When Love Rules The Heart.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9534, 5 July 1909, Page 2

When Love Rules The Heart.

? BY OWEN MASTERS. 5 1 1 it Author of "Captain Emlyn's Daughter," "The Woman |# * Wins," "The Heir of Avisford," "One Impas- J» / sioned Hour," Etc., Etc. /

CHAPTER I.—Continued. The ringing of a bell announced that luncheon was ready. There was the gleam of a snowy cloth, the flash of silver through the trees; the cut glass glittered in the sun; the music of Lady Annandale's laughter floated on the summer air. "Come along," Cecil Howard said. "I am as hungry as the proverbial hunter We must not miss the "race between Eton and Cambridge. It will be a hard fight. Miss Casson will think us most ungallant, neglecting her in this way !" "Then I leave Miss Casson to you," replied Duncan. "I prefer the society of Miss Helen Howard." • Helen's,face flushed warmly, and a more tender light shone in her eyes. Cecil looked up quickly and frowned ever so slightly. ' - \ A volley of badinage greeted them when they walked on to the smaller lawn. The elder gentlemen were doing the honours of the "table" on their knees. The ladies were seated in garden chairs/ discussing their future movements. "We will view the best races from the launch," Miss Casson said. "Then there is always plenty of fun—the minstrels, negro performers, and all that sort of thing." "Theu back to seven-o'clock dinner," chimed in: Lady Annandale. "A merry, scrambling surt of mea;l' Whosaya 'Yes'?" Corks beuan to pop merrily, and the edibles were handed round by Armitage and Cecil Howard. Duncan devoted himself to Cecil's sister, and she listened vith enraptured face to every word that fell from his lips. "I shall have to say ' 'good-bye' to England in a week or two," he was saying. "My father insists upon it Two years from home — from my friends and you, Helen!" The girl's lips quivered faintly/ '"ltisyour duty, Duncan. You are bound to go. ; Travel is an education it itself." >"J believe that you are glad to be rid of me," s, You know that I am not." "Forgive me, Helen' We have always been such good friends, have we not?" A sigh escaped him. "I often think of the dear old days, and wish that they were back again when we were youngsters together —you, and I, and Cecil." Helen was silent. "A man of twenty-four should not be denied his liberty." he went on moodily, "the liberty of thought and action. I wonder if my father would reproach himself and forgive me if I fell m love with and married - some nameless foreign beauty?" "You are jiating, Du..can." The girl's hands trembled, her eyes darkened with sudden fear; Duncan noticed her agitation, and the colour mounted to his brow. It was a revelation to him. Armitage percieved that Cecil was regarding ihera attentively.

J<Miss Howard and I have finished luncheon," he said. There was a desperate resolve in his heart. "You will excuse us? We are going into my sister's rose-garden." Cecil made a Budden movement; but Miss Casson's hand was upon his arm, and the opportunity was Jost, The merry chatter continued, and the poopping of corks, the clinking of glasses and the badinage. "Mr Armitage is a remarkably handsome man," Lorna Casson observed to Cecil HowarJ, "but I am disappointed in him. He lacks animation. I have heard that he is clever, too." "He is a spbndid fellow," Cecil warmly replied, "a thorough Englishman, a staunch friend, a relentless foe! As for being clever, Armitage has brains when toe likes to use them, but he is too lazy or too wise to pick a quarrel with dead and gone commentators." Miss Casson smiled in a meaning way, ard turned confidentially to Cecil Howard. "Lord Rainhill places great confidence in you, Mr Howard?" "We are neighbours, Miss Casson." "That is an evasion"—and she laughed. "Now I will speak plainly. You known that it is the wish of his lordship—that it is the ambition of my father—for Duncan Armitage to fall in love with me." "Yes—oh, yes!" "I came here obediently—a coronet, fairly won, is not to be dispised —but I came too late, Mr Howard." She spoka with'heightening colour. "1 fail to understand you, Miss Casson," "My words will bear a double interpretation.," Lorna Gas-son said* boldly. "I will only tell you One of them—the other you must guess for yourself. Mr Howard, • your sister loves Duncan Armitage. Can vou "not see it? Her love is the growth of Ions; years—a passion which will last as long as life." He looked in the direction of the rose-earden, and a sigh escaped him. Miss Casson rose from her seat with a show of impatience, and moved away. CHAPTER 11. ETHERINGTON'S WARNING. Lorna Casson's gaze followed Helen Howardand Duncan Armitage until they were hidden by a cluster of trees. Then her black eyes flashed •in ominous fashion.

The next moment she was cha ting gaily to Lady Annandale. "We saw your father at Lady McArthur's reception laft Thursday, Florence. He looked horribly bored!" "Lord Rainhill has not the most amiable of tempers at any time" and Lady Annandaie smiled—"but the McArthur receptions are 'the thing,' you know. drags through the season like an automaton. The rules of society are to him as the laws of the Medes and Persians. He is rabidly conservative in all matters —uitraconservative, I should say. He is a slave to the ancient order of things. I shudder when I remember his despotic rule. Really, I can find it in my heart to be sorry for Duncan." The elder people had gone into the house. Cecil Howard was pacing the lawn, a cigar between his lips, a perplexed look in his eyes. Soft strains of music floated up from the river, and the voices of men, the rippling laughter of women., "Do you think that your brother will continue to submit tamely to his father's caprices?" asked Miss Casson. "Caprices?". Lady Annandale was horrified. It was.sacrilege in another to mention the foribles which she herself had condemned. "My dear Lorna, if you value the friendship of Lord* Rainhill " She paused. "My brother has the courage of his ancestors. lam proud of him. He will go abroad dutifully. He will return home again dutifully, and marry." She smiled brightly. "You admire him already, Lorna—l am sure of it. Lord Rainhill will not object." x Miss Casson's eyes glittered for a moment. "I am an heiress," she said a little scornfully; then her manner changed, and she spoke softly: "Yes—l admire your brother, Florence. lam sure that it would be easy to love if his heart is not elsewhere." There was a peal of silvery laughter from Lady Annandale. "You absurd child! Surely you are not jealous of Helen Howard? They were children together. And then it is quite, impossible—the Howards are so poor! Lord Rainhill would not hear of it. There are political differences, too, between him and General Howard." Lorna Casson glanced in the direction of Cecil Howard. His face was turned toward the cluster of trees behind which his friend and his sister had vanished, JTO BK fIOKTINUED.I

Tw,o lovers with one self-same cold, Two chests with but one wheeze, ■'' Two rose-red noses blending in On a grand impassi ne<l ?neezi. Two soul 3 with but one single thought. One aspiration pure—"This cold we've caught we'll set. at nauofht i By Woods' Great Peppermint Cure."