A GIRL TO LOVE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9077, 29 April 1908, Page 2

A GIRL TO LOVE.

CHAPTEK Vlll.—Continued. "Pah!" Harry interrupted impatiently. "He hales you. Ron have interfered with his matrimonial arrangements, and in the apace oi a few weeks have become a veritable thorn in his aids. Your childlike faith in human nature would be amusing were it not terrifying. "1 am not like the Sadducee v/ho

believes in nothing unless it is measured, weighed, and labelled," Victor answered, good - liumouredly. ■"lf Trenwith means treachery, he will boat us with his money. He will wait until ours is all gone, and then win in a gentle canter. .But I can t . doubt his goad faith, after the declaration he made the other day. lor hi» matrimonial aspirations. Miss Leighton never intended to become his wife, so he must eventually c,iacover that I have done him no

wrong. Harry Owen's brow was as black as a thunder-cloud. His eyes were turned in the direction of the Stonewall pits. "Cheer up, old chap," Victor said. "Everything is right to those who .mean right. My faith in the future is unbounded. 1 have never knowingly caused a fellow creature to suiter an unhappy moment, and I never will if I can avoid it." "And yet Trenwith hates you," Harry retorted cynically. "If he does, it is under a misapprehension." "And Nathalie Leigh ton is eating her heart out for you. How innocent we are!" "And if I marry Miss Leighton? Come, Harry, have you anything else to bring against me?" "You had better go —go-go! You will miss your train, and perhaps more opportunities for making people happy. Things are all right here, and I will send you a weekly report until you are home again." He passed one hand over his brow, "I hope you will have a good time, % Victor. Don't mind me; the mental strain is pretty bad, with so much at stake, and the ghoulish eyes of Jasper Trenwithjwatching. Good-bye." They gripped hands, and Victor jumped into a waiting cab. ' "Poor old Harry!" he thought. "He is over doing it, and for what? I heartily wish that I bad sold the mines to Trenwith. I have sufficient tor my needs, and, if I were a millionaire to-morrow, the money would go "to the poor." And Owen was gazing after the flying cab the while, and muttering wildly: "There goes my dearest friend, and bitterest foe !" Pelham was driven to Dudley railway station, and there bought a ticket to Birmingham. His luggage was' very modest in quality, consisting of two trunks, one packed with books and the other with clothing. Arrived at Birmingham, he quartered himself at the Queen's Hotel, and wrote a letter to Nathalie Leighton:

CHAPTER IX.

"DEAR MISS LEIGHTON: I have entered upon the first stage of my adventure, and shall follow it up with the keen zest of a schoolboy. You •will.smile when you see that this is dated from a luxurious hotel, but I shall go in search of humble lodgings on Monday, and begin slum life in realjjearnest. lam going this evening to an organ recital ut Bingley Hall, and to-mcrrow, being Sunday, I shall have an opportunity to attend services at two of the most famous churches. In one way it is fortunate that so very few people know me, otherwise my movements would be uncomfortably hampered. After a while 1 may decide to run home from Saturday to Monday, as other ,clerks and errand boys do! With Icind legardis, Sincerely yours, "LESLIE GRANT." By the first mail on Monday morning Victor received the following xeply: . "DEAR MR PELHAM: I was eo glad to hear frorti you, and' papa was •quite curious about your letter. Of cou"se, I shall treasure it as the first ■ever written to me by you. I really was amused chat you should put up at one of the best hotels, and, if the truth be told, you travelled to Birmingham in a first-class car! I know, because the curate saw you. .Did you enjoy the organ recital? .And were'the sermons better than we get here? I shall look out for your ;next letter very eagerly, 'because I .am rather interested in real slumland, but only at a distance., If you come to Worcester every week, papa and I would like you to spend Sunday at Pendinas. Your presence here would be much nicer even than your leters. Sincerely yours, "NATHALIE LEIGHTON. ' "P.S. Papa sends a warning. Mr Trenwith is arranging to px-ovide finds for a new Sunday-school. He always crushes some weaker mortal either imma'.liatoly before or after gilding the sin. Ilia strength may be directed towards papa or yourself."

Ptlham read Nathalie's letter with mixed feelings-'. What a bogy everybody made o: Jasf er Trenvvith! Pelham had no fear of him, so sure was he that right always prevailed in the end. He was imbued with the subiime faith which will not admit of serious anxiety regarding the future. "I thifik that I ough't to have spoken plainly to Miss Leigh ton the other afternoon, only the opportunity was lost. Two or there people dropped in, and I dropped out. I wanted to tell hsr the whole truth— that 1 admire—l respect her, but I should make a poor husband if she expected .u lover, too." Thus he mused, and shook his head. "It isn't just satisfactory to my

By BERTHA. M. CLAY. Author of " Thrown on the. World," " Her Mother's Sin," Beyond Pardon," " '' l hj:? hoat Lady of Haddon," " Dora Thorne," •' An Ideal Love," etc.

mind, but I doubt if I could respect any woman more than I respect Nathalie Leighton. It is an affection of the temperament—of the brain—not of the heart.

"If I do this thing," he went on, "and, reading between the lines of her letter, it is evident she regards me in the light of a bit of property that will be available someday—if I speak and settle the matter, I can then challenge Jasper Trenwith on all points. I can say 'Nathalie Leighton »s not for you. Gold will not buy human souls. What would you have now? If the bitterness of your disappointment is to be turned upon me, you may let it loose, for I have no fear.' Yes, we shall meet as men, upon equal terms; and upon my soul, I believe that Jasper Tren* with will be an honourable foe —if a foe at all."

He heard a clock chiming the hour of ten, and hastily slipped the letter into his pocketbook. His appointment with the management celrk of the nut and bolt factory was at eleven prompt, and he had fully two miles to walk.

VICTOR'S NEW "DIGGINGS." Ihe way was strange to Victor Pelham, and it was nearly eleven o'clock when he arrived at the factory. The walk had not been uninteresting, but he had no desire to make a lasting acquaintance with some of the streets through which he had passed. They were narrow, squalid, and lined with blackened, tumble - down houses. Slatternly women were seated on the door-steps, and dirty, half-n;.ked children played and fought in the gutters. The stench of decaying vegetable matter clung to his nostrils, and he shuddered.

The factory gates were closed, but beyond he could hear the humming and buzzing of rnachiney, and the clanging of steel against steel. A hundred surrounding chimney-stacks were vomiting smoke, and flame, and sulphur, and the stifling air pulsed [ with the din of ceaseless labour.

A hugt: sign ran along the front of the building, painted yvhite on a black ground: "The Soho Nut and Bolt Works." Victor passed through a doorway to the right of the gates, and tapped at the window of the inquiry office. A frowsy-looking young man with a red nose appeared,, and regarded Pelham with a fishy eye. "I have an appointment with Mr Nuttall at eleven," Pelham said laconically. "What name?" "Grant—Leslie Grant." The man scribbled the name upon the back of a used envelope, told Pelhim to wait, and disappeared through a pair of swing doors into a dark corridor. He was soon back again, and motined Pelham to a dusty benoh against the wall. "Sit there. Mr Nuttall will come out to you in a minute." "Thank you," Pelham said politely. The inquiry clerk glanced at him sneeringly, and slammed down his window. (To be continued.)