A HEART'S TRIUMPH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9117, 17 June 1908, Page 2

A HEART'S TRIUMPH.

CHAPTER V.—Continued

CHAPTER VI

Michael Everest had ventured more than once into the house only to have the chance of seeing Nini nntl learning how it fare;) with Cecil. Disappointed at not finding the old Italian nurse, Michael dared at last to speak to Mr Darnley. He said very little, but his manner, with his siniDle words, touched Paul. "Miss Lacklyne is as well as she can be," he told the young man. "I have not seen her this morning, but shall do so when Doctor Thorold comes. She has had a great shock, and there is much trouble ahead for her, I fear." Paul hardly knew why he found himself speaking so frankly to this young man, but, like Cecil, he was almost instantly struck by the curious refinment of voice and the charm of Michael Everest's bearing; moreover, he was touched by his sincere solicitude for Cecil. "If there is anything I can do, I hope I may be allowed to do it," Michael said. "J can hardly realize that Sir Charles is dead, and that Miss Cecil is alone. It seems a terrible thing. I wish—-" And then the young man broke off suddenly and coloured sharply. "Miss Cecil has always been so good to us," he said, almost as if in explanation; "quite lately I had an accident to my hand, and she did many things forme." "She has a sweet nature," Paul answered warmly. His liking for Michael deepened the more he heard the honest, pleasant voice and looked into the frank and handsome eyes. "I will tell Miss Lacklyne of your inquiries," Paul said, as he was rewarded by a flash of pleasure over the face before him, "It was evident there was something more you want to say?" Mr Darnley asked him kindly. Michael's colour rose again.

"I have heon wishing ro much tint 1 could bring my mother to he with Miss Cecil. She would be a comfort, lam sure. She has been used to sickness and trouble. Of course, I know it may seem presumptuous of me'-to suggest this; but"--ha coloured hotly again—"but it hurts me to think Miss should be all alone. She seams to have 1,0 kith or kin of her own, and my mother could at least take care of her." He looked rather proudly into Paul Darnley's eyes. "You mu=t not judge my mother, by my woikingclothes," he said. "She belongs to a world apart Irorn me. She is Miss Cecil's equal." "As you are yourself," Paul Darnley said heartily. He he'd out his hand, and Michael put his left one into the grasp. "Nature is always the clearest, the most eloquent guide. I was not deceived by your workingclothes, Mr Everest, and I am happy to have met you." "Thank you," was all Michael Everest said to this; but it was sufficient. Both men felt at this moment that the first chord had been struck in a sympathy, a friendship that would live between them to the end of their lives.

"It is impossible for me to move very much in any direction," Paul went on after this, "till the lawyers have come. I wish I could see more clearly ahead for this poor child, but the path is more difficult, and she will have to face much sorrow. Perhaps in a little while it may be possible for you to bring her in contact with your mother. She has need, indeed, of good, kind women about her. I have longed, on my part, for my promised wife to be here; but we can do nothing, any of us, immediately. Doctor Thorold, I expect, will act most prominently for her."

The colour that came and went so swiftly in Michael's fair, handsome face floated across it now for an instant. "She will be in good hands, then," he said, "for Doctor Thorold is a good man." Faul assented. He was becoming absorbed again in thought about Cecil, and he did not notice, as he would have done at other mordents, tat there was a curious expressh n 111 Michael's face and voice as he spoke of Doctor Thorold. The two men were talking toge;her in the big dining-room. Paul had made a pretense of eating some breakfast, and he was now awaiting impatiently for Doctor Thorold to arrive. He felt nervous at the thoughts of facing the strange woman alone. Michael had said all he had to say so he turned to go. He paused for one instant as he was passing out.

"I should like to attend the funeral; and if there is anything, no matter how small, that I can do, you will let me know?" "You may rely on me," Paul paid. Then his eyes turned toward the grounds, and his face cleared as he yaw a carriage advancing. "Hero is Doctor Thorold," he said with his voice full of relief. Michnwl went ait through the doorway anJ stood a little apart, watching the ol 1 doctor alight from the carriage. There was a so< - t of deference and tenderness in him as he looked at the worn, boneficient face of'the great scientist, but this expression went wholly as he watched Felix liingham jump from the broughun and follow his uncle into the h )U 30.

"The son of my mother's enemy should bd my uiemy, too," he naid to himself, half-bitterly. Then, with a sigh and a glance that carried his heart's sweetest thoughts toward the darkened room where Cecil was, Michael turned and went back to the 'workshop, to collect his belongings anu to make himself ready to leave the White Abbey when its dead master had been laid in the grave.

By Effie Adelaide Kowlands, Author', of "Hugh Gtotton'a Suc-vat," "A Splendid Heart," •T.rnvo Barbara," "Tl.o Temptation of Alary Hiut," '•Hclina'ri Love Story," etc

"[IF: WAS A BAD MAN! SUCH AN EASY DEATH WAS TOO GOOD FOR HIM!" Doctor Thorold elected to speak a lorn; with the woman who had so boldly called herself Lady Lacklyne, and claimed so roughly the closest and sweetest relation with Cecil. "If I have need of you, I will ask you to com;!," he said to Paul. F'lix went for a saunter about the quaint place. He had gone through the form of asking to seo Miss Lacklyne, but he did not press this matter. He must be cautious first, and he must know things definitely, before deepening his influence in Cecil's life. Conversation with his un:le had given him back this confidence in Cecil's fortune. In any case, so Doctor Thorold had said, the girl could not be materially injured by the arrival'of a wife on the scene. "She will take a widow's share, that is all; perhaps not even that, if it is proved she has been legally separated all these years," had been Doctor Thorold's theory. Felix had questioned a little more closely. "And there is no doubt, I suppose, as to the extent of the property—l mean that Sir Charles has died a rich man, uncle?" "On that point there can be no doubt at all. Lacklyne came into a fortune about twelve or fifteen years a'*o, since which I should think he has made another fortune through speculation. His expenditure down here was heavy, of course, because his engineering mania was also an expensive one; but the property of the White Abbey, with its outlying farms, and lands, so great of value, and if sold to-morrow would realise considerably over one hundred thousand pounds. Most of this must pass to the girl." Felix had felt his heart thrill. It gave him a sense of delight to recall that moment of the early dawn when Cecil Lacklyne had lain so feeble and stricken in his arms, and when his eyes and his l ; ps had drawn her pure white heart from her and made it his own. The girl's beauty had not appealed to Felix, yet he felt satisfied with her. A woman with such wealth as this would have had charms for him had she been the ugliest creature in existence; and though he scarcely remembered what Cecil was really like, he was conscious that she was at least not ugly. It was her picturesque garb that had made the most impression on him. Felix was not likely to have responded to the exquisite delicacy and the soulful loveliness of Cecil. Hi 3 taste lay in a stronger direction. He liked women of another type—women who matched himself physically and mentally. He had such a woman floating in his mind as he listened to his uncle speaking of Cecil's wealth, and he told himself impatiently that the world was very unevenly divided, and that things never went as they should go. Nevertheless he was in a state of mingled excitement and satisfaction as he left his uncle to approach the self-styled Lady Lacklyne and as he walked under the tall, imposing trees—the trees Cecil loved so well — he felt already the delight of proprietorship and the power of much money. He determined to remain a few days with his uncle. His practise would not suffer by his absence, and the respite from his annoying creditors would be pleasant. Once let it be rumoured abroad that he was about to marry Sir Charles Lacklyne's daughter and heiress, and his life would be in clover. His reaJy imagination painted out swiftly before him a succession of wonderful pictures. (To be continued).