HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3209, 8 June 1909, Page 2

HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

CHAPTER XXl.—Continued. "Perhaps Miss Haydon follows the manners and customs of those who reared le*," said Nurse May dryly. "Then let it be your task to teach her better. Where is she, I ask?" "Possibly," said the woman again, her voice never rising from its low, steady tones, and yet conveying an infinitude of scorn to her questioner—- , "possibly Miss Haydon hides somewhere near, to rush into the arms of her adoring father as soon as she hears him ask for her." "Find her!" exclaimed Laurence imperatively; "or at least ascertain if she is in the house. My mind misgives me that she has fled-" Nurse May started, and bent on him a look of keen inquiry. Fora moment she was disturbed, nay, even agitated, and as her features softened the indefinable likeness that had already troubled him became visible; and again the chilling fear was knocking at his heart that he vainly strove to banish. If this were Daisy in the flesh, what would be the consequences to him? Am bra lost and his father nopelessly estranged—tor, unless he succeeded in securing the heiress, how were his long-standing debts to be met? He dared not confess them to the general, for had he not given him his word of honour that he would never more touch cards or dice, and yet was it not to pay gambling debts that he had borrowed the sums Ambra's fortune was to pay? j But Nurse May quickly recovered | herself. "If Miss Haydon has left the house, will it not be advisable to send some one in search of her? She is not in her room, for I have just come j from it, nor has she taken anything j away with her." "The low tastes born in the girl may have carried her to the kitchens!" cried Laurence. "Go and see if she is there." "Shall 1 repeat to your father's servants the reasons you give for sending me?" "You are insolent!" she was angrily told. "This is not the first time 1 have had to warn you that if you presume too much on my father's gratitude or your services, I may interfere to procure your dismissal!" "If this is intended as a threat, it is'a wasted one !" she retorted, bestowing upon him one of the steady and yet disdainful glances that always made him shrink. "I have been so well paid by my noble master that I can afford to live in idleness for a year or two. Ido not stay here to increase my savings; and it might be more imprudent to send me away than to leave me alone." It was she who threatened how; and Laurence bit his Jip as he recognised the danger of exasperating one who evidently had him in her power. "While you prate Lois is—where?" he exclaimed with seeming impatience. "May I beg you to ascertain whether she is or is not in the house." He ran down the stairs without waiting to hear the result, and encountered his father at the foot of them, A servant had admitted to have heard Mr Haydon speaking very angrily to his daughter, and the lengthened absence of both seemed so inexplicable that the general insisted on going in search of them. Curiosity induced Lady Marcia to offer him the support of her arm, and Miss Brayshy to follow, so that all three were in the hall when Laurence came down. "Can it be true that you use harsh words to your child?" demanded the old man reproachfully. "Bring her to me, that I may console her." "Willingly, sir, but—but confound her! she has taken offence at a chiding she richly merited, and given us the slip." "Follow her; confess that you have treated her cruelly, and win her back with a little of the fatherly tenderness of which she has had so poor a share! On my word, Laurence, your indifference to this unfortunate child is brutal!" "My dear sir, I have not had much reason to love her yet. You have said more unkind things to me about Lois than I ever heard from your lips before. Do you not see that she is by nature one of these ungrateful creature* who reject all kindness and good training?" mmZZZtem "No, I do not see anything of the kind; and I say again, if you have driven her from this house by the severity of your reproofs, you will not be welcome here till you bring her back!" What! Banished for the sake of the troublesome, uncouth hoiden, who had cost him so much annoyance that he could not think of her without growing furious! "Of course I shall do your bidding, sir," he answered, white with rage. "Although you take sides with my undutiful daughter, you shall not find me a rebellious son. But if the 'dear child' "—and he could not resist a sneer—"if the dear child persists in preferring savage life to civilized> what am I to do?" "She has a heart; speak to that, and she will listen," responded th« general curtly. Muttering an oath between his teeth, Laurence Haydon signed an adieu—he could not speak it to the ladies—threw open the door, and would have departed, but the first I fig ure on _^lj cn nas eyes%rested was

BY HENRIETTA B. RUTHVEN. Author of "His Second Love," " Corydon's Infatuation," " Daring Doia," " An Unlueky Legacy," Etc., Etc.

that of Lois, sauntering leisurely towards the house. She wore the shabby, ragged hat she had brought for week-day wear, perched on the top of her head, and her white teeth were fixed in an apple she was munching. In her hands she held, or tried to hold, so many rm-re o± the juicy pippin?, that every now and then one would escape, room her grasp, and the start she gave at sight of her father made two or three fall and roll away together. Those she insisted on reclaiming before she obeyed his mandate and came toward him. Not even his awe of his father enabled Laurence Haydon to restrain his wrath. To be publicly disgraced by this girl was intolerable. Pie, to whom the incensa of society was so precious, would sooa become the laughing-stock of all who knew him. Oh! why were his hands so fettered!—why was he not free to carry her off to some remote spot and keep her there! "Where have I been?" echoed Lois, whose equally fiery temper was roused by the tone of the inquiry. "How can I tell? I haven't been here long enough to know the names of the roads and lanes, have I?" "Who gave you leave to quit the house?" "No one; I took it. Grandfather would have given it to me," and she smiled fearlessly at the general, who, divided between amusement and concern, did not care to interfere; "but he was busy talking to the lady who forgets." "How dara you go out in this manner?" "Pare!" and the reply would have been an unqualified defiance if Lois had not caught the mildly reproving glance of the general. "I went became I was tired of being in tha house so lorg, and you wouldn't lot rre stand at the door. You know you wouldn't. Only fancy his telling me"—and now she addressed her audience at large—"telling me it isn't manners to stand at your own door and look about you! Why, everybody does it where I cama from!" "I thought I forbade you to make any referei.ee to the past.' You are in London, and residing with persons of sense and education, and you must give up all your rough, rude habits; please remember that." "I am not likely to forget it when you're always finding fault. But what harm have 1 done now? I asked a boy—a London boy—where I rould go for a bit ot a walk, and he showed me the way to what he calls the park. There are trees there and grass, only it's dried up with the heat end the dust! 'Tisn't like th" forest, so I just had a look round and came back." ) TO BE CONTINUED.! Many persons tind themselves affected with a persistent cough alter an attack of influenza. As this cnugh can be promptly cured by tho use of Chamberlain's Cough Eemedy, it should not be allowed to run on until it becomes troublesome. For sale by all chemists and storekeepers.