PRIMROSE DELORAINE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 1036, 17 August 1911, Page 2

PRIMROSE DELORAINE

Ullß SERIAL.

,-q'S DAUGHTER. JE PENDENNIS. I. "Sir Reginald's mum," "Hie Forgotten Heir," "Rival Feauti *B,' 'etc.

j CHAPTER XXV—Continued. j !■ "Oh, Valerie, Valerie! Don't say | I such things! Don't plead to me. I There's nothing for mo to forgive. If * there ever was it. was forgiven long ago-, and there's nothing but love for j you in my heart. Oh! darling of my j life, don't go away and leave me. i Stay with mo. 1 love you so. I won't J let you go—l can't. Stay with me, heart of my heart. Live for love." His voice, lioarse, deep, passionate, broke suddenly; his arms went round her with, infinite care, exquisite gentleness. He pillowed the fair, fluffy head on his shoulder, and bent to kiss the lips whose rosy sweetness might have made his world a paradise. , And in that moment, as he held her there, and realised that he might never so hold her again, never, perchance, see her face, hear her voice any more, he realised, too, just what a woman may be to a man —the man who loves her. * ■* * * * * Starslnne on the sea —softly brilliant, glimmering starshine —that touched the blue of the waves with a silver sheen, and made them sparkle like sapphire jewels. The magic and fragrance and beauty of a summer night on the ocean, and on the snowy deck of a slender, white-sailed yacht, that skimmed like a great bird over the blue; a girl standing, a picture of lovely, unconscious grace, her arms resting lightly on the rail, her eyes flashing out over the shining waters. A soft, happy smile touched her lips, the smile of a woman who has reached at last, through troubled times, the .haven where she wouid be, and- won her heart's desire. Then all at-once her smile grew suddenly sweeter, as a strong hand, fell on her shoulder, with a tender caress, and she lifted her face tenderly to meet the half-amused, half-passionate light of quizzical gray eyes that looked deep into hers. "Thinking, my Primrose?" Lord Ev ersdene asked in low, lazy tones, whose; passion set, as it would never fail to while she lived, all the while she lived, all the sweet woman's heart of her : quivering and thrilling. "Well, well, ! life has given us no end of queer things to think about, hasn't it? Good, bad, indifferent and sweet. But never anything so sweet as the thought of today. Our day, dearest —that the gods have given us —the beginning of our honeymoon —the most perfect of al things under Heaven—our wedding day." His eyes blazed with strange fires as he drew her tenderly into his arms. "Oh! my lady," he murmured low ; "lady of my dreams. We have reached the seventh heaven of happiness now! You are mine at last. We are all in all one another. My little girl—my wife." His lips met the pure softness of hers, lingering on their dainty fresh-, ness tenderly, reverently. And she hid her face on his heart. "My beloved is mine, and I am his/' she whispered softly, "for always now —for always." Then he turned the flushed, lovely face up to his with the flicker of a mocking smile on his strong mouth. ' "Well, how do you like me as a husband?" he asked, with one of the swift," strange : lapses-into, a different. : self, but I warn you that I shall be an awful tyrant, and never let you give i , even much .<asi hadf glance; at another mail.' - It's an awful risk, T asV .sure you, to marry a bushranger, a camp raider, an outlaw, an Australian j desperado, and an English nobleman, all rolled into one." And Primrose's eyes grew grave, soft with a wonderful softness. She drew his handsome head down to hers. "The most delightful risk in all the world," she declared, half laughing, half sighing, and her litle hands touched the crisp, dark hair, flecked here and there with gray, lingeringly and lovingly. , "Oh, my dear, my dear, Heaven has been very kind to us," she added. "It was to Heaven-1 prayed in the darkness) to Heaven .that J'trusted;, the safety of my dear .one* .'And, Heaveii has ndt. failed my, trusß. .Heaven jias answered my prayer. We are hapy beyond all dreams .now, and we are not the only people who are happy. Thank Heaven there are others. Eve, poor Eve, is going to be happy ,too, I think. She has suffered so much, poor soul, through the mail she nursed faithfully even to the end; but there will "be no j more suffering for her now. She was faithful to Poker Bill to the bitter

end, but her love for him was dead long ago. "Her love died the day he tried to kill her in the cave. And now —now — oh! Jack, it has all come about so simply, and yet so marvellously —now I think that she and Smithers —Henry Lester, you know—well, I saw them together to-day at our wedding, saw the look on their faces, and I think, I am sure, they will be happy, too, some day." Life was made for happiness," Lord Eversdene remarked whimsically. 'lt is fate and circumstances that have an uncommon nasty knack of stepping in occasionally, and spoiling it. But fate and circumstances have made enI ough havoc of our lives now, sweet, i and they've cleared off and left the | road open to happiness forever. Our Eden is ours -again, and we shall never lose it- any more. It's all over, all the sorrow, trouble, danger, darkness of the past; all lost in the sweetness of the present." He paused on the threshold of their Eden —paused to bend his lips to hers. "Kiss me, my heart," he whispered. . In the purple dusk Primrose turned her face to his. 'And, as her lips met his, golden gates swung wide before tliem. They entered Eden. (To be Continued).