HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9529, 29 June 1909, Page 2

HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

CHAPTER XXXll.—Continued

"You mean me well, I know, but you might have spared yourself and me this painful meeting. I have already been told that the mother of Lcis is still living !" The start of astonishment with which Wilfred Stuart heard this information proved that he had been ignorant of it. The next moment he was generously protesting that it must be false. "Laurence could not have fallen to such depths of infamy as to dream of making you his wife if he is not free! No. no, 1 refuse to believe it. He is acting mistakenly, but he does not meditate a crime—he is incapable of k! From ?. horn have you heard so strange —so dreadful a tale?" Am bra looked at Nurse May, who bowed her head slightly and acknowledged herself Miss Neville's informant. "Where are your proofs?" demanded Wilfred warmly. "I will produce them at the proper time, which certainly is not this evening," she answered. "Miss Neville has suffered enough for one day. Piease leave us, Mr Stuart. I can promise that nothing will induce her to leave this house to-morrow."

Wilfred Stuart was impressed by the quiet iirmness with which these words were uttered, and he noted with pleasure how gently Ambra was drawn into the support of an almost motherly embrace. Yea, she would be well careJ for; but was Nurse May aware of the lengths to which Laurence Haydon was prepared to go rather than quit England without his bride? "If I could speak with you in private for a few minutes!" he cried, resolved that at all risks Ambra's safety should be insured "It is not necessary," was the reply. "You have come here from the house- of Jack Hamlyn, Mr Haydon's groom. Fiis wife has told me ail. It was I who sent her to you." "What would ycu have me dn?" a?k?d Wilfred after a pause. "Heaven knows you could not give me a more painful task than to be Laurence Haydon's accuser; and if Miss Neville is warned to avoid the snare set for her, it is enough." "Nr>t quite; you may be wanted-'to prove your frie idihip for Laurence Maydon when his father is made aware of his son's conduct.'' This was said with a significance that mad;; Ambra start, and Mr Stuart regard thi speaker curiously. "Laurence is on the eye of leaving England for an indefinite periud. Would not 'silence be rn:-rcifal to father and son?" Nurse May compressed her lips. "It is possible to be pilent too long, especially whan there are the interests of others to be considered," she said coldly. "But I will think over what you suggest, and if you will call here in the afternoon you shall have my decision." Wilfred bowed and took a step towards the door, but came back again; he longed to hear Ambra say that she forgave him for having, though without intending it, caused her additional pain. He had not entered into this coil willingly. He had made the ac quaintance of theHamlyns when their only child was run over. The men, a reckless but companionable fellow, idolized his little son, and was almost heart-broken when, in spite of the constant attentions received, both from Wilfred Stuart as well as the poor little creature's mother, the child pined away and died.

It was then that John Hamlyn, in a hurst of contrition for many offencesjigainst his wife,-pledged himself to act upon her wishes, give up his situation, and return with her to his native village, where his parents would joyfully receive him. "I'll be all the more glad to go," he added frankly, "because then I shall be able to shirk an ugly job. My master's a clever sort of fellow, and one can'c help liking him when he's in a good humour; but he's up to mischief, and I don't care for my part in it." "What does he want you to do?" asked the wife fearfully. "Help him to trick a pretty young lady who lives at his father's. I'm to dress dp as an old coachman, and drive there in a brougham, with a note 10 say that tne young lady's relations are at a hotel in the Strand and want her to go to them, as Mrs Elston has been taken ill." "Well?" queried the wife. "But is isn't well, for I'm to drive her to a house where Mr Haydqn will be waiting to receive her, ancY she'll not be allowed to leave except to go to church with him. Hrj wants her money badly, for he's over head and ears in debt. All he gets from the general goes to the gamingtable, and he can ouly keep bis creditors quiet by promising to pay them as soon as he has won this rich heiress." It was while Mrs Hamlyn was revolving this tale in her mind that she was seized with a resolve to thwart the designs of Laurence Hayden, whom, as the cause of much of her husband's recklssness, she detested. Into the ears of Nurse May —sent to her by the general with offers of help as soon as he heard of ) he child's death—she poured it; and

CHAPTER XXXIII

BY HENRIETTA B. EUTHVEN. Author of "His Second Love," " Corydon's Infatuation/' " Daring Doia," " An Unlucky Legacy," Etc., Etc. ) £■*■**»»» %2* o*o Of* O* r**o U->.C"*»JZ O PNJO«fS

ADIEU, MY LOVE, ADIEU

/by her sho was told to repeat it to Wilfred Stuart. How he received the revelationhow eager it made him to rescue Amj bra —how grieved to be compelled to I denounce the man he had called his friend—it is not easy to describe. He stood before the pale, sad girl as downcast as if lie too, had sinned aaginst her. She comprehended his emotions, and gave him her hand. "It was good of you to come," she said, simply. "I could not ; have borne this so well from a sti anger." And he went away consoled.

General Haydon's military friend cheerfully consented- to take up his quarters at Brompton. Colonel Winfrod was a busy man, who had come to England to fill a post of some importance at the Horse Guards, and he plunged in to office work immediately on his arrival. But he was also a man who never forgot a promise. Although he was up and away at a very early hour, not to be seen gain until he returned at noon and lunched with the general, he contrived to find time for half an hour's chat with Hal Dartford. While eating his curried fowl he also discussed the general's protege with him,, and no one saw or seemed to see how Lois laid down her knife and fork, and had to swallow a draft of cold water to help her to overcome the faintness that attacked her. "I like the young fellow," said Colonel Winford. "There's the making of a good soldier in him." "Whom do you mean?" asked Miss Braysby, with a giggle. "The groom or footman—which is it who pushes the general's chair? Oh! but soldiers are so courteous to my sex, and this young man is dreadfully unpolished. One day, when dear Lois had one of her tits of naughtiness, and rode away, leaving poor me in the park alone, he insisted on riding after her, although I was quite upsat, and my nerves have never been strong si'ice" —she applied her handkerchief to her eye—"since my great trouble." "We will soon teach him that he must never be discourteous to a lady," said the Colonel gallantly. "Are you sure you will be able to spare him, Haydon?" "I shall miss him very much," was thH reply, "for he is thoughtful aid intelligent be\o;d his years oF his station. But I'll not stand in his light. No, no. his ambition is a laudable one. Let him go and servebis country to the best of bis ability. My little Lois will help her grand-, father to do without him." | TO KG CONTINUED.]