HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3178, 1 May 1909, Page 2

HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

CHAPTER I.—Continued. Mr and Mrs Grayle looked askance at the little cousin far removed, but they wanted some one in their overfilled nursery to relieve the grumbling nurse, who prjtested that she must have more help. What could be a cheaper plan than to invite Daisy to stav with them, and invest her with the charge of some of those obstreperous little ones? Grateful for the offer of a home, Daisy thankfully consented, and for some month 3 had been enduring daily martyrdom-teaching the children, •working for them, wearing herself out in efforts to make them obedient, and satisfy their parents- when she first saw her fate. She was sitting on the grass, making clover chains for two of the little girls, and by so doing had given dire offense to one of their brothers—a passionate child who was the pest of tbe nursery. When Lawrence Haydon came in sight this boy had leaped upon Daisy, fixing his hands in her curly hair "and Ids teeth in her cheek. To come to her rescue, to support her—for she wag faint with pain—to Vipe the blood off her cheek, pd administer to the boy two or threu 'sharp cuts with his riding-whip, seemed but a matter of course. Who could have acted otherwise? But when Mr and Mrs Grayle saw the marks on their child's flesh of Lawrence's whip, they were highly offended.

In their opinion the attack on Daisy was but a fit of childish passion; the correction received for it was savage brutality; and Mr Grayle vowed that the first time he encountered the i.iiolewt s-trangtr who had ill-used his little son, he would make him suffer for it. Then Daisy, frighened at these threats, stole away in the twilight, after her charges were in bee, to watch for her champion. She did not know who he was nor whence he came; but she had seen him galloping his fine horse alorg the green aisles of ihe forest close by, and here she met him and warned him of his danger. If she lingered longer than she need have done, the fault was his; she was so fair, so innocent, that he could not resist detaining her as long as she would.be detained, and walk- i ing with her as far on her way back to the house as she thought he might come without meeting the angry father. But an ill-natured servant detected them in the act of parting, and, when next Lawrence Haydon saw Daisy, -she was ;rudging to the station, driven from the house of her relatives as a bold, deceitful girl, and a homeless one, unless the mistress of the school in which she had been educated would consent to receive her. Not being in the habit of pausing to consider consequences, Lawrence Haydon interposed, and hotly forbade this. She would catch the fever; she would die; and her death would be on his conscience. She must live, and for him; it was his fault that she had been so cruely persecuted and he must atone to her for it. Daisy spent the next twenty-four hours at the house of a married schoolfellow, who, after a few minjates' conversation with the weeping, blushing gitl's handsome companion, cheerfully consented to give her shelter; and on the morrow this useful friend accompanied the young couple to a church close by, where they became man and wife. The bride was so pretty, so naive, and so amusing in her simplicity, that the bridegroom spent the first few weeks after their marriage in a dream of bliss that was to last forever. As for Daisy, she was his slave; how could she do 100 much for, the noble-hearted man who had rescued her from all her troubles, and made her so happy? She had asked him no questions, nor thought it strange that he did not introduce her to hi 3 relatives; he loved her, and her trust in him knew no bounds. "Hel'lo! it is growing cold—why did you let me sleep so long?" he exclaimed, when the screech of a sea-gull overhead roused him from his slumbers.

"Snail we go home?" asked the smiling Daisy. "It is past luncheontime." but Lawrence, who had shaken the sand off his clothes, and was lighting another cigar negatived the proposal. "It is that woman's baking day, and ail the rooms will smell of new bread. I'll stay here. The old fellow at the coastguard station has lent me a newspaper, a fortnight old, but tolerably clean; and, though I did not intend to forswear all such luxuries of civilisation, I think I must ascertain for myself how the world wags. Ycu go and get your luncheon, child, and join me again in an hour; then, as the tide serves, we'll row as far as the point." Daisy rose obediently; but h»r limbs were cramped with sitting so long in one position, and she contemplated with dismay tha ordeal of ascending and descending, without the aid of a sustaining arm, the rude steps hewed in the side of the cliff for the use of the hardy fishermen. "I—l think I'll stay here with you, dear love. I don't care about any luncheon." "I thought you would have brought me a few sandwiches," he answered, in an injured tone; "but do as you please." "It always-: pleased me to do anything for you, &o I'll hurry home and be liere again within the hour," she murmured lovingly, as she put her amis about his neck, and held up her rosy mouth for his kiss. Ah, me! would it ever fall upon those pure lips again. SBl'^'fcV* She was dismissed with the gracious assurance that she was a good little soul; and, buttoning hs coat over his chest, for the wind was rising, Lawrence Haydon moved on

BY HENEILTTA B. RUTHVEN. Author of " His Second Live," " Cory don's Inf ttuation," " Daring Dora," " An Unlucky Legacy," Etc., Etc.

a tew paces to find himself a sheltered nook wherein to glance down the columns of the "Times.' As he emerged ±rom the chaos of huge boulders with which the shore was strewn, a gentleman who was coming from the direction of the nearest town caught sight of his tall figure, and hailed him with a shout of recognition. He came on more rapidly; but Lawrence did not go to meet him. The hand that held the newspaper crushed it, his colour came and went, and the cigar he had just lighted was flung away with an angry explective. "Confound him! how came he to find me out?" Had thpre been time, he would have evaded the meeting; but there was not, so he composed his features into something like a smile. "Is it you, Stuart? Why,.l should have been less surprised to meet you at the North Pole than in Cornwall. What can have brought you here?" "I came to 100k r for you. Haydon. I have news—great news—strange news for you. Your father has resigned his com'mand, and was on his way to England when I left London a week ago." Lawrence Haydon recoiled from "My father! In England! What on earth shall I do?"

CHAPTER 11. -AN INDIGNANT WIFE. There was a lengthy pause. Wilfred Stuart was hot and weary, and glad to take off his hat and let tne sea-breeze fan his moist brow; while Lawrence Haydon gnawed his lips and looked white and red by turns. At last the latter began questioning his friend peevishly. "What the deuce is the meaning of this move? I thought my father was fixed in India for the rest of his life!" "Some political squabble. General Haydon says that he cannot honourably retain his position while both parties are trying to make him their tool. His gallant, resolute altitude has won for him the admiration——" "Oh, what rot! Spare me all that sort of thing! He is on his vay, and I knew nothing about it! That comes of living in a hole where one only gets a paper occasionally! When is he expected to land?" "Very shortly. He telegraphed to you from Port Said." "I never knew it. By whose atrocious blunder have I been kept in the dark?" "My dear Lawrence, three is no one to blame for it but yourself. Your servant has been wherever there was a chance of findiner you; but you left iu, address, and it was by the merest accident that I, who have bsen assisting him in his search, discovered that you had been seen in this neighbourhood. Your change of name " [to be continued.]