HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9530, 30 June 1909, Page 2

HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

CHAPTER XXXlll.—Continued

"Then I'll mention the lad to ray son this afternoon." Miss Braysby pricked up her ears. "You have a son, colonel? Does he resemble you? How very nice? Oh, how I should like to know him." "Thanks; you are extremely kind! I will ask him to call upon you the next time he and his wife are in town." His wife! Miss Braysby did not care for the society of married men, though she refrained from saying so; but the disappointment gave a tartness to her next observations. "Of course you'll enlist the general's protege?" "My son will. He commands a company of the Engineers, now under orders for Egypt." "Dear rae, how odd it seems that young men—and, really, now I come to think of it, this Dartford is not bad-looking should care to enter a profession that entails on them the horrors of war! I suppose he knows he may come back minus an arm or agleg, or gashed and scarred into a perfect horror, and " But with a low, gasping cry, Lois pushed beck her chair, and ran out of the room.

•"She always is so very odd!" sighed Miss Braysby, as, in obedience to the general's request, she arose to follow her.

"Perhaps she possesses a heart!" said Lady Marcia dryly; "a part of our organisation in which dear Lollie is rather deficient."

Lois' flight broke up the party. Colonel Winford went off to Aldershot, where his son was stationed; and Lady Marcia, who had just remembered that she had a friend married to a cavalry officer, who was either there or at Shornecliffe, went with him.

As for the general—much less infirm of late than he used to be—he walked, with the aid of his stout cane, to the study, where Hal Dartford, aware that his stay at Brompton was drawing to a close, was making up some ari'ears of writing. A sigh escaped from the old man's lips. He should miss the young fellow more than he chose to acknowledge. In him he fancied he could detcern those sterling in which his son had proved so sadly wanting; and though he upbraided himself for his selfish reluctance to part with one who had proved both useful and companionable, he could not overcome hs regret. Presently Lois stole in to take her accustomed seat on a low chair beside her grandfather's, and try to appear busy with the slippers she was working for him; but she was afraid to talk lest tha quiver in her voice should betray her; and the general finding his attempts at conversation elicited only monosyllables, was falling into a doze, when a telegram was handed to him. It was from Colonel Winford, and was sent from Waterloo station, where he had very unexpectedly encountered his son.

"Have just seen John. The young man must join without delay." Hal Dartford's colour rose when the slip of paper was given to him. "You see," said the general, trying to speak cheerfully, "there is no time for indecision." "There shall be none on my part, sir," was the brave reply. "And you will not discredit what I have said in your favour?" "I will do my duty as a soldier and a man." "And keep me informed of your welfare?"

Hal drew a step his face aglow with pleasure. "May I write to you? I shall be only too happy!" "And I shall always be very much gratified tojnear from you," said the genera? kindly. "You are fortunate in one respect," he added, in sadder tones. "If I remember rightly, you tcld me that you are an orphan, so you will leave no one in England to grieve at losing you." To this no reply was made; but by the same impulse' Hal and Lois bent on each; other a long, lingering, sorrowful gaze, which contradicted the assertion. Not grieve!—when they were parting for years, perhaps to meet again; upheld solely by a shadowy hope that, if she were true and he were fortunate, they might some day stand together at the altar,

General Haydon saw that look, and trembled for the consequences of his own blindness! How could he have been so obtuse as not to have reminded himself how young they were, and how earlier knowledge of each other might easily ripen into love! Should he speak?-- nhould he warn them that from this moment they must be strangers, living their lives as much apart as though ttiey had never met?

But he lacked the courage io say a word that would add to the sorrow they were already enduring. It was his fate, he thought, to make those he loved unhappy. What had not Ambra undergone when he came between her and Laurence?—why was it his duty to inflict similar suffering on these po:r children? He could, at all events, be a little more gentle and circumspect. Of course, he would have to take Nurse May into his confidence. With her assistance, anything like a parting interview should be prevented; no

l t ? BY HENRIETTA B. RUTHVEN. $ L Author of "His Second Love," " Corydon's Infatuation," \» I Etc., Etc. /

vows of constancy must be permitted; and, as soon as Hal Dartford was gone, he would break up the camp rid himself of Miss Braysby, and take Ambra and Lois to the seaside. Change of air and scene were always supposed to do wonders fpr the unhappy, and so he would try what it would effect for them. He had just arrived at this conclusion when Ambra joined them, and, drawing her chair ciose to that of Lois, began to help her wind her wools. But her hands were tremulous, for she had heard the voice of Laurence in the house; and though her love for him was no longer what it had been she could not forget how, in bygone days, she had been wont to accredit him with every virtue. The general received his son with mingled feelings. Only that morning an appeal had reached him from a tradesman, for whose very large account he had given Laurence a cheque weeks sinze. Against such repeated calls on his purse he must protest, or he would be ruined; yet he could not bring himself to expostulate just as, in obedience to Ins bidding, his son was about to expatiate himself. "So you leave us to-morrow?" he said. "I shall lose you and my secretary on the same day." "You can keep both of us if you will," was the half-laughing reply. "I suppose raising his salary will make him remain?—and my price you know." A glance at Ambra, who had not raised her eyes since he entered the room, pointed the remark, and made the general respond indignantly: "It is a price no honourable man would demand, no conscientious one ever pay. Let that be my final reoly. I have no intention of interfering with your plans or Dartford's. He is going to enroll himself in the Engineers." Laurence shrugged his shoulders, and glanced at the young man. "One mustn't abuse the profession in your presence, sir; but, if he is wise, he will not condemn himself to a life of routine. Better enlist in my service, and see the world with me." "No!"

Who was it uttered that imperative negative? Was it Lois, or could it have come from the lips of JMurse May, who was standing at the elbow of the general with the medicine he was in the habit of taking about this hour.

"Ha! nurse, are yon ' there 9 " cried Laurence, in the defiant tone he often adopted toward her. "Have you come to shed a tear at losing me, and wish me success in ail my undertakings?" "I have but one wish to give you, Edgar Laurence," she answered steadily, "and that is, that the defeat of your last and worst schemes may help to make you a sadder and wiser man." (TO BE CONTINUED.] For Influenza take Woods' Great Peppermint Care. Never fails. 1/6 and 2/6.