AFTER RELEASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10584, 15 March 1912, Page 2

AFTER RELEASE.

OUR SERIM.

By VIOLET M. FLINN,

Author of "The Master Passion. "What Shall It Profit?" "Vurenu."

"By Devious Paths," Etc

CHAPTER lll—Continued. * His voice took a lower, softer tone as ili.e mentioned her name. To Ludworth it was an extraordinary thing that two men so utterly dissimilar as Tresidder and Blagg should have been held so fast by two girls who, judging by what he hud just heard, must have ; been decidedly simple and inane in the davs of their youth. . : But lif cli-cl not want U> talk of 'us aunt Alicia. He never willingly alluded to her and he was not sorry when the conclusion of dinner served as .1 natural interruption to the subject. "I'm going round to see my aunt jus: now',' he said, as they settled int.-) easy chairs in the smoking mom. "I told her I had had the olousure of meeting you." "I do not remember much about .Lady Flora," Tresidder replied. "She was ' not much in evidence at the castle when I was there. Young ladies were kept very close until they were presen ted." ' ~,•-.' They smoked for a while in Mlence, each busy with his own thoughts. j Would he never hear "the voice 1 again? Ludworth wondered. He was certain he would recognise it again, j no matter when 01- where he heard it I "What a strange place London is! Trcsidder abruptly said, and Ludworth j stared nervously, so oddly did the remark coincide with his own thoughts. , "It'is the home of hidden mysteries [ and buried pasts. Some time ago—the ( first time 1 met you, 'by the way— I , saw a man of whom I 'had heard much ; but never met. To-night wiiile I was - saw him standing with another crowd J of wretches like himself at the door of a Salvation Army shelter. Unfortu- I iMttely, I spoke his name, and he vanished into the gloom." 1 '"that was very urfovtunatc, said • j Ludworth, thinking of the voice that = had^stirred his fancy and made/ him = lose his common sense. "One sosel- | dora comes across such people again, j "I don't know," Tresidder answered ( gravely. "I have lived long enough to i realise* that accident plays a very small , part in the history of a man, and de- J sign a very important one. Trivial d«- j ta!h|, as wo call them, are often the , sleulier threads that make the strong- j est cables, and Itho .greatest events of the world's history have sprung from the smallest causes. What is to be will be!" e . x , "Then you are something of a tatalLst'!" Ludworth said curiously. He was in a mood to a.ppre?i'ite 'i' residue-r and his philosophy. 'Am I?" said Tresidder. "I have very few beliefs. I only know that nothing is ever wasted, hut that every detail, no matter how small or insignificant, has its own importance qf completing the scheme of a man's existence." , - , It was while walking toward * lora s house that it seemed to "Ludworth an exemplification of Tresidder's theory happened. The fog had lifted slightly, but it was very late and the stream ot life had lessened. Already some of the houses, were, shrouded for the night. But, when the two men would .'have parted from each other at the foot of the great Italian palace thatbelonged to Sir Thomas Blagg, when Ludworth suddenly turned aside. "This "sorry scheme of life" icems to have failed," he said, as ho ben* forward over the huddled form ot a man that was lying face dow-nvauU on the marble. "I winder how much of this is due to accident." • " Tresidder did not answer as lift bent over the prone figure. The light was very bad, and Ludworth struck a match. As ho did so Tresidder turned the man over 011 Ids hack. JTo thrust his hand beneath the ragged garment that had once been a coat. "He's alive, but.that's all you can say. I don't think "it is altogether drink. Just move the light, duke, please. Ah!' His tone changed. He looked up with glowing eyes. "Call a cab, duke!' he said hoarsely. His very voice shook with emotion. "Call thatone going past; it is empty. I came 'home to find £his man." The cab drew up, and Ludworth helped to lift the into it. Only 'when he heard the address. did he dare to irake remonstrance. '•'You.'really ought not to take him home, .sir"; a 'liospital surely-—'*' . ■ "And lose- him again/' Tresidder cried. "Don't you know him; he is Stanton Neal." "And who the dickens,' Ludwortu • asked himself (blankly,' "is Stanton Xeal?"

OHAOTER IV

The Dake of Ludworth felt time J hung, heavily on his hands after Her•mione's departure, wheat ho settled again into his old routine. There were full coverts at the castle and good hunt meetings at Caynhams, while piles of invitations littered his breakfast table, but he did mot feel inclined to leave | town. Ho Had instead developed a pas- j sion for exploring;, which usually led him into Mulgravo Square and Hoiborn Street. The former was one of the small Bloomsbuvy squares that had k-iown their best in years past, and had steadily gone downhill ever since. Only one side of the original square was left, and the young man found a strange attraction in the high brick ten-ace with its painted doors and flat windows that still retained some semblance of past grandeur. Yet it was plainly doomed to total extinction. When the duke found himself in the square on tho fifth morning in succession he told himself that tne tiling was Incoming an obsession and would have to stop. It waa ridiculous to haunt a locality on tho chance of hearing a

voice. It seemed to him that the policeman at the corner eyed him suspiciously, una most certainly a pretty, cheaply'smart girl wiio came from one of the big houses had looked at him in recognition as she passed. "I am getting known and am doing no good. If we came face to face J. shouldn't know her—unless she spoke. No—it's a blank covert and lam playing the fool acting liko this. _ J'l! walkround once again, and if nothing"eomos of it, I'll go away for good.' Ho laughed at himself, but he was undoubtedly displeased when he came to the outlet to Holborn. and it was m a decidedly pessimistic frame of mind that he made his way back to his usual haunts. Ho was fully determined to £0 down to the castle and forget his grief in slaughtering the pheasants. "Wonder if it would be any good asking Tresidder?' he mused, waiting during a 'block up at Begent Street. "He might like.to go there again. Fnrny thing him-beingiio infatuated about Alicia; it's evident he knows nothing, and I shan't tell him." ■■ The waiting carriages and other vehicles were moving. Someone called his name and he looked up to see Fluif waving her hand from her carriage window. • . "I had no idea you were in town. I thought you had gone down to Pearlings,' he'said, as they greeted each other. .-,,'. "I have come up for a nigiit to two to see imy woman about some clothes. We are going to Nice next week for a few days' to a wedding—one of Tom's business partners,-1 think. TV hat are you doing, Ludworth? Do come with me -and then we can have luncheon together. But you must first come wit.u me to the dressmaker's. I can't make up my mmd about one of my evening dresses. It was to have been painted with pink roses and they have put yel- ' low instead. Elsie says it nuts me, but I don't feel comfort ahle about it, ! and Tom is no good. He would tlmiK a I canvas sack suited me if I pub it on 1 You must come!" • Clothes always made a very large proportion of Fluff's thoughts and she spoke about dress unceasingly till ! the carriage stopped before the dross- ! maker's shop, only interrupting her- | self once to ask if he had heard from < Hernuor-e. ' • . . •She seems quite infatuated wnli the dreadful place,' she eai-1 with a shudder. «It is the queerest taste. 1 -hate doctors," she added, with her customary inconsequence. "You and Hermione are as opposite as ti'c poles." "Yes, indeed. She doesn't care what she has on, so long as. she has some dull book to read, just liko Joan 0: Arc; or—'who was it?'-'-' "Lady Jane 'Grey was tho student, I believe." ■ "'6h, well, it does not much matter who it was nowadays, and if -Hermione is happy, that is the principal thing! I suppose you often hear from her?" "Once a week, I think." He drew a, letter from his. breast pocket. He 1 handed it to Fluff. . ■ "My dear boy—your love letter!" - MHe'laitghe^^ •"Oh, we are a very matter-of.-fact couple. There are no secrets in it-" j "And not much affect-ion, either!" I Fluff commented with 0113 of her unex- | pected flashes of shrewdness, handing back the letter. She gazed at him curiously. : "It seems rather a pity that I you two should take each other so ! calmly. I wish you were really in \<w I with each other Ludworth. It—it I makes life so much easier." He patted her hand affectionately. I "My dear girl. We are the best of friends. We shall rub along splendidly, you'll see, but you can't expect two people who have known each other all their lives to,bo gushing."

"No—perhaps not; but still—Hermione reminded me so much of your mother," she said abruptly. "Honora was always the clever one of the family, and she knew her own miud. She was just as strong-willed as mamma, and nothing could turn her from her purpose ; but it nearly killed her when she was separated from Geoff. She —she would never have married anyono else. And Hermione looks just, like her,-and—-and I couldn't help feeling Jhow dreadful it would be. for you both if she really did fall in love •with anyone". "You evidently don't fear me in the same degree." He laughed. But he was touched by Fluff's unusual interest in him. "Oh, dear boy, you know I am fond of you! You nover make me feel that I am empty-headed and stupid, as Hermione does. . Not consciously," she ; added hastily. "But sho always seems to bo up in the clouds— and —and —a little superior to everyone else. I am suro sho isn't, really; it is just her 'manner. I used to feel it when she was quite a little child." Sho does give that impr:«.ou sometimes, but sho doesn't mean it, and, after all, Fluff, you and I are vcry frivolous people, who have never even sought a mission in life; so, naturally, we ought to feel on a lower plane." "I am sure all the .mission T have in life now is to help myself do a good time to make up for tho miserable life, that mamma led me!" Lady Flora retorted. "That's what Tom says, <a<nd, I quite agree with him. Is this the place? Now Ludworth, back mo up. I If you don't like tho yellow roses, say j so bluntly, or T. shall never dare to i say T won't have them!" - { (To be continued.)