ONE IMPASSIONED HOUR.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9060, 8 April 1908, Page 2

ONE IMPASSIONED HOUR.

By OWEN MASTERS.

or of " Nina's Repentance," " Clyda's I.ove Dream." " Her Soldier JLover," " For Love of Marjorie," " The Mystery of V/'ooderol'i;. " etc.

CHAPTER XXVlll.—Continued. "Odious creature!" flashed Miriam. "Always spying and pryieg. The servants won't adimt him in any circumstance;.-'. Papa," luir face was white with indignation, "that man has stirred up nil the bitter feeling against you." "That is perfectly natural in such a man," Eastwood laughed. "I have granted him favour*, not for his sake, but for the good old rector's. Pshaw ! He will cringe before ma again soon. Now for the tea. How pleasantly odorous! . . . And the news, Miriam?" He looked at her hungrily. "Don't you think I have been very patient?" "Fidgeting all the while!" she smiled. Then she. added sadly: "But I have very little to tell you, papa; no really good news. No start could be made until midday, and then the cage had to return, and they are pumping now;" "Water. Just what I anticipated. Pumping Number 3? That will draw the sister shaft safe enough, but—oh, I daren't think about it." "Then don't, papn. Worry never did any good yet, and never will. Mr Simmonds will bo here to see you about nine o'clock, and then you wiU know what progress has been made." They lingered over the memorable tea, until the sun cast a ruddy light on the walia. They talked, and talked, but it is true the range of subjects was limited. The affairs of the nation were of small importance to him. Did some foreign power meditate an invasion of England? What of it? Such an event in actual being was microscopic compared with the troubles of Charlie Eastwood! But it was a delightful time, and there was a break in Charlie's voice when his daughter rose to leave. "All this over again to-morrow, and every day until the end," he said. "To-night I shall venture into :the>ark for a breathing-spell." Miriam returned to the house, and within an hour Allan was talking to her over the telephone. "We found twenty feet of water in Number 4," he said, "and had to come back to the surface again. The pumps of Number 3 are at work, and the water is coming up at the rate of two thousand five hundred gallons a minute. Thank God, there is no question about the ventilation, the intake and return passages being intaci. ... I sha'n't leave until we know the best and the worst. We are all working at high pressure. Don't wait to hear anything else, darling; I'm off now, and shall not come to the phone again to-night. Good night, sweetheart." With this meagre sort of comfort Miriam had to be content; and when Mr Simmonds came home he had nothing to add to it but solemn headshakings. "The mine must be practically flooded, Miss Eastwood, and when tin water is withdrawn the experts fear a general caving in. It's a gruesome piece of buisness, and may mean the death of more than one adventurer. I've explained it all to your father, and he has instructed we to have a shaft sunk immediately on a line with the chapel. It won't take long to bore thirty feet." Left to herelf again, Miriam moved into the verandah, and saw the stars budding into life. From afar the fitful chiming of the churchbells reached her ears, soft and sweet, than bursting into joyous, holy music through the wind-swept glens. A bird of s jng was chanting a melody in the woods', and the incense from the beautiful earth paid silent tribute to God.

ioners went, unnol wed in t.he turmoil which had hcv ;•'■!■ tin; old and the young of Castle Sumo,rd. And new. in the glare of the July sun l"i»; wa.i trudging from the \ilingo ro Ihe 1-,' ed Moure, thisU-d.aiiiud, hot and jiPH-piring. It wiik one of fatiguing <!?..ys when the!;;:;' is laden with the humidity of a vapor hath. Forrest dragged himsoif wearily acre;"; the lowii to a .shady seat, and dropped into it oantingly. lie looked low.vus the house, his eye.-, shiuing with confidence. \n>i lo :u;y triumph. He took of}' his bat and wined his hot brow end free; then he laughed quietly, hut with intense enjovment. "I siin.ll win her yet!" ho reflected. "My passion must comi'Oi some return, when she- realises ie <!)>■ (ull that Hornutgrnir--. heart it* irrevocably given to another. And J am. working for her, slaving l';.i" hoi, and what a joy it m to be her s!n\e!" All at once hi;-; plain iaej ooeome luminous, and his heart .verged up into his throat. Miss Janle.y was emerging from an open French window, her oven alight with an eager welcome. He jumped up when she drew near, but ;-;ho waved him to his feet with an unmistakable show of impatience. "You are prompt, Mr Forrest." "I hope I am always businesslike. The rector has often -accused mo of having a commercial mind. He forgets that the church is as much a business institution as a grocerystore." "You are warm and tired," interrupted Kate. "I've walked all the way from the priory, Miss Linley, and J walked all the way there." "I've ordered the tea to tie brought, out here." "For two?" "For two. Mr Warren i.<j at the colliery. Has sympathies are entirely with Mr Allan Bevriugtoii." "1 regard him as a muff at his profession," Forrest said. "And as for the ordinary policeman ' He shrugged his shoulders contemptuously. "You have fresh tidings?" she whispered eagerly. "Positive and conclusive. It has been left for a clergyman to unravel the skein under the very nose of a professional detective." The girl's eyes dilated, and the colour forsook her face. "Mr Forrest " she panted. 'A servant advanced with a teatable; another followed with a loaded tray. Within live minutes Kate was pouring out the tea with a trembling hand. "Your success is little short of marvellous, Mr Forrest. And now my heart almost fails mo. . . . But go on with the story, and don't stare at me in that devouring way." "I can't help it. You know what I have been working for: you know what,has inspired within me superhuman strength and cunning. The very intensity of my determination to please you has invested me with powers of divination " "Of a very pcor quality," Kate interrupted, "or you would know that you are boring me to death." But she smiled at the moment of admonishing him —oh, such a ravishing smile! "I appreciate all that you have done, Mr Forrest, and I think you are remarkably clever. As for Mr Upton Warren " Her eyes (lashed. "Weil?" "Oh, I just hate and despise him!" (To be continued.)

CHAPTER XXIX. LOVE'S MELODRAMA. Love i 3 a problem that will never be solved. Writers and thinkers have been trying to plumb the depths of its mysteries since the days of Adam, and we are not a bit wiser than our forefather of I don't know how many thousands of years since. Love has made angela of devils, and devils of angels, and will go on •doing so for ever and ever. The beautiful, the vivacious, and .the altogether charming Kate Linley was in lovo with Allan Berrington. :She had been in love w ; .th him without seeing him in the flesh. Two or three photographs, his fathers constant praises, and gentle hints, and Kate's heart knew how to leap at the mention of hi 3 name. Then the time of meeting came, and Kate was happy until she realised that another stood in the I'ght of her golden dreams. It was a cruel awakening, but b )ts was no passive resistance. She pirauaded herself that Allan had b en attracted by the tearful wiles of another woman—a lovely woman —a woman in a tangle of trouble, around whom was the glamour of "sweetheartirig" when she and Allan were children. "It is not love," Kate reflected; ",t.i i merely flimsy sentiment; the ©notional sympathy of a generous, chivalrous man, for a gill wno knows hov to me hor eyes. . . . But Wtten.ha realises tiat her father is guifty of slaying his father," she Ishutldered, "he will know that it is iimpossible." So she allied herself with Mr Forirest to biing home the crime to •Charlie Eastwood; and the curate, rfor love of her, trod not in the iMaster's fuotsteps, but became a ■determined sleuth. His final reward was of the hasiest, but there was hope, hope, hope! And it was something to be abl« to see her. He Jhaunted the Red House by day and might, and his neglect of the parish-