CHAPTER XIV.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2045, 15 August 1885, Page 5 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XIV.

BIBTEB AND WIFE CONTRASTED. The " little affair" of the duka was moit adroitly managed. Lord Garsdale wrote to him, saying that he had a few weeks at Roseneath before joining his regiment, and how muoh he would enjoy seeing him. The duke's reply was iuoh as filled Lady Waidrove's heart with pleasure, and Lady Linda's with hope. The Duke of Glaverdon was a prize worth securing; his rent-roll was enormous; ooal mimes had been found en one «f his estates. Olaverdon Manor w&b one of the finest estates in England ; besides which the duke was the poiseßsor of a charming seat in Kent, a valuable estate Jn North Wales, a beautiful sea-side residence in the Isle of Wight. The Olaverdon stables held some of the finest hunters in England, the Olaverdon jewels w«re famous, so that if the dark-eyed, lowvoieed Lady Linda could secure such a prize ■he was indeed a fortunate girl. The question wai, would she secure him ? Would he oontinue at Boseneath those attention! he had paid her when in London ? Lerd Oarsdale loved Lady Linda; she was very gentle, very affeotionate ; she wm warm and true of heart ; he relied greatly upon her, and now he was intensely interested for her. A girl so completely and thoroughly wellbred as the Lady Linda Oarsdale only permits familiar aequaintanee with the most eligible of men. Had his grace of Olaverdon been poor or nameleis, she would not have looked at him. Coming before her with all the prestige of rank, wealth, and position, she had found hint irrfftible. The great ladies of the great world do not take love ai the grand, serious pasiion more oommonplaoe women believe it to be. Had the duke railed hit hat and ridden away, Lady Linda would have sighed; she might even, in the darkness and silence of her own room, hare shed » tew tears, bat the

wouH h-'s.' w.'lc^i"' 1 . t" men aue M ti'f! hm'v 1 (lieat !»■; nyn >y ?>•> . position, foi *a*>k, fu* honor ; ii 1 1 p] u 'v.t'n tr, -a •'i > > the bsH'-r ;if not >\, A K»>4 thim;«i -u tlah wuld give a d-h^hb a?l I 1I 1 i'ir own. Tv »rkowis expected to iui%e ci Tnci> d^y evppincr, aboafc an hour i^fcte dinnf, an'l Lord Cars^c'c! awsifced, with ic>mu anxiety, ths sftmnca otbia favorite s ; stei into t'm dra wing-room. S-d enn i » in, loakit!g vsry nica ; her beautiful fjju •• And weet, refined faco had a groat ohaira. S'io was beautifully dressed in pate amber bik thai; was almost ooverod with white lace ; a Fnporb gloire de Dijon rose in her hair and one in bVlow bodioe of her dress, there Wai a f'linn, sweot porfume hanging abiut her. H j r movjiusata were all so charmingly R'iiccfnl, her voice so perfectly harmonious, hoi* ween! «n fsfincd, that Lord Carsdale was -izivA by hoi*. lie riglied involuntarily as he looked &t her. Ah I ii he had married such a wife as thiß, how proudly he might have brought her heme. Tie thought of poor, beautiful Ailie, and wjulved &al she and his sister bclopged to the <\-ime world. Ho we»b up to his pietcr. "Coma in th« uonaerv&toty with me, Li.i ■* i," ho said ; " I want to talk to you." Ei on aa ho walked by h°r side he was Wv. } ir.v of tho difference fot-veen the two. Hh ?>i ter's V7alk had ii ifc some of the free p.& nn, the f«*a pmee ihiii'diElmgatah Spanish iadica; ij was a pleasure to watch her. He stßhctl again. Ailia was more btauliful— her face ww a drsain of loveliness.- If »he could bnfc &.( quivfl this grace. " Who taught you to walk bo well, Linda ?" he ft-ksd. His sister lookod up at him in wonder. " Taiipht me to walk ?" she repeated. " My nUi-s>, I mippose." " Yes, <A. course ; Ido not mean that. I mc iii how hava you acquiied that peouliar graoci in walking bo di£t'arent to the manner of women of a lowt* eluss?" "Thftd masters of deportment, of comae; and Madame Tregamier was very particular about our style o! walking." •' Thon such a styl" ia acquired," he said ; "it is not natural. Thank Heaven for that— otlvrs may lsarn it." Tns «ontlc face expressed great wonder, but Lad/ Linda asked no question, ohe made do remark. " Linda," oaid Lord Carsdalc, " I want to ask you one question. Tell me, do you really like the Duke of Clavprdon— really ?" tl Yfs, I like him very much indeed," ehe replied. "But do you love him?" Sbe blushed — just the sweetest, faintest rose flush that erer covered a face. " Love him ? " she repeated. " What a qne-tion to ack mo." "It a very natural question," he cried. " Tell me, would you be his wife if he asked you ? " " Yes, most certainly I would." "You would be quite happy as his wife, Linda ? » " Yes, quite happy, Vivian." * " Snail you be disappointed," he continued, 11 if be does not ask you to be his wife ? " 11 1— yes, I think I shall," she replied. " But what strange questions you ask me." "Will it be the duke or the man that you will regret ? " he asked. And Lady Linda, after thinking for a moment;, said : "Both." Then he was content ; he resolved to do all in hU power to aid in the wooing. The duke arrived ; and Lord Garadale, who watched him closely, came to the conclusion that he did love his sister, and that all would go well. During dinner the conversation turned upon one whom they had all known — Ooloucl Sefton — who had reoently made himself famous by carrying an actress. The duko spoke warmly of it. " I havo no patience," he said, " with a man who commits a folly of that Hnd. No man ought ever to marry beneath him ; and if he does, he ought to descend to the level of the woman he marries. I have the greatest oontempt for anything of the kind." " Heaven help me, then ! " thought Lord Oarsdale. " What would he say if he knew my story ? " Lady Waldrove thought the duke the most sensible man she had ever met. In her dear, high-bred voice, she said : " I quite agree in your ideas ; I think nothing so dreadful as & wwtalliance of that kind." " Suoh a marriage strikes a blow at the very foundation of society," laid the duke. " Too muoh oannot be said against it. Society would be utterly ruined if the different classes composing it were so mixed by marriage." While Lord Garsd&le, listening in silence, thought how more than fortunate it was that this itately cirole of nobh relations and friends knew nothing of his little esoapade. " And yet," he said to himself, " I am sure there was higher obivalry, higher honor, more royal generosity in marrying that girl than in leaving her to be tuned adrift on the world. No one would have believtd her innocent. I have been honorable after my own fashion," he said ; " they oan please themselves ; I havt done what I thought right ; they will do the same, I suppose." But it made him thoughtful, more thoughtful than he had ever been in his life before. For the first time he noticed ho*w rigid the laws of oaste were— how proud and reserved his own people were, after all. Easy, free, and kind with their equals, gracious and generous to their dependents, cola, proud, and reserved to their inferiors. Ai he had journeyed home, after that rash, hasty marriage of bis, he had thought many things. One was that he would boldly declare and avow what he had done ; after all he had a perfeot right to please himself. No one tould disinherit him ; he would go home and tell them of his marriage, and he would ask— this is what made him shudder, now that he renumbered it— ha would ask if Ailie might remain with them at Boseneath while he was abroad with his regimeat. She would then— being so quiok and so olever — ■he would tatoh their tone and manner — she would adopt their language and habits— sht would imitate them and grow like them, with all their charm of grace and refinement. That had been his first idaa ; now he shuddered at it ; what was more, he felt quita certain that if the proud Duke of Olaverdon had any idea that there was suoh a mesalliance in the family, he would never marry his sister Linda. He thanked Heaven now that he had said nothing about it ; now he vowed to himself that he would keep hii secret while he lived. They should never laugh at him and call him Don Quixote— he would keep his Quixotism to himself. And yet all his sympathies were with them ; he thought aa they thought," he apoke as they spoke, he despised low marriages in others ; he said to himself that the motive of bis marriage redeemed it and made it noble. He had married for honor's sake— the honor of a woman ; they married to add to their own honor, their own rank and position., v " I am the noblest Roman of them all," he said to himself, ' though I have married a dancing-master's daughter. He saw no way now of declaring his marriage. For himself, he might baar his mother's soorn, his sister's well-bred wonder, his father's hot anger, the contempt of his friends, but if he avowed his marriage he

' ■ >■ i ♦ in> ,\'- o vU'ii'J tr-,<: marry L.nd i. Th it pro Jiia&l of men would nev« > i •;"; Oio a Wr-in-I&w of a dancing master's fbiy i-rr. J* Tculd pat an oivi to his twot.wi s liopo for tlie girls, for, disguise it as ho »vouli, thare v^aa somothing ridiculous umshed to tho idea. A dfcne ; ng master's d^.u Jiter and the eon of an earl I He wished thet bobcat Johu Djrwent had beon an arfiiat, a musician, anything except juafc what he was. For Linda's sake and for Gertrude's sake, he must keep his secret;, at laast until they were married and fifittled. So he was silent, an'd the story of that hasty, reckless m&riiage was not told. Aa the tuna passed on he understood hftfer whnfc he had done— it came home v«ry clflarlj to him one morning. The earl, hw iather, had purchased for him a new hunter, a maguinoaut animal, and he sent for his son to tMe stables to inspect it. •'See, Vivian," said Lord Waldrove; "I hope you will be pleased withSaladin. I have been some time in choosing him for you— l was determined that you should have a good oae. Lord Caradale expressed hii pleasure and delight. "I have be^n three months m deciding over Saladin," said the earl ; " I have seen some fine horßjs, but 1 had resolved on having tho besrlor you. Then," he added, laughingly, " thero is a moral in that for you, Vivian. If I have spent three months in. choosing a hoivo, how long should you spend in choosing a wife ?" Lord Ciu^dale looked very uncomfortable. " That I can hrfrdly tell," he said ; "it would all depend on whether rt was a case of love at first eight or not." The earl laid his hand kindly on the yoHng man's shoulder ; he looked almost wistfully into the handsome faoe. lam only jesting, Vivian," he said; "Of course, soae time or oth** you will marry — I hope so ; but I have faith in you. I know your ohoice will be one that will please us ! and honor yourself. I wish every father in England had as muoh faith in his son as I have in you. The young lord kissed his father's hand. Those kind, trusting words were hard to hear; if it had not been the thought of his sister'a marriage he would in that moment have told the truth about his own. (To be continued.)