The Romance of a Business Girl.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10716, 28 October 1912, Page 2

The Romance of a Business Girl.

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OL's P'i'Hi; Y.III. (Continued.) "i think not! I've boon working hard since 1 wfs sixteen ?mva 01 ago, a nd you want me io begin it sill over again." "J.Jon'i laugh at mo, Jim ; yon know I mean. I am bringing you nothing." She .*?•,& frankly expressive. "You are bringing everything that I vnS'jf. "Von fill up the aching void in my !ili/. I have so long wanted some rising to iovo." Hcron'a raised her head, and faced him. bravely. ".Jim,..people will wonder at the indecent h.'vsic -of it all, but only oursehv->, 'matter —tell mo that." ".Only ourselves."

'l've; gut a few pounds of my own, as ymi know, and I will not take a penny of my uncle's money. What would (»;> expected as an equivalant would be too much for either vou or

mo to pay." Ho started a little. "Go 011," .ho said approvingly. "My cousins are not nice young won)on —they are not the sort of girls I want to bo bothered with. I should despise them if they came fluttering about us —afterward." "You will plen.se yourself, Serena. Your luippiness is my only thought. Wo will bo married when and where you please. I think that is usually a woman's privilege, even when real love is in the abstract. All that is you, .and affects your well-be.ing, Serena, will ever be in my vision." His eves wore 'humid, an dsho breathed softly : "]' think tii.it is all, Jim." "lint you have lot-gotten my folks."' "Xo; I was afraid to say any more ; T am such a poor little nobody, that I shrank from—from- —— " "Look here, Serena, you are running off the line. There i.s nothing grand about my people—mother, and dad. and my sister Sarah—God bless them! Wo live quietly at home — at a place called Perry Barr —an old-fash-ioned, ten-rcomed house, set in a big garden—with two servants, who 'have been with us since I was a kid. My father is'just the rough-mamiered iron master of the. old school. Ho drives to the works every day—a battered carriage, and a horse fivo and twenty years of age; a -sham coachman who is the odd man at home. Poor old Sam! He is proud of his rusty livery. My dad potters about the works, and get smudged with soot and grime. If you saw him you would think that lie was one. of the j Workmen. That's the sort of grandeur there's, about mv- folks. I was sent to a public School, and T .think education helped me on a bit. I've invented some useful thing* in the machinery way, and I've made some money—all liiy own, Serena. There's no sponging on my father. When my mother and sister pee you, they -will love you for my sake as well as for our own. I'm a sort of fetish to them —dear, simple souls." ;

Serena softly pressed Ins arm. "Oh, Jim, how jrood you are to me! It makes mo afraid." "Afraid of what?' ' | "If anything happened to pan us, it would kill me." 1 "Rubbish!" he laughed. "We'll be married inn month. Wliero shall , it be, here, or at Perry Barr ? Wo must both publish the banns, and lose no timo about it." "Perhaps you would like us to be married from your house, Jim," Serena'. S4U dsoftlv. "Yes, I should like it, since you have no father and mother, dear one. It would bo much nicer for everybody, j You would liiive omy mother and sister | to help you, and it would put a better face upon matters as regards your uncle and cousins."

'lXes; 1 see that you are right." I Ho' wa,s content to hold one of her j hands for a while, in happy speculat- j ive silence. [ "In tlie meanwhile," lio presently j continued, "we will get our hou.so I ready. I've seen some pretty places j on the Surrey Hills. Lady ' Laura Mackinder has one for sale—a nice house, with forty acres of land —a winding carriage drive, tanked with pgreenery and flowers—ornamental gardens, and all that sort of tiling. I looked it over a few days since, and tliongiit then liow pleased you would bo with it." ■ " "But we weren't ongaged then, Jim." "I knew that we were going to be, so that's all right.. I'll" : hiro a motor oar, and wo will have a bole over the house to-morrow, if vou can manage { it." ' | Serena lookod tip quickly, her lips 5 parting, as if to speak, hut she said /

BY F. L. DAGRE Author, of "A Floot of I) ream a," "Silar J.'ennmgi Aionoy," '"l'tie SliHiio wof cilmme," ''A I'bsiutom of the jfa-st, i-s oid ia Bondage etc.

' 1 >v oii r 7 "1 Kupjjo.so there are cfchor houses?' :;h:v ;V.ti'red. "Heap?." TiN.ii no uduoil quickly: "I forgot; you don't like Lady Laura. Now, let':', havo ln\s out, Serena, because .she's a gr.:n friend oi mine, and i know hor to bo yl! rigM. Your sympathies are on tho side of Captain Alayhow's runaway v» ifo, fci.i /.! ■ *t let duit run away with your /. ii. 1 never'could sido with any who leaves her husband just he isn't as rich as he had represented himself to be."

For a moment sho said nothing; then the blood rushed into her fa and die spoke faintly: "I think I am jealous of L;wiv Laura Jim. You have talked so much about her, and you go to her house so often. Forgive me,"Jim, won't you? It's so unfair to you, and I'm a horrid little fool." x

Ho laughed aloud, but suddenly became serious.

"If you didn't lovo mo, Serena, you wouldn't bo jealous. Now, I'm going to tell you a groat secret, Lady .Laura is a married woman, and her husband is living. I've spoken to the man this very day. They have been parted for years. She left him soon after their marriage, and I am helping her as much as I can in some trouble. Really, she is a sweet and noble soul, and I am going to take you to see 'her some day next week." Serena's expressive face was shining now. "Oh, Jim," she began impetuously, but only added: "How good you are to mo!" So it was finally settled that they would go house-hunting on the following Monday, as Jim remembered that he wantod to go home to Perry Bn it on Saturday, returning early Monday morning.

"I shall prepare itiy folks, and .have the banns arranged for you." ho finished joyously. "Perhaps I had better call upon your uncle at his office, and explain the arrangements to him. T don't want to hurt the old chap's

feelings.'' "You know best. You do everything right, Jim." "To love you is right—to be loved hv you is heavenly!" They were standing up now, for the hour of parting had come, and ho held her away from him, so that he could gaze deeply into ker eyes. "T was very near you last- night, Serena, and you did not dream of v ifc." "Where was that?" she asked "I saw you in a taxicab in the Strand." "My uncle sent me home in a taxicab. but T don't think it touched the' Strand." She was puzzling. "I saw you." "I was very tired; I may be mistaken." (To bo Continued.)