"The Chains of Bondage."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10057, 3 August 1910, Page 2

"The Chains of Bondage."

CHAPTER !X.—Continued.

"Yes, very little it seems, if that is all that y'oii ask me tu give up," said Elsie. And Jim started, and looked closer at her. There was no sign of emotion m her face or tones. "I am glad yiu look at the matter in eo sensible a light. The advantages of such a marriage would be few. It wo-ild be poverty for both of you." "And poverty soon causes love to fly out of the window, it is said." Elsie did not glance at Jim; there was pain and wonder in hia face. "Then lam to understand that you propose to—to compensate me for any sacrifice I may make, if I fail in with your views? In a matter of business, as I suppose we are to regard this, it is useless to be delicate." "Exactly!" smiled Paul Ralston, while Jim stood hardly able to believe his senses, as he heard he cool, calculathg words on the girl'd lips. "Wi,at do you suggest would be a r asonabie solatium?" "riurely tne offer should come from you. Your son offers me his love ; it remains tu be seen if you have a belter bid to make," Baid the girl quietly. There was a fleam of triumph, poorly veiled, i Pdul Ralston's eyes. "Fivehuidrtd pounds," he said. Elsie ldufiiuo ci.d shrugged her shoulders lightly. "Oh. not nearly enough!" she crie ■.

I-atil l'i&lstotrs face fell a little. He tf&s rot a generous man. But he was dcepoiotdy anxious to buy this girl oil, ai.d end Jim's "entanglement."

"Two thousand pounds," he said, watching her face. "I am prepared to pay that to cure my son oi: his folly. Two thousand pounds." But again the girl shook her head smilingly. "I think after all, [ shall have to decline to bargain with jou. Two thousand piunda! Is that all a rich man can offer to save his ion from making a mairiage thac will ruin his career?' she cried lighily; and the tiown deepened in Paul Kals ton's, face. "I am wondering if 1 have not been too ready to accept your estimate of the disadvantages of this riiarriage; naturally you paint them in the darkest colours. After all, your son has a profession, and a name that should carry weightsuccessful Paul Ralston's son. Why, that would be half the battle in his career. Why should you prophecy failure and poverty? No; on consideration. I don't think we shall come to terms."

And she shook her head smilingly. Paul Ralston looked at her starcbingly, with contracted brows. For a little while the game had 'seemed .to be in his hands; now he felt suddenly baffled by her unexpected attitude. The sum he had offered, two thousand pounds—a larger sum than he had originally oreamed of paying—had not tempted her. Or was this a piece of bluff on the part of a girl Who had shown herself consideiably cleverer than he had judged her to be? Perhaps she guessed how strong was the acknowledged motive that actuated his desire to part them, and was trading on that. Then he suddenly crossed over to his desk, and snatched up his chequebook. tie would make a high bid that she would not refuse, clinch' the matter now, at once. He filled in a cheque For a moment he looked at it doubtfully befo e he signed it; then daehed off his signatuie in the right hand bottom corner, He walked up to the girl, and put it in her hand. "It's a preposterous sum, but I'm willing to pay even that to free my son of this entanglement," he said harshly. She looked down at the cheque made payable to her; ii the largeness of the amount amazed her, her face did not betray it. '"Pay to Elsie Hood, or order, ten thousand pounds," she read out slowly from the pink strip of paper in her hands, hhe looked up, across at Paul Ralston. "Even now you don't bid nigh enough. I could have told you ironi the first that all your fortune would not be a high enough bid to do the shameless thing you ask of me—to barter my love for a bribe!" And Uifre was intense scorn in her voice.

Deliberately she tore the cheque in pieces. The tiny scraps of paper fell in a pink shower from her hands on to the carpet before Paul Ralston'a eyes, as ne stood speechless, more amazed than he had ever been in his life before.

Elsie turned to Jim, her lover, who understood now—over whom had swept a swilt sense of shame that he had allowed himself to doubt her even for a moment in those last crowded minutes. How blind he had been—how blind! j "Jim,-if you want to give me up, you have only to tell me; 1 need no bribe," she said in a low voice. "Give you up. sweetheart? Ah, but you know—you know?'' he cried And the next moment she was in his arms, held tight to his heart, under Paul Ralston's furious, vindictive eyes.

BY EMILY B. HETHEKINGTON. Author o£ —" His College Chum," " Worth ington's Pledge," " A Eepentant Foe," etc.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE FIGURE FROM THE DARKNESS.

The cheque for ten thousand pounds, made payable "to Elsie Hood or order," ar.d signed by one of the richest men in London, lay scattered in a rain of tiny pink scraps on the caipet —the girl's answer to the enormous bribe that had been offered to her; and Elsie was in Jim's arms—to teli Paul Ralston that he had attvny failed. Paul Ralston, rich man though he was through those mysterious financial operations he carried on in the city, had hesitated before making so high a culminating bid. It was only because he was desperately eager to settle the matter at once that he had offered this huge sum, with never a doubt in his mind about her accepting it—this girl, a mere typewriter, who probably, he had reflected, would have closed with hia first offer of five hundred pounds readily enough, only that she was showed enough to read some powerful acknowledged motive on his part on which to trade. And she had refused it! The cheque lay torn into fragments at his feet; and the girl's words, with their sudden, iteming scorn, told him how she nad fooled him throughout. For a moment Paul Ralston stood speechless. He had never been bo staggered in his life before, or so completely tricked. In his overwhelming chagrin and fury words tailed him. Meanwhile Jim's arms tightened round Elsie. He was heedless of his father's presence, and thrilled by a great pride and resistless rush of deepened tenderness for this girl whu had given such proof that ckUij uardly fail to convince even his father of her disinterested luve for him

Paul Ralston's face was djrk, and his voice harsh, as he broke out suddenly: " When it's too late, and you realise your mad, insensate folly " He checked himself abruptly. A sudden change came into his face—a craity, calculating look.

There was too much at stake for him to throw it away by an outburst of rhe inward fury that consumed him.

This ambitious man saw the peerage on which he had built ' his hopes slipping beyond his reach. If Jim did not marry Sybil Ellstree whose feelings towards his son he shrewdly suspected—it was good-by to any hope of the powerful Ellstree influence on which he had counted being exerted in fais d behalf. Bui perhaps the game was not lost yet. A swift tbcught had come into his mind. , He turned suddenly to Elsie. "You have proved your disinterestedness; I admit that freely," he said in a silky voice. "Forgive me if I say I had thought that perhaps mercenary considerations might enter into your feelings for my son. I find I was utterly wrong, and I apologise." Elsie glanced at the speaker in surprise. An apology was the last thing she had expected from Paul Ralston, he should make it touched her a little. Only Jim, who knew Mfather better, was on his guard. Paul Ralston paused, as if > . t tve bis words due effect. He glanced through the optn Fr • window into the garden In i himself, the feeling that hau c me upon him once before that — that a figure was lurking out th~re among the shadows of the trees, staring out from the dusk into the lighted room—had recurred to him. But the restlessly stirring branches of the trees threw queer, moving shadows; probably he was mistaken, and it wts only a shadow, after all. He turned to the girl again, to make his last crafty stroke. An appeal to her love for Jim might yet do what bribery had failed to effect TO BE CONTINUED

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