CHAPTER XLVI.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2078, 31 October 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XLVI.

A wife's bthavgk rosiTiojj. Lady Ethel PirmroNTlooked beautiful enough on the evening of the ball to have driven any man to desperation. Feoplo Bald she had never looked more lovely ; her costume waa of a high order of art— it waa almost impossible to tell where the roses bogan and the lacs ended. Conscious that ehe was looking. her best, L<idy Ethel felt quite equal to the task she had set herself of making Lord Carsdale care more for hor than ever. A hall at Koseneath was always a brilliant success, the rooms were so superbly large and lofty. What would have been a crow din other places was only a pleasant number at Iloseneath; and this ball, thanks to Lady. Waldrovo's unusual activity, promised (o*be one of the boat given there. The countess had invited Ailie, in a kind of half indifferent fashion that the girl mojt bitterly resented ; but she wished to see how her husband and Lady Ethel would act when they were together —whether he would talk to her again, with bin boul shining in bin eyes, or not. The firit words nhe overheard wpis not very promising. Lord Carsdale waa escorting the beautiful heiress to the ball-room ; as they went through the long corridor, Ailie heard Lady Ethel say: "I have remembered what you s».id the other evening, and I have saved all the best waltzes for you." "Yon have been kinder to ma than I deserve," said Lord Carsdals. " Waltzing with yon is a pleasure that I remember of old ai one, of the greatest of pleasures." '"You have the fashion of speaking of yourself as though you were some ancient patriarch, Lord Carsdale," said Lady Ethel. "Do you know that, looking back to the very first day of our acquaintance, it does not extend over six years?" " I have not reckoned the time in which I have known you by the average months and wecke," he replied ; " oomo of tha days have seemed a century long, others have passed in a dream." And Ailie, who heard the words a? the speaker passed slowly by, said to herself that she wonld have given hor life for snch words from him. Sh« sew them in the ball-room, though she wai not near them ; and she owed to herself that sha had nover seen two people so perfectly well «uit£d to each other— both bo graoeiul, bo handsome. She heard many whispers of admiration as they danced together. " I oall such dancing as that a poem," Captain Moore said to her. " I can understand now why people oall it one of tho arts— thafris, the very perfection of movement." And Ailie knew that it was true. Her husband did go near her ; he seemed to remember suddenly what she had said about one kind word from him making her happy. She waa standing by Lady Gertrude'i side, having just taken a message from that lady to one of the maids. Lord Carsdale spoke to his sister first, then he turned to Ailie. "Do you like danoing, MiBS Derwent ?" he asked ; and it was not until he saw tho crimson flush that bnrned her face that he remembered what & very awkward question he had asked. " No," she replied, " I do not like it." And Lady Gertrude looked up in supercilious wonder. " Not like danoing t That is a strangely frank confession. I thought all young girls liked'dancing." " I am an exception' then," said Ailie. But she did not look at her husband as she spoke ; she knew well that he understood the reason why. "In that case," he said, " you will hardly enjoy a ball." " I like too see poople all so beautiful and bo happy," said Ailie, simply. And the words seemed to touch Lord Carsdale. Cut Lady Gertrude had already looked in wonder that he should think it necessary to waste civilities on her mother's companion He knew that to draw down remark upon Ailie would be, of all things, the most oruel and the most fatal. He left them; but the thought that he had •poken kindly to her stirred his young wife's heart with a keen sense of pleasure. I do not hold him guiltless ; I do not describe him as a hero, or a man without reproaoh ; but his strange position mnst plead hia excuse. In the days of his youthful imprudence he had, from a swift, sudden impulse of honor, married the girl ; he had married her to shield her from blame, and it was a most Quixotic action ; but when he came to reflect upon it more coolly the consequences of that marriage seemed to him more than he could bear. He could not endure to inflict the pain of it on his parents ; he did not like the loss of lociftl position. la the highest sense of the word he was no.t a hero, but a man who shrank from the consequences of an imprudent action. He had not yet hardly looked the difficulty in the face, or asked himself how it must end. So Ailie stood watching lovely Lady Ethel as she floated away to the pound of the sweet, sad music — and radiant vision of whito lace and roses. Tho boautiful hoiross was unutterably happy, and her faoe was something to remember. Then Ailie lost sight of them ; half an hour afterward one of the footmen came to hor, and said that Lady Ethel Pierpont would be very glad to Bee her in the little anteroom. Ailie knew the room well ; it was one leading from tho large drawing-room. Wondering what could be Lady Ethel's object in sending for her, she went. There, in the little room, which ahone, and gleamed, and glistened like a huge jewel, she saw Lady Ethel and Lord Carsdale. Lady Ethel came to her with a bright, persuasuve smile. " Miss Derwent," Bh.e said, " you have been bo good-natured that I am not ufraid to take a liberty with you. Sco this spray of roses — it has become unfastened in the danoing, and I am afraid to ask any one to fasten it who does not understand "it. Would you be bo Lind &§ to help me ? " " I will do it with pleasure," said Ailie ; but as she epoke she did not look once toward her husband. She felt, rather than caw, that he stood watching her. She raised the spray of roscß in hor hand. " I shall want a needle, Lady Ethel," «he said quietly ; " I will not keep you long." { Shfl hurried away. When she returned they were talking so earnestly that she felt some little embarrassment at interrupting them. Lady Ethel turned to her with another kindly emile. * " How good you are 1 " she paid. Then Ailie began her work, and for n few minutes there was silence. It was a strange scene— the biilliant little room that with mirrors, lusterp, and girandoles was liko one shining gun ; the tall, handsome man, with his bronzed face and soldier-like bearing; the beautiful woman, with tho rich clouds of white lace and the Ike of scarlet roses ; the lovely, palo girl in plain gray dress, whose only ornament was her wealth of golden hair— ft utrango scene, and,

to one who could have understood its tragic realities, tf no little meaning. The long spray of roses had becomo quite unfastened, And, to make it secure, Ailie had to begin at the*ottom of the dress. To do that she had to kneel down, and it was then that Lord Caredale looked so strangely at her. The eight touched him more than he had ever been touched in his life before— her gentle, graceful humility, her kindly good-nature, her wonderful self-control; and, after all, she was his lawful wife, and she knew it. It was Ltdy Carsd&le kneeling there with the humility of a child, helping her rival, the woman whom she half feared, half dreaded that her husband loved. How proudly and scornfully soraa girls would have refused to render that kindly office— how haughtily they would havo said it was the work of a lady's maid ; but she had not hesitated one moment. He looked at the beautiful, pure face, bo intent) and earnest ; he looked at the golden head beut in such sweet humility; he looked at the graceful figure, the white hands. Ailie had never been bo near her husband's heart as she was at that monfent. It struck him with a sudden keen sense of shame that his wife ahould be kneeling there in gentle attendance upon her rival. His faco flushed hotly. lie went to the other end of the room ; then he returned. Ho could not endure it. After all she was hia wife, Ltdy Caradale, although the world did not know it. ( To be continued )