Mary's Great Mistake.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3065, 9 December 1908, Page 2

Mary's Great Mistake.

By EFFIE ADELAIDE ROWLANDS. Author of Selinajs Love Story "An Inherited Feud," " Brave Latbaia, "A SpleiulM Heart," etc., etc.

f CHAPTER XXVIII. Continued. "Lady Ingrave does r.ot coi;sider j it funny, I can assure you," Doctor j Cartwright said, looking at the girl's glowing face with keen appreciation. "She is inflated with her own importance, She has been married a week, a whole week, and not a were! to a soul. She coolly told me she intended to have kept the marriage a secret for a little while longer, until Paul should have gone abroad. She had learned somehow, from somewhere, it was his intention to go, and she meant he should go and turn his back on all chance of happiness ancl understanding with Mary; at least for the present. Unfortunately, I found her out just too soon for her thoughtful plan to fructify. Her' aunt thought she was staying with your aunt, who is in Brighton now, by the way, and it was from this kinswoman of Lady Ingrave that I got possession of the few facts I hold relative to her most unexpected marriage." "And all this time she has been represented as being almost in a dying state!" Laurie could hardly speak for her indignation. "Oh! of course. She was determined to do nothing by halves while she was about it. By Jove! I don't envy Lord Ingrave his little shrew of a wife; and. to be candid, I don't envy her either, for a more hopeless and appallingly vulgar young man I have never come across. They picked up an acquaintance in a train, so 1 hear; and 1 can quite believe it. Despite his rank and his money few houses would be glad to receive such a young cub within j their doors. He goes nowhere, and has no friends in his own world. However, we may depend upon it, Lady Ingrave will soon cut out a way for herself. She will get on, oh! yes, he is just the sort of being the world wiil adore. She will. be & great success, especially as she is really pretty." "I hnd it hard to think anything but the most unpleasant things of Isobel,'' Laurie said, in a low voice. She thought of all Paul and Mary had suffered, of all the struggles, the misery; and when she remembered how this news might have come too late, when Paul would be thousands of miies away, and Mary left to her desolate despair, Laurie became abosolutely furious. George Carcwright ioved to see her in a temper. "You are a very dangerous young person," he said, now laughing a little at her passionate outbuist. "Oh!" Laurie cried hotly, "I do despise and abhor all crooked dealings, and, really, Isobel is almost too much for me. Oh! George!" —the name came out quite micon-j sciously, and sent a little thrill j through his heart —"just think, but j for a merciful chance, she would | have been Paul's wife. My deaf, j dear Paul, the best and truest, | and " and then Laurie's eyes , filled with tears. "I hope I am not a very wicked woman," she said) unsteadily, "but when I remember j al! that Paul has had to suffer i through Isobel Marston—l—l am ! afraid I don't hold many gentle or J charitable feelings for her." George Cartwright looked at her | for a moment in silence. | "Ho<v; you love your brother," he said, involuntarily, it sounded almost enviously. "I wonder if " but, he stopped suddenly, as a hot flush ) quickly spread over Laurie's face. \ "Now, the next thing is to pa,ck this same Paul off to Thrapstone just as quickly as he can go, and then " "There is an 'if before the'then'," Laurie said, awaking to the importance of the moment, "Doctor Cartwright, I am dreadfully afraid Paul won't go. He has been eo hurt, you see. Oh and I for one cannot blame him. Nor can I really blame Mary, for I know her now through and through, and Isobel has played upon her sweet, noble nature just as-she would play on a musical instrument. No; I don't blame, only 1 am afraid, if she had only let Paul know she did not doubt him, that " , Laurie walked on abstractedly. They were now in an isolated bit of road; even the dogs had left them, scampering away after ; an imaginary enemy, a rat or a rabbit, or something of the sort. She had shyly drawn her hand away from his arm a little while before, but the touch and the warm pressure remained to remind him it had been there. "We must hope for the best," the girl said, after this long pause, and then she turned to him. "How —how good you have been, Doctor Cartwright. I wish 1 could thank you as you ought to be thanked." George Cartwright's dark, resolute face flushed suddenly. ' "You can," he made answer, quickly; "if you will listen to me, Laurie, I will tell you how,"

The duga came panting back, after a wild and fruitless chase. They considered the company was so dull, however, since their young mistress and the man with her vouchsafed not the smallest notice of them, and appeared / absolutely blind to the quantities of sticks and siones lying in the road all ready for launching through the air, that they sped off again, and leaping; and so Lauri« could listen quietly and easily to all i.er lover had to say.

CHAPTER XXIX. UNITED. Doctor Cartwright was thorough in everv sense of the word. When he undertook to do a thing he did it in the mo t complete fashion. When Laurie's letter had reached him, he itiad given it immediate attention.

He had gone direct to the little house m Bayswater, where Isobel was supposed to be. He learned that she w.js absent on a visit to Lady liungerfor:!, at Brighton, so her aunt said. He soon proved that Iriobel, and not her aunt, was the author of the letters conveying such depressing news of her health to Thrapstone Court; and he determined to at once interview Miss Marston, and give her a piece of his mind. K.t went accordingly to Brighton, and found that Lady Hungc-rford was staying at one of the old-fashioned hotels. Miss Marston's name, however, did r.ot firure in the list of visitors. Doctor Cartwright had no desire to have any conversations with Lady Hungerford, who regarded him rather in the light of an enemy. He walked leisurely along the Parade, pondering in his mind what he had better do to get some trace of Miss Marston's present whereabouts, when all at once he came full upon Isobel, doll-like, dainty, smilingly unintellectual as usual. Her face had changed colour swiftly as she saw the doctor, and she would have passed him by, but this she soon found, to |ier intense disgust, was not to be, and in a very few minutes Doctor Cartwight was walking beside Latiy Ingrave'a small, neat form. (To be continued).