CHAPTER XlX.—(CONTINUED.)

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1580, 19 August 1882, Page 5

CHAPTER XIX.— (CONTINUED.)

It muat not bo thought Jack neglected Bertha all this time. On the contrary, he .wrote letter after letter, and sent costly presents of diamonds and jewels, but they were all returned. • Ho had copies of the, Gritly Gully Trumpet, containing paragraphs' alluding to his wealth and success, sen^ to Bertha and Mr Whi^e, but no reply was vouchsafed, and the ptfp'e'rs'we're'sent back. This drove him to distraction. He could not believe Bertha had f6rgotten ot forsaken him, btit hB felt' wild as the idea' of the silent contempt with which Mr White treated him, and he resolved to pay that gentlettanback with compound interest. In the meantime, this troatment had a most baneful effect upon Jack. He was surrounded by temptation day and night. It was a time of terrible trial. A successful man is surrounded by a crowd of flatterers, who do all they can to drag him down. Theso were times when, to keep up the excitement a man had to drink hard. Nothing could be done without champagne, not a share could be sold or bought, a mine started, or scrip registered, but bottle upon bottle must be cracked ; and so, in spite of Jack and his beat intentions, he was compelled to make a sort of champagne bottle of himself. It told on him. His face became flushed ; his eyes danced with fever. He went to bed— when ho did, which was seldom— in a state of excitement, and when he awoke next morning dull and downhearted, resort had to be mado to more champagne to fetch him up to the mark. Throughout all this Maggie had followed Jack with a most persevering love. After a time she disappeared from the Patriot, and people snook their heads. She gave out she had become wealthy by speculation, and lived in considerable, though quiet, style in a pretty villa with her mother. Jack was often a visitor. He did feel some affection for Maggie. There was a sympathy between them, a species of love. She understood and sympathised with him, and loved him wildly, passionately, hopelessly. But Jack was uneasy at even permitting himself to accept this love, that he could never retnrn as it should be returned; and often ho felt as if ho had been guilty of unfaithfuluens to the one pure love of his heart and was worse than a traitor At last, when the fever of Grit had reached a point, when even the mo>t sanguine began to tremble, Jack heard that Bertha had como to Melbourne to live, and that Hector Macinnis was coming to the front in politics. He could resist no longer, and at once resolved to visit the metropolis. The climax of his fate was following him fast.