Selina's Love Story.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8224, 30 August 1906, Page 2

Selina's Love Story.

CHAPTER Xlll.—Continued. 'Of course, I will lie honest with you,' said Seliua. She felt very near to tears. It hurt her to realize that Mary Lasoombe was so disappointed. The other womnu's love and unselfishness troubled her to remember. '1 am really tot worth bothering about so much, Polly, sho sbICI* 'Well, said Miss Lrscoube, calmly, 'I 'don't think you are, only 1 know I shall worry myself into blue fits if you don't write often and freely. I have got into the habit of caring about you and what you do, Selina, and I am just a little tit, too old to change all in a hurry.' CHAPTER XIV. s i FEEL AS IF I HAD BEEN DEAD AND FORGOTTEN.' Jfc was a strange return for Selina. She travelled from London with her heart on fire, as it were, with love and eager intentions. When the train dre ? up at the familiar platform, she looked out eagerly, expecting to see Dorothy's beautiful face waiting for her with a smile of greeting upon it. But Lady Durnstone was nowheie to be seen; neither was Sir George, and it seemed that there was no carriage sent to meet her. Selina swallowed the oain that this negluct signified bravely. •I fear 1 made a mistake,' she aald to the station master—whose pleasure at sight of her wae, at least, warm and comforting. 'I am not sure if 1 said whioh train I should come by.'

Yot she knew that she could not bave made any mistake.

However, she called <ip all ber coarage, and drove away from the station in a cab, trying to smile and trying to set aaide a sense of ooming misery. I'be remembrance, however, of the very clear way in which both -Mary Lasoombe and Delaval had pictured the kind of life she would have to live henceforward at the Gate .House would not be igored. She was reoeived by new servants on her arrival, was informed that Lady Durnstone was out riding with Sir George. Selina passed into the familiar house, like one who saw an old friend after many years of absence. She asked for the maid who had been used to attend her, and she was told all the ser\ants had been changed. Then she asked to be taken to her xoom, but it seemen that Lady Durnstone had forgotten to inform her housekeeper that Miss Durnstone was expected. Selina with difficulty repressed her tears. 'lndeed, lam dethroned,' she said to herself, sadly. In the drawing room everything seemed chanced. Dorothy had alter ed all the arrangements, and several "things had been taken away. Selina walked through and up to the long window, which she pushed open. Here she looked on a familiar soene.

The gardeners were rolling the lawn. It was a glorious spring afternoon, and the gardens were gay with bloasoma. Seliua stood and watched the trees move to and fro against the clear sky, as she had watched them, oh so often in the past. 'All the same, it is home,' she said to herself, as a mist oame over her eyes, 'and home must always be beautiful.' And at that moment Dorothy came in.

Lady Durnstone received Selina cordially, and kissed the girl aud exclaimed at her own carelessness in forgetting that Selina was to come mat day. 'lt went completely out of my head; but 1 was so excited this morning, as George told me be was going to have the house renovated, and all sorts of alterations and improvements made. It wants it badly, yoa know,' said Dorothy, with convictipn, 'and so we settled to rile over to PartiDgford and talk things uver with a decorator there. Perhaps, however, we Bhould do better to send to London. What do you think?'

Dorothy had thrown herself in a chair, and had taken off her riding hat. She v looked slim and graoeful and beautiful in her wellout habit. '1 don't know' Selina said,. How stupid she felt. How dull. She felt liku a stranger sitting in the place where she had lived all her life. She did not recognize the Dorothy of the convent days—the gentle, graceful Dorothy, who had been her guest, in this self-possessed and selfish young woman. Why had she been sent for, she wondered? What need was there for her? She remembered Delaval's few words about Dorothy,, and ehe almost laughed. •For once he is wrong,' she said. But Selina was no student of human nature. Had she had a little more worldly knowledge she would have Been at once that Dorothy's present treatment of her was all a f ose. The truth was that Dorothy had had time to reflect a little on what had been arranged, and when she found that sbe wag to have her own way, and that iier husband was her veritable slave, ebo quickly began to feel that sbe had perhaps madts a big mistake in bringing Selina bauk to the .Gate House. And in this theory she hed I een unexpectedly strengthened by a visit from Nelia Poster. It whs her uncle's wißh that had called at t}ie Gate House.

'I Have left tny cards, but you, as my niece, must call,' Dr. Foster .bad said,. And in her own sweet,

By Effie Adelaide RowlandsAuthor of "An Inherited Feud," " Brave Barbara "A Splendid Heart," " Temptation of Mary Barr," "The Interloperetc., etc.

eentle way Nelia had managed to execute tniß mission from Mrs Silcbester's houfe. *1 wish I need ucfc go/ she had said, 'aut Uncle lom wishes it bo much.' 'We must all do disagreeable things in our lifetime,' said Mrs Silohester, sententiously. She would have given her eyes to have been able to go to the Hate House with Nelia. Naturally, Bbe talked very loudly and sharply about Sir George and bis young wife but curiosity alone impelled her to desire to see what was going on in Selina's old borne. Nelia and Lady Durnstone fraternized almost at once. Miss Foster gave such open homage to the beauty of the young mistress at the Gate House, and Dorothy at once attracted by the quiet charm of her visitor. They talked, of course, of Selina, and Miss Foster spoke very clmrm igly of Sir George's sister. 'Most people complain that Selina is too dictatorial and arrogant, but 1 muat say I never found her so. Of course, it was natural that she should oommand a little. She was made mistress of this house when she was a mere child. And how she loved the position! It seems strange to think that Bbe ia gone. One would almodt have imagined that Bbe would have clung to her sovereignty even after it had passed to you. Jit was wise of you, Lady Durnstone, to start Every woman should be mistress of her own house, aud, though I think Sal ina is the sweetest girl Iknow, I imagine she would have quite unconsciously made things diffloult for you.' 'Selina ia coming back to-mor-row,' Lady Durnstone had said, aud her deilcate brows had x contracfced. 'Ob, is she?' Nelia hnd exclaimed, and her sweet expression had not been wuite so sweet. ! oh, I am auie you will be glad to have her, and then she knows everything so well. She will ba a great help to you, Lady Durnstone.' 'I don't know that I want any help,' Dorothy Durnafcone badßaid, irritably. She was beginning to be j annoyed with herself. 'I have asked j Selina to come baok,' she explained, 'because I think it only kind to do so, and because I know she wants to come baok. But sbe is only coming on a visit.' Out of all this there had been formed a determination in Lady Durnstone's mind to have no nonsense with Selina. She was really at heart enohauted that her husband's sister was coming, for she knew by ex perience how comfortable, and helpful, and delightful Selina ctflald be, but she quiokly resolved not to let Selina realize this Theu again, as she had sat thinking over what Nelia Foster had said, there had come to her a very definite sensation of jealousy, as she recalled Selina's extraordinary devotion to her brother.

'Georg"> belongs to me now,' she harl said to herself, and, just to test things, she had spoken of Selina at dinner that night, and 'had been pleased to notice that her husband hardly seemed to care or] talk of his sister at all.

In fact, Sir George had said as maoa, pnwßff

'Selina will come beuause you want ber, not because I need her,' he had remarked. Bat the poison of Nelia Foster's words still lingered and, like all poisons, did great barm. Dorothy was swept far, far, away m tbe"se days from the ignorant soboolgirl she had been, and with the birth of worldliness and haraOjOss she had parted from mer love and faith in Selina. So she arranged from tbe very commencement in the way she determined things should go aud she little realized hew much suffering was crammed into that first hour of Selina's return to her old home. The meeting with her brother was almost a pain, and the change [in the bouse something she could not accept all at onae. 'Did I ever live here?' she asked herself, as she found herself a'.one (To be Continued.)