AFTER RELEASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10616, 24 April 1912, Page 2

AFTER RELEASE.

OUR SERIAL.

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

CHAPTER XXlll—Continued.

"If she's in love with him, and he is as decent as they all say ho. is, she shall marry him. She has had a .vretehed life all along, hut I will put my foot down now. Grandmother and her plans have worked enough wiseliier, and if I can't he happy myself, I will take care that Hermipno has -is g'lod a time as she deserves, for there has heen enough sacrificed to the Alo'odi of family pride without draggiii'.!; into another generation.'' Voices in ado him turn. The matron was coming up the stairs, accompanying a lady in outdoor attire. Th.> jua tmn paused as she passed Ludivon.h with a little smile of inquiry. "I have boon tinned out," he said. "Mr Rawarde is changing the J ratings, I understand."

"Then I will wait, too," the -ady lin the velvet coat said. She smiled I very prettily at Ludworth, who foil an instant victim to her charm and ! attraction. "My sons aid he expo red it would take him some time io finish, but I did not expect he would be so long." , "Wo have some very bad '.'apes in just now," the matron answered. "Do come into this room to wait or you will, bo so tired, Mrs Rawarde. May I introduce the Duke of Ludworth to you? Ho is—" She hesitated. She that she did pot know What he was to Nurse March.

Mrs Rawarde made a step forward, her delicate, lovely old face full of* eagernoss. "Are you Lord Ludworth?' she exclaimed, and her cheeks flushed a little and her voice shook. "I used to know your, mother and father, oh, years ago —before you were born!' There was a shimmer of tears in her pretty eyes, gthe held out her hand with the grace of a young girl. "How very, very strange to meet you—here!" "Not so very strange,' Ludworth uiswered, feeling irresistibly drawn, to her. "You see, Hermione, ' Kurse March, they call her here, is my cousin." . '

' "What?" Her eager surprised eyes j sought his face- inquiringly. The colour faded in her cheeks, and a quiver I passed over her slender frame. " '. lion j —then she was the late duke's daugh- i ter?" "Yes. my uncle's only child. 1 hat is why I duke, you know." She nodded. She seemed strangely moved by the discovery, Ludworth thought. i "How strange, how very, very, I strange,' she murmured to herseli, and sat for a while with eyes that Jut! grown retrospective. It was not her nature to brood over the past that was irretrievable, and in a very few minutes she had regained possession of herself. Ludworth was charmed by her; she reminded bin of •ai certain witty old French marquise of his childhood's days, a brilliant old ladv,.who had been one of those Avho made history in the Orleans per- > iod, and had .retained very little belief in anyone while she did it. But | while Mrs Rawarde had her wit and i charm and her'serene outlook, her knowledge had no bitterness in it, her cynicism was kindly at heart. * "I can't imagine hbw.it was I never > heard any father speak of you." he said. "I think you and ho must have had much, in common." Slio smiled. "I knew your mother the better of the two, but I lost sight of all my old friends when I married. Still, one never forgets the days of one's youth. All here is Basil!" He noticed how her face lighted up at the sight of her son, how her eyes filled with pride and her voice with love, and Rawarde went even higher in 'his estimation. But the liking he had felt for him at their first mooting was intensified by this second encounter. It made him completely content to know that Hermione had had such friends while she was at Northport. "The duke and I have been making friends, Basil," Mrs Rawarde said, and her eyes flashed with amusement at the sightof his astonished face whon he saw them together. "And now, m-ay we see Hermione, or is she too ill ifter all the pain you have been causing "She wants to see you," Rawarde answered. "I told her you were .-nm- , ing round ; and she hopes you will not go away again duke without swing her!" He spoke a little stiffly, but he inr.uc no effort to conceal Ids interest in Hermione. He would not resign heiMmhout an effort. He was quite deter lined on that point. Mrs Rawarde glanced from ono to the other. Since she knew who Hermione was, she al,so that she was engaged to her cousin. She was not certain if Basil knew xs much. "J. want the duke to come to us, Basil," she said, with her customiu-y graeioiisness. "He cannot go back to town without Ins dinner, and I am sure, he would prefer to remain until to-morrow at any rate. Then he'd ■bo quite satisfied about her progress." For an instant Rawarde did not speak, then he turned to the duke, with n movement of decision that told plainly he had made up his mind. "I 'shall be very, glad if you will, dine -and stay the night with us. H i is really not worth while tearing back to town unless you are compelled. ' "I havo no very pressing engagement. Thank you very much," He gave a sigh for Trosiddor. waiting in Mulgrave Square. He had sent him n hasty note before he left town explaining the delay in tailing, and ho could only hope tliat nothing wrmld

" prevent him seeing him on the r.orrow. [ It was certainly a revelation to him to see Hermione with Mrs Rawarde. He had always considered his cousin too phlegmatic, too self-centred to he wholly affectionate, but ho could never ' again hold, that opinion.. In the sunshine and warmth of congenial society j Hermione had indeed expanded like « flower under the rays of a gladdening sun. The affection she clearly bore to 1 Mrs Rawarde had its influence even | upon himself. He had never known '. her so unreserved, so spontaneous as iin the few minutes in which he was ; allowed to remain.

"It just shows what a martyrdom her life has been with grandmother," he mused. "Well, whatever happens, I'll take care that she doesn't go ->..ds to that. The tyrant's power is coming to an end." Rawarde would not allow them to remain long. His patient had had all the excitement that was good for h-jr, he said, especially as he altered the I position of tho dressings, and sho was onco more able to see. "It feels so strange," .sho siad, with a little laugh, "jtfst as if I had been blind for ever so long." "As soon, as Basil will allow, you must come to us," Mrs Rawarde said. "Gwetida is wild to have her "Miss Hermy" under her wing. I am the bearer of a hundred messages.'' They could see the colour rise round tho level brows. The girl's gaze went quickly, almost with entreaty from Ra.warde to Ludworth. "I shall have to do what Ludworth thinks best,' sho said aiervously. Ho nodded decidedly, and Rawarde turned on his heel. "I think you must not slay any longer, mater," 'he said. Ludworth smiled with secret satisfaction as ho escorted Mrs Rawarde < to the waiting car. For tlie moment his own cares and worries'were forgotten in the pleasurable anticipation of becoming, deux ex machiha in; the story that had unfolded itself to him. He certainly did not anticipate his role'being taken from him. His opinion of"tho Rawardes was intensified :by their house and the manner in which they lived. They might be commoners, but they were in no degree beneath his own .social standing. He liked tho tone of their society, it was well-bred and intellectual. Mrs Rawarde and her son were educated people, who had travelled much and had made the utmost of every advantage that had come to them.

"Ho is just the kind of fellow; wlio < will end with a baronetcy and a fashionable 'practice. She could easily do worse,' Ludworth reflected, when, dinner at an. end, he followed his host into the study. ''l wonder if he knows who she is? But Ido not expect it < will make any difference to him. He is no tuft hunter." A.nd at that moment, as Eawarde handed him the box of cigars, he said abruptly: "I had no idea until this evening that Lady Hermion© was yo'nr cousin. told me that she was engaged to the Duke of'Ludworth. thatisa.ll!" "Perhaps you think yotvhave been the victim of arch deceivers,' Li:dwortli answered, wondering a little at his tone. "Yet it- was an innocent i deception. You know, it might have I ibeen as easy for Hennione to gratify her desire to sec something of a nur-sejs life if she had proclaimed her title " "That of course, is quite allowable. I did »ot mean to find fault with her in any way.' ' , Ludworth glanced at the strong, aim handsome profile in relief against the dark velvet of the chair. "Perhaps,' he said, "you think siie ought not to have kept her engage-, ment to me secret.'' He ben tto knock' the a-sli off his cigar. '"But, as far as that goes, I think Hermione remembered the fact as little as I did." ._ Eawarde stared and looked at him with almost laughable incredulity. "Tho fact'is,' Ludworth said, sup-' pressing a smile, "the whole affair was & family arrangement in which Hermione and "I had very little to do when all tho preliminaries had been settled for us. She had hecii 'brought up from babyhood with the idea that there was only ono man she could ever marry— I myself. I had had it firmly driver, into me that it was my duty to marry her because I had got what would have ..been hoi's if she had been a boy instead of a girl. Our family history, my dear Eawarde, is rather an eventful one. I don't suppose you are likely to know much about it.' "I know a good deal," Rawardo said quietly, but he grew red as he spoke. . "The deuce you do!" Ludworth ejaculated. (To be continued.)