A TERRIBLE MISTAKE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10042, 12 May 1910, Page 2

A TERRIBLE MISTAKE

CHAPTER V.—Continued

Then she raised her head, and a face «f marvellous loveiim sa was revealed. The eyes were of the deepest darkest brown, large and lustrous, the exquisitely tinted face was classical in profile, snd the noble, faultless head was crowned with magnificent coils of shining black hair. 'Constance!' exclaimed Percy Clif- I ford. 'I did not know that you were out here. Have you bten worshipping | in the rose garden again?' 'I love my roses, Percy,' the girl replied in rich, low tones. 'Ah, if you are looking at me reproachfully for gathering these damask roses! But i they are for papa, every one* of them.' 'I am not thinking of the flowers,' he said. 'When you are near I can see nothing else.' Constance blushed, and flashed a look of pleasure and surprise at him. Percy was not given to payirg compliments, and he wondered what had prompted him to make such a speech. 'We will go back to the rose garden,' he continued. 'I want to tell you feomething, Constance.' For a,moment'the girl looked at him wo:ideringly, and then her dark eyes suddenly brightened. Side by side they walked, until they were standing amid a world of blossom, and fragrance, and for a little while Clifford was content to admire the flowers, to listtn to the drone of the bees, and the musical song of a marble fountain.

'I have hot been here tor & long time,' he remarked at last. 'What a paradise you have created, Constance !' 'The arrangement is all mine,' Constance proudly said. 'I am passionately fond of the queen of flowers.' 'You are like the queen rose yourself,' remarked Clifford, smiling. 'That is the second compliment within five minutes!' Constance laughed saucily. Is that what you came here to teli me. Percy?' He reddened a little, then blurted out: someday, Constance! Not yet, of courtj; ... ...■. L-:ih . . „ -tig—too young to face the sober side of life, but it is just as well to have these : things understood. 1 suppose.' He knew that it was an awkward speech, and the look of dumb pain in his companion's eyes startled him. She laid one slender hand upon his arm. 'Because I am fond of you, Constance—because I love you very much.' She smiled up at him sadly. 'And yet you speak of the linking of our hearts as the sober side of i life! That is not love, Percy.'

'Men db not understand ic as women do,' he replied. 'Perhaps not.' She looked away wistfully, and he saw that the lovely face was pale to the lips. 'Have I pained you, Constance?' he remorsefully whispered. 'I am sure that I did not mean to do so. I love you da:-!: 21 I 3oved y° u from childhood, and I can care for nobody else! AsK Daventry. He knows me perhaps better than any one else.' •Don't, don't, Percy!' She covered her eyes with her ands, and shivered. 'I am disappointed—that is all' she said softly.

'Then you care for me?' His voice was quick and eajjer. 'I have always cared for you, Percy; I have loved you as only a passionate woman knows how to love. There can be no harm in telling you that; and, when you understand what love means to me, I will be your wife. Until then there need be no binding engagement between us, I will never marry you until you realise that marriage is complete happiness.'. He kissed her cold cheek. He had never been so near loving her as then.

'The lesson will not be hard to learn, Constance,' he said; 'and from this moment I shall consider that we are engaged.' Half-an-hour later Percy returned to his lather's room. His face was flushed, and his eyes sparkled. ,'i have spoken to Constance,' he said almost joyously, 'and she has promised to be my wife.' Lord ..Manthorpe was well pleased, and warmly pressed his son's hand, saying:

'Thank Heaven, my boy! If it is the will of Providence that I am to go soon, I shall die in peace.'

But the tarl did not die, and the doctors said that he might live for

years. There were times when he wondered at the sweet patience of his beautiful ward. Percy was not an iiieal lover—he had a great fondness for roving; and of ten the girl's heart failed her. Would she ever teach him the sweet lesson of love which he had declared would be so easy to learn 9 'She is"an angel,' Lord Manthorpe said to himself, and my son is a blind foul! This nonsense shall end; but for Constance and the knowledge that Daventry is looking; after the boy, it should have ended lung since,' |

BY *. L. DACRE, Author of—T he Doctor's Secret, A Case for the Court, Sir John's Heiress, A Loveless Marriage, Trenholme's Trust, Etc.

CHAPTER VI.

Then he added, with a glow of pride and satisfaction, A Clifford of Manthorpe never broke a promise to friend or foe, atid Percy is a Clifford, very inch of him.' Nevertheless, he penned an imperative letter to Daventry. This roving from place to place must end forthwith. A few days later Daventry returned to the Park alone, and what passed between uncle and nephew only they themselves knew. In the evening the earl was discovered lying insensible upon the library floor. A physician was hastily summoned, and the next morning Constance Glinton telegraphed to I Percy to come home at once.

THE LAWYER SUGGESTS A MYSTERY.

While the train was whirling him homeward, Lord Percy Clifford's reflections were a mixture of bitterness and sweetness. To his open, honest nature, there was something revolting in the deception that had been forced upon him. At one moment he saw Mildred's lovely, pleading eyes urpaised to hia; and the next the sweet vision had vanished, and, instead, her troubled, half-fear-ful countenance haunted him. 'I am disappointed,' he murmured more than once; 'grievously disappointed! 1 think that she ought to trust me mure, Poor little Sweetbrier'!

He sighed and stared absently at the trees and fields as tney flashed past. The sun was getting over the golden corn; the songs of the reapers made a murmuring sound He thought of his dying father, and a rush of fond memories filled his with tears.

'I pray Heaven that I may not be too late!'he said. 'He must not die until I have unburdened my heart to him.

The sun was gone when the train rolled into Fernhurat station, and a bright moon gleamed in the purple sky. Fernhurst was the ne?rest town to Manthorpe .Park. It was a picturesque little place, with irregular streets and ivy-grown houses. The humblest cottage had its flower garden, and the sleepy station nestled amid a prefect bower of foliage.

When Lord Clifford stepped on to the platform, Fernhurst seemed deathly still. The slltt- ?, broken only by the panting engine, chilled him to the soul. Then he heard his luggage tumbled out of the baggage car, and was conscious of the presence of a porter pnd one of his own servants.

'ls Lord Manthorpe better or worse? he demanded.

Much the same your lordship,' was the reply; and he experienced a feeling of relief. He asked no Jturther questions, but walked to the waiting carriage. The horses dashed away. Their hoofs rang sharp and clear on the silent air. The trees waved with mournful sound. For miles the white road wound like a shining ribbon among the verdant country, until Manthorne Park and it; '...>-, ;iy woods stood out dark against the sky. The carriage whirled into the south avenue, and then the horses were brought up sharp before the great entrance hall,their nostrils quivering the breasts flecked with foam. The butler came forward to meet his young master. He was a grave old man, with white hair, whose cherished boast was that he had been born on the estate.

'The doctor wishes to see your lordship in the library,' he said. 'All right, Caney,' Percy replied; and then he gdded in a whisper, 'How is my father now?' 'He has not spoken since the attack; but the doctor says that consciousness will return before he dies.'

The faitthful old butler suppressed a sob, and Percy hurried past him to the library. The family lawyer was there, talking in subded tones to the great London physician. Both men looked tired.

'Thank Heaven your lordship has not garrived too late!' the lawyer said, holding out his hand. •This ia Sir Charles Constable, the physician who h?s your father's case in hand.'

Percy looked from one to the other, an agony of doubt and anxiety in his e^es.

'ls my father's condition serious, Sir Charles?' he hoarsely asked. 'So serious that his lordhsip will never speak again,' the physician replied gently and gravely. 'There was no hope from the moment he was svricken down. It is paralysis of the brain, consequent upon a severe .shock to the nervous system, tne natuie of which is a mystery. TO BE roNTINTJED