The Colonel's Enemy.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3139, 17 March 1909, Page 2

The Colonel's Enemy.

CHAPi'ER XVlll.—Continued. "We may as well think that as anything else, till we have the promised letter; and when we have that, it will not take us long to prove whether it i 3 a foigery or not. I shall take an active part in this, major; but you need not mention it to anyone, not even to Dacre. He -must not have the slightest trouble of any kind, for I tell you that Hs mental condition is critical—it would not take much more to disturb the balance." "His fall from* the cab must have injured him." "Added to the anxiety, it was the worst thing that could have happened to him; and I, as his medical adviser, must insist that he is not troubled. Whatever he may have to hear had better come from you or me." The major agreed to that at once. De Vigne had something of his own cool determination, though it had been trained in a different school; but the same characteristics which had made the one a daring and successful soldier, and given the other the unerring eye and unfaltering hand which made him a skillful surgeon. Iney parted at Charing Cross, having exchanged what was not an Idle promise, 'to call upon each other; and while the doctor went to his neglected patient in Brooke Street, Maj. Lugard went in a cab to - Old Brompton. -Mrs Dacre met him with a grace which made him wonder more and more how she could willingly have withdrawn herself from the society she must have adorned with singular distinction. In answer to her inquiries, he told her there were no fresh tidings of the colonel; and then he dwelt with some concern upon the condition in which he had found Mr Dacre. He had expected some expression of sympathy and regret, but to his surprise and perhaps to his disappointment, she made no sign. "I am slightly acquainted with Dr De Vigne," she said; "he attended Mrs Lawton here, in the early part of the present winter, and should I not see him you will kindly ask him to let me know at any time when Mr Dacre is an danger. Should a crisis of any kind be impending; that is what I mean." | "The doctor is chiefly concerned j about the mental strain," the major said; "for the rest, Mr Dacre has a constitution of iron, and except for the pain, the fall that would have disabled a man half his age has only temporary affected him." "You may be deceived in regard to his age," the widow said. "Mr Dacre looks like an old man; he is not jyet sixty, but he looked old when he was young, and was always remarkable for his extraordinary, almost supernatural mental power and physical strength; but the time comes when *he strongest man shall fea as a child, and should he be in danger ox that time you must send. v ';'*«y not see him now? Be speaks of you on the rare occasions when your name is mentioned, with a regret and tenderness which make me sure that a visit a'o'.Ti. you would give him infinite delight." Mrs Dacre smiled sadly, with a slight negative motion of her beautiful head, and he was answered without a word. "Did you tell him you were here last night?" she asked. "No; Dora was with him, and we had to be careful of our conversation before her; but I am going to sit with him this evening, and then I shall have to tell him everything. Have you -spoken yet to the lady downstairs?" "I have, and was hardly prepared for the effect it had upon her. She is at home now, with her daughter; and it was not till I hr.d—well, shall I say, indorsed Leonard's opinion of you?—that Mrs Lawton would consent to an interview. At first she seemed annoyed and distressed, and was almost tearfully angry because I had told you she was a clergyman's widow, and used to live nea: Bristol; but Miss Lawton soothed her, and Jt was settled th«t if you came, I was to take you down to them." "One moment," he said, gratefully, "and while I thank you for what you have done, do you think that by a happy accident I have found those I have beenl looking for? I know they would shrink from anyone to whom myoftame belongs, and that would account for her reluctance and distress; but they do not know me. Do you think " "I have no right to think," she aaid; "you have no right to think, Maj. Lugard. If they have chosen to preserve their incognito under some slight change of name, it is not for you to penetrate it; if, Rafter an interview, they still choose to preserve it, it is for you to respect their decisions. But I need not tench Maj. Lugard the duty of a gentleman. Come with me now." He followed her, as expectant, and almost as nervous, as when a boy he used to pay his ceremonial visits to his stately relations at Ravenskerne. Mrs Dacre knocked at the door of the little parlour, opened it, and took the soldier in. "Maj. Lugard,"[she said. He looked wistfully at the faces of the two ladies, who had risen to receive him. He would have become familiar with the family portraits in the Ravenskerne picture gallery in vain if he had failed to see the resemblance here, in the proud face of the mother, softened by the favourable impression the noble simplicity of the soldier's manner always made, and the pretty countenance of her daughter, the Lugard lineaments line for line. "Pci not tell me I am mistaken," he said, "or I shall be more sorry j

I ——° I $ By WINTHROP B. HARLAND. j / Author of "Lady Elgin's Secret," "A Haivest of / g Shams," "The Elder Son," "Lord . A h , Ashton's Hoir," Etc. *)

than I can say. You are my aunt, rriy father's sister, and you are my Cousin Mary?" There was no resisting the wistful gladnes3 in hi? voice. The giil, a slender figure in bhick, took a step forward, and gave him her hand. "Yes," she said,, "I am your Cousin Mary, and this is my mother. But how did you know?" CHAPTER XIX. "WILL YOU DENY ME THE RIGHT TO DO MY DUTY?"

Nothing could have been more pleasant than the interview that followed, when once the ice was broken, and Mrs Walton had made her nephf-w welcome. The widow had been very proud under a strong sense of the been inflicted upon her by the late master of Ravenskerne—her own brother—but her pride gave way at the sight of this frank and winning soldier, and there could be no doubt as to the disinterestedness of his motive in the search hj« had made for her. "How did I know you were my cousin?" he said, in reply to Mary's question. "Well, you are just what I thought you would be if ever we met; and you, my dear aunt, I could only have seen you when I was very young, and yet I fancy I retain some recollections of you." "You were very young," Mrs Walton said, "too young to remember me—a delicate and pretty baby, with no promise of being what you are now. Your father was my favourite brother," she added, softening at the recollection, "and you are like him in your ways, Lut you are such a big fellow. The Lugards of my generation were small and slender men, through, had they been measured by their headstrong, . unyielding tempers, each one might have been a giant." "Did not a little of that unyielding temper find its way into the female side of the family?" he suggested. "I think I know of one lady who obstinately hid away from her friends." "You mean me," Mrs Walton ssid; "but Maj. Lugard " "My name is Fredsrick, my dear aunt." - "Well, then, my dear Frederick, I had no friends when my husband died; I always had an idea that my brother Percival would relent, and I always intended to resent any attempt at a reconciliation. I saw every one of those advertisements he had put in the papers by Mr Kessiver.V "You are mistaken, aunt. These advertisements were inserted by Kessiver on his own account; he was afraid you might not be doing too well in the world, nad out of an old and true regard, he wished to help you, if he might." "Surely not on his own responsibility," Mrs Walton said, with a flash of the Lugard pride; "he did not venture to think I would aecepfc atf fron i tn <3 fa.rn.ilv_ lawyer?" ' ~ [to be continued.]