A GIRL TO LOVE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9094, 21 May 1908, Page 2

A GIRL TO LOVE.

% BEUTiiI M. CXAY. Author of " Thrown on the World," " 1 lot* Mother's Sin," Beyond Pardon," " The Lo«t Indv <-«' Uaddvi " " Dora Thome," " i\n Idea! I.ovo," etc.

CHAPTER XXV.—Continued. "What do you want?" the curate asksd impatiently. "Just a few words with you, sir. I am sober; in fact, I've signed the pledge to-day, and, after^ the marriage. intend going abroad." After the marriage! So it was a secret no longer, 'lhe arrangements had been kept quiet because of tins man. "So you listened at Mr Grant s door last night," John Rutherford said severely. Kennedy had walked into the room, and was occupying a chair. "I had played the spy before then," he answered coolly. "You see, I doubted Mr Grant from the very first. Cheap clothes and diamond pins don't usually go together. His lordly air, too, didn't sit properIt/ on an invoice clerk. Then I grew to hate him—you know why—and I felt that I should have to kill him if lie deceived Miss Craig." He sighed. "I thought she might have got to like me, but for him; though, no doubt, it wa3 presumption on my part, considering what I am. I know all about the marriage to-morrow morning, and when it's over I'm to make a man of myself. I'm going to America, where all have an equal chance." Rutherford was watching the man closely. "Then you have no real ill feeling against Mr Grant now, Kennedy?" , "None, because I misjudged him, and I see the of my passion for the lady, who is to be the wife of a rich man."

"A rich man?" repeated the cur- , ate. raising his eyebrows. "Yes, a millionaire, people sny. ; I made inquiries, and I discovered { that Mr Grant is really Mr Victor ( Pelham, the colliery proprietor, with a mansion full of servants at Worcester. I've seen the place, and talked to one of the servants. Oh, it's allO. K., Mr Rutherford I Now i want to make peace between me and Mr Pelham, and Mrs Pelham to T be. I want to shake hands with them, sir, and then Tom Kennei.y begins a new lite.' "I am glad to hear this, Kennedy." . Rutherford spoke mechanically, and there was a look of abstraction in his eyes. He had believed himself to be entirely in Pelham's confidence, and ho felt hurt. "A rich man—a millionaire!" he murmured. "I don't think that Miss Craig, or Mrs Craig, had the faintest notion of it." "A wedding surprise," sugg.'flted Kennedy. Rutherford started. "Did I utter my thoughts? How stupid of me. Ot' course, I know nothing about it." He sat with his head in hands of a long time after Kennedy had gone. At last he dozed; then he woke up with a jump. It was two o'clock, and still no Pelham. He threw himself upon a couch, and slept fitfully until the red dawn peeped in at the window. A cold bath refreshed him, and after the bath he took a long walk. He passed the Craigs' lodgings both going and returning, and was certain that the bride-elect was watching from an upper window. The streets were soon teeming with men, and boys, and girls on their way to the factories. The air resounded with and t! e clattering of thousands of feet. The curate went to the church, then paid the vicar an early call. From the vicarage he returned to his lodgings. Thtrrfc were no letters, and ho protended to eat some breakfast. He was sick at heart, and mentally resolved to let Pelham nave it "hot." At half-nast eight he walked to the Craigs' lodgings, hoping for the b tt, yet fearing the worst. Both lauie.s were dressed and their luggage whs, standing iri the hall. Immediate!" after the wedding ceremony th> y were going to Seaholme. Miao craigs' face was rather pale, and there was a strained look in her eye?, but her mother was in tears. "The anxiety is more than I can bear," she said. "No message-no news, Mr Rutherford?" He gently shook his head, and endeavoured to smile hopefully at Isla. "There's time yet- -plenty of time. Telegrams frequently miscarry. It is no uncommon thing fo»' the bride or the bridegroom to bo late. There were two cases last week—most amusing. The vicar " He became aware that he was romancing, and reddened violently. Miss Craig was listening expectantly, and her mother looked angry. "Please do i't make light of our humiliation, Mr Rutherford," she said tartly. "Our cab ia nt the door." lie offered Mrs Craig his arm, and when she leaned upon him he ielt that she was trembling violently. "I know that Mr Pelham is a bad, wickad man," she whispered in his ear . "He never intended to marry m/ daughter—or if he did intend, he cannot. I have proof in my posfesii,. that there is another woman." TiiJ words stung John Kuthci lord. The blood leaped to his brain, bin sight became blurred, and he groped blindly for tho handle of the nun; go door. If this were true, then it; would make of him an ungodly mm! There was conic virtue in the old Mosaic law —an eye for an eye, a too.ti for a tooth! CHAPTER XXVI. NO WEDDING. Ti era was no wedding. Tin little gi-j:of live people waited in the

vestry until past ten o'clock. The vicar, a kindly-faced, aged man, was visibly distressed. John Rutherford and the verger had tiptoed to the door ivifiiiy times. and gazed anxiously up and down the street. Careless men and hoys passed by whistling, never dreaming of the tragedy within. Mrs Craig sat limp and almost lifeless, and Isla watched and listened, her eyes burning, her breath coming and going in painful little gasps. "I don't think it is of any use waiting longer," she said, at last. "Something has happened to Mr Pelham. I am sorry to have been so much trouble to everybody." The vicar was helpless. He glanced at the girl's white face, very pitifully, than at the curate's angry one. "It is very sad," lie murmured. "Let us hope that nothing serious has happened." At that instant they heard the fierce throb of an automobile. The vehicle Stopped at the church gates, and there was the sound of fast approaching footsteps. Not one of them dared to breathe, so acute was hope, fear, and expectancy, Isla waited like one in a dreadful dream, clutching at her side, until the tall figure of Jasper Trenwith stood in the doorway.

In a flash ho comprehended the situation, and he sympathetically stepped over, and took one of Isla's trembling hand?. "No bridegroom," he said, so that all could hear. "I was with Pelham until eleven o'clock last night, and he invited me to the wedding. lam late, because he promised to come back to me, and we were to drive hore together. Oh, I don't anticipate anything more dreadful than a postponement. It is merely one of those wicked little stabs which fate metes out to everybody at some time or other. I venture to predict that the wretched little tangle will be straightened out within twenty-four hours. It was my telegram which Mr Pelham answered in parson, and I hold myself responsible for him. j We dined together at my house last evening, and we rode together in my automobile to the Station Hotel, at Dudley. Thetv Pelham left me to call upon his manager, end the mystery begins from the hour of eleven last night. But I really exnect to get news of him at any moment. He may have lost his way in the dark, stepped into a hole, and dislocated his ankle, or met with some such

trivial accident. The country is rough in the neighbourhood of the collieries." He smiled and spoke cheerfully. "Eight or ten years since, I tripped over a piece of rock in the Dudley Castle grounds, dislocated my left knee, and was there the whole of a night." Then John Rutherford put in a few words. "Only last summer I was unable to communicate with a living soul for about twenty-four hours," he said, his eyes fixed on Isla's trembling' lips. "I hired a boat at Seaholme, and when a mile from the shoie lost one of the oars. Darkness came swiftly, and there was a bit of a squall. I ran into a fishing-fleet nearly twenty miles out next day." ' "I remember that adventure," the vicar smiled. He turned to Miss Craig. "You are bearing yourself bravely, my child." "My faith is unbounded," Isla answered simply. "Your faith in God's goodness?" "Yes;" then she added to herself: "and in the truth of the man I love." (To be continued.)