HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9528, 28 June 1909, Page 2

HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

CHAPTER XXXl.—Continued.

"I will," and "I will!" they cried simultaneously. But it was on Lois that the nurse's choice fell; and, with a nod and a smile, she ran away to take off her hat ere she presented herself in General Haydon's room. Fixing her piercing gaze on the pensive Ambra, Nurse May inquired it she was wedded to one particular place of worship? "You are not?—you are sure? Then will you go with me?—and not blame me if you do not like what you hear?" "I would rather go with you than ?lone!" was the prompt reply; for if Laiirerce shoilH throw lii'ffiocl'f in her way huw could she bear to hear his entreaties and repeat her refusals to be his? Ambra Neville was but a careless worshipper that morning. Mechanically she stood, or sat, or knelt, her thoughts absorbed in putting uj) petitions for his happiness, his safety, till the touch of B Nurse May's hand on her own aroused her from her abstraction. "Listen!" was whispered in her ear, and she obeyed, her culour coming and going, her eyes dilatingthe while. * Was he dreaming, or did she actually hear the officiating clergyman publish the banns of marriage between Laurence Haydon and h?r self? "This is the third announcement of the banns," were the closing words, and again Nurse May's hand gripped hers, and now it was to lead her from the church. "Was this with your sanction?" she asked, as soon as she stood with the pale, dazed Ambra in the porch. "No, no! Has not my guardian forbidden it?" "Then thank Heaven for your escape, for Laurence Haydon already has a living wife!" CHAPTER XXXII. IS THE WARNING GIVEN IN TIME? Lola mn;ht hai'e testified a little surprise when she learned that Ambra and Nurse May had returned so suddenly, had she not been engrossed in an event of more serious importance, simply because it related to Hal Dirtford. General Haydon's military friend — the one whom ha proposed to interest in the fortunes of the youiig man — had arrived in town, and already the comrades-in-arms were rejoicing in their meeting, and fighting their battles over again in the peaceful atmosphere of the general's garden. Ambra went to her room stunned by the discoveries or the morni: g. Laurence a married man, yet making arrangements for his union with her as if she had given her consent to it! What was she to think? What was she to understand? "It is a trick !" she had : while on the way home, aroused herself to protest. "And Mr Haydon has had nothing to do with it." But when her eyes eagerly sought Nurse May's, in the hope of there reading confirmation, the pitying glance that met hers made her shrink into troubled silence. For some time past she had heen almost unconsciously losing in her lover. At first it had been easy to find excuses for him—to believe that he erred without intending it, and that the impetuosity of his nature hurried him into acts that in his calmer moments he would be the first to condemn.

Judging him thus tenderly, she refused to impute any blame to him for his secret marriage with Daisy, and insisted that his neglect of his child had been entirely due to his conviction that she had died in her infancy. That he was cold and harsh to Lois she attributed to the girl's want of refinerrent, and had often pleased herself with the thought of some day teaching the father and daughter to understand each other. But when Laurence set at naught the command of the good old general —not openly, but in secret —she began instinctively to shrink from his caresses. To see him come to Maidstone smiling and chatting with all the easy grace Mr and Mrs i; Elston thought so delightful, and to know that he was taking advantage of every opportunity to persuade her to become bis wife, was so contrar: to all her notions of righ\, that Is set her asking herself what reliance she should be able to place in a husband who made his own will his guide, and not his conscience. If she remonstrated, he silenced her with -kisses; if she looked gravely at him, he would protest that it was the suspense that was making her unhappy, and the quickest way out of all these difficulties was through the wedding-ring. Once married, his father would forgive them, and be as glad as they were that his scruples had not kept them apart. How little Ambra believed this she had proved by her consent to a residence far fgrom him As Laurerce had never reproached her for this, except by his'sorrowful glances, she had imagined that he, like herself, was growing reconciled by a tpmnnrarv senaration. Yet whv Tiad

* BY HENRIETTA B. KUTHVEN. jj If Author of "His Second Love," " Corydon's Infatuation," l» C h * " Daring Doia," " An Unlucky Legacy," Jf / Etc., Etc. /

he published the banns for their marriage? Did he think that she was so weak that at the last moment she would give up her convictions, and deceive her guardian, rather than lose him? "He would cease to respect me if 1 stooped to be his by stealth; and he snail never do that!" she had often told herself; and now, as soon as she reached her chamber, she threw herself on her knees arid thanked Heaven and the a*ngels that must have watched over her. Overborne by his passionate entreaties sh might have yielded, and only by divine protection had - she escaped a marriage that would have been not only clandestine, but illegnl. She was tod muce shaken to question her companion, and, pleading; a headache, she locked her door against every one, preferring to wrestle with her feelings in solitude. It was not till the day was nearly over that, faint and weary with weeping, she crept into Nurse May's little sitting-room, and permitted herself to be placed in an easy chair and persuaded to swallow some refreshments. She could not have borne |to be petted or and the presence of the nurse would have been intolerable had she been talkative or exulted at her superior knowledge. But this grave, silent woman knew precisely how to treat her, and did not volunteer a word that could increase her distress Ambra was enduring. Both were seated beside the fire, which alone illlumined the room; Loth were deep in sad thought, when there was a tap at the door, followed instantly by the entrance of Wilfred Stewart. Nurse May rose to receive him, while Ambra crouced down in her chair, thankful that, as it was in the shadow, he would,not be able to see her pale face and swollen eyes; but she, too, started to her feet in great amzement when she heard from his own lips what had brought him hither. "Mr 3 May, 1 come to you for help and advice —I am very uneasy respecting Miss Neville. It has come to my knowled™ that to-morrow evening she will be decoyed from this ho.use. How is it to be prevented without entailing on the general the grief of knowing that this disgraceful plot has been planned by his son?" He paused suddenly, for it was Ambra herself whom the lamp, turned up by Nurse May, revealed to nim. He extended his hand in genuine distress. "Forgive me! Not from my lips should you have heard this! r- ever, if Laurence would but have proved himself worthy of you, would 1 have uttered a word to his disparagement. But not even by the memo/y of our boyish friendship can be silent when he would wrong you!" Ambra sighed. | TO BE CONTINUED.]