PRIMROSE DELORAINE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10295, 26 July 1911, Page 2

PRIMROSE DELORAINE

OUR SERIAL.

THE MISER'S DAUGHTER.

By MAISIE PENDENNIS, Author of "Sir Reginald's Whim," "The Forgotten Heir," "Rival Beauties,' 'etc.

CHAPTER XVl—Continued

Sho looked up at him as ho stood by her side, and held her breath. Standing there in all the glowing splendor of his strong, handsome manhood, with his tall, broad-shouldered figure, in the scarlet and white of his picturesque coat, his brown face halt mocking, half tender, his gray eyes alight with strange fires, ho made a picture to live in a woman's heart forever, and her pulses throbbed wildly. "I—think—you—are—splendid. Oh! so very, very splendid," she said at last, slowly and softly, with the quaint shy, girlish grace that he loved, and that was all her own.

ground, on a wooded rise, a girl s white-clad figure,, a girl's fair face upHFced ii littlo in the moonlight, while the moonbeams mado bluo stars of her tender eyes and silver-tinted the glory of her hair.

And as .she listened to the whispered tenderness his face softened suddenly. Ah! she was sweet.this wliite flower that he had found blooming wild and free in the Australian bush. The sweetest, loveliest thing God ever made or the world ever held. And he longed, with a great, mighty longing, that swept over him like a surging sea, to stoop down and flower to his heart and kiss the dainty petals. But he crushed the longing down as he asked his soul a swift, passionate question.

For Primrose, tho dense blackness of a gloomy cave, hidden far away in the mountain fastness, where she had been a prisoner, helpless and dazed with terror and a deadly peril. A dark, desolate picture enough, yet made radiant and marvellously sweet as' Heaven itself just because of two strong, tender arms that had stretched out through the darkness and clasped her in their safe, protecting hold, the sound of a cool, tender voice in her ear, the touch of passionate lips on her own.

Ah! priceless memories! golden pictures !

Dare he ? Ought he to? Had he the right? It was true that he was in England now, far away from the other life; but the dark, heavy, shadow that that other life had held for him lay over him still, as he well knew, there might yet be no escape. The sword of Damocles hung suspended above his head, and any time, any hour, any moment it might fall, and, falling, crush him to the ground, powerless, helpless. He drew another breath, and set his teeth, as he looked yet again at the lovely wliite figure on the darkpillows. Then he stooped down to Primrose once more,, and yet once more put his hand on her bare shoulder. And at the. touch of her skin, the warm, intoxicating softness of it, he suddenlv went mad. In that moment everything was forgotten —evervthinn- but her —everything in the wide world.

And as fancy painted these pictures, tinting them with a wonderful, tender colouring, as only fancy can, the wild throbbing of their two hearts grow stronger, more passionate, and their whole being thrilled with the magic and mystery of it all. , The man was the first to rouse himself. Dreams were all very well, lie reflected,' but reality was' his to-night —a reality whose soft, warm sweetness against his heart sent him mad, and made him no longer master of himself. He was in a strange mood just now—a mood in which he feared nothing in heaven and earth. He meant to have his hour—his mad hour of bliss.

Let the future take care of itseJF. he told himself with the dam devil recklessness that distinguished him. Let come what might in the future — he dared the fates to do their worst. Let the sword of Damocles fall when it would.

'Have you forgotten?" he asked her presently, and turned his lips against the little, isunny curls. "Have you forgotten that last night in Austtralia, Primrose, when I found you in that awfully gruesome cave, and what I said to you then ? •Do you remember how I said that there were things I should have liked to say to you, but I daren't then; and how X asked you if ever the day came when things were different with me, if I might sav them to you, and you said "yes." Do you remember that I held you in my arms, as I hold you now, and my kisises—our kisses? Do you remember? Tell me, dear."

She stirred softly in his impassioned hold, and her head drooped. • But he bent over her to look into her face, and smiled as he saw the glory of colour that sped up over its rose-fair loveliness.

Ho was alone in tho lov"-laden nassion of stillness —alone with the Jady of his dreams.

He would have his hour. He could not know the bitterness of death till he had tasted the sweetness of living.

'Do you remember?" he asked again with cool, masterful insistence. /*-d then she answered him. "Yes!" she whispered tremulously. "Ah. yes! I remember. I shall never for.^e*."

Swiftly he sat down on the broad plush arm of the. diva'n, and bent down to her, so low that the gray flecked waves of his dark hair touched the gold mist of hers. "Primrose!" he said, in -a passional? u.Hprbreath. 'Primrose!"

His voice was no longer cool and lazy, but all aflame with a reckless abondon of tenderness that found tts. echo in the! girl's auiveinng, throbbing I and seemed to set. it.on fire. IjShe did not speak, did not move. Only li'tehe raised her- eyes,-heavy with ' her i "dreams, slowly ,very slowly, to his. ! Then she caught her breath in a little, choking sigh as his arms closed round her suddenly—strong, passionate arms."that drew her close to his heart and he\d her there, seeming to shut her awav from all the world. "Primrose!" he whispered again, more passionately still. "Heart's love —ah, the gods are good after sill, to have given me this moment —the only one moment worth living that my life has known since we parted. Ihardly dared to dream the fates would be A so kind to me—give me this bliss. But since they have —well, I will have my hour, anyway, my mad, sweet hour. And let come what may afterward I shan't grumble. A man can only know heaven on earth once, aud this is my heaven—to hold vou in my arms. My swdet, my dear."

CHAPTER XVII

LOVE'S GOLDEtt EDEN

' • Lord Eversdene drew Primrose clos-. er-r-closer still—heavens! if ho had only known how it thrilled her, his ■ 'simple, ttouchi—-rand rested 'his face •against the pretty curls thai ejustered on her pretty neck like sunlight I on snow.. . • .' - , ■/•-'■•' 'My sweet, my dear!" he said once more. And she nestled in his. arms like a i child who has wandered a little way ] from home, and hid her face on his j shoulder, with an odd little broken, ' sobbing sigh. Then for a moment silence fell—silencO that was tense and passion laden, fragrant with dreams, pulsing with dear, unforgotten delight. Nothing broke the dream passion of the exquisite, flower scented stillness, save the faint, entrancing melody of the violin music from the distant ballroom, the silvery tinkle of a fountain playing in a shower of sparkling spray oyer a white marble/basin, .the heavy ; beating of their hearts.; They seemed to be alone in a world of their own —a world of lovers. j Memory was busy painting pictures ! for both of -tfhem as they lingered there I —for the man,'the wild, rugged beau- ! ty of an Australian landscape, the passion of an Australian night; and, in ' ' the background, the gorgeous, lonely splendor of the mountains, their graygreen peaks standing out in bold relief against the blue velvet darkness of theisky and the verdure of the winding gorges and gullies. In the fore- '

And Captain Jack's arms tightened swiftly round her supple figure, as the dearness, and the softness, and the fragrance of her went to Ms brain like wine.

i'Ah! dearest, dearest," lie murmured. "My little girl!" And then he !drew a deeo.long breath. "We'll, new, Primrose," he went on, and his voice j held a tenderness such as she had never dreamed of. a tenderness that set nil the woman in her alive and quivering, "now lam free to pay all the thing's to you that I dared not say at that time. Out in the bush life was a queer thing for me. I was Captain Jack there, an outlaw, a bushranger, jvoamp raider, and my life was forfeit. I had no right to speak of love to any woman, no right to ask any woman, to p'haro my life, my dangers. But here, in the old country. I am an English nobleman, and things are different." I have put that other life behind me now for all time. T never go back to it, never go back to Australia. "Out there I had nothing to offer but my heart, my love. Here I have many things to offer, and a home that is worthy of the lady of mv dreams. That',B why I came across tho .«eas to find you asrain. I longed—how I Jont- ] ed! —to tell you all that my heart held out in Australia that night of our ride under the stars. I had to fight like a demon to stop myself, but honour kept my. lips' sealed. But now that I have found you again my lips are sealed no | longer. I am free to tell you mv story. Will you listen to it. dear?" A Half whimsical, half tender, and strangely sad 1 smile flashed over hiV strong face; but the eyes that blazed' deep into her own were all aglow with a light that no woman had ever seen ,in them before, would ever see in them again; And she clung closer' :to him, quivering and trembling,swept away on the mighty,master current of an emotion that was greater, stronger than anything that she had ever known.

She did not sneak—she could not; and Captain Jack laughed quietly. 'Silence." he said gaily, 'fgires consent." Then his face changed, and his arms drew her nearer to the heart whose mnd throbbing was all for her. "I used to think." he went on, and an odd dreamy smile curved his lips, "that the story of Eden was just a fairy fable, a golden dream, that never came to earth a 'second time to touch ordinary, world bound mortals, although people declared that it did; T have .been a bit of a scoffer at love all my life, laughing at the beauties that the world said it held. The love I had come across was commonnlace enough, and I was no dreamer of dreams. The world always seemed to mean awfully ordinary sort of place, but since I looked into your eyes, Primrose, for the first time—well, since then I have found another world—a world that I never dreamed of, thought of." (To be Continued).