THE COLONEL'S ENEMY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3115, 15 February 1909, Page 2

THE COLONEL'S ENEMY.

BY WINTHEOP B. HAKLAND.

Author of "Lady Elgin's Secret," "A Harvest of Shame," "The Elder Son," "Lord Ashton's Heir," Etc.

CHAPTER lll.—C..?.tinued. "I am always glad to meet a ■soldier," Lugard said, "if he is an honest man. Does he belong to the English army?" , "Years ago he may have done so, but I think he gained his rank in the Mexican or Servian campaigns. As for his honesty, it is unimpeachable; but he is very shy." "Then I will never trust to appearances again," the major said. "He is a handsome fellow, well set up, and, I thought, full of nerve. Candidly, I had not muiie up my mind whether he was a gentlemanly private or an officer who had risen from the ranks, and I was curious to settle the question." "I think you have hit it," Mr Dacre said. "He was a gentlemanly private, who did rise from the ranks, but not in the English service. Between ourselves, I think he is a bit of an imposter in a harmless way. His commission is genuine enough, but it is not English, though he allows people to think it is, and that goes a long way in the city. You have no idea what a number of doubtful clergymen, sham professors, and spurious doctors we have in London. As for military men of all grades, from captain to general, you may meet them by the score on 'any day during a walk from Charing Cross to the Royal Exchange; but lam afraid you would search the 'Army List' in vain for their names or the dates of their appointments and promotion." "It seems to me, then, that people who deal With them encourage a swindle." "I wonld not say that" Mr Dacre said. People who have to spend or invest are so much more likely to believe in a concern when it is supported by captains, M.D.'s, protestors and reverends. The plain initials are out of it in a iloatisg speculations, though the business may be perfectly sound. Suppose, for instance, that we wanted you aa a director and sent an agent, you would be more likely to give .an interview to Capt. Crauliss than to Mr Crauliss." The major admitted there might be something in that, but marvelled inwardly why such a rich and upright man should dabble in doubtful companies at all. "So you had better leave poor Crauliss alone," Mr Dacre said; "you would only embarass him. Like most self-taught men, he is sensitive ly conscious of his own deficiency; he could not meet you as an equal; the habits of obedience and respect he acquired as a soldier would rendtr it impossible." ■ "If you think so, there's an end to it," the major said. "But for my part, an intelligent soldier, who has done his duty is the equal of any one, and though we are apt to look upon a man who has gained a commission in foreign service as an adventurer, I think it is a mistake." "Yours is the liberal theory of an aristocrat," Mr Dacre said, with a smile. "All English gentlemen are proud, and the proudest of all is an English officer. You know in your heart that the only true equality, as you see it, i* equality of birth." "I cannot agree with you there, Mr Dacre. L3t a man rise to my level by his own merit and I am ready to meet him as an equal." "Pardon me, major, if I say that you deceive yourself. You would be perfectly at your ease, if course, but Crauliss would not. Joachim Murat was a Marshal of France, Grand Duke. of,Clevts and King of Naples; and he was demigod to look at, but he always winced under the proud eye of Talleyrand. He could never forget that his father had been a steward in Talleyrand's family. You talk of meeting Craulis as an equal; why, I doubt whether you really think my nephew Leonard good enough for Dora."

CHAPTER IV. THE MAJOR'S RELATIVES.

The soldier could not repress a start, the shot was so unexpected, and direct. He liked the young man very, much, respected him for his industry and integrity, admired him for his devotion to his moth<r, but in his inmost heart, he knew that Mr Dacre's nephew was not the husband he would have chosen for Colonel Hilary's daughter. He knew nothing of the Dacres as a family; he could only infer that his host had made his money in trade; and though he was a distinquished looking man, well bred and well read, he, like his nephew, had not the hif;h culture and inborn grace of the class to which Miss St. Hilary belonged. \ '"The rank is but the guinea stamp," th? major said, quoting the words with a guilty sense that he was evading a direct reply. "Your nephew is a noble fellow, Mr Dacre. 1 honestly admire a man who has made his own way in the world; and Leonard's conduct to his mother is the best indication we can have for what he will be as husband. I am sorry my time is so short, I should have liked to see Mrs Dacre; she ever comes here." "Never," said Mr Dacre said, with a touch of feeling he rarely displayed. "Her foot has never passed the threshold of my house since she lost her husband; so gentle and forgiving as she is in other things. Kut she blames me for the one fatal step he took; it was a long time before she could b.3 induced to let Leonard be a lii.k bt:;ween us." The ma.ior did not question him in regard to the fatal step Mrs J.acre's husband had taken. There w°s a mystery here, but it was not for him to probe what was evidently a sensitive place in Mr Dacre's heart. There were more mysteries than one in this luxurious establishment, Frederick Lugard began to think, before he set, out on his journey to Somrrct. Vr c Pa ere was always an unsolvabl'. ricdle to him. He often fancied that she was watchirg Lim, longing

| to say something from which she was restrained by her brother's

presence. Mr Dacre never, by any chance left his sister and his guest alone for a nf/oment". But this strange and silent lady broke through her reserve and startled the major when he was going. He had shaken hands with Mr Dacre and Leonard, and kissed Dora, who gave him her innocent lips like a child, when Miss Dacre lad htr withered finger on his arm. •'Be sure that you go to meet the colonel," she said, earnestly. "'No matter where you are, or what you may be doing, be sure to go and meet him. Let no dut]', however sacred, keep you away. Be sure you meet the colonel. Do not forget."

Miss Dacre inarched solemnly out of the room where she had made that singular request—"be sure that you go to meet the colonel" —and was gone before the major could reply. He had not been without a suspicion that her peculiar habits were to be accounted for by a slight mental derangement, and his suspicion was verified by the vexed, though indulgent smile, with which her brother ■looked after her. - "'Poor Hannah!" he said, witb a sigh; "I had hoped you would be spared any exhibition of her eccentricities, but she takes strange fancies, and has a way of saying ordinary things with the impressivness of Mrs Siddons. She might have been sure that you would not neglect your -duty to your odd friend and comrade." "Even if I were delayed," the major said,'"St. Hilary would be in •good hancs, as you have kindly promised to meet him. But duty is Miss Dacre's one strong point, her watchword, as I have noticed in the little I have heard her say, and she thought it might not be out of place to remind me of mine." "I am sorry," Mr Dacre said, "that you should have been annoyed." "There is nothing to be sorry for, and I am not annoyed," the major replied "Surely such an amiable and gentle lady may be pardoned for expressing her anxiety in her own manner. " "Rather an embarrassing manner for me, now and Mr Dacre, said, clinging to the subject with a persistence which made the soldier inwardly impatient. "But,,'though you must have seen many of her oddities, I did not mind you, with your kindly tact and knowledge of the world." "Her oddities are very harmless," the major said, "and only show that, with her, self-denial is a practice, instead of a theory." "1 am glad that, so far, her oddities have been harmless," Mr Dacre observed, slowly, "for I should not like to place her under restraint; but I hope she will not become troublesome again." "Again?" "Dora and Leonard will tell you that, for days after my return to England, she refused all food and drink except bread and water; and now you have seen how sparingly si e eats, even of the plainest food, and never touches wine. 'J hen the hours she spends at her devotions, and the old-fashioned simplicity of her attire." [to be continued.]