HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3214, 14 June 1909, Page 2

HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

BY HENRIETTA B. EUTHVEN. Author of " His Second Lore," " Corydon's Infatuation," " Daring Dora," " An Unlucky Legacy," Etc., Etc.

CHAPTER XXlV.—Continued

"So I thought once," he answered, pushing his hair back from his high forehead with a gesture of impatience not unmingled with regret. "So I thought, but a few days here has taught me a lesson. What do I : know? One walk through this great city, one peep into its shops and factories, has shown me how ignorant I am. I shall be thankful to stay quietly in the general's service till I can make up my mind what to do." "Go back to the forest," he was eagerly advised. "It's all horrid, and noisy, and strange here." "I'll never go back," was the prompt reply. "I'll wait till I can see my way more clearly, and then, if I find that there's no room for' me anywhere, I'll enlist in the Engineers and try if there isn't (he making of a solider in me." "My grandfather is rich—he shall help you !" cried Lois. "Say what you'd like to be, and I'll go and talk to him at once!" But already Hal Dartford was drawing himself up so proudly that the disappointed Lois saw her proposal would be rejected. "Thanks for your kindly offer. Miss Haydon"—it was the first time he Had called her by her new name and she winced on hearing it—"thanks for the offer but I couldn't accept the help of another man's money. I'll work my way, or do as I said before—go into the army." "And can you make yourself happy here?" asked Lois sadly. "I cannot, for the sky is never as blue as it is in the forest, and the swallows never come sweeping round your head, and the few birds you do see are in cages,.except the dusty sparrows, and neither the trees or the grass are as green as our trees were! But perhaps," and now, seized with a jealous pang, she giggled hysterically, "perhaps you've fallen out with your sweetheart, and that's why ! you've come to London!" An imperative tap on her shoulder made Lois turn in angry confusion to see who was there. It was Nurse May who was sternly regarding her, and drawing her back in spite of her resistence. "Have you so soon forgotten Mr Haydon's reproof? If he was displeased at finding you standing at the open door alone, what would he be if he knew you were gossiping, like some ill-taught idle lass, with one of your father's servants?" Lois stamped her foot angrily. "Why, it is Hal Dartford, the best, the cleverest —I'll not have the door shut between us till I have bidden him goodbye!" But Nurse May deliberately carried out her intention, saying cooly: "Young ladies in your present sphere of life do not hold familiar intercourse with young men in the position of this one. Mr Haydon would-be furious if it came to his ears, and even the general would be seriously annoyed.'' "And I, who wouldn't be here at all if Hal hadn't jumped into the sea and saved me, am told to treat him as if he weren't as good and better, oh! a thousand times better, than I am! I can't, and I won't, do it! I did try to seem as if I wasn't pleased to see him, but I couldn't keep it up." "You .must not chatter to him again," she was told. "Must not!" was the rebellious response. "But I will!" "Then. I shall speak to General Haydon, and the young man will be dismissed." "An he without a friend in the world now that the old parson is dead!" ejaculated Lois, almost beside herself with wrath. "And don't know a creature a in London but me. Oh! you heartless, spiteful creature ! Why, he might starve; or if he ent listed, as he talks of doing, he'd be sent off to some foreign country to be hacked about'into a poor, helpless, suffering old man like my grandfather! I'd rather die than let you do him such an injury!" "It rests with yourself," was the response. "If he loses his situation, it will be through you. lam but doing my duty." "* "I knew you'd say that," sobbed the girl, sitting down on the stairs and hiding her face in her hands. "But id it my fault that they've brought me here, and are trying to make a fine lady of me? I'm just the same Lois that he used to know! How can I treat him rudely that was always so gentle to me? It seems," and now her tears fell faster,, "as if meeting him here, with none' but strange people and strange sights about a pair of us, has made my heart warm to him as it sever warmed before." "And yet you would be selfish enough to lose him the only chance he has of getting on in the world?" "I am not selfish!" cried Lois indignantly, "at least, I don't mean to be," she added, in a softer tone. i "Prove it, by bearing in [mind al- j ways that if your father "saw you j smiling upon, or talking too familiar with, the young man, he would be driven away without a character for his presumption; and that would "ruin him." Lois turned pale with dismay. "No, no, not that! Dear nurse, good nurse, help me to prevent that. Hal shall think what he pleases of mo: even that I am ungrateful—that

I have become proud—but he shall never cause to say that I have spoiled his life. Only," and she looked entreatingly in the face in which she thought she could discern some gleams of compassion, "only I must speak to him once more! I must tell him that it is on his own account I am behaving so badly. I can't be nappy without letting him know that I'm not the cold, unfeeling girl I seem." "I will be your messenger," said Nurse May. "If he is as sensible as you describe him he will see the propriety of letting the memory of all former acquaintance die out." A long quivering sigh arose from the depths of Lois' bosom. To know that Hal was so near, to meet him frequently, and yet be compelled to pass him by--oh, it wouid be dreadful ! "I wish I were back in the forest with granny!" she murmured. "Shame on you for the-wish! No true woman would prefer the halfsavage drudgery that would keep her always poor, always ignorant, always unworthy the love of such men as this Hal Dartford means to be." Lois eyed the speaker oddly. "You bid me have naught to do with him, and yet in the same breath yuu bid me make myself worthy of him. What does that mean?" "I was looking forward," said Nurse May, her pale cheek slightly flushing. "I was thinking how, in the years to come, you a".id he might meet on equal ground, and neither of you feel ashamed of your early friendship. But General Haydon is wondering what keeps you away from him so long. He wants to know if you are pleased with his handsome presents." "Presents?" the girl echoed vacantly. "Yes. Have you breathed a wish in his hearing that he has not endeavoured to gratify? You said you would yourself like to drive him for his daily airing. He has purchased a carriage for that purpose; it is to be yours, and he will only take a seat in it at your invitation. You talked of the enjoyment you used to find in catching one of the forest ponies and having a mad gallop; he determined instantly that you should have as spirited, yet docile, a mare for riding as it would be possible to procure. Surely you owe him some thanks for his goodness!" £ . |TO BE CONTINUED.!