The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-08-23 00:00:00

• [ALL RIGHTS RESEIIVED.]
AMBITION'S LADDER.
Ay the Author of " Atherstone Grange," "4 We fot
a Love," j-e.

CHAPTER IX.—(Continued).

A month later Gertrude had left school for good
and taken up her abode in almost the only home
she had ever known (for she was hardly five years
old when her father's death took place, to leave it
again for ever within a year as a happy, wedded
bride. _ _

It was a strange match, everybody remarked as
soon as her engagemment was made known. And
yet, if it be true that "in joining contracts lieth
love's delight," then, indeed, never was the blind
goi more in his element than when he brought
together two dispositions so diametrically opposed
,as those belonging to Gertrude Granton and
Geoffrey Mainwaring. She so impulsive hot-
tempered—not to say passionate—and full of
.animal life and spirits, a loveable, but quick-
spirited girl, easily guided by affection, difficult,
if not impossible, to coerce, and hotly reseittful of
the least appearance of injustice; he, cold and self-
al:sorbed, with hardly a thought outside his study
walls, until the fateful, ill-omened hour that fast
brought him face to face with his friend's ward.
_ _

GeOffrey Mainwaring was a man of letters and
a student, who had earned no inconsidere le
fame by his researches into various branches of
abstract knowledge, such as cramp the sympathies,
however much they may expand the understanding.
Comparatively young—he was in actual years but
thirty-eight when he met his future wife —he had
already achieved a proud position in the world of
science, and it was with no little surprise that the
news of his approaching marriage was received, for
the gravity of his manner, the cold avoidance of the
company of the gentler sex which he always ex-
hibited, had caused him to be looked upon as one
destined to pass through life untouched by the scat-
tering arrows of love, unlike in himself to inspire
such a sentiment.
And, indeed, he d'd not surrender without a
struggle. If this was a history of Geoffrey Main-
warmg's life there would be much to tell of the con-
flict in his heart and mind before he gave both over
into the keeping of Gertrude Granton. At first he
hardly dared even to think of her as his possible
wife, much less to breathe a word of the passion -
that had taken possession of him' body and soul.
For she appeared to be so far removed from
him in taste, habits, and temperament, so utterly
out of his sphere, as innocently friendly with
him as she was with her guardian, or Dr. Sampson,
who had been the means of their first introduction,
that no idea of the truth even presented itself to him
at first, no suspicion that the very gravity and re-
serve which marked him as somethinc, very different
to his compeers, had more attraction for the woman
he loved in so hopeless a fashion than the idle atten-
tions of younger and more attractive men.
Yet such was in reality the case, and George Sar-
toHs, whose judgment, if shallow, was keen, watched
the course of events with some amazement and no
small curiosity as to the sequel. From the very first
he had noticed Mainwaring's infatuation, and—so
far as it was in him to care for the affairs of anyone
e,cept himself —hoped for a prosperous ending to
•the romance.
Which came at last.

How, noboly seemed to be able to tell, Geoffrey
Mainwaring, perhaps, being more ingnorant of the
means, more bewildered by his good-fortune, than
anyone else. Enough to tell that he found courage
at last to speak, and instead of being laughed at,
re jectel, as he had anticipated, won the prize he had
modestly deemed so far beyond his reach.
"I've been sure of how it would end this ever so

long, old fellow, and I congratulate you, upon my
soul I do," was the greeting accorded him by George
Sartoris on their first meeting after the event was
proclaimed. "Of course if I acted up to my creed
in such matters, I should condole with you on the
loss of your freedom, but, after all, some fellows
must sacrifice themselves for the sake of the rest,
you know."
" Sacrifice ! Ah ! I hardly dare believe myself
worthy---"
"Oh ! of course, that's all correct, I suppose,"
-sail Mr. Sartoris laughingly, "but I wouldn't
advise you to be too diffident. After all, Gertie's
only a woman—a very nice one, 11l admit—but a
little experience of matrimony will probably teach
you more on that subject than any amount of
sermonising from me. However, as I said before,
I congratulate you, and offer you my very best
wishes for your happiness."
"Thank you, thank you," shyly answered Main-
Waring. "I shall do my best to repay her. lam
only afraid lest she may have mistaken her feelings.
What can she have seen in me, I wonder, to care
for? Now, if it had been you—"
"Thank bort, again," broke in George Sartoris.
"But I'd much rather things remain as they are.
Very bad taste on my part, I daresay, but I'm not a
marrying man If I had been, I daresay I might
have entered the lists against you, old fellow. It
-ought to have been long odds in my favour, you
know," he went on lightly. "The governor wanted
hard to make us hitch horses and thrown together
in the same house as we were, more of an age,
'too, I ought to have won if I'd set my mind
.on it.
However, I'm quite content as it i 5.",...
" You'll come to—"
"See you turned of? Of course, and (twist you
up to the scratch, if you like. I can't give you a
stronger proof of my friendship, for to tell the truth,
I consider all such things as a horrid bore, you
know. Not the ceremony itself—unless one is the
principal actor—every one is looking at the bride
there, and besides, it doesn't take so very limo%
But the sitting down to breakfast afterwards, and
having to propose healths and drink them! How
ever, I'll be there. Ta, ta ! old boy."
And he departed on his careless way, but not -with-
out having unmeaningly planted a lyarb in his hearer's
breast which rankled there and left a sting never to
be wholly cured.
"More of an age !" muttered Mainwaring: " Yes,
he is right. lam too old, too grave for so bright and
sunny a creature. Have I done well in persuading
her to link her lot with mine?"
Such doubts, however, were not of long duration,
lasting only till the next time he beheld the bright
smile upon Gertrude's face that welcomed his
approach. Then, all misgivings vanished, all fore-
bodings of ill were cast aside, and so, lulled by
dreams of future happiness, the days flew by until
that one at last arrived which was to witness its
-fruition.

CHAPTER Xe'
DRIFTING APART.
Alas! how light a cause may move
Dissension between hearts that love
For whisp'ring tongues can poison truth,
And constarcy dwells in re lnls above.
Yon a time all went smoothly with the newly-
'wedded pair. Mr. Mainwaring was devoted to his
wife, and the home to which he took her after their
honeymoon trip was refurnished and decorated for
her return. But it was a sombre, gloomy residence,
though substantial and well built, and, although near
to town, standing within its own grounds in a
suburb then uninvaded by builders' Gertrude
sometimes felt very lonely after they had settled
down to their new life, and began to wonder
whether it was always to be of the same monotonous
and uneventful character, with no break in the dreary
sameness of the days she passed in almost utter
solitude. '
At first, indeed, she had not so much to complain
,of on this score, for if her husband's habits prevented
her from enjoying much in the shape of society at
home, he at least did not neglect her or ignore her
claims upon his companionship. Busily engaged as
he was upon a work which necessitated constant
reference to books of science only to be seen in the
various libraries, where they were jealously guarded,
he yet contrived always to get back to Balham at a
reasonable hour, and pass the evening there in his
own drawing room, sometimes even putting aside
his own distaste for amusement so far as to escort
his bride to a concert or theatre. Not very often,
indeed, for Gertrude, much as she enjoyed such
*outings, knew them to be productive of anything
but pleasure to her husband, and not unseldom
made a pretence of indilerence herself, which he ac-
cepted in all faith as sincere, and without the
remotest suspicion that she was making a sacrifice of
her own enjoyment to save him from boredom.
By-and-by, however, there came a time when her
disinclination for amusement was no pretence ; and
during that time, where there was a near prospect
of a new life that was soon to be coming to bind
husband and wife together in bonds yet stronger
than those which already united them, Geofirey
Mainwaring forgot all other things, or at least put
them aside, and tended and watched over his wife
with all the care and solitude of a lover.
Their child was born at last a healthy well-
formed boy, that promised to thrive and grow in
strength; but for a while Gertrude lay hovering
between life and death.
Ah! happier far for her had she departed then
from the world in which henceforth she was to know
but little more of happieess. But her time was net
yet come. Youth, a healthy constitution and Dr.
Sampson's unremitting care and skilful treatment,
brought her back almost from the brink of the
grave, and restored her by slow degrees to her usual
health.
Then came the chine in her husband which
helped to work the after-misery that befell them.
It was not that his love waned, but that he allowed
himself gradually to resume his olde habits and ways
of life, and in the pursuit of theoretical abstractions
to become so absorbed as to pay no heel to the more
important duty that should haveheen his first con-
sideration— the happiness ef the woman he had
vowed to love and cherish.
Nights spent in his study, where Gertrude soon
e
learned that her presence was unwished for, days
-flassed away from home, or if in the house, SO OCcu-
' 1.• a that it was almost impossible to obtain speech
' with 111, caused her life to assume a dull, dead level
that was
_ell thins the most unsuited to such a
o'things
disposition as iat of Gertrude Mainwaring; and
the not unnatural rekat ffaAkew.4 that, shut out as
she was from all apparent, sympathy in the quarter
she most craved it. denied the home communion


which should have been hers, and thrown-I;7A upon
her own resources, she insensibly drifted into a
careless indifferen^e to all things, even outwardly to
her child, and sought distraction in such pleasures as
lay to her hand...

'What marvel that it should be so? Neglected for
other attractions, and suffering the loss of her hus-
band's affections, as she erroneously imagined, what
remained to her but to go her own way andleave him
to his?

Not all at once did she arrive at this state of feel-
ing, nor, even when she did, was it the deliberate
resolve of a woman who had ceased to love her
husband. On the contrary, her heart was still all
his; not the less so, perhaps, that she imagined his
to be closed against her, and she was too proud to
sue for restoration to a place which she had not for-
feited by any fault,
That she was mistaken in the judgment she had
formed never crossed her mind, nor was it probable,
even if she had spoken out, that Mr. Mainwaring
would have been able to disabuse her, for he was a
man of few words at any time, and expressions of
attachment were rare upon his lips ; how then should
she guess that all his life, his hopes, were hers?
And yet, slowly but surely, these two, who might
with only a moderate insight into each other's real
sentiments have lived so happily, were drifting apart,
and soon came to open war.
eturning home late one eveninz, after a visit
to the publishers who had his work, now nearly
completed, in hand, Geoffrey Mainwaring found his,
wife absent. This was not an uncommon occurrem e,
but one he had never troubled himself about before,
being entirely free from any such suspicions as might
have occurred to other men. On this occasion,
however, her absence was a disappointment, for a
sudden qualm of conscience having seized him while
out, he had planned a pleasant surprise for Gertrude,
in `l,e shape of a box at the Opera, to hear
Pic,oA-,mini, whose marvellous voice was attracting
all London.

His disappointment gave place to a more serious
feeling, however, when he was informed by Ger-
trude's maid that her mistress had been called for by
Mrs. Vernon, with whom she was going to dine, ani
would not return till late.

Mr.'. Mainwaring was more than annoyed at
hearing this—he was seriously angry. Be kner
very little of Mrs. Vernon personally, but much by
reputation, and the estimation in which he knew her
to be held made it by no means a pleasant thought
to him that his wife had contracted so great an
intimacy with her as to visit her in so informal a
fashion.

knew .

However, his annoyance soon vanished, for he
had every colifidence in Gertrude, and told himself
that she was of course unaware of Mrs. Vernon's
characte-, and would drop her acquaintance when
she knew he disapproved of it.
In the meantime he must go to the Opera, for
having met Dr. Sampson in town, and knowing
that gentleman's fondness for music, he had invited
him to join him. He did not know Mrs. Vernon's
address, or he would, regardless of appearances,
have gone after Gertrude and taken her away.
Under the circumstances, all he could do was to re-
solve that he would forbid his wife to visit her any
more, and no thought of her rebelling against such
an order crossed his mind.

It was a very full house at the'Opera that night,
and even Geoffrey Mainwaring, little as he cared for
such scenes, could not help admiring the coup d'a,il
presented by the tiers of boxes filled with "fair
women and brave men," till a sudden exclamation
from his companion made him look more closely at
the occupants of an opposite box.
One, a magnificent, Juno-like woman, with bold,
flashing eyes, he recognised immediately for Mrs.
Vernon, and seated opposite to her, her face half-
hidden by a fan, was Gertrude, his wife.
But they were not alone, for the back of the box
was completely filled by a group of men, one of
whom was leaning over the back of Gertrude's chair,
and with his mouth close to her ear seemed to be
talking to her very earnestly, and, as she smiled
responsively, Geoffrey Mainwaring rose from Isis
chair and walked hastily from the box with a dark
frown of anger clouding his forehead.
To make his way round the corridor, and enquire
of one of the attendants which was Mrs. Vernon's
ho'-, took but a few minutes. Informed on that
point he knocked at the door, but opened it and
entered without waiting for an answer.
"Are you ready to go home Gertrude F" he said,
addressing his wire, who had half-started up at his
entrance, but resumed her seat. "I am sorry to
take you from your friends," and he made a coldly
ceremonious bow all round; "but they will muse
you, I am sure."

_
"I don't think I shall, for one, Mr. Mainwaring,"
said Mrs. Vernon; "why the opera is not half-over
yet! Surely you are not going to submit to such
tyranny, Gertrude? I'll drive you home."
She spoke the words playfully, but Geeffrey
Mainwarmg's features did not relax a muscle of their
stern inflexibility as he answered for his wife, and
declined to remain.

"It is late, and we live some distance from town,
he said. "Mrs. Mainwaring will return with me.
Come, Gertrude."

d. Very quietly she rose and prepared to obey him,
for the same pride which made her present bitterly
fuch a display of marital authority also prevented
her from offering a useless resistance, and, saying
good night to those from whom she was forcibly
divided, she left the box, declining mutely the arm
her husband offered for her acceptance.
Mrs. Vernon laughed sneeringly as the door closed
behind them.
"Did ever one see such a bear ?" she said
mockingly.
"Quite a Blue Beard, I should imagine," re-
marked an inane youngster attired in elaborate
evening costume. " Wonder will he cut her head
off when they get home !"
"Looked awfully black, by Jove !" drawled
another.

Only one made no observation on the scene that
had just taken place, though Mrs. Vernon, looking
narrowly at him from behind her fan, noticed an
angry flush upon his cheeks, a compression of his
lips, that told her it was not regarded by him alto-
gether as an amusing episode, but rather in a seriQus
light.
"Never mind, Louis," she whispered aside to
him, "the ogre cannot always be upon the watch.
She's coming to my ball to-morrow night, and if you
behave yourself, perhaps you may get an invitation
too."

The Honourable Louis Southwell, only son of
Lord Lynwood, was a cousin of Mrs. Vernon.
Hardly entered upon man's estate, for he had only
recently attained his majority, and never before
having lost his heart, it was neither vice nor the
foolish desire to appear a seasoned man of the world.
by attaching himself to another man's wife that in-
fluenced him in his attentions to Gertrude, but all-
absorbing, passionate admiration for the woman
herself—a love that it would scarcely be a misnomer
to call pure, since it was certainly untainted by any
thought derogatory to her whom he worshipped
for the time being with all the unbridled. un-
reasoning impetuosity of youth.
For Gertrude, she had no suspicion how matters
stood with him, simply regarding him as a pleasant,
but rather boyish companion, in whose society she
never even dreamed of danger either to herself or
him. Nor was she aware of Mrs. Vernon's character
—that she was a woman who, separated from her
husband without any open scandal, merely con-
trived to keep her footing in the very outermost
fringe of society. Unscrupulous, reckless of her
own fair fame, but cunning and cautious enough not
to forfeit the last few ragged shreds that still re-
mained to her, Clara Vernon was not likely to
interpose for the purpose of saving another woman
from destruction ; and seeing her cousin's infatuation
she urged him on by cunningly-worded hints of
Gertrude's miserable home life, the utter uneiitable-
ness of disposition between her and Geoffrey
Mainwaring, who, she more than suggested, actually
ill-treated his wife, till the youth's very chivalry of
nature and manliness of disposition assisted in fanning
the flame that might otherwise have flickered and died
from the consciousness of its bale. hopeless, and he
brooded over Gertrude's wrongs and misery, until at
last he worked himself into the belief that he should
be doing her no wrong by snatching her away from
such a life and devoting his to her future happiness.
The scene at the Opera was the last straw.
Before then it had only been from his cousin's lips
that he had heard of.'“ertrude's wrongs. Now his
own oyes had witnessed her distress and tho brutality
of the man to whose care a harsh fortune had con-
signed her; his own ears heard the covert savagery
of Geoffrey Mainwaring's tone as he addressed her,
and it had only been by a superior effort, by the con-
sideration that any in erference upon his part at such
a juncture would but inevitably tend to compromise
Gertrude, and draw down upon her from her tyrant
treatment that it would not be in his power to pre-
vent, that Louis Southwell was able to refrain from
an open exhibition of his anger.
"But it shall not be for long," he-muttered to
himself as he walked home that night after sup -er
with Mrs. Vernon, during which she, with the spirit
of malicious mischief which was strong upon her,
had spoken words which went far to strengthen his
purpose—if, indeed, such strengthening was re-
quired—and instilled into him a firmer belief than
ever that in his bands lay the power of rescuing
Gertrude Mainwaring from her bondage. "I will
save her, let the world say what it will.. ,My poor,
tortured darling 1"
And with this resolve, based upon a total mis-
apprehension of Gertrude's sentiments towards him,
he determined to make use of the first opportunity
that presented itself to declare his passion and im-
plore her to trust her future in his hands.
(To be continued).

A srzali town in Minnesota named Anolfa has been
almost entirely burnt down, and the loss is estimated at
a million dollars.
Reports in regard to partridges in Bucks, Hats, and
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good sport may therefore be anticipated. Favourable
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The number of visitors to the International Health
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Total since the opening 2,026,294.
Th.e traffic receipts of the Suez Canal on Thursday
amounted to ICO,OOO fr., and on Friday to 100,000 fr.,
e eon-
!egsapinonstdi3n.7 ay
10,0_400 forf.
lastan ydle7aor.,oo r9snectivp, ryo th i