Selina's Love Story.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 827, 29 September 1906, Page 2

Selina's Love Story.

' CHAPTER XXVII. •IT IS YOUR SACRED DUTY TO DEMAND RETRIBUTION!' Mrs Silohester was very glad to see her son, apd wept when Michael entered the room. At the same time, she could not bo easily part with her old habits. She at once began to grumble and to scold. ''lf you had been here,' she said; 'if you bad come away with me as you ought to have llone, this would not have happened. You see how ill I am. It's a terrible thing that a woman like me should be left to a pair of strangers.' 'But Miss Foster has taken care of you, lam sure,' Michael said, gently. 'Oh yes; Nelia's all very well,' Mrs Sihhester ,replied, fretfully, 'but she doesn't belong to me. ycu know.' And then Mrs Silohester's lips began to pucker, aud her eyes filled with tears. •And Nelia frightened m«,' she gaid. 'I did not think 1 was really hurt 80 much, but she told me I must be mos*, oaMifll of myself, or I should be very 111.* Michael soothed his mother, and was very kind to her. Indeed, he was sorry for her. She, had lost something of her plump look. There were lines about her face as thoußh she had been suffering; the truth being that, to serve her own ends, Nelia hHd kept Mrs Silohester un very low diet, and without the food that she usually enjoyed, and, worried so much by the suggestion that she was really ill, Michael's mother had lost flesh, and locked and felt both weak and depressed. •You're not * going to run away from me now, 1 hope,' she said. Michael answered her evasively. He wished to go back to London as quickly as be oould go, but he oould not say this to her. ' He Bat holding her hand, and by and by it pained him to see that his mother was crying very quietly. 'What is it, dearest?' he asked her very tenderly. 'I want to go home,' said Mrs Silohester, like a child. *I don't care for this place; in fact, I hate it. The last time 1 oame here Michael, was when you and Edward were little boys, and your dear father was with me. If I look out of this window, .1 oan almost imagine I can' see myself walking with you along the parade. It has made me think so much about my poor Edward, Michael,' continued Mrs Silohester, ■ her ]Nce lost its peevish tone; 'have you seen Mr Delaval? Oan • you make out wily he treated as so strangely? Surely, if we were such great friends, he ought not to have left us as he did!' 'I havo not seen Delaval, mother, dear,' Michael said. He spoke as quietly rb he oould, but it made bis heart beat uneasily to hear his mother speak of his brother, especially iu this quiet, serious way. 'Well, 1 want to see him, Mrs Silohester said. 'Since I have been here 1 have been sleeping very badly. I can't, get Edward out of my mind. Michael sat stroking his mother s hand.

'1 will take you home at once, dearest,' he said, 'if you like, i thought the sea would have done you good, especially "with such a nice companion. You aiw very fond'of Miss Foster, aren't you. 1 Mrs Silohester said 'Yes,' v but she said It iu a listsless way. 'She's rather dull,'she added. 'We have wanted you so much. Have you completed your business in London?' Michael shook his bead. 'No, dear.' •And will you have to go baok acain at onoe?' 'X shall go baok, tut not at unoe,' Michael answered. And then Nella came came in, and be arose. 'I am so hungry,' said Mrs Silohester, in a plaintive tone. 'You shall have a nice dinner,' said Nelia. 'You know I could not let you eat much yesterday because you bad a high temperature.' Michael found it difficult to leave his mother's room. Instead of being irritated, it touched him to see thw way she turned to him. He hoped that she would not notice that was so worried. After a while he managed to get an hour's freedom, and he [left the hotel and went dowo to the beacb. All the horror and the anguish which bad come to him the night before, wben he oat listening to that strange story, came baok to him again. Hejwalked down to the water's edge/and he stood looking in the far distance, whore the sea and the sky seemed to meet. > The sight of the water brought baok more vividly to his memory that tale of horrible cruelty which the old woman thad poured into his ears, , So graphic bad been her words, so intense and vivid the emotion with which she had painted the pioture, that Michael Silohester's spirit was transplanted at this moment far away from this quiet, conventional, English ssashore to the other shore on the tropical coasts where Edward bad met his death. He could feel the burning of tbe sun, the arid scorch of the sand, tbo sense of desolation and separate on from all that was human; and ho could picture that scene that had passed between Delaval, [,tbe tyrant, and Edward Silohester, the' unbolder for right an-J manliness. It was a strange thing that he should have chosen to have taken such a man as Edward with bim. 'there must navo teen so many others who would have worked irt with his peculiar methods with oat difficulty that he must have

By EMe Adelaide Rowlands. Author of "An Inherited Feud," "Brave Barbara," "JL SplendidZlleart," » Temptation of Mary Barr," « The Interloper," etc., etc.

encountered from Edward almost from the very commencement. The girl who was the cause of the troubJe which ended so tragically for one of »hemen bad managed to get back to England and die. It was from her lips her mother had drawn the truth which she had given to Michael. Almost as soon as they had not out to Africa young Silohester had fallen ill; a kind of malarial fever bad poisoned his blood and robbed him of his youth and strength, but Oeiaval showed him no meroy. He was allowed no rest. He was sent hither and thither on exhausting expeditions. His life was one of constant hardship and actual danger, while Delaval himself had lived as a kind of king, amusing himself with sport which did not end with savage animals. 'My Roaita went with him, dreaming that she would be hifl wife, that she wouhj pbare with him the glory that awaited him. She found,' said the old womau, with great bitterness 'that phe was only one of many, and that when he tired df her freshness and her innocence, he oared no more what became of her than for the sand beneath bis feet.' j And here the old woman's voice was I charged with passion. 'As she lay id my arms, dying she lived again through some awful hours. Her heart was broken, yet she oalled aloud always for him. She pleaded told him not to disoard her, not to give her to the black-akinned man, who was a worse tyrant than himself, and who ruled the little camp by means which neither you nor I can think of without a shudder. Yes, that was the fate brought to my' child. Betrayed and dishonoured, be flung her like a bone to the dog that served him. Then it was that your brother stepped forward. Roaita went to him in despair. Wbe appealed to him by all that he held sacred to help her. Some miles away, a difficult jouruey, there was a little missionary station of Catholic priests. It was to this good father that your btotber conveyed my ohill. It was this bleßsed pr»est who sent her home to me, but not before she bad seen, her champion suffer for her safce. It was a great struggle iu my obilds heart,' the old woman had said, sadly, 'to choose between your brother and freedom. The way of escape was planned with great .caution, but jutit before Roaita was about to disappear in the charge of a trusted native, the priest being prepared to reoeive her at a point a little distant, matters were brought to a climax because tbe man—the creature to whom Delaval had given his master had complained that tbe girl refused him any speech. There oame a shudder into my Rosita's body'when she described the scene. Alas! Poor little soul! Trembling in every limb, she was called to tbe tryant. She was bade lo put her hand in this other man's and go with i him to bis but.

'For the time she flung herself on her knees and begged tj be sent bao to England and to me. She was refused with an oath. Patting out her two hands Bhe olung to the man who bad deceived her, and besoaght him to have mercy on her. His answer was to fling her off and to smite her. Your brother, weak and sick with fever, could stand this no longer; he rushed forward and struck at Delaval in his turn, quickly ordering my girl to rise and stand upart. There was a great struggle. Roeifia would have paused with her heart in her throat, but the native who had her in charge stole her away. She never saw the end, but she heard what it was. How could a Hiok man stand against one strong in limb and in evil* 'The story travelled to the priest's ears, bow the creature who claimed aiy Rosita bad taken his whip and had lashed at the body of your brother, 'till, blinded and bleedmg, that noble hero had fallen unconscious on the sand, his body half in the water and half out. (To be Continued.)