HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.
CHAPTER XVll.—Continued. Then she took ouc of her bosom a tiny silver locket, worn and bent with age, the only trinket she had ever possessed—a gift from Hal Dartforvd, who had picked it up on the shore. She was not romantic enough to press her lip to the wave of Drown hair it contained; but the sia-h of this treasure inspired her with a new resolution, and she sprang up all her fatigue forgotten. "I am not fit for such a place as this, nor to keep company with such ladies. 1 should be like the bird granny took and kept in an old cage —I should beat myself against the bars till I died. I'll go home again— I'll go while there's no one about to hinder me, and granny must put up with the loss of the money that was to be settled on her. Maybe she'd rather have me than that, after all!" Stepping carefully to the wasnstand, Lois drank a huge draft of icecold water from the carafe, cooled her hot face with some more of it, slipped on the old serge gown, and, carrying her boots in her hand, quitted the chamber she never intended to enter again. How she was to compass the miles lying between the forest and the metropolis she had not asked herself. Once in the open air—once free —she fancied she should feel no fear, no misgivings. She was an excellent walker, and someone would direct her which way to go. ; When she opened her door not a sound was audible in the house, save the muffled ticking of a clock, and the heart of the girl beat in unison with-it. She found herself in a wide gallery or corridor, and, 4 after taking a few steps, she paused irresolutely, not knowing which way to turn. But, with some trouble, she succeeded in reaching the broad stairs up which Ambra had led her a couple of hours earlier. The hall below was dimly lighted by a lamp that enabled her co discern the heavy oaken portal, on the other side of which was liberty'; and with a half-uttered exclamation of joy she sprang forward, and would have descended with headlong rapidity if a hand that fell suddenly on her shoulder had not drawn her back.
CHAPTER XVIII. HEWING THE MARBLE INTO SHAPE. Down the stairs, with a thud and a clatter, went the heavy boot 3of Lois, dropped in the first paroxysm of her terror, and at the sound one of the doors leading into the hall was thrown open and Laurence Haydon appeared. He had been trying to sooth himself into stoicism with tobacco, inhaled in its most luxurious formthrough a hookah—and had almost succeeded in lapping his senses in temporary forgetfulness, when the noise made by the would be fugitive aroused him. It was Nurse May who had detained her, and now, with her arms folded on her bosom, was calmly surveying the pouting, frowning girl, i who bitterly, if mutely, resented her officiousness. "What does this mean?" demanded Laurence, in a tone that, in spite of its being carefully subdued, was full I of wrath. "Hush—rot a word here ! Do you want to rouse the whole house? Come down to the study, if you have anything to say." "I have not," responded the" nurse, turning from him. "I thought it my duty to interfere when I, found the—the young lady meditated running away. I will now leave her to you." . But as she retraced her steps along the gallery she found Lois was following her. *■■»• -a "I will not be left with him!" muttered the girl. "I hate him! Why didn't he let me live where I was? I'd rather be there than here, though granny was most unbearable now and then." Nursp May put up her finger warningly, for they were passing the general's apartments, where he, worn out with pain, had fallen at last into a refreshing deep. Luis longed to disobey her—to proclaim aloud her determination to shake off the trammels she found so irksome; but the steady eyes and tranquil demeanour of the nurse subdued her. There was a'spell in them I few could resist, least of all this half-wild, wholly untutored young creature, terrified already by the discovery that it was not so easy to break her gyves and flee as she had imagined it would be. Back to the room she had so lately quitted Nurse May led her; and the baffled Lois, angry with herself for not having forced her way out of the house, stalked across to the window, dragged aside the curtain, and pushed up the sash. "Now I can breathe" she said, as th. night wind swept in. "As fcr you!" she gave the nurse a look that ought to have annihilated her, "you can go i»nd tell that father of mine that nothing shall keep me here after to-morrow—nothing! Instead of replying, Nurse May began bustling about the room. The string of Lois' unt'dy bundle hurst as she picked it up, and catching sigth of the pink chamberrobe, she shook it out and threw it over a chnir, inviting its owner to ) put it on. The she opened drawer
BY HENRIETTA B. RUTHVEN. Author of "His Second Love," " Corydon's Infatuation," " Daring Dora," " An Unlucky Legacy," Etc., Etc.
after drawer of a wardrobe she had been commissioned by General Haydon to fill with every article that was necessary for a lady's use. lo Lady Marcia would be delegated te task of selecting his granddaughter's dresses and millinery, but for all else he had relied on the good taste and judgment of his devoted attendant; and the young girl—standing by, gloomily watching her—could not help catching glimpses of the contents of these drawers—as, by the way, it was intended that she should do. Presently Nurse May shook out of their folds everything Lois would require on of the following day, from the prettily clocked hose to the simple but stylish morning gown, with its cascade of Valenciennes lace and ruffles. is-This done, she laid on the bed a dainty tucked and embroidered night-robe, and taking from the dressing-case a pair of ivory-backed brushes, pronounced nerself ready to assist Miss Haydon in making her toilet for the night. "I'll not have anything to do with a woman who spied on me. It was a shameful thing to do!" cried Lois, frowrirg and retreating from her. "Are you mad, that you say that?" demanded Nurse May sternly. "What would have become of you if 1 had let you go? Do you think this great city is like the forest, where you have nothing to fear worse than the sting of an adder, or a fall into a bog? The forest, where even the tramps or vagrants would have let oyu pass unchallenged, thinking you were as poor as they ! In the streets through which you must nave passed before you reached the country there arc wretches lurking who—when they saw how ignorant and helpless you are—would have dragged you to some loathsome den to strip you of all you possess, and then perhaps thrust you out half naked " "Oh, say no more!" exclaimed her shrinking, trembling auditor. "Oh, say no more! You are frightening me! Granny always maintained that this London was a terribly wicked place. I must and I will go back to her to-morrow. This is all tbeautiful"—and she cast a yearning look around her —"and that young lady was like an angel; but it's like a prison, too, and it would be cruel to make me stay." Seeing that she was sufficiently impressed to be more manageable, Nurse May took a kindlier tone. "Surely you can make yourselt contented here for a few hours! Whate -; sr you may decide upon tomorrow you are in my charge for to-night, and* I must treat you as the granddaughter of the general ought to be treated. I shall help you to undress; I shall brush your hair; and then, if you cannot sK-ep, I shall stay with you till you can." | TO BE COXTtXifED.] For Children's Hacking (Joughs a night, Woods' Great Peppermint Lure 1/6 and 2/6. PIANOS AND ORGANS. Dresden Annual Sale now on at Wellington and at all branches.
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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3204, 2 June 1909, Page 2
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1,384HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3204, 2 June 1909, Page 2
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