When Love Rules The Heart.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9550, 23 July 1909, Page 2

When Love Rules The Heart.

CHAPTER X.—Continued. "You ought to know. Florence, if any one does," he laughed. "I am sorry to believe that you have been frying to play me into the hands of our father. I shall not accept his cut-and-dried plans; I shall not go abroad like a good little buy, and return when I am told, and marry the lady my family selects as , the future Lady Rainhill! I mean to kick over the traces, and have a row! I shall marry the woman I love, even it she be only a ragpicker; and my family can go to the deuce!" Lady Annandale burst into tears. "Oh, you wicked boy! What will society say about us? You will break my heart! This comes of smoking those horrid hookahs and drinking bock beer at Socialists meetings! I've heard you talk about it, and 1 know that it is true. You are always talking about freedom, and that sort of stuff and nonsense." "I rn going to'iive for myself, not for my family name, or for society!" Armitage growled. "Look here, Flo, father may fall in with my idea of things in generaH If he does there will be no trouble. ,Don't give way, little woman. You have always been too good to me. It is waste of time to argue with me, or to endeavour to dissuade me from a determination which is as fixed as a rock. I shall go to town to-night, and interview Caesar in the morning. I I shall marry when I like and whom I like. I will permit no interference. The leading-strings are discarded. Now dry your eyes, Flo. lam going outside to have a talk with Mountarbon." His face was very pale, his lips were compressed. He seemed to have aged years during the last few days. Lady Annandale noted it with at>- • tonishment and dismay. _ "Duncan!" she exclaimed. He did not reply, and a moment later he had passed out by the open French window and was striding across he lawn. Mountarbon was on the farther side, half hidden by the foliage of the tree beneath which he was reclining. "So you are back home, old fellow?" Mountarbon said complacently. "Eiijoyed your ramble with the little singing girl!?" "Silence!" Armitage commanded. The blood mounted to his cheeks, an angry look flashed into his eyes. / "Bah! What have you to be offended about? I have seen you savage nefore this. I know the signs. I object to being condemned when I do not even know the charge you have to make aganist me! What's the matter, Duncan?" "Clarence," Armitage said coldly, "until to-day I have called you my friend." "Have I proved myself to be your enemy all at once? Wnat are you aiming at?" His eyes flashed. "How much of my conversation with Miss Casson did you overhear? You were directly above us—l saw you at the window when it was too late. lam usually too lazy to get into a passion, but I shall soon hate you, Armitage, unless you get out of my sight! If you like I will declare myself your foe. What is the friendship of man and man when a wo man comes between them? 1 love Miss Casson—you heard me tell her so! I shall love her until my death. I have learned that my passion is hopeless, because of you—my rival!" He sprang to his feet, and faced Armitage threateningly. His pallor Was intense, his black eyes flashed. "I am not here to discuss Miss Lorna Casson, , but to demand an apology from you for insulting one who is dearer to me than any other woman in the world! As for Miss Casson. you are welcome to win her if you can." Mountarbon was amazed. His dark face flushed with hope, and his manner changed. "I insult a lady?" he exclaimed. "You are wrong, Armitage—l swear it! Her name?" "Zilla Seton—the gipsy girl—the street singer!" Mountarbon laughed scoffingly. Had his friend taken leave of his senses? "Zilla Seton? Pshaw ! She is not a lady. I have known her by reputation for months, and her father for years. Good heavens, Armitage added: "You have bewildered me! I saw you with the girl this morning, and you know what I thought—what any amn would have thought in the same circumstances —that you had been attracted by the pretty face and figure, and by the nweet voicethat waff all. I was amused and a little astonished that you should trot her out in the light of day. Old Seton is a rascal—a thief, and a blackmailer! Ho has been away for burglary; and the daughter"—he shrugged his shoulders—"well, it is generally understood by the fellows who care "to interest themselves in such matters that Seton uses her beauty lor the purpose of decoying young idiots who have more money than brains!" Armitage heard every word, and is brain reeled. Should he strike the cowardly traducer? "I am scarcely a year older than you, Duncan," Mountarbon proceeded, "but lam fully ten your senior lin the ways of the world. 1 may

BY OWEN MASTERS. Author of "Captain Emlyn's Daughter," "The Woman Wins," "The Heir of Avisford," "One Impassioned Hour," Etc., Etc.

have a blase, cynical air, and I was always considered to be at cold-blood-ad monster, but I have depths of feeling which love has stirred. I hated you as my enemy and my rival ten minutes since! I now know that you are neither, and will save you from yourself if you will listen to me." "Listen to you?" repeated Duncan. "I have already listened to you for too long!" His voice was strained and hoarse. "Mountarbon, the girl at whom you would sneer—the street singer, the daughter ot an ex-convict—is dearer to me than a thousand such friendships as yours—is dearer to me than all else in the world beside, and, in a little while as soon as I can arrange it she will be my wife." "Your wile?" Mountarbon whispered horrified. "Man are you mad! Ah, these simple little sirens! I will not believe it !" He felt Duncan's grip on his shoulder. "You shall believe it, and you shall make an ample apology for traducing one of the best and sweetest creatures on earth. As for her father—great heavens, a convict■ No matter —the die is cast." An unnatural calmness came over him, A woman's laughter fell upon hi 3 ears. Helen Howard was moving about in the dining-room. He saw the, gleaming of her white dress, he heard her voice. What awful thing had he done'' For a moment he discovered he had been doubting Zilla, poor little Zilla! Her father—a thief a blackmailer, and she He shuddered. It would be social ruin! He did not care. What was society to him? "Come," said Mountarbon, "the ladies will see us here. Confound the dinner! In ten minutes we shall have to go in. Pull yourself together." "It was the shock," J Duncan said, with » smile. "You have told me the worst. My father-in-law an ex-convict! The news is not cheering. But you are wrong!" "I am not. He was liberated only a little over a year sir.ee. Look here, Duncan, a sea-trip would do you a world of good. Shall we take a rtn somewhere? I am ready at any time. A voyage to New York, for instance? Ah, I can feel the breezes of the Atlantic! Take my arm; we will stroll beyond view of the windows. Now tell me what you ate going to do." "1 have nothing to tell you. My first duty is to the woman I worship. I shall see her to-morrow. I leave for town to-night." Mountarbon's heart sank within him. | TO BTC CONTINUED.!