AFTER RELEASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10610, 17 April 1912, Page 2

AFTER RELEASE.

OUR SERIAL.

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

CHAPTER XX—Continued

| "I make jio apologies for leaving him in your care, Miss Grainger," the little practitioner said cheerfully. He turned to Rawarde. "Miss Grainger is the Good Samaritan of the neighbourhood; stray dogs and homeless children. We have even wrestled with a woman who was o,n the verge of delirium tremens, haven't [ Rawarde looked at her with qome interest. Her large, shadowed eyes were not like his mother's, yet they had the expression. She was young, yet sho looked as if she had seen trouble. He thought that without any claims to beauty she'was decidedly attractive and undoubtedly of finer calibre than- the majority of the res- ' idents of .Mulgrave Square. But it was with the possibility of catching the Nor.thport traim that he was more concerned. There was no longer any necessity for him to remain, .and he held out his hand to his Good Samaritan with a- few wellchosen words for her ready help. "Perhaps you'll be coming up to +OW.H again soon," Doctor rns ;sa id, hot to loss touch with' the rising man whose name was well known to him. "I'll let you know how my patient gets on. but I do not fearany complications.". Rawarde bowed-.and smiled, and said what was expected of him. A little flush came into Eldyth's face. "Doctor Han-is told mo thait you were going to Northpor*. There is ! nearly an hour before the train goes. Tea is coming. Will you not stay and •have some?" She spoke quietly, yet she issued her invitation as a gracious young duchess might have done. It was curious, he thought, how very much she. reminded him of his mother. "She has the grand manner,' he said, .smiling at the idea. It was certainly out of the common to find a. princess in a well worn black gown dispensing.tea, in old Wodcester cups in a'shabby house in a shabby square in,Bloomsbury.. '. It was a sight of the old Worcester cup that made him take particular notice of is owner -and her surroundings. His eyes were gladdened,, his wonder excited iby the grand oldShearton furniture, rfche quaint old miniatures that hung on, the distempered walls, the old China and bits of Sheffield plate that were disposed on shelves and in the glass cupboards. There were one or two Oosway prints in narrow, faded gold frames, and ne I saw® set of Bantolozzi'is "Seasons' 1 that made 3iis mouth water. It was not the furnishing of an ordinary lod-

ging house, and lie guessed that these things represented the ibotsam and jetsam from tho wreckage of an old home and a long-established family. It was an easy matter to bring the conversation! round that he might praise the beauty of the table besida him. A little smile lit up the sombre eyes; she looked at the furniture almost affectionately. ' 'lt came from my old home in Devonshire,' she said. "I often wonder what ifc thinks of the change—and air! The dust-laden, atmosphere after the clean winds and sea air of Devon." "I. had no idearyou camo from Devonshire, Miss .Grainger,'' Doctor Harris said, helping himself to another piece of cako. Rawarde's attention was arrested by her name, which he had barely heard before. It was rather a peculiar coincidence that he should hear those two particular words in the same connection. • "My mother's people lived in Devon for man}' generations," she said, "but I am Loudon born." Tho conversation turned, but tho two niaimes lingered in Rawarde's memory with curious pertinacity, lb was, of course, only a coincidence, but it was strange, all the same. He bad ftelegraplied l for a carriage to meet the train, and when he alight. Ed oil' the Northport platform he saw . the green motor brougliam waiting for , him with its great lamp burning like ] a big eye. The chaffeur handed him a note as he stood beside the car. "Mrs Rnnvarde has sent some flowers to tho Children's Hospijta.l, sir, and Sister AlTi.ui- asked me to give you that note as soon as you arrived.' The note was from Ellen Allen.and was in referenco to some legal! matter that Rawarde had been transacting ' for hciv Could he call om his way home, and then it could be sent back to London by tlie evening post. Ra- [ wardo jumped at the opportunity given him. It seemed like centurias since j ho had seen Hermion. It might be that some happy chance would give him a glimpse of her in the ward cr on the stairs. At least it would he a happiness ito be with her under the same roof for a few minutes. The hospital had settled down for the night when he entered the hall. The incessant wailing that echoed all day from the ward liad ceased. There was. no leuger tho. .air of animation that prevailed during the daylight hours', with the never-ceasing passage of visitors, nurses and doctors up and down tho wide staircase and along the polished corridors. Quietude and repose brooded over the whole building and Rawa-rde, accustomed to being in in it at busy hours felt almost the guiltiness of an intruder as he passed the shaded wards. Sister Allen's room was bright with firelight and glow of her shaded.electrolier. It looked pretty and 'homelike after the gloom of tho streets, and she herself (took an appearance of charm that did not usually belong to her las she sat in her neat uniform. Slie was locking to and fro, with a

volume of nursing lectures in her Land "This is very good of you,' 'she said, looking up with a welcoming, friendly smilo as she saw who the ' ue.\y.coiner was. "I felt as if I was bothering you dreadfully, but you know I am going •away for the week-end, and I knew you should not ho here to-morrow. Still, when I sent the note I did not ■ know that you had been to town, or I would not have bothered you." He said that wliatb die had done was quite right, and applied himself with liis usual thoroughness to the mattter in bland. "You are getting quite a, person of .property, Ellen,' lie said, smiling, when the formidable looking document had once more been safely locked up in the escritoire. "Are you going in for the Mallam nia|bronship?" "Yes. I .sent in my papers this morning. I don't think I stand, much chance, but " "I think you do. I make no doubt you will gelfc it, And I hope you will, though we will all miss you very much indeed,'• you are an- uncertain quantity. I often feel that you are only a bird of passage here, that just now London will call you irresistibly. And Mallam is nearer town than Northport is." He shook his heiad. "I doiu'i think I shall ever get to London now, Ellen. I have lost my ambition." , "Since when ?' she asked scofhn&iy. "That is the worst of you clever people. You cannot stand a breath of discouragement or gloom. Everything must be just so or you aro down in the ] depths at once. Nurso March has been much the same will day," she continued, little guessing the interest thaher words were evoking her listener. "You know how more than keen she is about her work, and how she is always regretting that she has not more time to stay here, yet to-day she has boen asking if she,cannot get, ;away soon&r,' and she is going about, with her bead in the clouds, doing .really stupid tilings. -Of course, something has gone wrong, though I can..* nntl. out nvUi&t it is." . 1 She looked a little curiously at Kawarde. She wondered if her suspicion as to the cause of Nurse March; s defection .was well-founded, but his face told her nothing. "That little hip boy, number seventeen, has developed .bronchitis rather (badly to-day,' she went on. ' Ihave had to put an extra nurse on tins evening for he will hardly let Nwse March out of his sight," "Whom have you put on;' "March, Newnes and Kelly. isewnes is no good; she will never make a nurse, but she is one of the matron s proteges. I expect Kelly ha* got her work cut out with her. Did you hear what happened when " She stopped short. .Something had happened, lneio was a sense of something having occurred rather than of .being heard. Hurrying footsteps were heard along and someone dashed up the steps "Newnes, for a ducat!" Sister Allan exclaimed. "What has she been doing now?" , But it was the probationer nerselr that stood on the threshold, her cap awry,--.er face aghast, her eyes round with fright. She-was a silly, simpering girl who had come to the hospital for reasons unconnected with the profession, and who was learning with some pain and tribulation that more went to the making of a nurse than a becoming uniform and flirtation with the students. ,<-v "Oh, sister," she gasped. -Nurse Kellv has sent me. Nurse March is scalded. 'The steam kettle exploded, and she is burnt all over the face and head." "What?" e . n ... , The exclamation burst rrom tho two simultaneously. The excited probationer burst into hysterical sobs. i j (To he continued.)