A GIRL TO LOVE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9090, 15 May 1908, Page 2

A GIRL TO LOVE.

By BERTHA M. CIAY. Author of " Thrown on the World," " Her Mother's Sin," Beyond rardon," " The Lost Lady of Haddon," " Dora Thome," " hr\ Ideal Love," etc.

CHAPTER XXl.—Continued. "Yea, he must know that the folly is ended. I never believed in it myself. I always had the feeling that'l was courting disaster, w many rich men have gone under with these wildcat schemes. But I didn't wish to stand in his light, and I must do something for him." "Transfer the colliery to him," suggested Trenwith, "but your lawyer must handle the business. You are in an awkward muddle, if Mr Owen likes to be stupid. He claims some sort of partnership, and you must make yourself absolutely free of entanglements now." "But if the pits are worked out " "He won't believe it as long as he has a fool to finance him. Let him iiud it out for himself." But Victor shook his head. "And help him when he acknowledges his failure. You know best what you ought to do for him." "That sounds more reasonable," Victor assented. His heart was lightened, now that the way seemed clear. "I will talk matters over with him to-night. Poor Harry! It is rather a sad ending to his millions. He passed a hand over his brow. "My mind is clearing, but I still feel like ' a man walking on air." : A puff of wind came in at the open window, and 3wept a handful of papers from the table to the floor. A stronger puff moaned amid the gables, and white, fleecy-looking cloudlets were scurrying across tha sky. Jasper Trenwith closed the window, remarking: "The air is growing chill; it will be positively cold automobiling. 1 must lend you a great-coat. He quitted the room with quick steps, to return almost immediately, a long, gray ulster over one arm. "We are alike in build," he said genially, "but these things will fit almost anybody." He listened. "I can hear the automobile. Try a glass of thia sherry before we make a start --King's sherry—warm and invigorating. ' I bought a portion of the con- ■ tents of the royal collars when Queen Victoria, of blessed memory, died, and the investment was a good one, decidedly." He smacked his lips. "Fifty years maturing!" The butler announced that the automobile was waiting, and a fooc-, man was standing behind him with the master's over coat and cap. "You needn't wait up for me/' Jasper Trenwith said to the servants. "I shall say at a hotel somewhere—probably at Birmingham. I have a directors' meeting t) attend tomorrow morning at the Soho factory. I'll telegraph to my secretary." He adjusted his cup, and fastened the front of his coat, then whispered in Victor's ear: "1 have a mind to goto your wedding to-morrow, May IV' "You may," Victor answered, with a smile. His eyes sparkled, and his face flushed warmly, for his heart had given a sudden leap. Only a few more hours! While the machine whirled along. his thoughts were busy with the immediate present. What a relief it would be to have the colliery completely off his hands! His was not the mind—his was not the intellect to graple with great commercial enterprises or problems. ) Necessity might have shaped him /otherwise, but it was playing with fire, and tempting fate, to trust blindly in any iuw. There was.too much at stake, and his ruin would soon affect another. That very night he would lay the matter before Harry Owen, clearly and decisively The facts would admit of no argument. He would probably rave and storm for he had late- . ly developed a most unreasonable and vicious temper. He would sneer at Victor, and declare that he was the caspaw of Jasper Trenwith—that Trenwith's schemes had finally prevailed. The thought startled Pelham. Jasper Trenwith had proved liimsulf capable of anything. He glanced at the financier from one corner of his eye. The man's fine profile was clearly outlined, and tho blue eyes were aflame. It was a beautiful face of the old Roman type, and was now glorified by the joy within him. He caught Victor's glance and smiled. "I have let you think for a full half-hour, Pelham," he said. "About that mad fellow, Owen, about the colliery, and about me. And I have been thinking, too. What a different world this would be if men and women obeyed the tun commandments! In the pursuit of wealth, and socalled pleasure, they turn their backs upon heaven itself. If they pray at all, it is a selfish prayer, and to a God that has no existence. Heaven is within the reach of all, if we do hit look in the right direction. 1 have discovered it, at hut!" lib; impa-wioned voice s'mok with eviction. He was stirred by a wave of feeling which foresaw thy possibility of deed* 'of nobleness and heroism. The automobile glided through the quiet High Street of Stourbridge, in the light of a full moon. The sky was clear now, out the wind was cold. "We shall be at Dudley by eleven. Your plans are formed, Polliam?" "Yea; I am going to Hurry Owen's lodgings, and if he is not at homo i shall wait. The business must be placed in the hands of my lawyers, to be wound <:i[, but I will do nothing until I have talked matters over with him." There was a short silence then Jasper Trenwith spoke: "You will tell him the simple truth. Perhaps ho anticipates it. Mr Ireland, ths ground-bailiff, knows of my complete'change of views." There was'a note of bitterness in his voice; then he added hopefully: "I i ahculd like to help Mr Ireland, too, but hid dreams are of blackmail." ,

A few minutes before eleven the automobile panted up the long, steep hill into the town of Dudley, rattled through the main street, swept round the lower church, and down to the Station Hotel, "If you wait hero for me, Trenwith " "Till doomsday!" "I hope not," smiled Victor. "Mr Owen lives within five minutes walk of the Station Hotel, but if he's out I shall wait. I may be an hour, or even two." "I can make make myself comfortable anywhere, now," Trenwith said. "Bring that mad fellow to reasoninsist upon ending your connection with the poor old colliery. It is .no longer a money-maker, out a moneyloser. Make him a present of the whole bag of tricks—anything! Now I'm going into the hotel. Ta-ta, and good luck to you!" CHAPTER XXII. THE WRONG MAN. Harry Owen lodged with a respectable family near the railway station. To be handy for the trains was his first consideration, as the colliery was situated on the other side of the town, where it was next to impossible j for a person to live who had been accustomed to the ordinary comforts of overy-day life. Wishing to be close to his work, he had tried to endure the locality, but the tumble-down house, the squalid streets, and the ever present odoui-s of fish and cabbage, and stale food generally, had been too much for him. So he had quartered himself within sight of the old castle, and the wooded hills which stretched for many a mile. Victor know the house well enough, but before knocking, he stood back in tho roadway and took mental stock of it. In all the five front windows \ ther3 wasn't a glimmer of light—no sound, no movement—only the soughing of the trees in the garden. He stepped to tha door, and rapped hard; after a short time of waiting a bedroom window was thrown open. "Hello! Who's that?" said tho voice of a man. "I wish to see Mr Owen," Victor I called back. "Kurn time to make calls! He isn't home yet, and I'm gutting sick of him. Goodnight." "Haven't you any idea where he ■ is?" cried Victor. "No." Down went the window, '. but was immediately raised again just a few inches. "You may find him at the colliery j —if you know where it is. He lives and sleeps there now." |. "Thank you." t Victor walked into the road, and } stood irresolute. It was fully two miles to the colliery, and the last j train was gone. Two miles —a sharp walk would cover the ground in half . an hour! He was feeling fit enough \ now, and regretted being hampered with Mr Trenwith's gray ulster. But away he went with a leng, swingl ing stride his mind fully alert. If t Harry Owen spent his nights at the colliery, it was proof that things t were going wrong. (To be continued.)