When Love Rules The Heart.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9546, 19 July 1909, Page 2

When Love Rules The Heart.

CHAPTER Vll.—Continued

Armitage made no response, but his lips closed, andlie crimsoned with anger. "That man has been my friend," he though'. - . "Some day he shall ■ apologise to me !" Zilla looked at him pleadingly, pathetically. "Mr Arimtage, will you let me return home? Will you try to forget the mistake of this morning? Oh, my heart is breaking! I cannot understand it. lam little more than a child, but I know that I ani humiliated, and utterly miserable. lam so poor—so wretched! Look at my clothes —my worn-out boots! And then —what am I? A child from the slums —an outcast—to be insulted and sneered at. Oh, Heaven, it is bitter! And it seems that the dregs of humanity , such as I am, have hearts to feel and to suffer! You saw how your friends looked at me? It would be the same always—everywhere^—if The tears rushed to her eyes. "If?" he whispered. "I have told you that 1 care nothing for the whole world. Mountarbon!" His tone changed from sweetness and gentleness to one of wrath and contempt. "You said that he was one of your greatest friends." "You have heard of Damon and Pythias? Our friendship was such as theirs, Zilla. To-day at is an empty name! Contact with life—its vanities, its insenate pleasures—warps the sweetest impulses of youth. Zilla, you love me a little?" Sh.e looked straight into his eyes. She was no longer afraid/ "I have said that I do not understand my own heart yet, Mr Armiatge. If it be love to cherish you as my ideal of all that is manly and noble, if it be love to have drtamed of worshipping you from afar—as something utterly beyond me—then I do love you!" Her face glowed with colour, and her voice sank to a whisper. "But love such as mine, when once uttered, is a crime. You will never be the king of my dreams in a world to which I canimt, I will not aspire. You shall not be dragged down to my level!" He laughed and seized her in his arms. "Zilla-my Zilla!" Again the bird in the hedgerow burst into song. "Zilla, let me kiss your sweet lips," Armitage said rapturously. "I am answered, and am satisfied. From this hour no power on earth shall part us. What was it that the unhappy lover sang of Annabel Lee? "But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we--Of many far wiser than we; And neither the angels in Heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee." And nothing can ever dissever my soul from the soul of the gipsy maiden. Darling, darling—what an nice maiden you are! Even the birds are sirging of love! " 'Every flutter of the wing. Every note ot song we sing, Every murmur, every tone

Is of love, and love alone!" "You are cruel to me, Mr Armi T tage—cruel!" Zilla said pitifully. "My eoul has been sleeping, and you have awakened it. Oh, torture me no longer,! How shall I live through the misery of the future? Go —I pray you, and look upon me no more! You have likened me to Annabel Lee. I shall find happiness only in her fate. '"I was a child arid she was a child In the kingdom by the sea; But we loved with a love that was more than love, I and my Annabel Lee — With a love that the winged,seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me. "And this was the reason that, long ago, In the kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her high-born kinsmen came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulcher In this kingdom by the sea!'" Armitage was startled by the pathos in the low, sweet voice. He bent foward toward her, but she motioned him away, and her look and her gesture were both pitiful in their hopelessness. "Let me return to my father alone, Mr Armitage," she whispered, with quivering lips—"and forgot me, if you can !" Her sad eyes were turned upon him. "It will be the greatest kindness that you can do me now. Good-bye!"

CHAPTER VIII. "THE ADORATION OF A LIFETIME SHALL BE YOURS!" With a quick movement, Arrnitage took the girl in his arms. "Zilla," he said, almost fiercely, "enough of thia! I will never leave you! You are mine —mine until death! Do you hear me, my poor, trembling darling? I care not who witnesses this ECjne! I will not let you go until you promise to be my wife! It is useless to try to thwart my will! i always have my own way!"

L — — I ? BY OWEN MASTERS. S 1 1 t> Author of "Captain Emlyn's Daughter," "The Woman (, * Wins." "The Heir of Avisford," "One Impas- U 7 1 / sioned Hour," Etc., Etc. /

' He impressed hot kisses on her brow, and she uttered a deep sigh—a sigh almost of satisfaction. "I am weak, Mr Armitage " "Don't call me, 'Mr Armitage,' Zilla!" "Take your arms from round me, Duncan." The roseleaf blushes left her face. "You will not run away?" "I cannot. Oh, I am so happy and yet so unutterably wretched! Your sister, Lady Annandale " "Oh, hang Lady Annandale!" Armitage interrupted. "She is my only sister, and I love her dearly, but she has not thj ruling of my life. I am a man, Zilia, with a man's fredom of thought and action." She looked at him, and her glance was eager and glad. "How brave you are, Duncan!" She still faltered over his name. "My resolutions dissolve like mists before your masterful will. Do you remember the first day that you saw me on the river? I think I was singing 'Maguerite.' Mr Etherington annoyed me, but with you near me felt so strong! I feel strong now; but when you are gone I shall be as weak as a little child. Ah, I wonder how it will end!" She cast a swift, frightened glance over her shoulder. "How will it end. Zilla? Love—always love! Life is beautiful with love! Dear me, I never tasted of the sweets of life until now! Is it not wonderful that one creature should be so dear to another? There are thousand so beautiful women upon whose faces one's eyes rest admiringly for a moment, then they are forgotten. Among all those thousands of lovely wom?n there is but one whose fads die's eyes rest admiringly for a moment, then they are forgotten. Among all those thousands of lovely women there is but one who has power to stir within me a single emotion —only one, and her name is Zilla! We cannot help ourselves, and we do not wish to do so ever if we could, when loves rules our hearts. "If thou wouldst have thy charms enchant our eyes, First win our hearts, for there thy empire lies. Beauty in vain would mo ant a heartless throne— j Her right divine is given by love alone. "What would the rose with all her pride be worth. Were there no sun to call her brightness worth? Maidens, unloved, like flowers in darkness thrown, Wait hut that light which come 3 from love alone. | TO PK CONTINUED."]