HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3194, 20 May 1909, Page 2

HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

BY HENRIETTA B. RUTHVEN: Author of "His Second Love," " Cory don's Infatuation," " Daring Doia," " An Unlucky Legacy," Etc., Etc.

CHAPTER XL—Continued. Nutse May looked at Laurence inquiringly, but made no response. "You and I," he went on, "are so situated that we must be one or the other. You, as the most trusted servant in my father's establishment, and continually about his person, have it in you power to do me an immense amount of good or ill service. Which is it to be? Are you going to earn my gratitude or my dislike?" "Earning either the' one or the other is not in the list of my duties, and would be so difficult that I should not care to undertake it," she answered, in her slow, monotonuus tones. "Nay, there you are mistaken. Only serve me faithfully—be my friend, my advocate —and I would bequite you liberally." The woman stared at him vacant"l'm afraid I'm too stupid to take in your meaning, sir! I have not complained of my salary; the general pays me handsomely. As to being thankful to what I do, there is no question of gratitude between the employer and the employed." "But if you serve me for myself alone?" Nurse May's pale lips parted into the slightest of smiles. "It would be against the rules of our sisterhood to serve two masters. I cannot do anything that mit,ht lose me my excellent situation." "Still, we are friends?" and Laurence held out his hand. "Are we?" she queried, and, without seeming to see his extended fingers, made her stiff, old-fashioned curtsy and went on her way; while the baffled schemer, more doubtful than before, sent after her an angry execration.

CHAPTER XII. A- WOODLAND NYMPH. Two or three days after these occurrences Laurence dashed into the study of Wilfred Stuart. "My dear old fellow, I'm in luck to find you at, home, and looking, too, as if you wanted what 1 am about to give you—a day or two's outing. Pack your satchel, and corre along with me. I'll tell you the why and wherefore as we go." But, the more practical Wilfred declaring this to be impossible, he consented to sit down and enter into particulars. "My father is and is not in a more reasonable humour than when you last saw him. That is, he consents to forgive me—but only on certain conditions—and he has regained his faith in you." "And those conditions are " "That I undergo a long probation, and that I repair any wrong I may have done to Daisy's child by fir.d n * and acknowledging her. To do this I must ascertain where Mistress Betty Wakely has hid herself, • and the promptest way of finding th« beldame will be to go to her old home in Devonshire. You will accompany me, Wilfred? Do contrive it somehow. • My father will be more satis lied if you take the control of the expedition." At first Mr Stuart, at the risk of affronting his friend, positively refused, and Laurence went sullenly away; but when the general himself drove to his lodgings to entreat this favour, how could he refuse it? "I must? have justice done to this unfortunate girl!'' the old soldier said, with a quiver of his lips, and a spasm contracting the features thi t had grown wan and haggard since tht discovery. "And, therefore, I am anxious that the efforts to learn where she is anould be made by some one in whom I can place the fullest reliance." "And if she lives, and we succeed in finding her, what steps are we to take? Do you leave it to Laurence to act as he thinks proper''" "Leave the child to the mercy of a father who for years has not chosen to remember her existence? No, Mr Stuart, I propose to do what is right to this unknown granddaughter of mine, and I will not delegate my duties to any one but you." Laurence could see that General Haydon's pride was hurt by the necessity of producing to the world a scion of his family who had been reared in obscurity, and. might not do it much credit; but the stern sense of duty that had made him an admirable soldier still governed all his actions, and private feelings were never allowed to interfere with it. There was in existence a young girl who was the offspring of his son. Her place was in the house of her gra/idsire, and hither she was to be brought with all possible despatch. "Its an unpleasant job," grumbled Laurence, as an express train bore him and Wilfred towards the south coast. "I hope I shall not shock you very much if I confess to cherishing a hope that the poor little things lies quietly in her grave along with her mother?" Bat this hope was soon blighted. Betty Wakely';; pretty cottage had long since passed into other hands; but the person now residing in it could distinctly remember that, when Betty left that part of the country, she carried with her a delicate baby, whoso mother had been buried .some

[weeks earlier in the neighbouring I churchyard. Betty had said she couldn't abide the place now that it had got so lonesome, and that she should join some relatives who lived in or aear the New Forest. And after much search the woman found in an oli Bible a faded, custy envelope, on which was pencilled the address of Betty's friends. To Hampshire these two gentlemen now directed their steps; Wilfred Stuart enjoying the pretty rural scenery; but Laurence peevish and dissatisfied. How could be be otherwise while dreading the result of his errand, yet aware that he must not return to London till it was fulfilled, and chafing at the distrust evinced by his father in giving the management of the affair to his companion instead of himself. When they reached Lyndhurst he complained of extreme fatigue, and would not go any further till the morrow ; and when Wilfred's inquiries in and about the town failed to elicit any information respecting Betty Wakely or her foundling, he insisted that enough had been done to satisfy the most exacting of men, and that he should take the next train back to London on the morrow. Nor was he in much more complaisant mood on the following morning, when, grumbling at every step, he followed his persevering friend into the depths of the forest. An old man had been found who recognized the name written on the faded envelope as that of a deceased squatter in one of the most secluded spots in that woodland domain, "Josh Lydon was none but a heath cropper," the old man added; "that is to say, he had a bit of ground and a cow or tw 3, and made a little in the autumn by sellin' his fruit at Lymington; but he lost the use of his limbs with the rheumatism long afore he died, and who's got the ground now is more than I knows." "'lt is a wild-goose chase to rush across the forest on such scanty information as this;" said Laurence.^ "Nevertheless, I shalllgo," Mr Stuart responded firmly. "Will you await me here?" He was answered with a taunt: "You are ungenerously eager to bring home my follies to me! Do you think that my degradation will raise you in the esteem of Ambra Neville?" Disdaining any reply Wilfred Stusrt put on his light overcoat, jscertained the shortest route to Lynes —the place that had on othar name than one abbreviated from its former owner's—and started at a brisk pace? [to be continued.!