CHAPTER VIII.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2039, 1 August 1885, Page 5 (Supplement)

CHAPTER VIII.

" KEEP MY KAMI? AND BANK A BECIU2T." They were standing together in one of the galleries of the Louvre, »nd Lord C&rsdale was looking with wonder at his wife. " I believe," he said, with unfeigned admiration, " that you know the name of evevf pajeler, and of every picture painted. I had no idea that you were »o cleTer." " I am not very clover," replied Ailie ; "but tl.uy tuouqht bo muoh o! pictures at Heiaenßen." Lord Carsdale laughed. " I bi>t;in to find out one thing, Ailie," he 3nid. " I may quote E>ome well-known words : ' Your virtues of IToisengen, your faulta are your own." "I have gueh a faehion of speaking the ezaefc truth," she replied ; " and it i 3 quite true that nil the littlu talent and aulture I have can»e from Oipenqen." Without the leaat inteution of showing him bow much yho knew, for Ailie Oarsdale was above tv?t such vanity, she went on with her c>it>;loi;uo and her descriptions. She never th'/U/lit of any one else being near her; ahe 'k ver raw any one except her husband — the \wo\' woikl fanned to hold no one else. Lord Cui^lalo heard aoine gentlemen who wure sUn<lin - near bay in Frenoh : " Whut n, devur f*iil ; what wit; what origindify; what ideas 1 " ric. wi*s delighted that his wife should be pr*is«l. Unfortunately 1 , f.oon afterward they ware standing near a gronp of Parisian ladies, and he ovpi hoard one Bay to the other : " What a b< autiful girl — English, I am fluro, 1)} her outre dreua." Tv at annojed him. '• Ailie,*' he paid afterward, " I do not understand sue'i niaUors — are your drasßed like olhT -la( 1 -e>i of your age ? " " Ye^, I thiriK. so," she replied. "You do not know? You are not quito sure then?" " No ; lam not quito sure," she replied frankly " I chose my drees myaelf. It looks "!„-«, it loo'u pretty; but is it the— the propi i kind of thing you know ? " " I cannot tell you, Vivian," "Then," lw cried hastily, "pray go to a fii u hion<ibli2 m'uhste and ask." " Arc you annoyed with me 7 " asked the youn<j <»iil, wenderingly. " No , but I do not like to hear remarks about ;^)U — you must be like other people." "I will try," she said, meekly. And i-be did try. She studied hia wishes witri buoh an intpnee desire to please him, he ooulil not bo aniyry with her ; on the coniMiy, hid hkinp; increased. " I am growing quito fond of you, Ailie," Ik said to her ono day. " I shall be distressed \Wien we leave Paris. I thjnk I must go homo to bop youi friends at Ruo"«»well." " You will not liko it," she said, franfcly. " V^hy not?" he aaked. " BeL-iiiMu you do not even nnderitand suoh a home. Yon have never seen ono like it. It is not very pleasant to us who know it. You will not like it." But he fancied it would be a vary grand and K3ncii)tw piece of patronage to visit this Kurnble houtio ; it would be doing his duty to its utmost extent. Ho fannied himself looked up to and reveled by the w.hole of this family, whose putrou be had resolved to be. He was

>yiu\\y plw-ed fcbtvt Li? \Vi'o f.boitfcl tv«cn fiy he wonld not likn it. Smelj she had no rpfflson to bslievc Mra prouci. " Aiu ■," ho n&ld orns lno^fcg, •' you vriV ltte to tfti* 1 j out mother and your Bitter* a vary n-ica silk drees eaah. ; btyr them to-day, and a few lU^rea ornaments. I «*w ■oniethlng fits morning ihail though* would suit your father very nicely." " T>l& you ? " she B,*k«d, hor beautiful f»oe glowing with delight. " What wm it? How good and kind you are to me, Vivian I " "Ami? You dwerva it all, Ailie. Wfotrt I saw was a very beautiful olaret jug. She looked at him again with one of those, to hira, ißcoaipreh*n»lble laughs. " I do not think," she laid qaie"tly, " jthai my father eve; tasted claret in hia life." "Never in hia life. 1 " oried the astoniahffd-. nobleman. " Why, Ailie, what a »trange family yours i<3 1 " "'Very," was the qui&ii reply ; " fsn«l there are many thou«and others quite aa strange." ll Then, a olaret jug would hoi bo of the least use to him, Ailie/' said her husband, in & tone of keen disappointment. " No, not in the least," i'eplied Ailie. He wondered why she smiled— why that qijiet expression of amusement deepened da her facp. " Toll me," he asked, "what does your father drink ? I might ohooae somethings after all, toplease hhn." " As. a rule, he drinks hot rum and water," smd Ailif. "My poor father ! it is Pot often, yon knov, that he oan afford it." " I had better buy him a'good liquDr stand," asid Lord Carsdale. " I! you will, tfftid AiLte. It seemed useless repeating that h$ would seldom he able to keep any spirits in it. She saw plainly that, though Ms lordship had a tolerable notion of picturesque poverty— Buoh poverty, for example, as he saw in the coun try, wliero pretty cottagea stood in gardens of flowora— yet of the duft, prosaio, terrible poverty that oppresses the lower middle class, he hid not the faintest conception ; it was alt an unknown world to him. His dainty, fastidious notions were shocked at th« bare idea of hot mm and water — what would the reality She wna gifted with wisdom, this young wife, and she begged &aii her husband would abandon the idoa He had of going home with her. When she thought of the illmanaged, dirty, gloomy house, the beet rooms in it given up to the pupils, the windows that would never open without falling, tha doors that would not shut, the generally greasy ap pearance of everything — her heart sank. Then her mother bad deteriorated since her marriage with the dancing-master. She was ii»tl«8B, always tired, always discontented, and went to two extremes ifi dress— she was either quite unfit to be seen, or she wore some piece of finery quite unsuited to her position. If John D^rwent resisted, she told him with a sigh, that she could Hot forget what she bad been ; his rejoinder was-, it would be far better to remember what she wai. Ailie thought cf all theso things with a sigh, while her husband wondered she did not show him more gratitude for this, his intended kindness. They agreed very well on dhe whole; it w»8 by no means an unhappy marriage. If ever any wife worshipped a husband— faults, vMuea, imperiootioas, and all together — Ailie worshipped Lord Carsdale. She Was too clever not to Bee his faults, not to understand h'm little weaknesses, no,t'to see that he liked to patronize and expected gratitude for it ; hut, in spite of all, Bhe worshipped him. She rawly paid »o ; indeed, the matter of love was not often disaunsed between them ; it was arc understood thing that Lord Cartdale had married her, not from love — thero was >k> delusion in the mattsr ; love had nothing .-hatever to do with it— but because he had by hia own oarelepsness broupht her into stfch a position, he biw no other way lo *aye her. He had admire! her, ha had liked her so much, and had felt such sympathetic pity for her, that h« had j;onp out of his way to give her that one day's pleasure ; he had merely done it, a 9 he would have tipped a school-boy, out of the royal generosity of his heart ; but when he ■j&w what his imprudence had entailed upon hor, all the chivalry of his nature was aroused, vi.d he married har to save her from sorrow, and In nself fv#m reproaah. He did not jhink about love at aU— honor was his qo r l, and he had carried honor to excess ; he was 3e pleased with himself for it, that in the glow of happiness produced by his generosity, he wanted to Bhower benefits not only on hia beautiful young wife, but upon all hdr friends. In their conversation, they never spoke of foy«; literature, art, music, the p-wing '•vents of tho day, the future that lay k,»"v them, were the subjects discussed \ilu worshipped him, she would have pou. 7 oat her soul like water beneath his feet ; the ti. • ihe thought, had net arrived for that. In thtlong years to oome she piotured to herself that ehe would Rteal to his tittle, put her armß round his neck and kiss him, while she told him that he was her lovo gnd she worshipped him ; but not yet— ah, me 1 not yet. They were good comrades at present, and there waa nothing more than good comradeship between them ; but in those years to come — those lovely, sfmny yean that looked so bright to her now — it would all be different ; he would know by that time that, no mattsr why be had married her, she loved him as no other woman ever would, or could ; and lie would Heck all hia happiness in her love, But ttiat was a pioture for the future, not the present. All she had to do now was try to make herself more and more like him, to fit herself for the position she had to occupy, and wait in patience. " Some women," sha said to herself, " have waited a life-time — so poets say— for the love of a man, and have died without winn ng it. I may be patient for a few years." Sbe wai so wise in her sweet humility and #}ntlo simplicity, that he conld not help being olmwned with her character. It was well for him that matters had turned out as bhey had ; his marriage had been so reokiflßflly imprudent thot he had almost songht misfortune. Their visit to Paris was extended ; they had gone on to Switzerland ; and at length, after six weeks' absence, Lord Oarsdaie proposed they should return to Kud«Bwell. "You wiH not forget your promise, Ailie," he said ; " you will keep tny nama and rank a spocet," ' I ahall never forgat It," she said. " They will be fitire to ask yqu all kiads of questions. You mu°t tell them that your husband is a man of some privato means, expecting daily a commission in the array." She looked up at him quickly, with a colorless face. "Are you really expeoting a commission, Vivian ?" " Yea,' he replied ; " I expeot it daily." He did not understand the pallor of her face, or the pain in he/ voice. " What shall you do when you get it ?" she asked. "I cannot tell; it is possible thatl may remain in England, or go abroad, if my regiment is sent there." " Should you wish me to go with you ?" she asked ; and he was blind enough to imagine that the hesitation in her voice arose from the fact that shp would not like to go. He laughed gayly. " No. my dear Ailie ; I lhall make tny first" campaign alone." , He wondered why aha turned from him bo

GU'Mi'n^r, anfl wrvs to <iuL. vA iJ^ remainder of the day. The time owme when they felt f lir France oam« lf<ick to Bnglancl. " Vivirw," she said, making *l«et «pp«»l to hhn, " I wish you vouid not to Radefc welk" He lfta^hed it her feaw, thoagh aJ£erw*rd he knew they h&d bften jnet.