HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3210, 9 June 1909, Page 2

HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

CHAPTER XXl.—Continued. "She has been to the garden of the Hesperides, and returns to Us laden with golden fruit!" cried Misa Braysby poetically. "From what tree did you pluck your apples, oh, sweetest Pomona?" "It wasn't a garden at all," retorted the more literal damstl; "and my name's Lois, if it's all the same to you. And I didn't pluck them, tor I'm not given to picking and stealing. I brought them with the last twopence granny gave me of a woman who keeps a shop in the street under a blue umbrella. Such a civil-spoken old soul she is! 1 promised to go and have a chat with her to-morrow." "If I hear of your leaving the house again," foamed Laurence, "or holding intercourse with any such person, I will " "Have one?" and Lois offered him the choicest of her fruit, thinking in that to propitiate him. He struck uu her hand in his fury, and the apples flew acros3 the hall; but what his intense rage would have betrayed him into saying was prevented by the interpoistion of the general. He whispered a warning in the ear cf his son, and, claiming from his granddaughter the aid of her young strong arm, made her lead him back to the drawing room. CHAPTER XXII. "WE DARE NOT MEET . AGAIN!" Very quietly Ambra maae a few J necessary preparations for _her visit. What it cost her t-j go no one knew; perhaps no one cared. It was her duty to obey her guardian's request, and she would scarcely ba missed except by Laurence. In this she was correct. Much though General Haydon loved his ward, he was engrossed with the new claimant on his forbearance 'as well as his affection. As for Lollie Braysby, she always worshiped the rising sun; and, although a day or twu ago she was almost persecuting Miss Neville with her rhapsodies and protestations of undying love, already she had transferred them to Lois; while Lady Marcia, though she liked Ambra extremely, possessed the happy faculty of forgetting her dearest friends as soon as they were out of sight. It was only Lois who protested against her departure, and followed her to the door oi hor chamber that night to say so. "Why are you going? Is it because I've come? Isn't there room enough for all of us? I'd rather have you than the scraggy woman who talks all storts of rubbish about teaching me, or that rolypoly, sleepy Lady Marcia, who's no good but to look at. Can't you stop the help me to get used to them? I haven't forgotten how kind you were when I came." "Like you, Lois"- and Ambra's smile was a very sad one —"like you, I am learning the virtue of obedience. My guardian thinks it better for me that I should go away, and I must submit " Ijois pondered. "Yes, I remember his saying something to you about Laurence — my father, I mean. I ought not to have listened, but I couldn't help it. If you want to get away from him, I don't blame you. I would go myself where he should never find me if it wasn't that he'd vent his spite on granny." "You cannot tell how you pain me when you speak so disrespectfully of Mr Haydon!" exclaimed Ambra, her liquid dark eyes filling with hot tears. "There are not many men in the world who can compare with him." "I supose not, for, my gracious! hasn't he a temer! He looked at me to-day as if he could have gobbled me up." "You provoke him cruelly, shamefully!" she was told, with as much severity as Ambra could employ. "Do you know that tliis father of whom you speak in such irreverent terms is one of the cleverest of men? Have they told you that he has written books which have v carried his fame nearly all over the world, and that his society is courted everywhere because he is so witty, so talented?" "It doesn't make him any nicer to me," retorted Lois doggedly. "How would vou behave to a father who didn't turn up till you were almost old enough to do without him, and then never looked at you except as if he Hated you, nor spoke to you without a growl? I dare say he isn't a bit cleverer than Hal Dartford, only he's got money and friends, and Hal hasn't." Ambra was in despair. How was she to inoculate this stubborn gir* with her own warm trusting affection for Laurence Haydon; and yet how be satisfied till she had? "Dear, I should go away so much happier if I could think that you would try to be more dutiful. While you shrink from your father, and fancy he dislikes you, how can you expect to win his love? Ah, Lois, you don't know what you are losing while you hold aloof. If you could but conceive how gentle, how kind, he can be—if I could but make you see him with my eyes ——" Suddenly Loid wrested herself from the arms that held her, and

BY HENRIETTA 13. KUTHVEN. Author of " His Second Love," " Corydon's Infatuation," " Daring Doia," " An Unlucky Legacy," Etc., Etc.

drew back that she might get a better view of- Ambra's drooping, blushing face. "Why, you're not much older than me!" washer somewhat irrevelant remark. "I shall not be of age for nearly two years." Lois struck her hands together. "And you—so young and so pretty —are thinking of marrying him?—of being stepmother to a big girl like me!" Ambra was disconcerted, thougn she smiled. "Looking at you, it sounds absurd; looking at him, it makes my heart swell with joy that one like myself, with so little to recommend her, shouid have won such a heart as his!" "And the general—grandfather—what about him''" questioned Lois shrewdly. "You don't mean to tell me that he says 'yes' to it. But, of course, he doesn't. I can see it all now. And that's why you are being bent away." "But I shall soon come back," whispered Amb r a hopefully. "Just now my guardian is angry; perhaps his sufferings make him more irritable—more difficult to appease than usual?" "But he isn't vexed with you?" "No, no! With me he is always patient and forbearing. My own dear parents could not have treated me more generously than General Haydon does!" "Then that father of mine must be a bad one!" declared Lois emphatically. "'Tisn't likely the general would be so kind to somebody else's girl and a tyrant to his own son." "You do not undertsand —or, rather you will not!" cried the provoked Ambra. "I know that you are almost good enough to be an angel!" was the response. "And I'll keep the peace while you're away, if I can; but don't be in a hurry to come back. You see that harsh words and bended brows don't harm me; I'm used to them; but you," and Lois regarded her more fragile companion with unfeigned compassion, "if you were his, and" had to put up with such usage, you'd pine away like some pretty flower that's so beaten down by the storm that it can't lift its head again" "Laurence would never be harsh to me" Ambra protetsed, her bosom heaving with grief and vexation. "Oh, Lois, why do you wound me with such cruel speeches; you who might have done so much for us'" "Me' Why, what could I have done"

| TO BE CONTINUED.]

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