AFTER RELEASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10581, 12 March 1912, Page 2

AFTER RELEASE.

OUR SERIAL".

By VIOLET M. FLINN, Author of "The Master Passion, "What Shall .It Profit?" "Verona." "By Devious Paths," Etc.

. OH,AFTER, JL—Continued. "I. want to live, Ludworth —to feel that I have a place in the world. Oli, you don't know what it' is to want to live and to he condemned to an existence liko this! I am a prisoner, and .all round me is life, and I can'e see it! Listen!" She .sprang up and flung a window open. "You ran hear life out there. Kven 1, a lifelong prisoner, can hear it. But I want to live it, to feel it, if only for a little wivile!" *• iJv jove!' lie said under his breath. Ho was carried a way, not by the force oi: her appeal, but by the superb poise of her slender, beautiful figure, the glow in her lovely eyes. "I—l had no idea that von felt like that, Hermione," he said lamely. >'/hat idea liavo you ever had of me in particular," slie responded. "Yos, 'have not had to live my life. You have j always had your freedom, if, you lmve •rboughi of me. it was to eongratu'iate yourself that if your wife was a stone, a -nonentity, she would know how to , beliave —to do you credit and not to interfere with you too much.' Ludwortih reddened at the trutth so crudely revealed. "Besides, I impose you even thought it was to make amends to me for being papa's daughter rather than his son. Grandmother said so." "I don't know about that" —with a little heait —"I often feel I would rather have remained plain Jack MarOtoam than the Duke of Ludworth, who can bo nothing else." "Do you feel like that?' she eagerly asked and sighed. ' 'lt never seemed a .ny good at all to think of what one would liko with all the .future already planned out for one. Now," she stretched out her long, slender arms ■as if they had been freed from iron bands, "six months' freedom! Oh, if only for six months I could be myself!"' „ The duke was silent for a few minutes. "Hermionc,' lie said suddenly, 'are you igoing to he married against your wishes ? Grandmother isn't forcing you into it, is she?" The colour flooded her face, but she i met his gaze steadily. 1 "I have never thought of marrying ( anyone else but you,"-she stammered. [ '<1 —can't remember wlhen I did not J know that was what I was to do; besides I don't know any -men except you and the professors." They laughed .as young people wall, and he remembered that he had never' heard her laugh ibefore. "'Well, at all events, I am better 'than they are," he resumed cheerfully ; "and I think we will get on alright. You' know you'll do as you like when you 'are the duchess." ".I shall do as the duchess has to do," she responded. "I want to do what I want now. You men sow your wild oats. I want to sow mine." "Great Soott!"—in mock alarm. "And what form do you want your sowing to take?" "I want to be a hospital nurse." For a moment sheer,amazement held vhim silent. Then as it-lie absurdity of the idea struck him, a glance at her earnest, eager face convinced him that was no joke to her. "What do you know about hospitals?' he asked. He felt that their newly-established friendliness was now trembling in the balance, and that it behoved him to walk very tenderly if he still wished to retain her confidence. "I have,alway.s wanted to be a nurso ever since I used to bandage my dolls and play hospital in the nursery. And last year when Bonny Was ill at the .seaside, I helped to nurse hei'. Both it-he doctor a-nd the nurso said I had a faculty, and I have corresponded with fthe nurse ever since—only grandmother does not know —and she has sent me papers and helped me with my studies, too." "Good gracious!" said Ludworth. Ho was quite convinced of the utter •uselessness of the desire, but he had no heart to tell her so. After all, it was very respectable. It might have been something outrageous, and she had had a slack time, poor girl! "But .supposing—only supposing—tliat such a thing wore possible, you don't know how-to sec a!"vpt geting in—and for six months. tcxi." But it appeared she knew exactly what she wanted and how to obtain it. She would become a .paying probationer in a children's hospital for the six months; she even knew which one would accept her. She .would give him I her word to leave the moment she felt ill or tired, and she could go without any fuss or publicity. The servants could believe that she was with her aunt, the faithful Bonner could j | bo sent to the Fatherland for a long j holiday and the duchess could 'be .told i everything when she returned from her "cure." Her eloquence was irre- ' sistiible, her enthusiasm infectious. "There'll he the dickens of a row!" !ho i-aid, feeling that he was weakly succumbing. "You are the head of the family," s'lie reminded him, with sudden unexpected flattery that did more to gain his assent than he altogether realised. "We shall have to tell Fluff or sho will be making a dozen .mysteries out | of it." I "Then—then you'll help me!'.' she ] eagerly cried, putting her hand on bis | arm with a quick impulse very to her usual reserve. "Oh, Ludworth. I —dear Ludworth. —'how kind you are! ' "I don't know that I'm at all wise,' bo said good-humouredly. "There are doctors and students in hospitals and they will all fall in love with you. i have to-look after my own, you know.'' But there was no great alarm in his voice, though he prolonged his visit

over the regulation limit, and they were still talking very earnestly when the door was opened and a disapproving voice announced: "Tlie ladv, Flora Blagg, vour worship."

Ladv Flora rustled into the room, with n. curious mixture of nervousness and bravado that always distinguished her under her mother's roof. "Jack, I could not believe it when j I heard that you were here and no Fraulein! Hermionc, I'm shocked! isn't it good news about mamma? Fancy being without her for six I months!" fc'ho stood on tiptoe to pre- . sent- a. carefully tinted cheek to her tall niece, and allowed her nephew to touch ■ the other. She paused to giggle and to arrange her flounces before she took the clmir that he drew up for her. The two actions were typical of Lady Flora. For over forty years she had ibecn the Cinderella of the MarChani family; she had been repressed anil tyrannised over; she had gone shabby •and had been slated by her mother and patronised by the servants. It had always been her lot to go in to dinner with the curate and to be forgotten when she was not needed. Hermione's earliest recollection had been of the silly, good-natured drudge who had extracted what happiness sho could out of her drab life, who had giggled or cried at the smallest provocation, and trimmed her clothes over iand over again in the desire to be fashionable.

And yet, even, in those days, when she was the dullest and least attractive of the family, romance had come to Flora. The village doctor's eldest son —rough, -uncouth—very little above the village lads with whom ho consorted—had il>eeri' conquered by Lady Flora's lightHblUc eyes and frequent giggle. How it came about no one knew, but the acquaintance had prospered till one fateful day (the duchess had come .unexpectedly upon Phyllis and .Corydon sporting in the shade. There had 'been a tempest at -who 'e memory Flora never ceased to tremble. Young' Thomas Blagg was packed to Australia, and Flora's wings were ignominiously clipped. For many days her giggle was not so often heard, and .her blue eyes lost their colour. As time went on the wound healed, and no one was more surprised than Fiona when a chance encounter brought her again to the sweetheart of Iher yout-li. He was a millionaire, knighted for his services to Imperialism, a very important personage who might have married where ho would. Yet Flora stil] held the first place in his heart. The years had -left no trace for him ; she 'was still as blue-eyed, as pinkcheeked, and as golden-haired as ever. Time had not dealt kindly with Flora; she had grown no wiser ■with the passing years, but in his ears the silly giggle ran as swedt 1 as when he had heard -it in the sun-flecked woods of the home lands. Sho 'was still his idea of ia highborn .English lady, -and it was at her feet, into (her incredulous hands, "he poured his wealth of rich, red gold. Flora, the despised drudge and butt of the Duchess of Ludwortlli, became Lady Flora Blagg, and an important personage, whether her mother would have it or not. Sir Thomas was no longer to bo browbeaten .from his purpose, and scornfully contemptuous, fuming and impotent, the duchess gave ■way. "The thing is ridiculous!' slje declared to her grandson in one of her 'bitterest moments. "Flora/has completely lost her head. . She's .acting like a girl of eighteen with her raddled face and dyed hair and dresses. I never saw such a popinjay! What the man is to allow it I cannot say." Ludworth only laughed. '<■ was fond of poor old Fluff, who had emerged ko late from her chrysa-llis to butterfly, and he could not blame her that she was 'trying to live the years that the locusts had eaten. "She's so much headway to •make up, poor old Fluffie!' he .said excusingly. "If she feels twenty, why should she not be twenty?" Undoubtedly her stoniest- critic -could not but admit that she was kindI hearted and good-natured to a (fault. | Sho had come to Ludworth 'House to [ invito Hern-mono to spend the six long i months with her. "We're going to Pcarlings' next week," she said in a thin, weak little whine that was grotesque in conjunction with her smart appearance. "We are having six 'shoots'—mamma never had more than- two —and then I m goin' on to Paris and Monte Carlo. And we want you to come with us, Her•mione. (>f courso you will come to Pearlings, Jack? Tom is countin' on ; you." I "Bather! 1 wouldn't mis<; your coverts for the world!" She beamed delightedly and did not .see the perplexity that crossed his face at the thought of Hermione in a. shooting partv at Pearlings. He was not (strait-laced, but ho did not think it would do. Tommy and Fluft were ot the best-, but 'they never saw an inch before their eves, and their guess were usually very assorted. Ho could not imagine Hermione among them, i Ho did not want her to bo with thorn.I l (To ho continued.)