Selina's Love Story.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8196, 28 July 1906, Page 2

Selina's Love Story.

CHAPTER I. 'AN INTERESTING WOMAN, BUT A DANGEROUS Ol\E.' All day it had rained, and, though it was spring, there had been nothing of the soft, persuasive charm of spring in the rain. In deed , as the ueld, stinging viot had come driving across the marshes and fields, swept nlung on the wings of a keen north-easter, it hurl carried with it a vigorous reminder of the winter that had just departed after having outstayed its welcome in a disgraceful fashion. Selion was drenoheu through, of course. *A wretched day,' Sir George Durq'ston said, more than once. He was getting out of patience, out of temper too, and, as a sort of vnt to both, he shouted on one occasion aruoes to the girl who stood on the opposite bank of the river, tellrac her she ought to go home. •You've been out here since daybreak, you know,' he added, sharply. The girl turned her wet, rosy fane toward him. She had on a rough tweed coat, a short tweed skirt, big leggings, and a cap that almost covered her bright hair and was pulled down to her eyee. 'l'm all right,' she called baok, cheerily. 'Don't worry about me.' It wrs evident she had no intention of going. How long she had stood on the brink of the swollen, cheerless river, she really did not know and cared less. What was a cold wind to her, or a drenching rain, or even the fact, that, an hour or so before, in her wild excitement ehe bad waded right into the powerful stream and that net skirt, short as it .was, hung dank and heavy about the tops of her leggings? Her brother shraggeed his shoulders. •She's as pig-headed as a mule sometimes,' he said, indifferent in his irritation as to what perverted metaphor he used; his observation was not intended for any partioular pei son, but one of the men of the party overheard him, and this young man walked swiftly away to where narrowed a good deal, then he took a jump and landed in scrambling fashion on the other side.

In another few moments he got up to the girl. She was tending forward with her hands on her knees looking intently at one point in the water. '1 saw him, yes, 1 dirt I There was a line of bubbles, and then he looked ui just of an instant. 1 saw his Dopping-out eyes, and hi 3 whiskers quite clearly for an instant. There —Michael!'—she gripped the young man's arm—'there, don't you see the bubbles auain? He must come to land soon, musn't he?' 'Don't make too sure of that,' said the young man, decisively. 'l've known an otter to dodge under the water for any length of time, coming up to breathe, of coarse, every now and then; they are very difficult to bag, especially when they're as wary as this one. I say, Selina, haven't you had just about enough? It's very cold work standing about like this, you know.' 'Don't bother me,'said the girl, crossly; 'if you want to go, go; a little wind and rain does not hurt me.'

She said thia slightingly, but the young man did not appear to mind. He stood beside her and watched for the next sign of a sleek, round head they had been hunting so unsuccessfully ever since the early morning. iSSMMiSIII The hours of the otter were numbered, nevertheless; there was a heavy score to settle with him. He had dodged them long enough, and the havoo he hai played in the river the last few months could not possibly b« endured any longer. Selina straightened herself after a little while. •J'm horribly stiff,' she said. 'What tad luck to have such a miserable day!' Her companion assented, then in ! quite a cnsual'manner he said: 'George is getting anxious about you; he wauls you tu go home.' 'Does he?' Selina said, and she looked across to where her brother stood talking to a keeper. She paused a moment, t hen bit hor lip. 'All righj;, then I'll toddle off now,' she said. 'Shall 1 come with you?' suggested the young man. Miss Durnstone laughed, and'her laugh drove .away the slight expression of dipiopointment and an noyance that had just settled ou her feue. 'What an idea! No, of course not! You must stay and sae the end of this clever beast. * As a matter of faot, I always bate seeing an otter killed; it's horribly cruel; he never gets a ghost of a chance: but > know it must be, and, aa bits mate has gone, he hasn't much to live for, has he, poor dear? MicnSol, give that to George, wil' you?—it's the strap he was asking for.' Michael Silcbester took the strap. 'You ought to hurry up, Selina,' he said. ~ It's a long walk, you know.' He was a plain-looking young man, very plain at this moment, with a red nose and blue cheeks, but his eyes were very kindly. He dived into one of his capacious pockets, and produced,a fiat silver case. 'You had better take this, he added. 'There are a few sandwiches left; flnieh the cherry, brandy.' - Selina accepted the hospitality. ; 'You are dining with us to-night, aren't you?' she asked, as he turned away; 'then I will give you back this sandwich case when I sew you.' When she had gone a few yards she stood still and put ber two hand together to form a trumpet through V which she shouted to her brother,

By Effie Adelaide Rowlands. Author of l( An Inherited Feud," "Brave Barbara," " A Splendid Heart," " Temptation of Mary Barr," "The Interloper," etc., etc.

(To be Continued.)

who was moving forward on the other side.

'l'm going home—l've had enough. Don't be late, darliug!' Sir George Durnstone just nodded his [head, and Selina started on the homeward journey. She tried to run, but it was impossible. A good deal of water had managed to make itß way through the crevices of her socalled waterproof boots. She had to draa: her limbs along with an effort, and every now and then she was forced to stop and rest.

'My feet are positively frozen," she confessed to herself, 'I feel as if I had lost some toes, and 1 haven't the least idea what time it is I Ido hope Dorothy will not have got back yet. She talked of staying all day at the convent. It's very ridiculous,' Selina mused on, as she stumbled awkwardly over the wet, springy turf to the roadside, that one never can tell how the day is going if one dooan't have one's mepls at the regular time; and that reminds me, lam awfully hungry.' She stopped, drew breath sharply, leantfd against a convenient gate, and pushed back her cap. Then she opened that flat Biker case, and ate the few reinainirg sandwiches with real enjoy men h To drink the cherry brandy was not so easy, be fingers were so numbed, she could hardly untwist the tiny cup from the flask; but she got it at last and felt all the better for the old-fnshioned cordial.

'Only,' she said aloud, 'I ought to have left this for George—he will want something so badly; I never thought of that! What a greedy cat I am V

The young man who had pressed these small comforts upon her did not trouble her conscience. The wind was as keen, and the rainas wet for him as for her brother, but somehow she never gave a thought to other people when George was on the scene, and then the owner of the sandwiches was really not of any great importance. He was only Michael.

After walking a good way Selina found her stiffness leave her. She intended to avoid the villagethere was a short cut across the fields back to ber home, by the Gate House, *ust a little further down the road; she would take that short cut. 'lf Michael's dear mother were to see me like this—well, I should never hear the last of it I 1 she mused, laughingly. Lack was not with her, however, for, before she could teach the lane, a brougham drawn by a fine pair of horses overlook her—a large, roomy brougham in which were seated two ladies.

To escape observation was hopeless. Selina smothered an exclamation, and waited for her fate. The order waa given for the brougham to pull up, and Selina was called to the carriage. Mrs Silchester had once been pretty; now ebe was fat, and her expression was peevish. 'Where is Michael?' she demanded, as Seliua's roguish face appeared at the window. 'I nave been driving about trying to find him him I heard him coughing last night. Ifc'is simply criminal of him to risk his health in this way!'

Selina laughed. 'Oh! Michael is all right. We must ail get wet now and then, you know.'

'Young people are always heedless,' said the woman sitting beside Mrs Silchester.

She was dressed in black, and had a gaunt, thin face. Her eyes made Selina feel uncomfortable, there was something so bitter and eager and restless in them. She looked painfully thin oontrasted with her friend's pluiup form. Ms Silchester half turned.

'This is Selina, Miss Durnstone,' she explained. 'Selina, yon have often heard me sp«;ak of my cousin Maria?'

'liow d'ye do?' said Selina, brightly;then she said: 'You musn't scold me, Mrs Silchester. I told Michael he was not to come to day, but he had his own views on the subject. Oh, no; I can't possibly get into the carriage, 1 am wet through. I should soak you. I shall soon be home. Shall 1 tell Thomas to

drive on?' • &sss&%£< Mrs Silchester was murmuring peevishly, but Selina had had enough;, she stepped back and signalled to the coachman to start. '1 should like to shake her,' the girl said to herself, as she trudged on alone and watched the carriage roll away in the distance. 'No wonder Michael gets impatient with his mother. 1 wonder he can stand her at all. Of couse, she .vantod to bo nasty to me. As if 1 care a pin whether Michael oomes out otter hunting or not! I shall tease him to-night. I shall make him furious, and I like to maue him furious.' Later on Selina found hereelf musing about; the woman who had been with Mrs Silchester.