THE STORY-TELLER.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 939, 29 June 1878, Page 2

THE STORY-TELLER.

WIFE IN NAME ONLY. By the author of " Doha Thobne," "On Heb Wedding Mobn," "Redeemed by Love," "A "Woman's War," &c. &a. • (Continued from last Saturday's issue). CHAirTEB aXIII. ' Philippa,' he continued, ' will yoa let me send Lady Peters to you now, that I may know as soon as possible whether she consents ?' ' You can send her if you will, No'rnian.' Was it his fancy, or did he really, as he stood at the door, hear a deep, heart-broken sigh ?' Did her "voice, in a sad low wail, come to him—- ' Norman, Norman '' He turned quickly, but she seemed already to have forgotten him, and was looking through the open window. Was it fancy again, when the door had closed, or did she really cry—- ' Norman !' He opened the door quickly. 1 Did you call me, Philippa V he asked. 'No,' she replied; and he went away. ' I do not understand it,' he thought; there is something not quite right. Philippa is unlike herself.'

Then he went in search of Lady Peters, whom he bewildered and astounded by telling that it lay in her power to make him the happiest of men. ' That is what men say when they make an offer of marriage,' said she, * but I am sure you are not about to make one to me V * No, but, dear Lady Peters, I want you to help me to marry some one else. Will you go to the Duchess? She will tell you all about it.' * Why not tell me yourself V she asked. ' She has better powers of persn#v sion," he replied, laughingly. 'Then I am afraid, if so much persuasion is required, that something wrong is on the tapis,' said Lady Peters. ' I cannot imagine why men who have beautiful young wives go yachting. It seems to me a terrible mistake.' Lord Arleigh laughed. 'The Duke's yachting has very little to do with this matter,' he said. 'Lady Peters, before you listen to the Duchess, let me make one appeal to you. With all my heart 1 be&eech you to grant the favor that she will ask '

He bent his handsome head, and kissed her hand. Tears of emotion rose to the lady's eyes. Ms it something for you, Lord Arleigh,' she asked.

' Yes,' he replied, ' for my own unworthy self.'

'Then I will do it if possible,' she replied. But, when the DucheßS of Hazlewood had told her what was needed, and had placed the whole matter before her, Lady Peters looked shocked.

'My dear Philippa/ she said, ' this is terrible, I could not have believed it. She is a lovely, graceful, pure-minded girl, I know; but such a marriage for an Arleigh ! I reallv cannot believe it.'

'That is unfortunate,' said Her Grace, dryly, 'for he seems very much in earnest.

'No money, no rank, no connection, while he is one of the finest matches in England !' ' She is his ideal,' was the mocking reply. Tt is not for us to point out deficiencies.'

' But what will the Duke say f inquired her ladyship, anxiously. ' I do not suppose that he will be very much surprised. Even if he is, he will have time to recover from his astonishment before he returns. The Duke knows that * beauty leads" man at its will.' Few can resist the oharm of a pretty face/ * VYhat shall I do? L ady

Peters, hopelessly. ' What am Ito sav? _' .. "< Decide for yourself. I decline to ofter any opinion. I say wrap y that if you refuse he will probably ask the favor of some one else. «Bat do you advise me to consent, Phiiippa?' asked Lady Peters, anxiously. . * I advise you to please yourselt. Had he s«ked a similiar favour of me, I might have granted or I might have refused it; I cannot say.' «To think of that simple fair-faced girl being Lady Arleigh !' exclaimed Lady Peters. 'I suppose I had better consent, or he will do something more desperate. He is terribly in earnest, Phiiippa.' 'He is terribly in love,' said the Duchess, carelessly ; and then Lady Peters decided that she would accede | to Lord Arleigh's request, More than oace dnring the week that ensued after his proposal of marriage to Madaline, Lord Arleigh looked in wonder at the Duchess. She seemed so unlike / herself—absent, brooding, almost sullen. The smiles, the animation, the vivacity, the wit, the brilliant repartee that had distinguished her had all vanished. More than once he asked her if she was ill; the answer was always 'No.' More than once he asked her if she was unhappy; the answer was always the same—' No.' ' You are miserable because your husband is not here,' he said to her one day, compassionately. 'lf you had known how much you would have missed him, you would not have let him go.' Shere was a wondrous depth of pain in the dark eyes raised to his. 'I wish he had not gone,' she said j ' from the very depths of my heart I wish that.' Then she seemed to recover her natural gaiety.. 'I do not know, though, why I should have detained him,' she said, half laughingly. 'Heis so fond of yachting.' 'You must not lose all your spirits before he returns, Phiiippa, or he will say we have been but sorry guardians.' 'No one has ever found fault with my spirits before,' said the Duchess. ' You are not complimentary, Norman.' ' You give me such a strange impression,' he observed. ' Of course it is highly ridiculous, but, if I did not know you as well as I do, I should think you had something on your mini, some secret that was making you unhappy—that there was a straggle always going on between something you would like to do and something you are unwilling to do. It is an absurd idea, I know, yet it has taken possession of me.' She laughed, but there was little music in the sound.

' 'What imaginative power you have, Norman ! You would make your fortune as a novelist. What can I have to be unhappy about ? Should you think that any woman in this world has a lot more brilliant than mine? See how youno-1 am for my position—how entirely I have my own way. Could anyone, do you think, be more happy than IV 1 No, perhaps nob,' he replied. So the week passed and at the end of it Lady Peters went with Madaline to St. Mildred's. ♦ At first the former had been unwilling to go—it had seemed to her a terrible messalliance; but, woman-like she had grown interested in the lovestory—she had learned to understand the passionate love Lord Arleigh had for his fair-haired bride. A breath of her own youth swept oyer her as she watched them. N "~ It might me a messalliance, a bad match, but it was most decidedly a case of true love, of the truest love she had ever witnessed ; so that her dislike to the task before her melted away. After all, Lord Arleigh had a perfeet right to please himself—to do as he would; if he did not think Madeline's birth placed her greatly beneath him, no one else need suggest such a thing. From being a violent opponent of the marriage, Lady Peters became one of its strenuous supporters. So they went away to St. Mildred's, where the £reat tragedy of Madeline's life was to begin.

To be Continued.