HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3198, 26 May 1909, Page 2

HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

CHAPTER XlV.—Continued

"Upon my word, Wilfred, this suggestion deserves our gravest consideration," said Laurence, drawing his friend aside, and employing the foreign language that had frightened Lois. "You may shake that wise head of yours, but don't decide against it too hastily. The girl is not presentable; even you must acknowledge that I cannot be expected to feel any affection for her, neither has she any for me. If I took her to London she would be wretched, and so should I. It makes me shudder when I think of it. But if I leave her here —taking care to provide for her liberally—l shall be spared intolerable degradation, and she will be just as well satisfied." Wilfred Stuart knew enough of human nature to be aware that twenty years may make a great change in the feelings with which a man regards the wife of bis bosom, but that it should render any one so brutally indifferent to his own child appeared to him scarcely credible. Still he made excuses, as he usually did, for his friend Laurence was tired and cros3; on the morrow he would be ashamed of what he was now proposing; so Mr Stuart gently advised postponing the further discussion of the subject till they had had some rest.

At the same time he could not resist making an eTort to rouse kindlier emotions in the breast of his friend. "Does Lois resemble her poor young mother?" he asked, while slowly undressing. Laurence flung his boots into a corner viciously. "What an absurd question Daisy was slender and graceful; this girl is a clumsy giantess." "No, no; when she stood with those plates supported on her head 'by an upraised arm she looked like a Greek statue." "Imagination plays you strange tricks. I saw nothing but a badly dressed, overgrown rustic. Talk of a wild-goose chase! Ours has led us into a slough from which I see but one way of extricating ourselves and that is by agreeing to the old woman's proposals.'' "Sleep on it, Laurence." With an impatient groan the advice was scouted.

"Sleep in this stuffy hole? Impossble! Besides, I should have to face my difficulties when I awoke. I'd rather make an end of them now by deciding to leave Lois with Mrs Wakely. Even you—unpractical though you are—must concede tl at she would be happier here than if subjected to a process of a taming."

"It did not strike me that she live 3 a very comfortable life with Mrs Wakely." "For which," retorted Laurence, "she is evidently to blame more than the old woman." "I am not so sure ot that. But this is a point of less importance 'than one you seem to have overlooked; you are not a frte agent in the matter-."

"Not!" echoed Laurence angrily. "My dear " fellow, you have not only a duty to fulfil to your daughter, but you have your father's wishes to carry out. Setting aside the first consideration, how will you meet the other? General Haydon's comman'ds were imperative. Will you venture to disobey them? .'Find my heiress,' he said, 'atod bring M e to me.' Will he accept any excuse for your not doing so?" "My father has no conception of the true fetate rf things. Would have me present a ynung savage to him? How could Ido it?" "Miss Haydon is not answerable for the consequences of years of neglect!" "But lam ! Thanks for the generous reminder. You may take Miss Haydon's affairs on your own shoulders; I will have nothing more to do with them. You were sent here to play the spy upon me, and report all I did and said. You can do so as freely as you please, and make what arrangements you choose with regard to the girl; for I intend to be passive." "Shirking your responsibilities," said Mr Stuart gravely, "does not lessen them. At the same time, if you wish it, I will write to the general, state precisely in what condition we have found is granddaughter, and ask him to decide what is to be our next step." "It is a farce to consult me," grumbled Laurence, "when you know that your mind is already made up. If you have nothing more to say, perhaps you'll let me lie quiet and try whether that will ease my aching limbs!" Whether it did or not, he chose to remain in bed the following day, sometimes dozing, sometimes yawning over the pocket Shakespeare with which bis companion had provided himself, but swallowing with avidity the minced chicken and other delicate dishes Mrs Wakely v/as induced to prepare for him. As for Wilfred Stuart, ha rose with the fJawn, wrote his letter to the genera!, carried it to Lymington in time to be sent to London by the first mail, and returned to Betty Wakely's before noon after a most enjoyable tramp through the forest. Lois had rebelled against the | threats and thumps of granny, who was more than" commonly ill-humored I that morning, and disappeared an hour or two earlier but whether she

L - t 5 BY HENRIETTA B. EUTHVEN. ? 1 l l« Author of "His Second Love," " Corydon's Infatuation, *» jj " Daring Doia," " An Unlucky Legacy," 5 / Etc., Etc. /

had gone down to the shore, or was hiding in some woodland haunt, who could tell? She was not seen at the cottage till after nightfall, when Mrs Wakely found her stretched on the bed fast asleep. The following day brought a telegram from the general. It was terse and to the point: "1 shall expect you this evening, and my grandchild with you!" Laurence shrugged his shoulders when he read it. "Jast as I expected. No one has any sympathy for me. You, as a clergyman, look upon this as part of my punishment; and my father, with his iron nerves and will, is pitiless. But Ambra might been considered if I am not. However, you shall have it your own way. What time do we start? —and how are we to convoy our charge without drawing crowds after us?" "We have yet to learn whether Mrs Wakely will consent to part with her."

"Do you think that I shall submit to be dictated to by an impertinent old hag?" was the angry response. "You must also remember," Wilfred persisted, "that Miss Haydon may refuse to entrust herself to a couple of strangers. She is not a mere child who can be forced or frightened into obedience."

Laurence knitted his brows over this irrefutable statement.

"I told you we should have great trouble with her. Where is she?" he inquired. "She must be made to understand that she will have to obey me!" He followed Wilfred Stuart to the little orchard behind the cottage where, by questioning the eld woman he learned that they should find Lois. Mrs Wakely, kneading bread in the kitchen, watched them as they went out, and took her hands out of the dough, as if to be present at the interview.

But she altered her intention, and went on with ther work. "Let 'em settle it themselves!" she ejaculated. "I will have naught to do with their plans, and then, whatever comes of it, they can't say 'cvvciS mj d ings!" Lois was in a remarkably softened mood, for she had been kissed and cried over that morning by granny, till such unwonted tokens of affection fairly bewildered her. To requite this kindness she had run hither unbidden, and was now collecting and folding into a basket the ckan cluthes that had been bleaching on the grass. At the sound of footsteps she raised herself to smile a shy greeting to thfi gentlemen, the sunlight j 1 sting down upon her through the boughs of the trees. [~TO BE CONTINITED.]