AFTER RELEASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10611, 18 April 1912, Page 2

AFTER RELEASE.

OHAPTEBXXI

OUR SERIAL.

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

CHAPTKK XX—Continued

"■She wuh daw ti; ki the kitchen, and

ICI-iquottu or no etiquette, Ran\>*u - de had dashed .past the two of them, and was tearing down to the ward kitchen. Nurse Allen never forgot the look on his face as ho passed her. She woi'ld never again have reason to wonder what his feelings were in regard to Miss March.

There was a little group of nurses and men in the kitchen when Rawarde entered. The staff nurse's excited telephone message had interrupted the doctors at dinner, and they had all rushed upstairs to the scene of the disaster. "It will do for her looks!" Doctor Had wen said despairingly. "And she was the loveliest girl I have ever seen. Why on earth couldn't it 'have been Nurse Myers? She couklu't have been made uglier at any cost." They all gathered round Hermione, who sat at a little wooden table, her face buried in the towel that she had snatched from the. books; Mr Hadwen heayed a sigh of relief when he saw Rawarde. "What luck! She would not let any of us look «-t it, Rawarde, She is half mad with pain, I'think." Rawarde put his hand ou the shrinking quivering shoulder. "Let me look at your face, dear," •he said, utterly oblivious of the bystande'rs.

The touch and the voice were magical. Hermione raised her face, and he saw in a !horrid glance the extent of the injury. She had evidently received •the whole force of. the explosion in her face. For an instant lie recoiled before the but-, afc quickly recovered himself. The beautiful face to be soarred and disfigured beyond recognition! If human care, human skill, and human love could cure and preserve her beauty it should be done. The kitchen was cleared save of the ones he needed to help him. He dressed €ne' tortured iace aoid the long blisters on the fair, slim neck with tender, dexterous fingers that had never shown cmore skill or greater deftness. And after the first gasp of pain Hermione was as a child in her implicit reliance in him. "I have seen Bawarde on his mettle before," Mr Hadwen said in the common room that evening, when the excitement had subsided, "but I have never seen him so absolutly at bis best .as he was then. It was one of the best' demonstrations I have ever seen. I. don't believe he was two minutes over the whole business.'. She was plucky, too! A well-fbred un—l'vo always said it. She did everything he told her. And he called her 'dear.' They have been very quiet over it, haven't they? Well, they are well suited to each other, and if she isn't disfigured, she will owe it entirely to him. . So here's good luck to the pair of them!" .

And Bawarde, had he heard it, he would have echoed the wish. It happened just "at -that .precious moment, after' Hermione had" been put to bed, that Sister Allen had been so discreet as to» leave them alone for a'while •together Hermione's hand had stolen hopelessly toward his, and as he took it in his grasp she bad drawn down the mam'is faee till it had been quite close .to Jier own, hidden beneath the bandages that covered head and face alike. "You have been so good!' she mur-» inured. "I —I am glad that it happened, because—because " "Because what, dearest?" "I know myself now,' she answered.

And in spite of his anxiety an ber behalf , in spite of all tbat stood between them, .Bawarde went home with a lighter heart than he had known for 'lnany a day, for was not the heart of Hermione in his keeping?

It was a great surprise to John Tresidder to awake from an unpleasant dreani, of which he retained no salient-details, in a strange bed, in a room and neighbourhood. Doctor Harris would havo kept'him >a captive for a.day or two, but llawarde's diagnosis proved correct. Beyond a few bruises and «a general stiffness he felt none tho worse for the accident.. "Of course, I remember it happening quite well and clearly," he said, "and I saw it was inevitable. I think I must have struck my head against tho frame of the door as the horse , went down." I "Most probably,". Doctor Harris asi sented. "Now I should recommend j-ou to keep quiet for a day-or two here." But Tresidder laughed the suggestion to scorn. He was perfectly well; jhe would return to his own rooms ! that evening. It was not to l>e supthat«he would remain longer in Miss Grainger's rooms. TJio little doctor went to report progress to EHyth. "He really ought, not to. foe moved yet. Rawarde said, and I quite agree with him, that 3ie should stay where he is for two or three-days. But he soemsf'.quite diisfcressad ci\ ylour |aocount." Eklyth put down Vho design she was making for a ball dress. "Pco-haps if I were to see Mr Tresidder I could persuade hini; iie is in no way inconveniencing me,' she said with characteristic directness. "Will you ask hrm if I may, Doctor?' Tresidder ha'd retained no recollection of his involuntary hostess, and Eldytli came upon him as a great surprise. It was as if a lily 'had appeared

where only •weeds might have been expected to flourish. Her unconKcious "duchess air" was nqt witihout its effect on one who was so susceptible to good breeding. When, she assured him that she wanted him to remain where he was 'until Doctor 1 Harris gave ih£m the ipormis'sioin Ho ireturn home he could no more gainsay her than ho could have suggested to a reigning sovereign that a. visitor more

or less would bo a tax on her excheq-

It was characteristic of Eldyth that people were cither attracted or repelled 'by her at their first meeting, and their, opinion seldom changed. Tresxlder found her strangely attractive. She appealed to him as irresistibly ns she had done to Ludworth though not if or the same reason. Tresidder belonged to the school of men. who thought it was a reflection on their sex that any woman had to earn her pun living. He could not .understand any father who would not make an. effort to provide for his daughter's" future. It was fit and proper that soils should the thrown on their own resources, but daughters never. . To him it was little short of scandal that such a girl as Eldyth ■Grainger should be almost wholly dependent on her own exertions for her daily bread. He did mot see much of her during that first day of convalescence, but he thought a good deal of what the garrulous landlady and his valet had told him about her. A wild idea sprang to his mind as he pondered the matter. ' He had hope of meeting and adopting Charles' Marcliam's child, (but that hope was now utterly at are end. It had been destroyed by the evidence that had stared at him from the pages of an old church register in one of the 'half-forgotten city churches. Charles Marcham's influence on the future had come to nothing, and he himself wias once more am old, lonely mam with no lies in life. "The probability is that I should have died if it had not been for her prompt action,' he 'mused. "She seems as lonely and friendless as myself. I could do better to leave my money to her than ito a hospital or church. She is a lady, and reminds me of someone. I think I must have seen her somewhere, but I cannot fix the occasion. Well, time enough. But I must not forget to write to Ludworth as soon as I am home again. Since it was I who started the fire I should be the one to put it cut." Eldyth, on her part, thought Mr Tresidder a very attractive and delightful old man with, an old-fashioned dignity and courtliness that appealed to her, apart from the natural glamour that surrounded Mm as. the duke's •friend. Has. presence:. : in'ithe house gave a. zest to an existence that hail grown very gray and dreary since Ludworth had gone out of it. There was indeed a strong affinity to draw the older man and the young girl together, for each twas lonely and each longed for ties to make them less friendless.

Eldyfch felt sad when the doctor consented to Tresidder leaving the room. He had only ben a day or two in the He had only been a day or two in the house, but it was long enough to make them very friendly and to cause Eldyth to regret that the next day she would be alone again. She invited him to tea on the return from her drawing lessons in the linen draper's family, and punctually at the hour apointed found himself in the little drawing room that was like a glimpse of the country in the heart of the town.

Eldyth had not returned, and ho wandered round the room, admiring the old cliina, noting with a satisfied nod the books-behind the glass doors of the old bookcase, and all the evidence that to his (mind, only intensified the impresions he had formed of the girl, and deepened his desire to aid her.

Terluvps it was for this end I was brought here,' he mused, with his usual implicit dependence on the purposs of an overruling power. 'Sho is all that I would have liked my own daughter to be, and she is unhappy. It is wrong to see a young girl with troubled, haunted eyes." He stopped short, struck by an overwhelming surprise, for the Duke of Ludworth's face looked at him from the sibelf of the escritoire. He took it up with undisguised curiosity. It was a photograph that had. been boirght, for it had the name printed on it. Why should Eldyth' Grainger a working woman., have such a card in her possession? Did shm know Ludworth ? : "Is tliis the secret of her unhappi-' ness?' he queried. "Well, I will find, out.'.' (To he continued.)