AFTER RELEASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10589, 21 March 1912, Page 2

AFTER RELEASE.

OUR SERIAL..

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

CHAPTER Vl—Continued

They wont across to tJio big house, Gwenda clinging to Hermione's hand, ■her shapely legs twinkling ecstatically in divers leaps and bounds, her tongue going volubly. Slie danced up the steps and pushed open tho vestibule door. "Rogers! Rogers!" she called outshrilly. "We've all come home to tea, an' 1 want tho kittens!" She capered 'back to seize Hermione's hand. "Come An' see grannv-" she cried imperiousJy. Mr Rawarde laughed as ho followed moif slowly with Miss Allan up the broad, shallow-staircase. "She's an abject .beauty lovor, my little Gwenda!" he said, and his approving glanco followed the tall, stately figure in the shapeless cloak. The new "pro.' was something of a .revelation to him. He had been vaguely conscious of her beauty while in the ward, but there his work claimed him. It was only now that the full force of her loveliness and her unique personality appealed to him, and.ho realised 'how totally different she was in every way from the ordinary probationer. "The mater will lose her heart as quickly as Gwenda has done,' he added with unusual curiosity, "Who is she, Sister?"

"Her name is March," Sister Allan answered gravely, though -her twinkled. Ho smiled. "Wise woman. You are always discreet. It is one of your charms. So there is a little mystery about Miss March, eh? Am I to believe that she is a -princess of the royal Mood, the daughter of a belted earl, or merely a grocer's daughter:'' "You always jump to conclusions." she answered. "Deductions merely. Ido not think that tho grocer lias -anything to do with Miss March." He made a hastystep across the wide hall and opened ! the drawing room door at which G wenda had been labouring unsuccessfully. Like the rest of the -house, the .'drawing room was a bower of flotvers. They were everywhere—on tables, on mantel, on brackets, on cabinets, great masses of glowing colour and beautiful arrangement that caught the eyo on every side and filled the warm air with exquisite sweetness. The room was large and lofty, and well furnished in a stately, old-fashioned stylo that was ! in keeping with its ornamental and painted ceiling and panelled walls. Corinthian pillars supporting an arch divided it in half; the heavy velvet curtains that hung from the archway seemed the only note of decided colour in tho room. Hermione had thought that painted dower chests appeared incongruous in a drawing room, but they were wholly in keeping with this one. Nothing was specially striking, and &11 the furniture, of every style «s it was, seemed to blend into a wonderful 'harmony of gold and brown, and time-softened colour.

A strange possession of familiarity with her surroundings impressed Hermione as sho went into tho room. She had a pleasant sense of welcome, a feeling that she would like Mrs Ra•wardoand would be happy in the house The atmosphere was .full of the sentiment of home; it didn't need the birds in a large aviary cage, the welcoming Yorkshire terrier, or the magnificent Persian cat, with a ruff of immense proportions and a stately dignity that even Gwenda could /not disturb, to tostify that this was a room where love abounded and serenity held sway. "Mother, I have brought MissMarea and Ellen to see you," Mr Rawarle said, drawing back a screen placej round a high wing chair, and it seemed to Hermione, itoo, that his voice betrayed tho influence of the room and was softer and more tender than she had ever heard it before. There was a- little pleased cry; some needles j fell to the floor.

"My dearest hoy, J did not hour you come in. Oh, my dear Ellen, I am very glad to see you." Mrs Rawarde t\ as not like her son i'i any respect. His dark, severe beautywas no heritage from his mother, for in her youth she must have been as fair and ethereal-looking as Gwenda herself. She was like a dainty, miniature painting, with her pretty blue eyes, her fair, «oft complexion, and her snowy hair drawn marquise fashion high above the brow. Hermione hi i been irresistibly drawn by Gwcmia, but all her heart went out to Gwenda's grandmother. She was not given to impulses or hasty judgment, but sirfelt that she would be bitterly disappointed if Mrs Rawardc did not li'c her.

On that point neither Sister Allan nor Mr Rawardo had any doubt. Beauty was irrestibie to Mi's Rawardo at any time. She smiled delightedly ;:s the introduction was made, and hold out her small, white hand with the graoiousnos; of a queen receiving homage. Her kind, approving glance swej.t ■over the girl, and encountered Hermione's serious; gaze. She gavo a littlo satisfied nod. It seemed to admit Hermione at once to the inner circle of her pergonal friends, and the strange sen.io of .being at iliomc among her own people again crept over the girl. "I have heard of you. Miss March, 1 ' she said, and her clear voice had a distinct enunciation that Hermione seemed to recognise. "My son tells mo a great deal about his work, and I am deeply interested in tho children's hospital. I can seldom go to it, though. 1 am not very strong, unfortunately." "Poor gran's got a baddy heart," said Gwenda, and kissed the hand that; she held affectionately. "Sometiir. s •she has to stay in bed for ever so long —days an' days, lint I've been a poorly girl in the real hospital, an'

sister nursed me, and Mr Hadwtn Ik: j made me go to sleep—wasn't ilnt funj ny? An' when I woke up tho horrid, | nasty little lump had all gone! An' 1 I don't know what he did with it! An' ! I was a very bad girl, cos I c?nackcd him hard."

"I'm afraid you were a vevy naughty patient," Mrs Rawardo said, smiling. "I expect Miss March is glad she was not your sister then." She looked at the prety girl with tlie pretty eyes that yet held some shadow of the bygone sorrow in their clear depths. "How do you like your work, Miss March? You axe not disillusioned yet?' "Oh, no!" Hermione said fervently. Mr Rawardc smiled at her earnestness, but his mother still looked at her very steadily and intently, as if she were going beyond the mere surface. "No!' she said at length, "I do not think you will ever lose the illusio i. because to you it is real. - ' "Is that not rather a reason why she should?" Mr Rawarde asked. "She has no illusions," his mother answered confidently. "Sho looks out at life with very steady, far-seeing eyes. You would never mistake brass for gold, would you?" "I think not!" A little shadow crossed .Mrs Itawarde's face. "You lucky girl,' she said under her hreath, but as her glance foil on her son the placidity returned to her expression. "After all, even mistakes hold bessings sometimes,' ' she viid softly. The arrival of tea and the basket containing the 1 ittens turned the conversation. Who could be anything but gay when Gwenda danced wildly round the room on discovering that two pairs of eyes were open. To Hermione the pleasant friendly hour, the light-hearted talk, the mutual interests ringed in by a golden cord of affection and understanding, were a perfect revelation. She begai to feel how much she had lost. Her solitary, repressed childhood rose before her, painful even in recollection as she watched Gwenda's happy confidence in her grandmother, aud the elder lady's interest in all that amused her. „ .

j "I have missed a very great deal," } she said to herself, and tho sadness of it was reflected on her face. She di t not know that her host was watching her, nor did he quite understand the sudden impulse that made him cr.vss to her side. "Miss "Allan tells me you a.tv interested in the dower ohest, Miss March," he said. "Would you care to .:ee my moat precious one? It is paioted by Van Ruysdael."

! "I havo seen some of his work,' she said as she went with him to tho end of tho room. "There is a very fine chest by him at—at home." "The beauty of this," he said "is the painting on the inner lid," and opened- the chest. "It is a triptych of the Crucifixion. It was made fcr -i Catherine Barbarossa, and, you se-j, there.,is St. Catherine .with her emIblem and St. Barbara with hers. These i weroher patron saints. It was a convenient arrangement, for sho could say ! her prayers and look at her household i treasures at one and the same time." I Hermione was not quite sure that sho liked him,, but she could not deny | that he was clever and had a pleasant voice and was very handsome. His dark, clever face had well-cut, irregular features that spoke of strength in every line; his thick, coal-black halthad a. trick of falling in, a -boyish fashion over his square forehead; his deepset blue eyes were as blue as Hermione's own, and set beneath straight, well-marked brows. But it was in the lower part of his face that the contradictions lay. He had his mothers mouth, mobile and sensitive, hut set in a bold, hard line unknown to hers ~a line that gave him a stern an.l obstinate expression when in repose. And then some quick thought would light up the face and a 'marvellously sweet smile 'would alter the whole expression—a smile that was so warm and boyish that instinctively tho critic blamed" himself for having questioned his spring of tenderness or the existence of unselfishness in his disposition. Hermione remembered as she listened to him that MrHadwen had referred to him as a bundle of contradicionst. Ho seemed only a hoy as he -told her of his wanderings in search of dower chests. Ho seemed wholly absorbed in them, and vet she had the .impression that all the time she was on the balance of his judgment. . "I'm sorry to stop you, Basil, Miss Allan said, as the dusk crept on and the firelight grow reddcr,"but wo must go. We shall have to hurry as it is. "It is raining," ho said, -without a ./knee at the window. "I'll send you Pound in the motor. Gwenda, ring and give Rogers the message, wil-l you?" (To he continued.)