The Marriage of Felicity

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10656, 11 June 1912, Page 2

The Marriage of Felicity

OUR SERIAL.

BY ALAN ADAIR. Author of "TheEsrVs Wife," "The Pride of Join Middleham," "Hia Fiber's Sen," "Bertra m's Folly," etc

C'JL'. I'TiiJu' X A 11.'.—Continued. lsobcl had grown calmer, but licr face was still white vak\ drawn. She rose to lioi- feet.

"I .must fro," she said. "Mark i,: dead -sMi.fi belongs to .neither of us." "He belongs to mo," declared Felicity firmly. "Lsobcl, you must not think that you were- foolish in making reparation. If the dead know what the living do. Mark wilkbc grateful to you."

lsobcl msulo no answer, but she drew her wrap •-about her shoulders as if she were cold.

"I wish J v/crc dead, too!" hh?. cried. "Oh, fho fool J am! Now that monds —"now that 1 have these I — l 1 liave theso" —olio touched her d-ia-hato them. I would give every tiling ■■'"» the world for Mark's love." With bowed 'head she hurried from t'iio room.

Felicity sat looking into the fire. It seemed to her as if a dead Weight had been lifted from her heart. Mark was no more, but 'he had mot been false to her.

"And I cannot believe he is dead," she murmured.! "I shall liopo on and hope on until ,no hope is possible." So strong was that feeling upon her that she went to bed convinced that sleep would come to ; her. "If Mark were dead I should not feel like this," she said to herself. "To morrow I s'liall hear more about it. Perhaps he will come straight home before going to South Africa. He must find me well."

She woke up refreshed, to find her maid standing by the bed with a newspaper in her hand. "Marie," she asked, "is there any news? Is your master alive?" "There is news, madam," said Marie, and her face told that the news was good. "They say that the Persephone—the vessel which brought news of the disaster —is bringing back the suiwivors. She is expected at Southampton in three days. The ship that ran down the Morella was bound for South America, and the passengers were transferred to this homewardhound ship." "Is your master's name mentioned, Marie?" Felicity inquired with an effort.

"No madam, no names are mentioned," the maid replied. "But at the owners' offices some information may be obtained." "I will get up at once," said Felicity. She felt new strength, new courage. That the ship had gone to the bottom of the deep there could be no manner of doubt, but there had I been passengers saved. There was

hope. , "This laftornoon I will go to Southampton," she said.

She had to wait without news three

days. lii this she was not alone. There ' were many others who were there for the same purpose as herself. They had • common cause, rich and poor alike. . "A little more of this and we shall

all go mad!" one man said. , On the third morning there cam 3 ■a message that the Persephone would be alongside the quay in two hours' time, and Felioity left 'her breakfast to run down to the quay to join the crowd of men, women, and children anxious for news of dear ones. Two hours elapsed before the Persephone steamed in slowly. Her upper deck was densely packed, and from a distance no single face was distinguishable.

Felicity was at a disadvantage in the crowd. She lacked the strength to push herself forward. She heard cries of joyful recognition around her, saw the eager embraces. It could not be that all these people have survived and that Mark, with the world before him,

with a wife whom he loved, should have gone to his death! She leaned against the mooring post, feeling weak and hopeless. "Felicity!"

Then she knew that Mark's ' arms were around her, that Mark was leading her out of the crowd-, and that she was being driven quickly through •the streets.

"Where are you staying?" he asked her, holding her closely. She told him. Afterward, as she lay on the couch in her sitting' room with her hand in his, she listened to his story. It was unfortunately an oft-told ts*e —a fog—a vesel cut in two and sinking within twelve minutes. Thanks to a searchlight which the comparatively undamaged vessel carried, the majority of the passengers were picked np. "When did you hear of it?" Mark asked. Feilcity told him, and then she looked away, and Mark felt that she was

concealing something. "Isabel." Felicity's voice faltered. She raised herself on her elbow. "Mark," she wen*, on,- "the day I left you at Southampton Isobel cam© back with me in the same carriage. She told me—how—you—came to marry me." He rose from her side. She could see that he had. grown very pale. "Go on!" he said. "She told me all—that you loved her, and that your pretended love for me was a sham." "That was a, lie!" lie said passionately . ' 'lt was the contemptible act of a cruel woman to wait until I was gone, te tell you that." " "It was cruel! But afterwrds, when ! she thought you were dead, she did her 1 best to make reparation. She told me I that she had lied to me, that you loved

THE END,

, me —and only me." [ ">\\:\ Ink! you thatr" "Yes. it: teemed to mo as if he had ■ given me now life and the strength to come down here to await the arrival of the Persephone. Mark, Mark, there was nothing so hard to bear as the thought of your betraying me!" "Felicity," he said, "if you only knew how often I have been tempted to toll you all myself, how often, there has lain between us like a deed shadow the knowledge that some day you would despise me. Have you forgiven me?"

"I do not oare for what reason yon married mo as long as I know that you lovo me now." she answered softly. Jsobel Pelham-Hewett's wedding attracted a great deal of attention. The bridegroom looked fully conscious of his position and not a little important. The church was so filled with fashionable folk that no one marked the absence of Mr and Mrs Mark Leigh ton:, who had departed for South Africa. There was little intimacy between Lady Grant and Mrs Leighton in the future. They met occasionally at social functions and were formally polite, but that was all.

Year after year Isobel goes through life in queenly and placid fashion. She has everything that a proud if not a doting 'husband can give her. Felicity has Mark and her children ,:md is supremely happy. Mark, fulfilling tre promise of his early carer, has become a famous statesman. Jf tiojv and again he has a fear that such fortune as he enjoys is too good to last, and that Felicity uniay be snatched away from him, he is reassured by her telling him that she daily becomes \ stronger —and happier.