"THE WEB."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8981, 15 November 1907, Page 2

"THE WEB."

PAUL URQUKAftT,

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CHAPTER XXV. When three days later the White Rose picked up her moorings in Plymouth Harbour Strangways wiu a changed man. lie was no longer the suspect, the outcast, Ihe pariah of society. Fate had withheld the cup of happiness from him for long, and when at last she gave it him she gave it him brimming over. He had been put to a bitter test. For many months he had been struggling blindly in the? web lhat Peter Tidey had spun around him. He had had to fight against unknown forces. He had had to battle in the darkness with the phantoms of evil. The trial and test of his manhood had been severe, and though he had come through it all triumphantly.the struggle had left its mark upon him. He was no longer the purposeless youth, half man, half boy, who but a few months previously had lolled over the bar of the promenade buffet at the Imperal Theatre, deliberately imbibing alcohol for the purpose of working himself up to a proper pitch to meet his father. All that that old life implied he had done with for ever. By the alchemy of misfortune he. had been converted into a man.

In the glory of the summer evening as the boat was being got ready to take them ashore he stood leaning over the ship's rail with a look of perfect happiness and contentment on his face, a look that was not wholly accounted for by the fact that his innocence had been finally proved beyond the shadow of a doubt. Only the evening before another event had taken place which had set the seal to his happiness. With the cunning of a lover he had succeeded in luring Lady Violet from the insistent company of the D'jchrss. It had not been all his own doing. Lady Violet had been quite willing to leave the group on the main deck and to follow him into the bows, where, sheltered by a little deckhouse, they sat in two comfortable chairs completely hidden from view. But Miss Elders had something to do with it. She had read the restlessness in Sti'angways* eyes, and she guessed its meaning.

The conversion of the Duchess in favour of Strangways was hardly complete; prejudice died hard with her. In the first instance, the fact that this young man had been accused of murdering his father had been more than sufficient to make her regard him as quite impossible. Though he had saved her' from the burning train at the risk of his own life, though he had rescued her in the very nick of time from the sinking yacht, she could not find it in her heart to look on him with complete approbation. It was only after the mad, raving confession made by the Patriarch that she began to weaken. And even then the recollection that Strangways had been mixed up in a deal of unpleasant scandal—in a scandal which was not recognised as forgiveable in the society in which she moved—restrained her from regarding her host as quite the person to associate with her daughter. She had therefore kept a wary eye on Lady Violet, wilfully preventing her from having any tete a tete with Strangways. It was with the object of putting an end to this situation that Miss Elders intervened. Esther was a girl whom, when once she had made up her mind, it was next door to impossible to lure from her purpose. She meant to let Strangways- and Violet speak together alone, helieving, and believing rightly, that she would thereby be assisting tlv; plans of a certain little blind boy. The Duchess struggled manfully against her, but the match was not fair. Esther held her in conversation in spite of all her hints. She mentally forced her to keep her seat when Strangways and Lady Violet with superb unconcern strolled forward. She persuaded the old lady against°her will that she was tired, that after the terrible strain of the past few days she must rest or face a complete breakdown. She invented parallel cases on the spur of the moment, telling how her greataunt, the Countess of Wakefield, had been upset in a coach accident and was forced to keep her bed for five years in consequence of her pig-head' ed refusal to give her nervous system the necessary amount of rest immediately afterwards. In spite of herself the Duchess, who had a pathetic interest in nervous diseases, having suffered but little from them in her life, became absorbed in this narration. Esther worked her grand-aunt, whom she had never seen in her life, "for all she was worth," as she subsequently expressed it; her fruitful imagination providing her with abundance of details concerning the deceased lady's complaint. So much did the Duchess enjoy this flosh- ■ creeping conversation that she quite forgot the existence of her daughter. Meanwhile Strangways was taking full advantage of his first opportunity of being alone with the girl he loved. "Li'dy Violet," he said, breaking the eao/ flow of small talk which they hati i.ept up for some time "1 have got something to say to you that I must say. I mayn't .have another opportunity." The girl by his aide suddenly became absorbed in the flight of two gu'ls towards the horizon. "Yes, Mr Strangways?" she said questioningly. He shifted uneasily in his chair, nerving himself for the effort. "Vioh'it, darling, I love you: 1 want you to be my wife." The words sounded horribly commonplace and matter of fact. The girl by his side said nothing, though he saw a little blush creep into her cheeks, and a strange light come into her eyes that hn had never seen before. "I have love:! you ever since the

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night I first saw ~ou in your box at ! the Imperial—on /.hat ...wful night," ho went on, tiu.v that he had broken the ice. "?. saw you again in Fleet Stree:. .-u (..-•?• the \r\a\, and then fate threw n> .oiv'li'")' in that terrible-train, i you doubted mc —liki! the rvst- -and swore I would never f.poak t.o you of my love until I had i'onmi my father's murderer and my innocence had bt-en proved. lam not much of a man. I have done a lot that I'm ashamed of. But I love you more than all the world, and I don't know how I could live without you. It is horribly selfish to talk like this, but I'm a poor hand at expressing myself. I love you Violet. I don't suppose you can care much for me. But if you could care just enough to marry me I would live only to make you happy." She looked up quickly at him and there were tears in her eyes. "Care a little for you," she repeated in a broken voice "why I love you, my darling, as I think no woman can have loved before." A great joy welled up in his heart. There was no need to utter any more words. He bent forward quickly, and their lips met in one long kiss. (To be continued.)