CHAPTER XXIII.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2060, 19 September 1885, Page 5 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XXIII.

All the details of that one interriew came Afterward like a wild, weird dream before Alice's mind. She eoold remember her passion of anger and despair. She who had longed for him, wept for him — who had so wished to we him until her whole heart and soul had become one grand with— she taw that he oared lets about meeting her, leu about leaving her, than if the had been the greatest stranger to him. His indifference pained her more than severe anger or contempt could hare done. Ont torrowfnl look on his face, one hair sad word from hii lips, and even in the anguiah of losing him ahe would have been happy. Bat that word did not come. She saw an expression of wearineis in his ©yo ; he did not teem in any way to look upon her m one apart from the* reit of her family. Looking at him, the felt that ihe could hardly bear the hot pain that burned her heart away. She went from the room where she ■at and sought her own ; she could bear it no longer— the anguish, the keen pain, the bitter heartache. The hot briny team seemed to burn her eyes, yet she dared not let them fall. After theM houra, days, and weeks of longing, it seemed 10 unutterably hard, so unendurable. She had made such pictures to herself — ahe had fanoied that as he waa going away, he would clasp her in his arms, he would kiss her face, he would say at least "I am sorry to leave you ,\.ilie"— he would, ■how some aign of regret such as she longed for with all her heart and soul. But there waa none ; he waa simply unutterably indifferent, and it was the indifference that killed her,. While Lord Carsdale tat fuming with impatitnee, the small, gloomy house, the untidy room, the commonplace parents, the unrefined brother and aiater, the general surroundings, disgusted him as they had neter done before. Frank seemed an unendurable hobbledehoy, Harriet rude beyond beating ; Rose was the only one who was in the least degree bearable. The drawling manner of the dancing-master annoyed him beyond all bounds, the languid indifference of his lady- wife insulted him. Great Heaven 1 what had he done, that his life should be (pent or mixed with suoh lives m theae? He laid aa little as possible, for while he was talking the stately, patrician^race of the Lady Pierpont, the delicate, fairy-like loveliness of Lady Ethel, all came before him. He could not help it : he tried hard, but it was impossible to dnve them away. He said little ; be was going abroad, and it was quite uncertain now long he should remain there ; he would also, at any time, help the family in any of thoir dinionUiea ; then, to Frank's half annoyance, half delight, he gave the dancingmaster a l° J round cheque, which was to de-

fray till expenses of two years' good schooling for him, And then he promised to send further assistance to enable him to make his choice of ft trade or profession. He hardly glanced at the boy as he talked to his father, and Frank relented the fact most bitterly. " Be might look at me; I am not quite the dirt beneath his feet. After all, he has married my own sister ; why need he be so high and mighty?" A» the boy tat there, he took mental notes of his brotWin-law. Yes, when be was grown up ho would wear just suoh shining boots, and he should give hia hair that same particular waving look; ha would have diamond studs and a diamond pin ; then this supexoilioas man should see that other people could look quite as well as ha did. Hettie sat In ft state of burning indignation. Why did be come trying to patronise theto with his airs, his graoes, and his money, while he had baraly a civil word to speak to them, and waa breaking Alioe's heart? Hettie would fain hate returned the cheque, and have bidden him take bis money and hit iniolence elsewhere. At last he had said all that he had to lay, ftnd he rose with ft sigh of unutterable relief. He held oat hit hand to the danoingmaster, and shuddered at the grasp given to him in return ; he shuddered at Frank's languid annotation, ftt Mrs. Derwent'i tears. " It leems hard for Alioe, sir, to be left in this way," laid the mother ; and Lord Garsdale shuddered again aj the words. What difference could it, possibly make to Alice whether he remained in England or went iwfty from it ? Every one in that room thought and believ«d that he had said farewell to Alioe, that his lingering after she had quitted the room was but a way of showing ft kindly, patronizing feeling toward them. No one, when he roie and made his indifferent adieu — no one for a moment thought he was leaving without a word to hii wife ; no one dreamed bat that the last tad farewell words had been spoken between them; so that her name was not even mentioned, »nd the door of the little heusa closed upon Vivian, Lord Carsdile, amid a shower of good wishes ftnd comments. He knew that he hftd seen Alioe, he did not know thai he had not even touched her hand in f areweD ; he never even dreamed that she was waiting in ft passion of fear, and sorrow, aad despair, to My good-bye to him. Perhaps if he had Men the picture, the little room, the fair young gid in the keen passion of her sorrow, the slender figure swaying to and fro as a lea! sways in the winds, the white hafids olasped and unclasped, wrung in anguish, folded in prayer, the fair, sad face, the eyes drowned in tears, the lips quivering with sighs— perhapß hftd he seen that, his heart might have reproached him for the neglect and indifference with whioh he treated his young wife. As it was, he walked down the •treat with a half impatient smile. It was over, thank Heaven, ftod ha had had quite enough of it. After ftll, it hftd been ft mad beak, a foolish marriage, an absurd kind of ••orifice to an absurd idea ; he was well rid of it. Something or other would most assuredly happen before he returned from Gibraltar ; and even if it did not, he should be absent at least for some years, ftnd forget it for ft while. He had been lavishly generous to them } and, after air; it had been a fortunate day for poor Alioe Derwent. He did not think of her as he passed along the san-lighted streets ; he had forgotten her long before he reached the railway Btation ; and when, in the after days, ha thought of her, it was with the feeling of one who bad done bis duty in the most noble manner possible. " It seems a strange kind of marriage, does this," said Mrs. Derwent, as the door closed. "I should not have liked a husband who would .have left me for so long." w It has bean a good thing [for us, Fanny," said the danoing-master, slowly; "we need not find fanlt with it. I cannot think what wofald have become of this great, Awkward Frank here but for this money." Frank quiokly resented this insult to bis manhood, deolaring that he was no more awkward than any one else. John Derwent looked at him slowly, with an amusing glance. ••You will never dance properly, Frank, if you live forever," he said, and he could imagine no greater reproaoh than that. " I am sure," chimed in poor Mrs. Derwent, " that thejway of love and marriage seems to me a very hard one. Look at Alice, so young, and really, though I say it myself, so pretty ; then lock at me." But as the reoital of his wife's woes was the last thing on earth that the danoing-master could endure, he abruptly quitted the room, while his wife oontinued, in the most languid tone of voice, to relate the history and experience of her married life to her two daughters, Rose and Harriet. Hettie wearied first ; it was time, she thought, to seek her sister and find out bow she bore the pain of parting with her husband. " For," said Hettie to herself, " she is so absurdly, so idiotically fond of him, that she will be breaking her heart over him, instead of feeling thankful that he is out of the way. I know I should be glad if all the men in the world had a holiday at times, and kept out of the way. ' Hettie went up to her sister's room and opened the door. She Btarted back aghast at the sight of the white, tortured face, the pitiful, weeping eyes. Alioe sprang forward. " Does he want me, Hettie ?" she oried. '• Has he sent for me ?" Hettie looked up with wondering eyes. 11 He I Who do you mean, Alioe?— what he?" 11 My husband," said the girl. "Haa he sent for me ?" Then Hettie went up to her, fearing that her great sorrow had driven her mad. She threw her arms round the trembling figure ; she tried to still the quivering of the lips and the hands ; she spoke in a tone strangely gentle for her. "Your husband, Alice 1" she repeated. " Why, my dear, he's gone." Hettie never forgot the scene that followed — the wild ory that came from Alice's white lips as she rose from her enoiroling arms. Every vestige of color faded from her face, an ftwful fear darkened her eyes. 11 Gone!" she repeated; "gone, Hettie I" The terrible whisper thrilled the younger sister's heart. " You must be mistaken ; be did not with me good-by I" " Ob, my darling I" sobbed Hettie, " do not take it in that way— do not take it so hardly ; he is not worth it." Another wild cry, ftnd Alioe tried to spring from those strongarms. '■Let me go, Hettie; you are killing me. Let me go, I say ! You must not try to bold me. He is my husband, and I must see him. I must see him, or I must die I" " But, Alice, you oannot ; he ia gone ; he is nearly at the station by this time." " I must see him," gasped the poor child ; "he must kiss me ; I shall perhaps never see him again. Hettie, for the love < of Heaven, do not try to stop me t I shall die if you do." Double strength seemed to come to her. She tore herself from Hettie, and hastened to the door, but Hettie feared a soene, and caught her before it was opened. " Alioe, darling," she said, " it is too late ; it is, indeed. He is gone ; he will have left the station by this time ; you oannot see him ; iti« not posiiblo. Try to understand mehe is gone." For the sweet, sad eyes were raised, and

were fixed so wistfully on herg, that Hettia oried out in distress. "What shall I do?" she said. "Shall I make her understand ?" She took the trembling hands in her own. " My darling Alice," aha said, " I cannot understand it at all. I thought— we all thought — that jou had said good- by to him. It cannot be possible that he has left without saying good-by to you. He was very kind, in that grand way of his. He gave papa some money for Frank's eduoation, and ha said that the family were to send to him, through you, if they were in any kind of distress." " But— he left no message for me 1" she gained. " No ; not one word," said Hettie. Then the Blender figure slipped from her grasp and fell on the floor. " All about one man," said Hettie to herself. "Ah, me ; what ft waste of emotion I Was he worth grieving over, when no oould go away and leave her so ?"