AFTER RELEASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10591, 25 March 1912, Page 2

AFTER RELEASE.

BUR SERIAL,

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

CHAFFEE Vlll—Continued

"I was very fond of him, and lii.s death by misadventure came as a great grief to mo. When I arrived alone m Calcutta I cabled for instructions concerning his personal effects. The duchess desired everything to be destroyed ; she wanted his very memory wiped out. And slie was his mother. 1 could not do it. The boxes were packed by the stewards and went with me undisturbed in my bungalow until some twelve months ago. I had no friends no ties in England. I had lost- Charles. I had also lost the woman I loved" — his voice sank —"She liad been called away after I left England. For some time Geoffrey corresponded with me, hub by degrees that even dropped oil" Why not? He !uui his wife, n ■ chili, his ambitions, his future. I had ci'ly rieinories. What was tnera iu common with me and the outside world? And so my life became centred in the little valley among the pcolpe who learned to trust me,and I could almost have believed that I was happy. ■

"But last year there came a eltange.' I His voice grew low and intense. His ] eyes became strangely lambent—-the ( eyes of a man who had looked upon i more than his fellows knew,, and Neal shrank before their purity and intent--11 ess. "I began to dream, to feel conscious that 1 was not- alone, but that around me were those whom I really ] loved, not visible to the outward gaze, ; J admit, but very real, very close to .) e • I could-hear their voices as I sat alone on my verandah and watched the sunset glow on the far-off snow moun- | tains, and it was borne in upon me j that I had work to do, I must leave my peaceful fastness'and seek and find and do what was apointed for me to do in the world I had deserted. So I began.to set my house in order preparatory to leaving it, lest I should not return, and I remembered Charles MarcJiam's luggage, which I had almost forgotten. "It was a melancholy task. lho whole of the bright, ill-starred young life was revived in my memory. 1 remembered what he had been with his bright happiness, his gaiety, his good nature, and I remembered, toe, that often, during those last few days together, he had seemed on the point of confiding some secret to me. I had thought that it might have referred to actress of whom lie had such a dread, and I had not given him any encouragement. It will bo always a lifelongregret that I held back then. There were letters and papers of no importance that had to be read and destroyed Others I kept, for they seemed to me to prove conclusively that he 'uul been punished unjustly with regard to the forgeries; and at length in the leaves of a blotter, I found two unfinished letters." His speech grew slow, and Neal drew his breath, and drops of perspiration stood ou his brow. What Was coming? How much did he know, at all? "One letter was addresed to you, and the other to someone whom -ho called his wife.'. . • '.'His wife?" Neal repeated dully. '"lt .came'as a great surprise and an overwhelming shock to me," Tresidder resumed, hardly heeding the other's interruption, "still moro so when I discovered that the actress was merea blind, and that all his affections had been given ito the girl who had acted as her companion. The letter was ono of complete devotion; it breathed sentiments that were an honour bot-n to the giver and the recipient. It wa.j clear, that whatever the tie was between them, he no more doubted her affection and devotion for liim than ho expected her to doubt his feelings for her. Their connection was clearly a secret one, and he had only left hei under the extreme pressure of circumstances. That he had intended to return to her and proclaim what had hitherto been secret was expressed in every sentence. I cannot tell you, —his voice shook —"what I felt as t read that ardent letter and remembered that the man who penned it slept on an ocean' bed while a woman's heart had broken for the words that never reached her. "Then I read the letter addressed to you." Ha.roso and unlocking.a.drawer in a chest, tack out a folded yellow paper. "This is what he mote to you :

"DEAR STANTON NEAL: It seemed wisest to come this voyage and let things blow over. lam sorry I did so. I am horribly worried about my Nettie. I ought never have come, though she begged me to do so. . She has stuck to me through thick and thin, il I had only listened to her, things would never have gone as they hav.>. done. I gob a letter from her at Marseilles, and there's a littlo one coming. I'd give all I possess to be with her. I've written to her to let j-ou know. You'll stand by and help her, won't you P I havo done a lot for you, and I will do a lot more if things will only go alright.. My poor little darling. It will bo months before I can get back to her. 'I want her to tell Lilla, but she seems shy about it. Lilla is a good sort at heart, but I don't wonder Nettio won't. If only this bother was at an end, I'd face r' And there it ends." There was another pause. When Neal spoke again he seemed beyond the mark. "I don't seo how you found out avlio I was.' ' "A man who had known you—Sir Goorgo Cassidy pointed you out to me. Ho said you had been the evil genius of tho Marchams." A little contempt had crept into his voice unconsciously. Neal dropped his concealing hand.

CHAPTER IX

(To be continued.)

"They ruined me. If it had not been for them I would not bo whore J am. Oh, how I cursed them all!" For a moment he seeaned lesicle himself with the memories that' overwhelmed him.

"it. is a pity to distress yourself," Trcsiddcr said coldly. "I have nothing to do with your quarrel with the Marchains. My object in doing what I have done is.to find out from you what happened to the girl who 1 believe was Charles' wife.'

Neal had sunk back, livid and exhausted in the chair. Only his angry eyes seemed alive. "Why do you want to know? ho asked. "What is it to you ?" The solemn, exalted look again camo into Tresidder's eyes. 'lt has been borne in upon me that my work for Charles is not yet done. It may be his wife is yet alive, that I may be able to give her the message from the dead. It may bo in Ojiialies' child I will find one who will give me what I lost when the woman I loved went from this life.' Neal rose to his feet.

"You—you ' he said, then lurched forward helplessly in a huddled heap on the floor. "Only a faint," the nurse, hastily summoned said bluntly, as they laid tho unconscious man on bed, aud applied restoratives. There was 110 great friendliness in her voice or manner ; and when Tresidder, perturbed, went for some brandy; she bent over the limp figure. "(Shamming!' she said, very distinctly, "To-morrow ho will be able to resume the conversation, Mr Tresidder," she remarked. But when the morrow came Ncal had vanished. No sound had aroused th© nurso in the adjoining dressing room; only tho disarranged room and the open hall door remained to remind them of his presence among them.

Ludworth had spoken truly when lie said ho had been spending a good deal of his time in St. dements' Parian; but, while he had' become the vicar's security for the carrying out of sever.il scheme on which V.C.s heart was bent, while lie was on friendly terms with all and sundry, including Miss Con- 1 nie Edley, ho could not feel in himself that he'd advanced very much with Eldyth Grainger. "Without apearing to do so, the girl held herself aloof from him even as she held aloof from the otiher men and women who composed the inner circle ,ofv St. Clemn.t's. She '■was with them, but not one of them, and instinctively she assumed the same : attitude toward Ludworth. He was of her class, the class from which she was debarred by force of circumstances —but those same circumstances of which he was ignorant, or by which he would have been entirely unimpressed, created in her opinion an impassable gulf. She could never meet him as a friend; she would not dp so as i an inferior. | Yet her aloofness had exactly the j opposite effect on Ludworth to that I which - was to bo expected. He was j piqued by it, and determined not to |bo driven away by its display. On tho I occasions when she unbent he thought ! her the most attractive girl he had lever met, and -'o indubment would, 'have kept him away from tho choral | rehearsals. | It seemed to him an extraordinary ! thing that there should bo any obstacI les in the way of .her voice being iraini ed, yet V.C. shook his head dubiously : when the tentative suggestion was ! made in the seclusion"of his study.^ "Yes, I suppose it is really a unique and interesting voice, but I don't sec how it caji be "of any use to her. It ' costs money to have a voice properly trained, and she has only thirty 'pounds a year besides what she from teaching and painting. How w she to live while she is being tramed? And in the end it may bo all a failI "Never! The man who came m the rehearsal last night is the best musical critic in the whole of England. He : savs there is a fortune waiting for lici i as a professional singer." I The Rev. Vivian Courtiee pursed his lips. i "But do you think one's personal feelings ought to obtrude between her and the development of her genius?" Ludworth asked with some warmth. "Would you keep her in poverty and hard labour because there are some things that you do not agree with in some other course rf life —•tilings that would pass Mis Grainger unseatingly?"

Be. sure and get the famous Roslyn Writing Tablets, "6d or Is each, from local drapers and storekeepers. Are pledges made oefore the elections by politicians always' observed ? In the majority of cases there is. no doubt a strict observance, but it is well known how frequently some men break their pledges. There ara often big promises made, and as often these promises are broken. It is a different matter with the Empire Company's Teas. There are five blonds, the "Dragon," "Elephant," "New Crescent," "Crescent, -and Mikado," and each has a distinct flavour which, never varies. Every package is exactly as represented, as regards full weight and full strength,