Selina's Love Story.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8209, 13 August 1906, Page 2

Selina's Love Story.

CHAPTER Vll.—Continued. •Poor little Slinal' said Maiy Lascombe to herself, 'this is what 1 feared. She has concentrated her young life in to her devotion to George, and now she is abbut to learn, bb others have learned before, that lovo can be a greater sorrow ibanblesßlug.' She put her arms around Selina, and kissed the soft oheek. 'How is your invalid?' she asked. 'I sat with her a little while at tea time,' Selina answered, but she seems to wish to bo alone, Polly. . It mai be my imagination, but I cannot help feeling that she is a little changed to me. Perhaps,' said St'liuß, sadly, 'sh« guessed that my first instinct was to stand against her in this marriage.' Miss Lascombe looked grave; then she said, in her abrupt fashion : 'George has been to see her mother to-dßy?' That is what 1 think,' Selina assented, hurriedly, 'lie has come baok, you know, Polly; 1 met him in the ball. I thought perhaps he would have said something to me, but ho went straight to his room. It does seera funny to feel that I am a bind o£;van outsider in this matter.' 'Well, you know, dear,' said Miss Lascombetj: na cheerfully as she could, 'marriage always makes a difference, lou nave bad a IHtle longer innings than a good many other people;' theu she turned to Selina abruptly, 'I bone, chiJd, you are not going to fret,' she said. 85?'1 hope not, 1 said Selina; but she /blinked away spme tears as she spoke. 'Polly,' she aaid in n trembling voice, 'i fUd I am flu awful coward,*

OijSe again Misa Laseomba kissed the soft, pretty'cheek. 'Well, whatever eventuates, Selina,' she said,,, 'don't forget that you can turn to • rue, and always find me ready. When you were quite a liiitlß child I wanted to have you ail to myself but Gecrgo would not let me.'

The girl's face lit up, and her eyes glowed through the tears. 'Yea he has loved me,' she said; "he has oared for me all these years more than he has oared for anyone else; It is only natural, 1 know that he should forget rue a little just now, bat, Polly, that won't la3t will it? By and by be wilL remember all tho'-jlifippy,; • tbufc we have spent togG'theft want him to care one .'little s bit. Jess than he does for but I don't want him to/.oli'ro, less for me,' she fininshed quaintly. 'lt seems to me that 1 want a good deal. May I stay here while yon dreßs, Polly?' • 'Of oourse yuu may,' said Miss lißscombe. They talked of generalties till the made bad gone, and when they were aloue together, and Miss Lasoombe was fastening some oldfashioned handsome bracelets on her wrists, she abruptly put a question to Selina. 'Whv are you going ,to quarrel with Michael Silchester?'she asked. Selina frowned. 'I am not going to quarreJ, exactly,' she said, 'but I cannot feel very amiably toward him.' 'I don't think sou are very just in that,' said Miss Lasoombe, as she "advanced toward the fire. 'Certainly Michael had nothing to do with the scene that happened the other night. I never saw a man look more wretched and unhappy than he did.' 'I blame him,' said Selina, rather hardly, 'beuause, from what Mr Delaval tells me, it seems that Michael has known . all there is to know for ever so long. 1 think he ought to have told us.' 'Told you what? queried Miss Lasoombe. 'Made haste to have taken away from you your pleasant impression of your guest? P6rhapw it wouH have been as well if he had teen so lacking in tender thought", but I see nothing but kindest and most manly consideration in his silence. You are perfectly well aware Selina,' said Miss Lasoombe, warmly, 'that Michael had not the remotest fdea that his mother intended to bring Lady Duuworthy with her when she oame to dinner.' 4 Ob, I dun't want to talk about him,' said Selina, a little peevishly. 'Shall we talk about Mr Delaval instead? I see that yoa are losing yonr heart to him, Selina.' 'Whaf a ridiculous ideai' exclaimed the girl, but she coloured hotly all the same. 'Every woman succumbs to his fascination sooner or later,'said Miss Lasoombe, calmly, 'do I don't see why you should be stronger than qthors. Did J hear him suy that he had left the Silchesters?' 'Yes,' said Selina, a little hurriedly; 'he is going to stay in the town for a day or two.' Miss Lascombe frowned. 'Why?' she asked. * Selina shrugged her shoulders. 'I am aure 1 don't know. 1 suppose because he wants to shay in the country, and because he does not oare very muoh about being a guest of jMrs Silchester. There is the gong,' she added, and she sprang to her teet. 'Dorothy is coming down to dinner, 4 she whispered as she went out of the room. 'There she Is; George has been to fetch her.' It was that nighi that Sir George announced quietly aftar dinner the fact that ho intended to be married within the next twenty-four hours. It seemed that ho bad nlready made preparations hurried ceremony, and had returned armed with the necessary special license. "Ihere will be no fuss, no guests, no wedding breakfast, he said—'no one present except just ourselves.' He included Miss Lascombe in this cursory Invitation. Selina looked at Dorothy. The faoe of the latter was u study to ber. The chiHishuess had gone;,

By EMe Adelaide Rowlands. of 4 'An Inheritefl Fetid," t( Brave Barbara," "A Splendid Heart," "Temptation of Mary Barr f " " The Interloperetc., etc.

though she looked pale ; she was quite composed, and there was a suggestion of hardness in the way hw lips were set, 01 so ?it seemed to Sellnfl. Involuutariiy she spoke. 'You mean, of course, George," she said, 'Dorothy's mother will be present.' A dull flush mounted to George Durnstone's face. '1 mean "exactly what I said,' he exclaimed coldly; 'no one will be present at my marriage except yourself and Polly, and if either of you wish to stay away, you are, of course, at liberty to do so.' 'Oh, George!' Selina exclaimed, and her tone was one of keen pain. bir G«orge took no notice of the exclamation; he put out his band and took that of his promised wife. 'Dorothy and I are gr.ing to start •our marrkd life without any support save our own love and trust. It is a matter which must be said sooner or later, l suppose,' added Sir George, a little hurriedly, 'and so I take this opportunity of explaining that henceforth Dorothy has no mother. lam going to be everything to her.' Miss JLascombe winced, and Selina'd lips quivered. She said, 'Oh I' just as if some one had hurt her; then in her fearless way she spoke out; 'You cannot do that, George,' she said; just stop and think! Why, you are almost a stranger to Dorothy; you have only come iLto her life in the last month, and her mother—— Oh Dorothy,' said Selina, and her half chocked, 'can you forget; ; ftll you have told me about of her care, and of her love. You have been so proud of her, it—rit is not right, it is not just* , Maiy tascombe pat out her hand quickly, ,but she could not avert the storm. : Durnetone got up and stood beside Dorothy.

The girl was trembling, and clung to him like a child.

•If those are your sentiments, Selina,' he said, coldly, bitterly, 'you bad better hear mine. The same house cannot shelter us in future.' It was Dorothy who uttered a cry of protest. 'Oh! Not that, not that!' she exclaimed, • Selina eat with her head bowed, and made no answer for an instant, and then she rose and went slowly out of the room. ' Miss Lascombe roso too. 'This is going a little too far, George,' she said, 'and, if 1 may say so, I fail to understand your attitude. Selina rs only true to her own beautiful nature when she speaks as she has just spoken. To auswer her aa you have done, is cruel!' She, too, turned and left the room, and Dorothy broke down and cried. 'They will all be Bgainst me,' she said, and indeed she was half afraid of the man who loved her; but as George Durnstone sat down and took her in his armß, and kissed her and whispered to ber, and lavished all kinds of tendernesses upon her, she was wooed back to that state of aoquieeoence whioh \,as so necesasry to the fulfillment of bis plans. They apt a long while together, and then Sir George took her up to the door of her room. Dorothy went nervously, glancing round lest Selina should be anywhere near. Though her own heart fully eohoed the sentiments which Selina had spoken so fearlessly, she put this from her. She had chosen her path, and she wanted to feel that she was doing the right thing. Hers was not a strong, nor a very beautiful nature. 3ad life gone along in the smooth fashion that has been its trend ever sinae her earliest recollections, she might have never changed from that sweet, gentle, childish ' creature that she hud been when she and Selina had drifted into friendship at the convent; but that cruel blow on her cheek, that horrible insult had seemed to sear the ycung heart, to take from it all soft and delicate feelings,' and to put [in their plaoe a sullen sense for resentment, hardness and condemnation. (To bo Continued.)