AFTER RELEASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10595, 29 March 1912, Page 2

AFTER RELEASE.

OUR S ERIAL,

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

CRAPTKIt IX—Continued

"She's— she's alright, I think. The oar did not touch her,' she .said. ''I —I don't know what mado mo fall." "You brave girl!' The. exclamation burst from his trembling hp.s. though ho tried to speak in his customary tones. "Take, my hand. Can you gcr iTijj r* You don't feel aai-y pain anywhere ?" "No, nowhere. Indeed, f. am-alright Mr Hawardc." She rose to. her feet, and stood, shaken a good deal, but otherwise quite herself. "Are you sure Gwenda is alright," she asked as the child clung-frantically round her father's neck arid screamed with terror.

"I think so. Gwenda, my darling, you must not cry like that If we get into the house it will be mucn bettor. Do you think you can walk,- Miss March?"

"Oh, yes.!' she began, but j aused aghast as her limbs failed lo support her. She would have fallen had not Rawardo put his arm around her and half led, half carried her into tho house and out of the curious view .vf the little crowd that seemed to have sprung from t!w ground. It had appeared to suddenly.

She sank, weak and half fainting, on the. settle in the hall. The i eaco and safety of the house was almost too much after those few seconds m Avfoich she seemed to have lived an eternity. Curiously enough, no one in the house was aware of the- tragedy that had bce,h so nearly enacted at the door, and the butler, coming to attend his master as usual, raised his eyebrows in surprise to find Miss March lying back on the settle expostulating feebly while his master rubbed her hands vigorously, and Gwenda slu-ieked on his shoulder.

"Get some brandy and call nurse!' Rawaixle said - peremptorily. "Gwenda I shall bo vexed if you cry like that. You are riot hurt!' '

■ "But -dreadfully frightened,daddy!''. Gfwehda said between her sobs j, then she flung herself, with the''child's love of ah audience, into her "naima's" motherly arms. "Oh, nanna, the horrid motor nearly crushd nio all to bits, and Miss Hermy picked mo up ,an' threw mo on the gwouiid, an' I'm all muddy, look!" —and, with many exclamations and much sympathy,' nurse took possession of the situation.

Hermione's faintness did not last long —she sat up, pushing back the wavy, golden tendrils' that had escaped from under her bonnet. Rawarde could ro longer complain tint she hid no life. The colour rose and ebbed in her face, her lips trembled, there wen: tears in her eyes. Sho looked very young, very shv. and very lovely. '"I do not know why I was so silly," she said, looking at him -with ile'eting glances ; "but it was all so sudden, so awful!' She shuddered at the memory. "Sho looked sudh a litta, little tiring standing tnere all by herself." Rawarde bit his lip. He took Given-. ! da's hand and held it close as 'f <r> assure himself of her safety. "I can neve* be sufficiently grateful,-" he said in a low tone. "You—you saved her life I If it had not been for you she—she—now '' Ho paused. ' She had never seen him so moved. It was a relief when he suddenly sti oped and picked Gwenda up, speaking with a very fair asumption of Ins ordinary tones. ' "Gwenda, my child, you ought to be punished for disobedience. * You know you are. never to leavo Nelly." Gwenda wriggled. Already the terror was leaving her baby, mind end Iter world astrming its usual proportions. She glanced guiltily at'nanti.i, j who shook her head with the requisite disapproval. Then her glance fell on Hermiono and her face brightened. 'I saw Miss Hermy, an' I did want to speak to her,' she said coaxhgly. Rawarde laughed shortly. 'And you showed your affection by making her risk her life for yours. Well, j supose if she can forgive you J must." "Please forgive me, Miss Hermy," Gwenda said, and put her rosy lips up,, curved for a ki's. She flung her 'r?e arm round Hctmione's neck and held her Close. "I was a very naughty pi too,' she said solemnly, shaking her head with her own delinquincies. 1 spects I was as naughty as naughty i could be." .

She had still retained her grasp ot her fatlier, and the dark, handsome, strong face and the fair, lovely one were brought very close together as she sat on Rawarde's arm and leaned her head toward Miss Hermy. j "I'm awfullv afraid nanna. will say: 1 'Onlv milk pudding for dinner, Mi*s 1 Gwenda,' " she said, glancing ivavily j at the disciplinarian. "But p haps ; she won't cor; I .was nearly .smashed to twenv hits wiv the old motor. Ob. I clnes love you, daddy! I does love you. Miss Hermv!" sho said, with an ecstatic chuckle as she bestowed warm kisses first on one and then the other. Rawarde smiled as lie met Hermione's ga/.b in such close juxtaposition. A little colour rose in her face Sho looked down visibly discomforted. Ho saw the flush mounting beneath her creamy skin as she gently disengaged herself from Gwenda's ardent embrace and Rawarde's embarrassing proxim? ity- , 0 „ "Had we-better not go .to granny.'' she asked the child. "She will wonder what has happened.'' At that moment Mrs Rawarde appeared at the head of the stairs. . "What is the matters' What is all this talking, Basil?" sho asked, and her voice was sharp with anxiety. For an instant Hermiono raised her { eyes.

(lo 1)0 continued.)

j _ "I will tell her,' she said. "Thcra \ is no need to alarm her since wo arc both alright.''j Luncheon was a quiot meal, for Mrs | Rawarde was sliakcn by tho eatast-ro- | phe that liad been so closely averted, ] and Hormione felt more unstrung than ' she would have liked anyone to know. j She could not imagine why she should ; have been so foolish; sOie sat silent and. j downcast under tho caresses arid loving i words iliafc Mrs'Rawarde poured upon , her. Only Rawarde seemed to havo regained his self- contra}, but he, too, j was far moro inclined for silenco than ( conversation. . The shadow of what . might have been hung closely over the j lot of them. When Gwenda danced in, | smiling- and happy, and quite forgetful , of 'her late terrors, 'except so far as , they provided a handle for unusual indulgences, tears filled her grandmethj er!s eyes, and Rawarde lifted her onto j his knee. Both appeared to redouble i involuntarily their gratitude to Her- ; mione in action rather than word. She . felt herself tho centre of warmth and ! living glow. The intimacy of frienlship had passed; it was one of affection tHiat llukT taken its place, Neither she ! nor they could ever regard each other ! with indifference again since this common tie of union held them all in the love they bore tolitle Gwenda. J "I do not know what Basil would .do if anything happened to Gwenda," j Mrs Rawarde said, when she and Hermione were alone in the drawing room • and tho child had been .borne- off for 'her afternoon rest, "He is wrapped up in her. I someti-mees think lie—lie J feels he owes her much." She sighed faintly, Hormione looked into the fire. "To think of Rawarde was to feel a fluttering of heart and pulse. which she (had never known before. Mrs Rawarde thought that she was still unnerved by her experience, and insisted on her lyi ing down on a couch and trying to rest j More she went back to the hospital, j But she could not sleep, nor was it [of Gwenda-'s danger 'that-;she•tliought. las she lay with closed : eyes'. She could feel Raivarde's arm around her; so, j strong, so steady, so protecting; she could (hear his broken voice as he Ulhanked her and called her a brave I girl. She could see his dark eyes lookI ing into hers, now troubled and agita- | ted, now lit up with a sudden smile that seemed to open up - vistas of very strange delights and subtle pleasures. No one had ever looked at her in that way before. She had never had tho sensation of feeling she had suddenly become more precious. Mr Rawarde j had looked at her ..and' spoken to her [ at the dinner party of the previous evening as though he had thought her ! pretty and attractive, and she had even found his smile very pleasant then. But this look that lingered in her memory, tihat she would not drive away if ; she could, have been wholly different. It belonged to herself because she was, not just ,a pretty girl with some attractiveness, but herself. It was a-won- ! derful thought, one to lie hidden in her heart, remembered only at sacred moments. She had to return to the hospital to tea,.nor would she listen to any excuse being sent to accountjor her absence "1 am suro Basil would say that you are not fib to go on duty," Mrs Rawarde said, as Hermione was putting on, her cloak. "I wish ho had not gone j out, .but ho told me that he had an ap- ' pointment at four. TJiey can do withj out you dear, I am sure." "We are short-handed as it is. And Nurso Ellis has been off with a throat for three days. I would rather go. I don't liko breaking my word, and sister is so good about getting me leave!" 'Well, as you will, but Basil expected to find you here jvhen ho came back l'm sure, or he would have come up." Mrs Rawarde took a very affectionate leave of her, making her promise to conio again the next day. "I shall feel worried if you do not come, dear. Oh, my dear ,'how grateful I feel to you !" She drew the sweet face down to. hers, and kissed it tenderly. "My dear, for the first time in my life, Ifeel that I havo missed something in not having a daughter.'' The- colour roso in Hermione's face, and she kissed the speaker in silence. Sho went into the nursery and hung over Gwenda sleeping peacefully in her cot with the last now doll clasped tight in her arms. She kissed the warm, (lushed cheek, and drew the satin quilt a little closer over the slender arms and pink- tipped hands. "Poor little Gwenda!" she murmured, and felt a sudden thrill as'she remembered that to her the child ov.pd her life.