CHAPTER LIV.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1642, 13 January 1883, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER LIV.

,' Finding that JuUan, had nos arrived;, I wrote to him, urging 4& immediate return, and addressing him,, for fcbp first iirov^nreservgdly, assmyson. ,< " - •• » . •>r -;••. " And a son any man might be prouiof," | r said to myself, ap, a .couple;.o£ days; laier^ :j' welcomed him back to.Melbourne,.., ." A frank^ manly, inteUigen^nand far-tfonvbad-looking jEellow-ithough^malllpraßaymQnd." >„ firreat as was his delight fat the. explanation ■I of the roystery^wWch had, tFoablpd, P B so lon 6?i it was naibußji^i(empqred <2 by^!iknp,wledgej \iU hu erring motber'B U^ ot y> whicll l wwte*

to him in the Count's presence. 1 i" And so my boy," I concluded — " since you cannot think of her with the respect which a mother's memory should, claim — the best thing you can do is to forget her I" For several minutes Julian pondered over the sad story. " Does Paola know all these particulars ?" he asked then. " She knows all that, as your Mure wife, she has a right to know," said the Count. " She has been made acquainted with all the material facts, without being unnecessarily shocked by the painful minor circumstances of the matter. And now you had better go to her. I think you'll find her in the conservatory." Julian needed no Becond hint, and, a few minutes afterwards, we saw the lovers, free at last from all their troubles, pass, arm-in-arm, down the long walk that led from end to end of the garden."' "May their path in life be as straight," I said, with more earnestness than originality ; but the Count shook his head, and replied with that favorite phrase which contained the sura and substance of his philosophy. " It is not in the nature of things that it should," he said. "But if, as moralists insist, to be unselfish is to be happy, they should at least enjoy an average felicity. Do you intend that Julian shall follow up his profession?" " There is, of course, no need that he should do so now. What do you recommend?" "That depends. What are his qualifications/ in that way ?" " M'Phun tells me that they are very exceptional. He says Julian has that rare combination of application with talent which would be certain to make a name for him." " Then let him go on, by all means. Had he a poor, or even a mediocre talent, I do not think that, as your heir, he would be justified in doing the work which might earn another man's bread ; but, as the possessor of special capabilities for his art, he owes it to the world to use them for its benefit," " Few take such an abstract view of the subject as that," I answered, " but I am not prepared to say that it is an erroneous one. Well, then, Julian shall continue to study his profession, but he must do so in England." "Ah, yes!" said the Count. "I must make up my mind to part with my daughter." " Why so ? You do not intend to remain in Australia much longer ?" " No ; but I go from here to India. My next book is to deal with the native races of that wonderful peninsula." " Still more work," I said. "Do you not think you are of an age to rest from your labors?" The Count raised his tall figure from his chair, and laid his left hand upon his muscular right arm. "I am sixty-one," • he said, "but I have still the constitution of thirty, and, as for the epoch you speak of, it will never arrive for me while lam able to labour. I may not die travelling, it is true, but I hope to die working. But that need not prevent me from pitching my tent — when I do pitch it — in Lbndon, where I suppose Walter will take up his residence." •' Yes ; he will practise his profession there, but Monkton-Edgett will still be available for a country residence, and I hope to hear the sad old house made musical yet with the happy voices of children. By-the-way, speaking of Monkton-Edgett — do you remember the explanation of Glika Nasiloyitch's conduct, which you based upon the circumstances I related to you in that long-past time ?" " And which you pronounced to be wildly improbable." " Yes, so it seemed to me. But you were right after all. That wretched woman's statement agreed with your hypothesis in every particular. Is it not strange that she should have committed the story of her evil doings to writing ?" " It is a curious, but not very uncommon tendency with criminals of a certain mental stamp — the morally-monstrous, it might be called. But enough of her. She has played the villanous part, and disappeared from the stage — let the curtain fall upon a scene untainted by any recollection of her. And here, reader, the curtain falls accordingly :— Upon Mucklebody, clumsily dandling the first-born of Shuter's wife— the Quaker's daughter : — Upon the Quaker himself, going calmly down to the grave of a good man :—: — Upon Fysshe, securely established in the possession of his long-lost uncle's property : — Upon the Count, returning from India with the conviction that his constitution is not quite that of thirty, after all, and setting down to air his paradoxes amongst the savants of London :—: — And upon myself, an old man, writing these last words in the old house, made musical, as I hoped, by the merry voices of children—the children of the erstwhile Paola Giustiniani, and the junior partner in the great firm of Eamsay and Baymond. Ramsay and Eaymond are among the leading architects in Great Britain, and the junior partner in question is no other tfcan that Julian Eaymond whose identity was only discovered — as we have seen — after many difficulties, and By Slow Degbees. The End.