a horror of being identified and proclaimed as the ragged flowergiil of long ago. That thia dread was an exaggerated one, and that the Marbys had no power over her, she did not pause to reflect, but sat tremblingly waiting for the moment when those bold, gybe should W turned upon her. I X%\ all heir personal terrors were forgotten as soon as she fully comprehended the nature of the fraud to which Beoca was lending Tierself, and her young heart was filled with rightious indignation. By one so completely behind the scenes as she was, 1 Chris Kennett's maneuvrea were easily comprehended, and by her only oould they be baffled. He had left London to seek the timid little creature whose long habits ot submission had rendered her tractable in his hands at the time of the marriage, for he knew that the moment had come when, if he would effect hia long-delayed revenge, and frustrate Cyrilla Dartioon's hopes of a brilliant marriage.he must produoe the bride who had forestalled her. That she bad vanished he was already aware, and the oircumstance was a perplexing one. By dint of oareful made enquiries —instituted at the time—he bad ascertained that a girl answering to her description had travelled to London with Harold Outram; but what had become of her afterward ho oould not learn. He had, however, come to the conclusion that she would inevitably drift back to the locality in which she was known, aud it was there he hoped to nud her. At Dover and its . vioinity the Marbys assisted him in seeking for Wynnie, but how vainly we need not say. She had disappeared from the soehe of her earlier life, and the bafflled conspirator fell back upon Beoca. \ It was she for whom, be had designed the high honour of becoming Mr Outram's bride—an honour which she evaded at the last moment out pf fidelity to a sailor sweetheart. But Jaak had long since proved false; and Beoca, always greedy for gain, was easily induced to lend herself for the second time to the furtherance of Chris Kennett's manoeuvreing. More amused than concerned at the effect her appearance had on Miss Dartison, she no sooner found herself left —as she supposed—alone in the handsome drawing room, than she walsed to a large mirror and iuspeoted herself long and delightedly. She saw nothing "outre" in the gaudy, ill-fitting attire, but nodded at her reflection with a self-satis-fled air.aud soliloquized mentally]tbe while: "What wouldn't I give to have such a proper sort of glass for my very own as this un! Never knowed what a handsome gal I was till I saw myself from head to foot at once. I should ha' been a fool if I'd listened to missuu and said 1 wouldn't come. It's only doing a bit of acting, after all; and I'm to be well-paid for it. With old Chris to back me, see if I don't play my part as well as e'er a real actress at the theatre!" •'lmposter" said a voice in her ear, not loudly, but with suoh depth of acorn In the quiet tones that the startled Hecoa found her kneea knocking together, and her heart beating unj.loasantly fast. Wincing and reddening, she twisted herself from under the light toach laid upon her shoulder. After all, what oould she have to fear from the small, alight creature gazing at her so severely—a girl whom her larger proportioua would have ' dwarfed into insignificance, but that Wynnie's just wrath lent to her a dignity before which the coarser and less honest Beoca succumbed. However the latter was speedily on the defensive.

"Who gave yon leave to call me names?" she demanded, loudly. "You're not Miss Dartison; and ii you were you aren't going to talk to me like tbat! Where's Mr Kennett as brought me here? He shall tell you who 1 am—there now" "1 prefer to hear it from your own lips," said Wynnie. "He calls you Mr Outram's wife." "Well, aud who's going to deny it? Ain't I brought my certificate with me? I'm an honest married woman, and I sboul.l just like to catch anyone saying I ain't.!" "You need/ not bluster nor rave at me," she was told contemptuously. "I have heard what the man Kennett oalls you; but what, I ask, do, you call yourgaelf?" "The man Kennett indeed i Well, I never! and he with more money put by than he'll ever know how to 9pend! What do I call myself? Why, Wynford Morgle, and if yon don't believe my word here it is on tho certificate, writ down in black and white!" Wynuie bent forward to examine the flip of paper Beooa hold a a} careful distance, and would have smiled had she not been in too grave a'mood. It was a copy from the church books, preoisely like the one treasured in hor bosom, but made by another hand; and the copyist, [ perplexed by the feeble scrawl re- | presenting her signature, had perverted it from Moyle into the less euphonius name by which Beooa was calling herself. But some one had come into the room swiftly; it was Cyrilla, and she had suddenly btooped short with ber dilated eyes looking not at Wynnie and her disconcerted companion but at the window, through which could be seen a number of persona approaching the house. Foremost of the party leaning on the arm of one of the gardeners came Sir Jasper tottering along bareheaded and unable to support himself without assistance. Behind him half a dozen labourers carried a door, on which, groaning, writhing, and horrifying everyone within hearing by his furious execrations, lay Chris Kennett. One of the bearers, a small trades man in the village, catching sight of Cyrilla, as the procession moved past the drawing-room windows, resigned his plaoe to another, and came, to respectfully reassure the young lady. He did not think the gentleman was serioutly hurt—beyond the breaking of one of his legs—but Sir Jaaper'a groom had driven off for i the nearest doctor. "Then he is not dead!" And Cyrilla could not keep her regret, horrible though it was, from betraying itself in her accents. Wynnie shuddered, but the tradesman did not detect it. "Oh dear, no, miss; if he could but be persuaded not to excite himself I've no doubc he'd do very well. Without wishing to frighten you, miss, it's Sir Jasper I feel most concerned about; for you see the shay was upset, and he had an ugly fall, and looks terribly shaken.!" "I will go to papa directly; bat- j why was be brought here? Kennett, j 1 mean. I cannot have him here. Oh! it will be horrible!" The tradesman looked perplexed. "We did the best we oould, miss, under the circumstances; and Sir Jasper himself agreed to it. You see, it wasn't as if the gentleman was dead, and nothing left to be done but hold an inquest upon him." "He must be removed!" Cyrilla exclaimed, decidedly. "Where is papa? He must and shall give the necessary orders at once. I oanuot have the house turned into a hospital!" She flew away in search of her father, calling on Wynnie to follow her. The tradesman, shrugging his shoulders and moralizing on the, inhumanity of fine fashionable ladies, went baok to his business; and no one would have bestowed a thought on the now thoroughly terrified Boaoa, had she not olutohed at the dress of the girl she had been personating. '• "Oh, don't; whoever you be, don't go and leave me here by myself. What am I going to do? And what's to become of me if old Chris is hurt, and going to be taken to the hospital?" "Go baok to the place whence you came, and be thankful that you cannot carry auy further the fraud to which you were lending yourself!" was the stern reply. "Who says " Becoa began, with an effort to appear innocent of the wrong-doing imputed to her. But she was not allowed to go on. "Your right name is Becca Ensom!" " 'Tisn't!" she sullenly asserted. "It might have been, but 'tisn't now. I'm a respeotable married wo man." "You are not the wife of Mr Outram." ' She was silent till Wynnie repeated this. "Never mind that; I've got someone else to take my part, and as soon as Tom's master's yacht oomes baok from the Mediterranean I'll go and live where them Marbys oan't come near me. It was through them that I had three months for that stolon jewellery, and they got off clear; and now here's that old Chris drawn me into another mess, and left me in the lurch, to get out of it how I caul" Fright had unloosened Beooa'e tongue, and ahe was betraying herself without knowing it. (To be oontinued.)