THE DOUBLE SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9637, 1 November 1909, Page 2

THE DOUBLE SECRET.

CHAPTER X.-Continued

It was not many nights before the wa Is of the Palazzo Ridolfi rtechoed to a seronade, whereat Lord Harcourt next morning remarked on tha pecu liarly fine tenor ofltalian street singers. And now the moon was at the full, and what on earth is so beautiful as the silver flood of Arno kissed by those resplendent beams as it rolls under the graceful arches of the Ponte San'a Trinita? Lady Lina pined to see this sight, and the moonlit streets of Florence, on an evening when three stately dowaeers, ladies of the Legation, w&re sipping tea from tiny cups and with Lady Astraea and Mrs Viithome. Lord Thomas was in his library, when enter his prejtjty daughter and demands to bu taken put to see the mppn. "Pauline Jikes to go," says Lady Lina, "and Ted aid Lucy can follpw on behind .so, Lord Harcourt, dp be a reasonable parent, and take me out for a walk. I rave rot exercised enough to-day. I make sure I shall have a. headache tp-morrow, just like Aunt V. Headachiness is a distressing habit,'.

To have another Aunt V. in the family was a consummation not devoutly to be wished for. Lord Harcourt called for his hat and boots, his spring overcoat and his sword cane, and summoning Ted and Lucy as attendants, walked forth with a damsel on eitner arm.

Up the western side of the Porte Santa Trinita, and down the east side, and admiie the statues of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, and still Lady Lina cannot leave those stately arches mirrored in the storied dtream; and so along the west walk once more, and Lord Harcourt and Pauline fall into a talk about the history that nas surged over and around this bridge since twelve hundred and fifty-two; amd Ted and Lucy ttand respectfully on one side and Ttd tells '.ucy what marvels he saw that day on the jewels bridge, the Porte Verchio; and Lady Lina leans upon the parapet of thi. bridge alone, until, as by enchantment, smiles by her side the face of Granitto Marie Arriano, more wondeifol th;,n ever when its dark beauty is lit by the moon. Is it five minutes or fifteen minutes, or even half an-hour, did this pair make love without love words, or even a touch of hands—make love simply by the art of the voice, saying commonplace things about the Pitti, and the Campanile, and the doors that Michael Anjzelo declared should be the gate of Paradise; "and you, and not St. Peter, should keep it," said Granitto. Who can tell how long the talk lasted? Mot Ted and Lucy; it was none of their business, and they," silly chicks, were lovers, too. Mot Lina and Granitto, for they did not care. Not Lord Thomas, for, with the voice of Pauline had fallen over him that witsful spell, half soothine, half regret, which ever came to him as he talked with her. !

However, Lord Harcourt woke to his duties of cbaperonage with a start, and btheld his daughter talk ■ ing to a stranger. Lady Lina was on the alert or her father's .return to consciousness o* surrounding things. She stepped toward him. "My pa&a, here is Signor Arriano, whom Dugald introduced to us at Pisa." And then Airiano devoted himself c-o beaiifully to talking history to Lord Harcourt and Pauline, and that my lord so far forgot himself as to say that he should be glad to have him call with Dugald Probyn. Granitto called and called again at Palazzo Ridolfi. Lor J Harcourt was hospitable. Lady Astraea was a gracous and motherly. Mrs Vilihorpe was haughty and forbidding to the last degree. ■ Lady Lina was discreet. Dugald Probyn was not jeal ous. Now, why was not Dugald Probyn more vigilant [over this golden fruit reserved by the Harcourt family for him. All friendship and common sense seemed to point out Lady Lina as the proper bridle for Dugald; and it must have only been that singular fatality for "ganging agley" which attends the best-laid plans of mice and men, that prevented Dugald from loving with his whole heart so charming a maiden. L.ady Lina liked her cousin right well, admired him, esteemed him, but hart made up her mind that capacity for absent love was not in him. What would she have said if she had known that Dugald was a

v by duncan mogregor C Author of "Kennedy's Foo," '-Ishmaol Eeforme V "A Game of Three," "Edna's Peril." / Etc., etc.

silent prey to passion and jealous fear? It had chanced that Dugald, calling one day at the Palazzo Rodolfi to see Lord Harcourt, had found that he was absent, and had gone into tne garden to wait for his return. Probyn lay down in an arbor, and pulling his hat over his eyes prepared to take a nap. Hardly had he settled himself than a voice aroused him; a cluster of shrubs divided the arbor in which he lay from another, and some one snated in this arbor began reading aloud. The reading after a while closed. "You see," said the voice of Lady Astraea, "that knowledge and beauty cannot fill and satisfy the human soul; we have been given hearts as well as brains, and humanity cannot successfully segragate itself from it* kind. There is more demanded of us than to live and die for ourselves." "You mean me, Lady Astraea," aaid the voice of the reader, "but indeed J do not wish to live selfishly. I have thought often that I would return to England, to some school for nursee, or district visitors, and learn to devote ray life to charity." "Charity," said Lady Astraea, "can be beautifully pursued, outside of associations and organisations. Such a life for a girl, young, beautiful and unprotected, might be misconstrued ; moreover the sacrifices of such a. life could only be made by an intense philanthropy, pride alone would not suffice." "Pride. Lady Atsraea?" said the voice, reproachfully "Yes, pride," said the old lady resolutely, "there is a deal of pride in your thus resolutely separating yourself from society, refusing friendship and the possibilities of love and a home, because you do not know your real name, and.have fallen out of your former position in the world."

" What ought " began the voice, but Dugald realised that he ws trespassing in listening to a conversation of two who believed themselves alone. He sprang up and went out of his arbor to re-enter the palazzo, but so doing, he saw that Lady Astraea's companion was Pauline. The girl sat with one elbow resting on a little table on which lay her book, her cheek rested on her hand, her dark eyes were fixed intently on Lady Astraea; her black lace sleeve fallen back revealed what Probyn thought the most exauisite hand and arm that he had ever seen, while the slope of the shoulders, the rounding uf rhin and throat, reminded him of La<ly Lina's notion that her friend was like the Venus of the Louvre. He lifted his hat and entered the drawirg*ronm of the palazzo in a tumult of swee*". ai/d bitter feelings; such a face and such a voice could belong only to a soul full of noble, generous and tender emotions. He nad long admired Pauline, and had felt that it was no wunder that Lord Harcourt was charmed with her, but now he felt that she might be the one woman in the world to him, and that in Lord Harcuurt's love-making Dugald Probyn might lose more than title and estate, he might lose a wife. Probyn put his own construction on the words which he had heard; Lady Astraea was rebuking Pauline for pride, for rejecting a marriage and a home, and the possibilities of domestic life;, what could this mean other than that she was pressing the suit of her son? Paulinp, on the other hand, started and blushed violently when Dugald left the path near them. * "Oh, what have we baid 7 " she exclaimed. "Have we mentioned Mrs Ormesby, or my late position?" "No," said Lady Astraea, "we have mentioned nothing; but you have just asked me what you ought to do. I should say reasonably accept life as it comes to you. The opportunities ana advantages around you are gifts of God; use them. You have had a year in which to recover from the fatigues of your csres for Mrs Ormesby, from your sorrow at her loss, from the shock of that secret which at the last moment of her life she confined to us. In another year—less than a> year—in the next April, you expect to have the secret of your birth revealed to you. Whether it shall make you more or less happy, remains to be seen. Best wisdom, in the interim, is to conduct ourselves quietly, according to the state of life where Providence has placed us. Had Heaven designed you for a devoteree, there vtre doubtles abundant means of indicating and securing it." "Weil, I am wrong,'" said Pauline; "but what shall I do now?" I TO BE CONTINUED."!