When Love Rules The Heart.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9551, 26 July 1909, Page 2

When Love Rules The Heart.

CAHPTER X.—Continued.

"And then you wil come back to me here?" Helen murmured. "I don't know how I shall face Latly Annandale and Miss Casson! I will seem to them thab I have been playing a duuble part. And, as for your papa, I know that he will relent—he loves me so much!" "I have already told your brother— I have already told Cecli," Duncan said. "Gracious Heaven," he thought, "what am I doing?" The girl raised her blushing, happy face. It was glorified by her great love and trust. "Let me go, Helen —I shall lose my train!" he huskily whispered. "I promised to meet Mountarbon at the station. 1 will write to you to-morrow—l will tell you the reHUlt of the interview with my fa "sr. To me it is a foregone cot elusion I shall be disinherited —an outcast. Then ' : He paused, conscious that he was plunging more deeply into the mire of deception. "And then," Helen added, "we can face the world together. It will be love in a cottage; and true love is an eternal feast!" Her cheeks glowed. The love in her eyes was ineffable. "Kiss me. Duncan!" He obeyed, but there was no passion in the caress. "Goodnight, Helen." "Good night, my love —my love!" A little later Duncan Armitage left his sister's house, the most miserable of men.

CHAPTER XL "NOW FOR THE WITCH WHO HAS ENSLAVED ME!" Mountarbon was waiting for Armitage at the station. "The train is due in five minutes," he said. "1 began to think that you would lose it. You are going direct to the Grand Hotel, I believe?" "Yes." "Then I will put up there also. My people do not expect me in town for a day or two." Duncan was not well pleased. He would have preferred to be alone. While they were talking together Gus Etherinsgton hurried on to the platform, accompanied by his valet. He nodded familiarely to Mountarbon and scowled at Armitage. "You also going to town, Etherington?" Clarence Mountarbon asked. "Why this sudden flight?" "My quarry has been spirited away!" he replied with an evil simle. "I understand —the pretty little Zilla! Has she told you your fortune lately? I was myself almost tempted to enter the lists,' but there were so many formidable opponents! Bah! the game is not worth the candle. Old Seton is as artful as a fox! Shall I see you in town tomorrow." "I can't promise," said Etherington, with a grim smile. The train glided into the station, and Armitage entered a crowded third-class carriage. His face was almost livid. He felt that he hated Clarence Mountarbon—that he would hate him until the day ot his death. "To doubt myself ia to doubt Zilla,'* he thought bitterly; "and to doubt her is to believe in the vile calumny of her t-aducers. Great heavens, what have I done? Am 1 sane, or am I a madman? Her father a convict, a scoundrel who trades upon the ugly secrets of others and Bhe a vulgar fortune-teller, a street singer! I wish that I had never been bewitched by her gipsy face!" Then his cheeks reddened with shame. "Poor little Zilla!" he said to himself. "I will believe that she is all goodness and truth until I prove her to be false!" At Paddington he saw nothing of Mountarbon, and was driven to the Grand Hotel. Having given instructions that he was not to be disturbed that night, as he was tired, he went to his room at once, and for an hour sat at the open window, watching the crowd in the busy street below. "I am but a unit among millions," he thought. "And yet how vast are my troubles and perplexities' Where Heß the blame? Is it unhappy fate or my own .mad folly? 1 cannot tell. "S^r^fcWBSSSUSS It was nearly midnight when Clarence Monutarbon arrived. Duncan saw him alight from a cab, and overheard him say: "Good night, Etherington. I shall see you here to-morrow. I am looking forward to the fisrt act in our pretty comedy!" Etherington laughed. "Comedy and tragedy often go hand in hand," he raplied. The cab bowled away, and Armitage closed his window. He heard Mountarbon pass his door, and knew that he had retired. Duncan breakfasted in his own room the next morning. In his present frame of mind he had no desire to meet Mountarbon The man had been his friend, but he was mystified and perplexed by his conduct. For a year or two they had practically lost sight of ecah other. Mountarbon moved in a faster set, and his reputation had not improved. • He was thought to be cynical and cold-blood- j

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

Ed, and no one reaily liked him. The j passionate declaration of love which Dnucan Arimtage had overheard re- | vealed an intensity of feeling which had never been suspected in him. J While Duncan was thinking of him, [ Mountarbon knocked ac the door of his room. "Come in," was the quiet response. Clarence Mountarban entered, and his keen black eyes flashed as he noted the cold look on Duncan's face. "Anything wrong, 'mon ami'?" he coolly asked. "Your countenance is not that of the happy lover." "Silence!" Duncan said, in tones of suppressed wrath. "I can no longer regard you in the light of a friend ; I can never forgive the words that fell from your lips last night." "About the gipsy girl, of course! Women always play the dickens with the friendship of men. Well, go your own way ! I have no reason to be particularly grateful to you, or affectionate towards you. I hated you with an intense hatred for an hour yesterday. I suppose that I shall always dislike you for being preferred to myself fay the woman I covert! It is only human nature, after all. I can't [understand why I have interfered; between your folly and the clerverness of pretty Zilla, unless it is because you and I move in the same set, or rather because we are of the same order. It is most humilatiing to see one's old friends sink to the deerading depths of a street singer. For a little fun—well, there would not be much harm done; but marriage— Jove, it is quite beyond me! I rather enjoy the disgraceful muddle you are in, but I do not forget that you are the future Lord Rainhill. A fellow owes something to his family and his frends. Take an enemy's advee. Let the gipsy alone. Etherington is bound to beat you at the finish, marriage of no marriage!" He laughed sneeringly, and Armitage sprang to his feet. "Go\" he said, pointing to the door. His voice quivered. "Go, or I shall kill you ! I despise you so utterly that I call you a liar and a ' coward! There can be only one satisfaction, and that will be to lash you as the cur you arj!" Mountarbon turned deathly pale, but the sneering smile never once left his lins. His black eyes sparkled. "Thanks," he said airily. "I shall remind you of this some day. You know a little of me, Duncan Armitage—but very little. Aurevoir!" ] TO BTS CONTINUED."!