A HEART'S TRIUMPH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9153, 28 July 1908, Page 2

A HEART'S TRIUMPH.

By Effle Adelaide Rowlands,

CHAPTER XXIV

"I HAVE WORSHIPPED YOU SINCE THE FIRST MOMENT 1 SAW YOU!"

The murder of the fashionable young doctor, Felix Bingham, followed by the death of the womari who took so shocking a manner oj avenging her wrongs, was a source of gossip and newspaper comment foi many days to come; but gradually the excitement waned. When the public had read all it could about the double inquests and the inevitable verdicts; when the examination of Doctor Bingham's servants had been printed in full, and a graphic description of the funeral procession that accompanied the unhappy Kate Kearney to her last resting-place had been published in full; when the brief fact of her victim's most quiet .interment had also been noted; and when the illustrated papers had printed all the photographs they could obtain, the curiosity began to die down. It had been after r.ll, only a very ordinary story of jealousy and intrigue, and a great many people were found ready to bestow unlimited pity on the man who had suffered so untimely a fate through an infuriated woman's passion. The cause for the outrage was hinted at very distinctly; but though it was stated that the unfortunate Kate Kearney had vowed vengeance, and carried that vengeance into effect, because her lover had boldly announced his intention of, contracting a marriage with a wealthy young lady of society, this same young lady's name was happily, not mentioned, for the very simple reason that there was no one connected with the case who could furnish the information. To the inexpressible relief of all those who now constituted themselves Cecil's protectors, no onn was subpoenaed to give evidence at the inquest, save the dead man's servants and the people of the house where Kearney had lodged, who spoke plainly of the woman's excitement and hot anger against Doctor Bingham, and who proved that the attack that had ended so disastrously had been no sudden thought, but a Dremeditated plan; beyond these, there were odds and ends of witr.esst s called—the doctor who had been hastily summoned to give aid to the wounded man, and tue police officials who had been the first to reach the scene oii the murder. No questions were put touching Doctor Bingham's actions on the day preceding the murder, save that the valet told of his master's return home late in the afternoon from liis usual round of professional visits, and spoke of Doctor Bingham's irritation when informed of Kate Kearney's appearance at his house. Beyond such conventional questioning the matter did not go, since it was at once proved that the murder had been committed single-handed, and was brought about by motives of iealousy and anger, increased, it was proved, by the unfortunate woman's habit of "■» intemperance. The inquests, therefore, occupied but a short time;/and. in a further comparatively short time, as.has been said, the whole miserable story faded into that background of forgotten things which has so large a place in thetush and stress vof the world's working life. That it should or could be forgotten by the handful of people who had been, in a sense, associated with it was, of course, an impossibility. The remembrance of so sad and sordid a tragedy was too terrible, toohaunting, to be pushed aside. And of all these who remembered, the shock of Felix's sudden death had fallen with the most force on the young creature who bore his name, and yet had never been for a single instant in his life the real meaning of the , world. Cecil had been given the information in the gentlest way possible by Michael's mother, who had not shrunk from the task, although her simple heart had been aghast at the new story her boy had to tell her. It was no easy matter for jMrs Everest even to speak Doctor Bingham's name to the girl who sat beside Nini's bedside, with her loveliness faded by the haggard, drawn look of her face, and whose eyes seemed to long for tl € cjnsolation of fears, but Michael hie pleaded with his mother in his most eloquent way. "She has learned to love you already, and you are so gentle, darling mother," he had said pleadingly. Sc Mrs Everest had gone to Cecil aftei she had kissed her boy and with tear stained eyes had watched him stan on his journey of comfort to hei brother. Her heart ached for tha' brother, but it had a double ache foi Cecil. The girl's story seemed to he: fraught with all that was saddest foi a woman to taste. She feared the re suit of her mission, for though Ceci had Shown that the man sho ha< blindly followed, who had held her ii so close a spell, was known to her ii all his unworthiness, still Mrs Ever est feared lest there might not In yet in the girl's heart some trace o thatlnfluence which must have beei powerful and sweet. Cornelia Ever est was old-fashioned to a gr~ac ex tent. It was therefore comprehens ible that much that appertained t the truth in Cecil's nature am character should have been a hiddei truth to her. She could not grasp a? Michael did, tha peculiarities o a childhood such aa Cecil had had and tne manifold and subtle shad ings in Felix's scheme of obtaining a hold upon the girl all resolve themselves down into the nuggestio: hat Cecil had fallen in love, and ha loved unfortunately. The quiet, gentle way in whic Cecil received the news she had b te'l, and which was told as tenderl

Author of "Hugh Grotton's Secret," "A Splendid Heart," -'Bravo i B.irb; ra,V "Tie Temptation of Mary Burr," '•Solina's Lovo Story," etc.

as possible, comforted Mrs Everest. She had not the perception to follow this' mass of thought home to the girl's heart, and road t.ie effect it created there. Cecil, indeed, could not in after days recall clearly what her dominant feeling had been when the news of her freedom was conveyed to her. She was suffering so keenly frcm that haunting shadow of shame which, when the spell had been swept from her brain, had been the one definite meaning that her association with Felix conveyed to her; and the story of his death only seemed to force homeward this heavy sense of humiliation, for not even Mrs Everest's gentle words could endow that death with any beauty. As he had lived, so he had died. The cruelty and unscrupulousnesa of his nature had been swept into silence by another whom he had wronged and deceived, even as he had deceived her; it was a fitting end to such a life. Cecil sent Michael's mother from I her with a sense of relief, and when | she was alone the full horror "of it all beat upon her. She seemed paralyzed by the miserable circumstances which signified the meaning of her life since she had fallen in her weakness and ignorance into the power of the dead man's hands, and by the hideous outcome of that weakness. As she had seen herself degraded by the memory of her association with Felix, the living man, so now she felt herself dragged down to the level, of his wretched death. (To be Continued).