The Marriage of Felicity

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10645, 29 May 1912, Page 2

The Marriage of Felicity

OUR SERIAL.

BY ALAN ADAIR, Author of "The 2s- 1! s »Yife," "The Pride of John Mkldleham," "His ,;, Fth:.r'3 Sen," "Certra in's Folly," eto.

CEIAPTER XlV—Continued. 1 "I showed my lovo too openly," she { said to herself during those weary. | •wakeful nights. "Everyone know I j loved him." But when her friends I clustered round her and told her how j' •they saw tho evidences of his love for her she was quite willing to believe tUicm. Sho wrote to Mark two or three dig-1 nified little letters. Underlying the ! dignity was an appeal which took tho form of cxpresisng her wonder why ho did not write to her, . "When wO'aro together, 1 shie wrote '"you have plenty to say tome, and the time pa.sses so quickly to us both. And [should ho pltvisod with just a little word. I should know quite well t'hat it was not the highest expression of your love, ibut a Maine keeps a fire alight." No letter no message, however, came before the day of the wedding, when j she received a telegram i n those wordo "Shall bo with you to-night. Have : not been wel'l." v j As she read the message Felicity's doubts Mb her. So this wa.l the explanation, of his silence. He had been ill and had not wanted to .alarm her. When she went to meet him at the station, where quite a little- crowd had gathere-d, his appearance fully corroborated his statement. He was Haggard and palo atiid thin. I The footman opened the door of tin; carriage in which sho had driven te the station. | "Mark!" sho said, .and tho blinding ' tears rushed into her eyes and for the moment she saw nothing. j Ho took her hand. I "Poor little grl. I have made you suffer," he said. That is nothing now that you are here." "But it is something. You look very wretchedly ill. Why, you are not half tbo. girl 1 left a week ago." 1 "And you, "she said ,gripping his hand—"look wretched, too. You must lrave been very ill, and. would not ted me because you thought it would pain I me. If you know how I suffered, and chiefly because not one word came from you. Mark!" I "1 am very sorry!" ho remarked. ! Her generosity .always made him feel a cur. "And .now," she said, drying her eyest furtively, "there is one :,hing I want you to promise me." j "What is it?" he .asked. "It is about my health. Do, please be candid about it. If ever the doctors tell you that I have only a little while to live, please let mo know." "If I promise you that*' he said, "will you promise mo that wnu will not keep .anything from me—that wh* n you feel weak and ill you will not pretend that you aro in the best cf goo.l health?" I "I promise!" she answered. ' Things seemed to right themselves as soon as Mark was with her. ard he, for his part, felt calmer than lie had do.no for a week. His best man was to arrive i-y a later train, and they wero both to then drive to the house of tho mayor, who was desirous of showing his Hospitality to the member. There certain presentations to he got through before that, and Mark was rather astonished .and not a littlo pleased to see tho easy grace with which Felicity bore herself. She was so nal'ind, so j dignified, and with it all so charming, I that he watched her with dclignt. She was to become his wife, and her bearing pleased, him.

"I suppose she. is like her mother?" ho said to tho old friend who had l;i\cii her away. "Yes, sho is exactly like her, but she has more stamina,' 'was the rep'y. At length Mrs Leighton left' tv> change her dress. When she ; eappca"cd in her feather hat and light cloth costume, Mark thought agai'i hov. pretty his littlo wife was. Slu* .said good-bye and was making her way down the steps when suddenly (here was tho sound of a carriage oting rapidly driven up the drive. Mjrle, who had been listening for that sound all day, was not surprised when the door was opened and Isobel, exquisitely dressed, mado her way among the assembled guests. 'Isobel!" said Felicity, her sweet i'aeo flushing, "so you have come afttr all. How good of you!" Mark said nothing, but in l;is he:irt ho knew that it was not good of Isoi el to come at that particular moment. "I have travelled sixty miles," j-aM Isobel, "just to see you in your wedding dress, Felicity."

"And you arc too late. I v.n sorry ! You are just early enough to see 'ne in my going-away dress." "You are not too late to congratulate Mrs Leighton," said tbo ber-t :..:m. looking undisguised admiration a', the beautiful stranger. "And you must drink to the health and happiness of Mr and Mrs Mark Leighton." "Must?" said Isobel.

"I am afraid wo shall not be able to wait for your toast,"said Marie who now spoke for tho first time. H'> uicn that Isobel had come that he might have tho opportunity of eoinp-'.rr.i,; hoi in her radiant beauty with F<- icity —tho palo girl ho had mar rich But the pale girl was that day a dignified, charming woman whom any man might have felt proud io e.sll his wife. If Isobel had come to triumph, she remained to wonder, "Wo have a train to catch, and trains, as you knew, wait fo: n> man, not even for a honeymoon couplo,'' lie added. - . :

"I am so sorry!" said Fe■'/•(>• ' It •is so kind of you, Isobel —1 shall never forget it'" Isobel turned white. She !:ne-v that her plan had failed. Mark was (aimer than he had ever been in her presence.

"Well, if you cannot stay, yoi :t 'tf-t talc? all my good wishes as tho i?"■! they had been spoken. We shall doubtless meet again soon." Mark and his wife departed, with Is'.';;el watching the fall of the curta ; n on the first act of the tra^f.-comedy of which sho was tho author. CHAPTER XVI. It was a warm, sunny day, and. the lake was as placid as though tncre ■were no clouds hanging round and piling themselves up in the west. Two people were idling happily on the water.

"Our last day. Felicity; Hasn't it a hateful sound?"

Felicity looked at her husband and smiled.

When he left her there boga:i Co.* him the hardest twelvo hours that he nud ever gone through. It eamo to him suddenly th-it tomorrow's deed would cut him oft' entirely from Isobel.

"For womanly feeling she is not to be compared with and yet if I were on the ovo of my niarriag'j with Isoliel I could mot contain- myself for

I "We shall have no last days," she. ' said softly. "You know that the last clay hero will he followed by the first day somewhere else. It seems to me that .nothing will matter to me now—so long as we are both together." "But in London I shall bo away from you most of the day. I shall be ha,rj'assed and warned, and in the midst of the world again,' ' 1 "But T want you to be in the world,'' I she said smiling! "You are a fighter, 1 Murk, and I lore you for it. You arc too great a man to be contented .way firmiyourwork and the .nation's 'affairs, and. T should be a had wife if I tried to take you from your proper position in life."' •

It was p, fine, warm September morning, and Manic was glad for.F-Jimt/'s sake that the weather was so genial. The brido was dressed simply in softbillowy white She looked pa'ie, but charming, and Mark said to hi.ll.self that with tho exception of Isobe! tlwe was not a, woman whom he lo'\:d I etter. But it was Isobel to whom in iir< Agination he plighted his troth. They were Isabel's eyes that looked into his; it was Isobel's voice that. nnie those quiet, dignified responses. It was not till he went into th> vestry ! to write liis (tame that he realised that lie was bound irrevocably to Felicity. Something in the pathos of her appealing eyes -brought him back to the world. IlrsTlcwett came forward at;d offered her congratulations, and then he felt Felicity's arm in his and k..ew that he was .accompanying her. clu observed of all observers, to the sj-md of wedding march. When ho found himself done with l.er s'ha was looking white and faint. He put "his arm round her, and pivs.-,-\l htr gently, and spoko soft words to her. They drove, to the house in utter silence, h.o holding her qui to close, and f-lio looking at him with adoring eves.

"I know," ho said, "but the fact of the matter .is, that you have mads me foirgofi everything. There was much I longed to forget. And there is much that .it will pain me to go bade to. I never dreamed, little one, that a woman'could make a man so boundlessly 'happy as you have made me. If you were only stronger there is nothing in the world that I could wish for."

At the. reception Felicity bore herself well, .holding up her head proudly as the guests one after .another c.dlcd her by her new name. No one >\vor knew how much s J ho had dreaded all this ceremony, hut, to her gr;at surprise, she found herself actually «n----joyinjj it. AndJUark was plea .; j d vh »n he saw his girlish bride receive so admirably the congratulations of so many friends.

"Oh, I am .stronger!' 'answered the girl eagerly. "I think, Mark—really think that.with the ca.re you take cf me I shall 'be alright. The last doctor 1 went to told me that I had nothing to do hut to make the most I could, out of life. I havo done that," she added, with a loving smile. "I shall take'you to see a special-'-st, as soon ns we get homo," said Maik slowly. "I don't think much <A tinman whom yon saw in London." "Because be did not prescribe any physic and told mo how to live?" she said.- "Doctors do not pin their faith on physic nowadays." (To be eon tinned.;