HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3197, 25 May 1909, Page 2

HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

CHAPTER Xlll.—Continued. Betty Wakely wiped the perspiration from her forehead, and Mr Stuart could hear her draw her breath rapidly as if in pain; hut she neither moved nor spoke, even when the question was repeated. It was Lois who answered it as she paused at a door leading to an outhouse, a pile of plates poised on her head. "There's been r.o one here but granny and me since uncle was took ill and died." "Go to bed, Loi3!" said the old woman sharply. "I'm not tired enough!" was the pouting reply. "Then go and break up sticks for heating the oven in the morning !" "Nay, I'm too t'red for that; I'd rather stop here." and, putting the plates down, she was coming toward the fir2. But Betty Wakely met her half-way, and, by dint of scolding and threatening, hustled her from the room, following her to the stairs, to turn the key in her door, and thus prevent her return. The eyes of Laurence Haydon, distended with alarm, were turned upon his friend. "For Heaven's sake, Wilfred, don't say that this is Daisy's daughter!" "I have just made the discovery that she is a very beautiful girl." "Beautiful! She is a coarse, ignorant savage! How can I lead such a creature to Ambra Neville and say 'Love her, for she is my child'?'' CHAPTER XIV. THE HEIRESS CHANGES HER MIND. There was a change in Betty Wakely's manner when she came back. Before she recognized Mr Haydon she had been civil and anxious to please; now she was abrupt, and even rude. She'd thank the gentlemen either to go away or'go to bed, she told them. She didn't keep a house for travellers, nor care to be out of her bed after sundown. They coud have her room for this one night, and she'd sleep with Lois; but she couldn't accommodate them any longer. "You remember me?" queried Laurence, as he slowly rose from nis chair, too stiff with fatigue to move willingly. "I remember a good many people, even if I don't know much good of them," was the evasive reply. "You are insolent!" she was sternly told. "1 am aware that lam in your debt; but you shall be paid to the uttermost farthing." ' Mrs Wakely fulded her arras in her apron and her grim features did not relax. She loved money as well as women generally go who labour for it early and late; but she was strongly tempted to forego all that was promised her for the satisfaction of speaking her mind freely to Laurence Haydon. "I have never asked anything cf you," she saiu, at last, "and I've declared to myself that I never would. Mrs La-jrence, poor suffering dear! You are all she had. She was a true lady, she was, with a heart of gold in her" Laurence moved uneasily. "We will waive the subject of Mrs Laurence's perfections, if you please. Do you know why lam here? To claim my child."

"You have no right to it!" retorted Betty passionately, "She gave the baby to me, Mrs Laurence did. As soon as she heard the doctor say she was dying she drew rne to her, and she said, 'Be a mother to my babe,' arid I said I would—an' so I have been. What call have you to come meddling after all these years, and saying you want the child?" She was no* confronting the languid, dissipated Laurence, with her hands clenched, and such a truculent aspect, that Mr Stuart thought it prudent to interfere. "Why not sit down, Mrs Wakely, and hear what Mr Haydon has to sayto you? Recollect that he has been absent from England until a few weeks ago, and if one of his first acts is to do justice to the daughter left in your charge, you should not attempt to prevent it." J "Lois is not his daughter; she's iny gal," muttered the woman, with heaving breast "Mr Haydon will always admit your claim to her affection. He will never forget how generously you have sheltered her. But he has a claim which as stronger than yours, and for her sake you must not attempt to withstand it." "Nay, he may say and do as he likes, but he shall not have the child Mrs. Laurence gave to me. You're a fair-spoken gentleman, sir, arid a parson, and judging by your looks you'd scorn to behave to your wife as he did," and she glanced scornfully at the angry Laurence. "So just you up and tell me if you'd be willing to give to a stranger what you had called your own for nigh on twenty years?" "Pray do not take this tone, Mrs Wakely, or I shall be under the painful necessity of placing the matter in the hands of my lawyers," said Laurence, whom her manner irritated excessively. "I cannot let your overwhelming fondness for my daughter interfere with her interests. I have no doubt that you have been very good to her, accord- | ing to your view of the affair; but

BY HENRIETTA B. RUTH VEST. Author o£ " His Second Lave/' " Corydon's Infatuation," " Daring Dora," " An Unlucky Legacy," Etc., Etc.

ou must be very well aware that a person like yourself "

The deliant &ace lifted to his—for Mrs Wakely was now listening intently—warned him not to express too plainly the contempt and annoyance he felt. "You must be aware that she has not had the advantages- I can give her." "I've done my Dest in the way of schooling," was the sulky retort; "and, if I've been hungry myself when times were bad, Mrs Laurence's little one has never gone short of food." "Possibly; but you have not trained or educated her as other girls of her age and position are trained," "What do ye mean by position?" questioned the woman with a doubtful air. "As my daughter she will inherit a considerable portion of the wealth of her grandfather, General Haydon." Mrs Wakely betrayed her want of faith in the speaker's veracity by appealing to Wilfred Stuart. "Is that true?" When he had briefly confirmed it she turned again to Laurence, surveying him critically. "I've allays set ye down for one of them painter men; but it seems it wasn't for want of money you left your wife to get through her trouble as best she could." "I deny your right to comment on my conduct!" she was haughtily told. "Please confine yourself to the subject we are discussing." "Eh! then you may tell jae what you're meaning by a considerable portion? Would it be as much as a hundred a year?" Her simplicity extorted a smile. "We will allow you that sum, in consideration of your services. Of course, I am immensely grateful to you; though," added Laurence, in his heart, "I cannot help wishing that this wretched girl who seems destined to be a torment to me, had died in her infancy !" "Well," cried Betty, heaving a great sigh, "if you must, and you will do something—though, mind ye, I don't acknowledge your right to —for Mrs Laurence's child, I suppose, I must let ye. 'Twouldn't be fair yor you to be rolling in riches, who doesn't deserve 'em, while those who do is earning their daily bread by the sweat of their brows. So you can allow something weekly or monthly, 1 don't care which, and we'll look after the eddicating ourselves." ["to be continued.] •