CHAPTER XXX.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2063, 26 September 1885, Page 5 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XXX.

A SURPRISE. Ailie owned to herself afterwards, when she became more aooustomed to everything, that she had gone through emotion enough to have almost killed an ordinary woman. With that intense, passionate love breathing in her heart, surging in her braifi, thrilling every nerve, every pulse, it had been no light thing for her to see for the first time her husband's home and his friends. When she first saw Roseneath her courage failed her ; it seemed to her almost impossible that she should have married the lord of suoh a princely home. Neither in her travels or in her dreams had she ever imagined a place so stately or so fair ; and she — well, if right meant right, she who ontered those grand historic walla as the humble companion of their prond mistress would be one day mistress there herself —must, if all be true, be one day Counteis Waldrovo of Roseneath. She could not realize it ; the bare idea made her heart beat with Blow, burning pain — made her face blanch and her lips quiver ; she could not realize it. Bhe said to herself often and often that she must be mad, that she must have dreamed of this marriage, that it oould not really have taken place — there waß something almost incongruous in the idea. She, Ailie Derwent, the dancing-master's daughter, oould not aotually be Lady Carsdale, wife of the heir of fioseneath. She looked at times half in wonder, half in awe, around her. All the gorgeous plate, the superb pictures, the statues, thn magnificent ornaments, the brio-a-brao, the Wedgewood, the old china, tho rare books— was it, oould be possible that all this should fall to her — that she, reared in poverty, used to the plainest of living, the plainest of dress — was it possible that one day she should be mistress of all this wealth ? She never oven tried to pioture herself as mistress of Roseneath ; her imagination could not go so far. She would, look sometimes at the •ertanU when they M^med ilow to do her

bidding, and wonder what would they say ox think if they know who she really was. Bat among all her dreams and vision 1 * she never saw the future— aho never imagined her husband returning, taking her by the hand and introducing her to his friend* ; the fttturo to her was always blnrred, indistinct. She had always a faint foreboding that something would happen — a vague idea that in some strange way this marriage of hers would turn out to be a mistake — that it would dissolve into thin air. Yet there was the wedding rin^ fastened round her neck by a slender pold ohain — nothing oould do away with that. She loved him so entirely that each moment of her life seemed, as it were, to hold it all. She lived in the grand love of the present. ■ It was a grand, noble passion, this love of hers, stioh as has been sung in old Grecian legends, and in Roman tragedies; a love that absorbed her heart and soul. He was the world to her; great events passed, far and near ; she thought nothing of them. The world for her meant Vivian Carsdals; outside him all was blank, unmeaning space. She met many people, but she never even seemed to Bee them ; that one face, tha darkhaired, dark-eyed fever, filled the universe for her. She loved him with a wonderful love ; there was something half divine in its intensity; only a noble woman oould be oapable of snoh a love. The fire of passion does not touch ignoble souls; they are inoapable of it. If he had said to her, " Ailio, give me your life," she would have given it to him. She had made him her king and her master, lord of all the wide earth, lord of her own soul. She lived in the thought of him, in the memory of those few weeks they had spent together when they had been good friends, nothing more. It was the love that makes tragedies, that saves souls— the grandest passion that is given to man. But — and the punishment oomes swiftly after the sin— she made him her idol. She gave to him the love that a " Divine law " says shall be given to God alone. She made him her idol. What wonder if she found the feet o! olay— if the swift, unerring punishment of idolatry fell upon her. As the summer days, all beautiful with roses and dew, passed on, she became more accustomed to her surroudings, more habituated to the thought that she was in the heart of her husband's home. One day a hard trial came to her ; she heard the earl and countess talking about % picture that was expected horne — some injury or other that had been done to the frame, and it had been sent to London. The earl wished to have it in the dining-room, the countess said no ; it must be 1 placed in her own room, where she could look at it as long as Bhe liked, and when she liked. The earl, in his good-natured fashion, gave way. Ailie did not pay much much attention, but she noticed the arrival of the large packing-oase ; she heard the confusion of the careful unpacking, and then, engrossed in some little duties for the countess, she thought no more of it, until she went, as usual, to Lady Waldrove's room, her hands filled with roses, gathered just as that dainty lady loved them, of all hues, with plenty of green leaves, and all shining still with the morning dew. Daring the whole season of roses Lady Waldrove had them brought to her freshly gathered and fragrant every day. Ailie entered, as usual, and was met by the countess, whose face had in it a shade more of animation. Floss tried to bark, but failed iin the attempt. Castor and Pollux greeted her with scorn, as though they would ask why was she busying herself with roses when two dogs required looking after. «' Miss Derwent," said the countess, " you have some artistic tastei I know What beautiful roses 1 Pray ring for some water ; not one leaf must fade. Lord Waldrove and I cannot agree about this picture. I want to leave it where the western sun -beams fall on ita face; my lord would have it fading the south. What say you ? Without a moment's warning or preparation she was looking on her husband's handsome pictured face — the bright, debonair, noble face, with its dark eyes and beautiful month. It was a wonderful pioture; the eyes were full of light, and seemed to look with a oonsoious expeessiort. Lady Waldrove uttered a little cry, for the roses that the young girl carried in her handswere dropping on the ground, and Ailie stood, white, motionless, with parted lips and eager eyes before that portrait. 11 Well ? " said the countess, impatiently ; she oould not endure that any one should keep her waiting. "You have dropped all those beautiful roses— no, do not stoop for them ; never mind them ; lam waiting to hoar what you think about the picture. Should it not hang facing the west ? I like to lie there on my favorite couch and watch the setting Bun lighting up my boy's faoe; sometimes the effeot was so beautiful that I could have fancied he smiled, but it was only the golden light falling lower and lower. Ah, what is this ? " For suddenly, as she had let the roses fall, Alie fell herself prone on the ground. The sight of the face she worshipped with such mad, wild idolatry seemed to rob her of all strength, her limbs failed her, even the breath seemed to freeze and die on her lips — ceiling and floor met together in one whirling ruah ; then she went down with a low cry, and lay quite still and motionless. II Heaven bleas me 1" cried the counleßS, II the girl has fainted, I believe." The earl hastened to her. 11 1 call this taking a liberty in my room which I never remember any one to have taken before. Neither Gertrude nor Linda would have done such a thing, Stephen." " Shall I ring ?" asked the earl, helplec sly. There was a sound from Ibe lips of that prostrate figure, and Lady Waldrove, bending down, heard Ailie say : "I am very sorry ; I did not faint ; the floor and the oeiling seemed to meet, and I fell. lam very sorry. The earl raised her gently. Something in that sweet, white face seemed to touch him. " It is not your fault, of courae," replied the countess. "I have quite a horror of invalids." " I am not at all an invalid," said Ailio, gently." " Perhaps," interposed the earl, " pprhap* the heat of the sun was too great, or the fragrance of the roses " (To be Contlinued.)

People who suffer will fly to anything for remedy — even to patent pill?, ppiritusliptn, and pilgrimages, listening to the methods resorted to for curing the cripplo an 1 sick, The Graphic (London) says thufc at Fecamp 150,000 quart bottlea from a so-c&lV\l holy Bpring aro sold yearly ; at Lourdes the retail busineßS in water is twice aa larga, and the grotto is hung with the crutches of hundreds of people who are said to have come lnmo and to have gone away jumping. In pftne oases these our 69 have been quite genuine, for n strong nervous excitement will unquestionably do wonders. Not long ago, a man who was suddenly seized with delirium in one of the London hospitals leappd up, nvA began slashing at the patients in the beds all around him with a knifo. One patient, who bad been lying helpless for days under a stroke of paralysis, as it wbb believed, got fo frightened that he reoovered the use of his If»?, an! bounded down stairs with most gratify inr agility. A man endowed with strong will power may ezeroise ascendancy owr weak willed folk, and cause them very upidjj tQ shake off • nervous disorder.