SIR JOHN'S HEIRESS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9670, 8 December 1909, Page 2

SIR JOHN'S HEIRESS.

CHAPTER V.—Continued

"Hang it, I see that you know nothing about the matter! Well, I broached the question of an early marriage, and the rolonel interviewed your guv. In the end there was a row, and I believe that the colonel has sent your firm the name of some new people who are to conduct his affairs in future. I don't quite know the i-s and crts of it all, but I have been ordereJ lo break off the engagement Marian doesn't know a word of it yet—bless her heart!—and never shall if I car help it."

Victor rose and paced the floor. "What ate vou going to do?" he asked.

"Shake the dust of this hole off my | feet and start on my own account, if Marian dots sot say me nay! lam sorry, for the mother's sake, tut when the colonel speaks she is the merest non-entity. Here I am at five and-twenty without any profehsion 1 suppose I must go in for com-pany-promoting or mine-selling—that | is the usual fate of men who have been brought up f:o live upon expec'.a tions—ui.less, by by Jove, I turn to professional cricketing or boxing!" He thrust his hands into a pair of boxing-gloves and hammered the wall unmercifully. "Don't be an ass!" Victor said. "I believe if you were at the point of, death you would make a joke of it!" Tm M joking—great Scott! Of what use is two hundred a year for a couple like Marian and me to live upon? Oh, yes, lam quite decided, unless your people put a apoke in my wheel!" "What an infernal muddle!" growled Victor abstractedly. "I can see righting and discord all along the line. Hal, I know that you are grit through and through, and we must stand side by side. I am sorry that the colonel and my father have quarrelled, but that is no affair of mine; I am no longer a member of the firm of Linton, S>m and Linton." "What a remarkable coincidence! Two homeless waifs on the world's wayside! But go on with your story • -sorry I considered mine t > be a greater importance! lam as serious as a judge now." And Victor Linton told his friend everything. "So you want me to be beat man? And the reading will take place in double-quick timt? 1 gave you ciedit for a cooler heat), old man? but lam delighted, neve/theless, if you are satisfied. lam yours to command at any moment. And look here"—he stopped short and regarde i Linton steadily—"l am going tu take a leaf out «f your book, and ask Marian to become my wife at once! I don't think that your people will object; but if they do" -he nodded significantly"—it will happen all the same, with you at my back! I've got a couple of hundred a year, and friends who have power to help me into a litt'e wholesome employment. A villa in the suburb 3 at forty pounds a year, with a tiny garden back and front, a conservatory six feet square, a couple of goldfish and a canary—why, it will be paradise, with Marian beside me!" Victor rose from hia chair again.

"I arc going back to Llsnberis," he said. "I must not miss my train, but I will write to you fully tomorrow. No, I shall not see my father again for a little while; we have already had a painful interview, and I could not bear a repetition of it. No doubt tie is terrbly disappointed, but 1 cannot let my life's happiness slip away from me to humour a whim." They shock hands. "I shall look for your letter the day afttr to-morrow, and you had better send it under cover to Marian; within 24 hours 1 expect to be home less. This very day a few words will be exchanged between the colonel and myself, and you know what the colonel is!*' He made a running kick at an imaginary object, adding melodramatically: "That will be my fate! Then I shall go to Euston Square and see what your people have to say to me Good-by, old man—the best of luck !" Victor nodded brightly, encouragingly, and left his friend. As he was going out of the house he encountered Colonel Mayhtw, and half paused, wondering if he should greet him in the old way or not. But, with a cold bow and a colder stare, t!.e colonel entered the house without a word. The hot blood rushed to Victor Lin-

ton'B face, fur hitherto he and Colonel Mayhew had been upon terms of the friendliest intimacy; indeed, the interests of the two families had been almost identical for years. The colonel's investments had always been made on the advice of Mr Linton, the two generally discussing these matters over the after-dinner port and cigars; the colonel and his aristocratic wife had been graciowsly pleased to welcome Marian Linton as the future wife of tneir only son. Arid now it was all over! "Let the old man fight it out,'' Victor Thought resenfully, "while the young ones consider their own harpiness!" He found his mother and eister wai;in* to sae bim off ft Eu t n S.ation. Mrs Linton gazed at him

BY F. L. DACEE, Author of "A Lo -sless Marriage," "A Change of Heart," •'Trenholmo's Trust/' "A Case for the Court," Etc, eta.

wistfully, and Marian's laughing face was all smiles and blushes. "You are, not up to time, naughty boy!" his sister said. Then the faintest trace of anxiety crept into her voice. "You have good news ' "Good and—indifferent," he answered gravely. "I have made such terms as regards my own future that the last lingering doubt is gone. I shall never regret the step I have taken —it is like casting aside, a yoke of slavery. And when my father is reconciled to the change, I shall be the happiest of men." glad 1" Mrs Lirrton confessed. "And I have nothine to reproach you with, my s>on.'" Victor regarded her in some surprise. He never remembered to have heard his mother express a decided opinion in opposition to the wishes of her husband. "You have told us the good news," Marian broke in. "Now for the indifferent, which means—bad!" The color had forsaken her face, and there was an anxious look in her eyes. "Harry was not himself yesterday," she added in a whisper, "and I know that something is wrong!" Victor glanced up at the station cluck. The platform was rapidly becoming crowded. "Twelve minutes," he said. "I will secure my ticket and seats. You, mother, had better take a seat on yonder bench and wait for me." He hurried to the ticket-office, his thoughts busy with many things. Yes, it would perhaps be wirfe to warn his mother and Marian of the impending storm; and his advice now would carry weight when the real trouble came.

"Harry is coming to Llanberia to my wedding," he said abruptly, on rejoining them; he was a little out of breath. "And he suggests that it will be just as well to have another hasty marriage at an early date!" He laughed with some constraint. "The fact is>, father and the colonel have quarrelled, and they threaten to spite each other by making trouble betwean their children, harry will call at Euston Squarepossibly to-day." The engine whistled, and the car doors were being slammed. "I must take my seat. Oh, yes, Harry and I have talked it all over pretty exhaustively, and you and he will have my active sympathy! He is fully prepared for every eventuality. I call it monstrous for parents to interfere at so late a stage, and, for the sake of some petty quarrel of their own, ruthlessly to insist on the wreckirg of their children's entire future —that is, if their children are fools enough to obey meekly! He was thinking of Colonel Mayhew's cold and contemptuous stare, of his father's despairing ragt. Marian laid a trembling hand upon his arm and murmured: "Dear old Vic—l wisn you all the success and happiness that you deserve!"

"We have always Leeß chums, little sister, ami it seems that we shall both siart our v new lives with love in a cottage. It would be nice if we could live near each other.; you, will love Hilda when you know her."

He kissed his mother and sister fondly, and stepped intu the train, ai'd the guard blew his whistle. ■'Stand back there! Right away!" "Uood-uy, mother!" said Vitor. "Goot-oy, Maiian! You will send me the news? And, if I must run up to i ondon, you can always depend upon my help." The train was moving, and he waved hi 3 hat lheie were terns in the eyes of both women, who carried that recollection of the idolistd son and brother in their hearts lor years.

CHAPTER V. AN ACCIDENT TO SIR JOHN CAKKINGTON. Urder the guidance of Miss Lewis, Hilda Carrington became transformed from a dowdy schoolgirl into a stylish, looking young lady; and the change was effected in a very few hours. In her younger days Miss Lewis had been a lady's-matid, and was a deft needlewoman; and Hilda's tall, slim figure, as she declared over and over again, would have delighted the heart of any fashior able modiste. "I want to look nice," Hilda made reply, with a joy that was almost malicious. It was the morning after Victor Linton's departure for London, and she was surveying herself in a hmg cheval-glass. "How cleverly vou have done my hair' I nevtr can keep it lidy! Do you think that the coat will need any alteration?" "No," Miss Lewis answered, after critically surveying the fit of the costume and touching it here and there. "The bodice was a little too full, that was all. A blaak hat trimmed wi.ih poppies suits you admirably." Hilda laughed again in that malicious way of hers, and her eye 3 sparkled. "How clever you are!" she said "Your abilities are wasted in this poor little shop!" Miss Lewis smiled sadly and wistfully. TO BE CONTINUED.