"The Chains of Bondage."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10041, 15 July 1910, Page 2

"The Chains of Bondage."

CHAPTEK ll.—Coi.ti.iusd. Overhead, the sky was clear and blue, flecked with white .clouds. Sybil Ellstree, a somewhat languid, fair haired beauty, charmingly attired in an elaborately simple white frock —that "simplicity" ihat is so costly when the frock comes from Paris—and a "Merry , VVidow" hat, was one of the party on her brother's —§i? YY> ! fF<«! Ells*«r€e'a»-fQur-iu-hand, ■ >v was the oWrter of the Derby favourite, Merlel. : "As it is, I am rather glad that ! there was such a downpour," went on Miss Ellstree, in her iiidoleht voice, shielding her complexion from the sun with a lace parasol. "The running couldn't be better for Meriel; and the dudt would have been fearful on the way dawn from town. The storm was a blessing in disguise." A man sitting near her on the coach laughed. "I suppose some of the poor wretches who slept out on the oowns last night; with no shelter but the gorse bushes, thought the blessing very much dißguißedl"

sJ3jfcbH Ellstree raised her beautifully per/ciUed eyebrows in surprise as she glanced John Trevena.

i' "Why should any one want to sleep out on the downs? - If any one was really so foolish on such a nignt, surely tbey dcs.rved to get soaked," said Sybil languidly, wicn the faintest uninterested shrug of her dainty shoulders.

! "Well, you see, I expect there were a few hundreds of people come down to make a trifle, out of th* Derby-harvest, who were fjolish enough not to be able to aftord the vpiice of-a bed in Epsum," retorted Trevena. lightly, in hia pleasant, good-humoured voice, "it, seems,a '^iW^. e ! a P■.9■P»•'.^^ a P■ B ■' , ' :; •' ; She loolced at him sharply. i "I believe you are laughing at me," she said, with a trace of pique. Per sense, of humour was not strong, but she was acutely sensitive to being poked fun at, "Keally, one would., think you held me responsible for the eccentric con gs of these people!" , And she tamed to the younger man by her side, ignoring Trevena.

! "1 wish we hadn't to wait for three races to be run befora the important event," she said. "I believe I'm much mure anxious than Wilfred, who says Meriel can't lose. But I shall be in suspense until the race is over, and we know the oest—or the woist."

"Oh, we won't admit" the possibility of there being a 'worst/'' said Jim Rajston quickly. "Yes, is pie ity" £6ttfi<leni Smaii wouoeri I've Eeen one of Meriel's trials. Jove! There'll be some hats thrown up when* Meriel wins. Elbtree's so popular; the public knows he's straight, and always runs to win." J.Jiur Kalston was a man of some five-and-twenty years, with a tal', athletic figure, and a pleasant, goodhumoured face; and if it had small claim to be called handsome, there was an air of distinction and charac- j ter in it to render mere good looks j superfluous.

He was the son of old Paul Ralston, reputedly an enormously rich and, though what the precise nature i of his financial operations in the city WBs no one seemed exactly to know Father and son were amazingly unlike, both in outward appearance and characteristics. Jim took after his mother rather than this grim, taciturn, self-made man, who was something of an enigma even to his own son. Ellstree and Jim Ralston had been friends for years—the former the representative of one of the oldest families in the country; and the other—as Jim himself gaily admitted—without any ancestral pretentions. Not that that fact made any difference to Jim's popularity. Every one liked him. it might have been thought, from an indefinable something in Sybil Ell3tree's manner that this was a mild way of expressing her feelings. Jim hardly wondered Sybil should feel suspense about her brother's prospects of carrying off the race of the day. Meriel's victory or defeat would, he suspected, mean a good deai for Ellatree; that the circumstances of the owner of the favourite were none too rosy—this descendant of an old, hard-living, racing stock, wno for generations back had impoverished tnemselves on the turf —he had more than a suspicion. It was singular that the two men should te such friends. Ralston took little interest in racing. After leaving Oxlord he had eaten his dinners at the temple—had been called to the bar. But his ambitions, like those of fcis father for him, were for a political career. His friends prophesied that when Jim entered Parliament he would make his mark.

"I am glad you are so confident, foo, Jim, about Meriel's chances," Sybil said suddenly. "If Meriel were 10 lose Do .you know, Jjm, 1 culd hardly sleep last night for worrying about it? I was positively haggard and ugly when I got up thi3 morning!"

BY EMILY B. HETHERXNGTQN. $ w Author of—" His Chum," " Worfchington's C $ Pledge;'' " A Keneniant Foe," etc. & L.„ j

Jim laughed. "Come, that is a strain on ray credulity!" he said lightly, wondeiing idly for a moment if herd was

a nature that anything could H deeply stir. P And then he ren.embered watching her aa she played bridge the othtir night—like a'l the EJstrees, the passion for gambling was in her blood —and he remembered hovf she baa seemed a different- womai., uer eyes | feverishly alight, her usual air of languid indifference gone,, in the abexcitement of the game. "Keally, I don't think—barring accidents, of course— you need wprrp—--." gj Hi's attention was suddenly die- § tracted. Sybil saw him smile ana |j raise his hat, with a look of surprise. : | She looked quickly in the direction of ; | his eyes. § "Surely, Jim. that extraordinary- j| looking young roan cannot he a friend || of yours?" she said. 'Or perhaps § your smile was intended tor that girl f with him in the home made fruck. j| She was rather pretty in her way* I 1 noticed," Miss Elstree added, with | a touch of malice in the languid I insolence of her tones, looking after | the young fellow in an obviously 1 cheap, ready made suit of a some- i what starring pattern who had., re- IB sponded to Jim's salute. 8 There were two girls with hirn., § One of them was a typical cockney J girl; both her face and her dress J I seemed to proclaim that fact. It j was the other to whom Sybil Ells- | tree's words referred—a girl who | was an utter contrast to her companion, with refinement and charm in the sweet eighteen-year-old face, .the colour in which had deepened -a little at the sight of Jim, as Sybil's ': eyes had not failed to notice. ' Jim ignored the spice of malice in ■her words. "Yes, that's a friend of ' Tom; Saxon-ran engineer at some ,: works down Bow way, and not an extraordinary chap at all," he laughed; "but a really good fellow—though not your sort, Sybil. Some hooligans set upon me one night—-meanr, to grab my watch. This chap came lo my help 1 was jelly glad, I can tell you. I was in a pretty tight corner, with three of 'em, until he rushed ' up. That's how 1 got to know Saxon. And a fine fellow I've found him!" said Jim warmly. "That's his sweet- j heart with him—the girl with the feathers in her hat." Sybil looked as though she were not in the least degree interested; but it struck her aa significant that he did not speak of the third of the party—about whom, as a matter of fact, Jim was thinking in the silence that followed. H§ l?a.d never dreamed of seeing , Disie Hcos Jieri—til? girl whom he j had only known a few months, yet who interested him far more than Sybil Ellstree, whom he had known for years. She was a typewriter in a city office. She and her mother — somewhat reserved, sad-faced woman who was unmistakably a gentlewoman—lived in "furnished apartments" in the house of Tom Saxon's mother, her father, of whom she never spoke, was prasumably dead. Elsie Hood was still in Jim's thoughts when a general move was made by the party on the four-in- = hand. ~ "No; I think I'm not going into the paddock just now," Ireven? said, "I rather like this sido o: the course, watching the crowd—candidly, the crowd interests me more than the racing—and listening to the ready-money bookmakers, with their big checks, bellowing the odds it's amazing that one man can make so much noise! How the suffragettes must envy 'em. Their voices would be invaluable demanding 'Votes for Women' at a public meeting!" Sybil Ellstree did not seem to mind Trevena's desertion, so long as Jim Kalston remained of the party that made its way to the paddock. xravena was a good deal older than - Jim—nuarer forty than thirty, with g a square, rather ugly, clean shaven g face, that somehow suggested a bull E dog. A man with innumerable | B friends among people with whom j E he had little in common—such as i Ellstree, for instance. He did not B gamble, he did not play bridge; and B yet Ellstree liked him, as did every one in Ellstree's set. He was a man B every one knew to be scrupulously K straight. £ TO BE CONTINUED , S B B B DO NOT BE BEHIND THE TIMES 1 but move with [them. Salts, Castor Oil B and harsh purgatives are out of date, B and Lave been the cause of many a case- Is ot constipation. Chamberlain's Tablets }i are the medicine that you want to take. I They cuie constipation, indigestion I biliousness, and cure them permanently. Ii Eemembor the name—Chainbei lain's . t Tablets aud be sure you get them for J there is nothing "just as good." ] IMPORTANT TO MOTORISTS. : It pays you best to buy high-quality $ and it will be to your ao vantage to get | j our prices for Heiiault, B.S. A , and Noise- | ' less .Napier Cats- We import direct from S _ factory to elmnt. We can land tlus;' '■! j cars tor tLe price usuallv paid tor § ! cheaper ;<r;,'3e* .Vcott Motor Aamci, | j 57, Lowtr Cut a Street-, WellmgtQn. " |