AFTER RELEASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10605, 11 April 1912, Page 2

AFTER RELEASE.

OUR SERIAL.

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

CHAPTER XV.TII-€Gntinued. Ho had grasped at onco that he was ambitious and grasping, and smarting under tho knowledge that his paternal' parentage would always be a disgrace to him. To learn, that he was not Stanton Neal's son was in itself a relief 'that showed itself ; very visibly on his face. To know he was the rightful .Duke ; of Ludworth was to see a glittering prize dangling ready to fall at a touch. Bovill had smiled with saturnine satisfaction as lie left the square. It was failing out just as liehad anticipated. Rawarde was not the man to refuse what was Iris own. But in his satisfactory musings as to tho present and the future Bovill forgot or did not weigh.an important factor that weighed with llawarde as much as, if not more than,' Ms ambition for love and power. To bo Duko of Ludworth would be a great thing —only he knew how great —'but would he have to pay too heavy a price for it? To learn the truth would be to kill tho one he had loved as his mother. She was Stanton Neal's wife, and of the story Bovill had told she had not the least, ; -suspicion. The knowledge- thai he, not her "soil, J would be her deathblow. He recalled all she had'been to him, all she was to 'him, and he shrank [back appalled at the prospect of telling her the truth. "| "It is my ambition on oug side and my mother on the other," he mused, and dared not ask himself which Would gain tho day. The happy tenor of life at the big house in the square seemed to have come to an end. A heavy, brooding silence had come to its master which seemed to communicate itself to every' one else in the house. When Raward was at home he shut himself up in his study, and not even Gwenda had the power to draw him, out. ,Y as . gloomy and irritable';; .the/,' splendid self-coiitrol, that had-.'been a factor hi his success seemed to have wholly deserted him. The change had been at 'first noticed, in -his own household but. it soon became apparent to others out- . side; a littlp pucker came on .Mrs Rawarde's brow, and it seemed as if the i old trouble again shone in her eyes.} She ev«n tried' to force him to confide I in her. They had been' all in all to each other, sharing troubles as well as joys. It was unbearable to think that a ibarraer should come between them. /' But her effort .was in vain. Basil could not, would not, admit her to his inmost mind. He was as fondly, nay, more demonstratively affectionate,but he held her off. "There is notliing wrong, dearest," he said in the soothing voice that had always been the sweetest music in her. ears. He kissed the delicate, ibautiful hand that lay on 'his shoulder. "Yqu are fanciful, little mother. I am a little overworked and dyspeptic, perhaps. I shall 'be ■alright in a day or two." • . • . ■' - ' She shook her head disbelievingly, unseen by him. There was, a world of love in her eyes as she looked down at him. . ' ' *I am a silly old woman, v a hen with one chick, you know, dear. I don't want to worry you, -but are you sure there is —that I cannot help you in any way!" "Nothing at all. Please don't 'bother!" . ' . There was a little touch of impatience in his voice, and she said no more. But she gently stooped and. kissed him as he sat' writing at his **"***** - -J' i. table*, .' ' . ' But when she was aldiie the slow, tears rose in her eyes, and' rolled down fair cheeks. For the first time her son had reminded her in manner and looks of her hiisband, the man. for whom she had sacrificed everything a woman holds dear, only to be repaid by base treacliery and cruel ingratitude, "and in her heart the mother cry yearning in prayer over ,her best beloved; "My son! my son! my son!" For to the mother the. man is always a little child', and it is his' helplessness that lingers in her memory. In the iblack. gloom and .coniheting desires that hold him captive there was only one who had power to soothe him.' He turned to Hermione as a devotee to a shrine. The thought of her gave him serenity; the sight of the beautiful face with its equable, calm i expression, the sound .of her soft, isweet voice were as a balm to has tortured nerves. When ho arose after a night of sleeplessness and racked perplexities to face the burden of a.nI other day, the knowledge that he ; j might see her and speak to her alone, helped him to take up his .burden. He could not give up the idea of laying a claim to the dukedom; he could not be the traitor to. destroy "his mother's happiness. Day after day, night alter night, the memory of those hunted, hungry days, of struggle and endurance, came to haunt him, demanding retaliation, hut with them came the added thought of the brave courageous spirit that had dared so much for him, of the- mutual love'thathad carried them so faithfully out of the morass to the uplands above —to the j uplands of his ilx>yish dreams. And in , all tho wreckage ,and stomi, and con- , flict, only the beautiful face, the se- | renc; manner, the quiet voice with its 1 thoiightful utterances remained firm. "Mr Rawarde looks ill,' Hermione said that morning after, ho had. made his rounds. They had no acute cases in tho ward, and ho had only l>een in - " for a minute or two. Hermione was on the point of going off—the rurso who was to take her place was late—and *he lingered for a moment beside

Nurse Allan's table, ostensibly to remove a fading flower from one of the vases. The sister looked up from the notes she was reading. "There is something JT'ajn sure," she said, her strong, kindly face perturbed. "I have never -seen him liko this before. He—ho looks like a man who has come to the turning and is hesitating which one to take." "Oh, sister, do you think that for him there could ho-any drubt?' Jrlermiono asked impulsively, and then she coloured, as the sister looked at her searchingly. "I mean, he is so strong I" "Yes, but don't forget: "Tis excellent to have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like ia giant!' You thought yourself that he •liad done that when ho married."

"Yes, I suppose I did. I scarcely knew him. I ought not to have expressed any opinion." "Basil is one of those about whom yoiu must Ibalk!" Sister Allan said dryly. "I don't like to doubt him in any way, hut there was always just that little kink. Well"—she nodded smilingly to the girl as the relieving nurao slipped into the ward, hoping her tardiness would pass unheeded—."if you have any opportunity of putting your influence into the balance, send it up, not down!" ■■■;• influence?" Hermione stammered! The colour rose hotly In her. face. Sistre Allan, was already hauling Nurse Jones over the coals, and further explanation of her enigmatic words was not to he had; Hermione put on her outdoor uniform with the sensation of one being in a confusing dream. 'She had never questioned the extent of her acquaintance, with Mr Rawarde, nor paused to consider how very far she had gone from her original impression of him, and the sister's words, slight in themselves, had.been (the spark to. awaken her to existing facts. His influence waa the dominant .power iu_her own life. Her meetings with him in ths hospital, her visits to the square, were the white stonesof her daily life, and for them to be withdrawn would leave 'her bereft indeed. " 1 'lt is all Mr Rawarde and his mother and Gwenda!' she said aloud in tho ! tone of one making a surprising discovery, and the revelation caused her to feel a.fearful joy she dared not [analyse. ■ , 'She wa«-" "" -tH whole afterI noon, and Sister Allan kid given her a ticket for an- exhibition of French paintings that was being neld in the Art Gallery. She did not feel muchinterested in tho exhibition, but she bad given her word to go, and she did not think of withdrawing it. There were few people in the spacious room, and Hermione was a noticeable figure in her long black cloak, with her ibeautiul face", thrown into prominence by the severe lines of the (small black ibonnet. Many of the visitors found greater interest m admiring her than in viewing the eccentricities of the later, Banbizon -school, but Hermione was as ever serenely unconsciousof their scrutiny. Her busy thoughis were 'wandering,far away from the pictures; they themselves round the mental impression of a handsome, dark face witiv strong, hard features .that -suddenly were irradiated with a smile as attractive as it'was pleasant. \So< absorbed was she in her thoughts that she did not see'Rawarde enter the'gallery, and it gave her. quite a, start to hear. Jih voice, beside \\&\'. ■ i - , , Y«r a little while her self-possession i deserted her and she could not speak, totoardo « the more discompteed. He had seen her enter the At £W,a-iul a-sudden impuke, a d decision, had made him folio* Ml. HowTs act to acting on impulse and the knowledge of his inner mo--5S made <Jiim * Httle embar a sse.L They stood together in silence .hat was disconcerting, but which neitba . seemed oiblo:to break/ If was Hermione who found «}: first in some trivial remark about t.v Pl rSought you did not French school,' '.she said. I kno* L vcrv Httlo about- it. I was brought up the bid traditions, but Lud" Z cousin, is rtther interested into kind of painting." The half spoken name f>tiuetl,a chord in Rawarde's memory, .'o- '- moment he was glad to leave, pmlems and perplexitwa and «tHo« himself to be lulled into content by tl.o crirl'« charm. ~ ' . ° "She -only shall well known he. Bv the holy harmony _ • That her coming makes in thes, The rvhme flashed unthought in lm mind Truly, Hermione's presence was "holy harmony! , "Ludd?" he repeatcd! v a.iid ■dered a little why the pink flushed Knock, I was last m town I met a -man named 'Ludd at a smoke concert, 4nd he was like you in a way. one-of the founders and principal financier. I think, of a musical society The colour ebbed away k die shook her head smilingly. . • (To he 'continued.)