The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-09-06

CHAPTER I.
MAD voR TIE LOVE or HER.

CHAPTER L
MAD yoR THE LOVE or HER.
sits mo use. I've come back, you
zee. ] guessed you'd be alone now. -
And Sir Jaffray Walcote laughed a. he
passed out through the window Of the
hotel on to the veranda and sat down
ON a low basket chair, which creaked
under the weight Of his tall, powerful
frame.
Lola Crawshay, who was sitting
alone at the end Of the yeranda, looked
up from her book and first greeted him
with glance and q smile, which made
his pulses beat faster, and then changed
and said in tone which implied re-
buke:
'You said you would go with the
Others"
II know, and I meant it right
enough. I always do when-when you
pack mo off. got nearly as far as the
town, and upon my word I meant to
go right on and find the little woman
and my cousin and stop with them,
just as said, but-well, thought Of
this cozy veranda, and that-that you"
-he glanced at her, checked himself
and changed the finish of the sentence,
adding-"that on such an evening one
gets such fine views of the scenery, you
know, and all that, and so here I am.
That's all. !" And he turned his smiling,
handsome face to her.
"You had no right to come back"
said Lola gravely and almost coldly,
and she closed her book and gathered
up the fancy work which she had been
doing. Then she rose from her chair
and stood just where the sun sbone
upon her, bathing her in golden light
and making her magnificent beauty seem
almost supernatural in its dazzling ra-
dance.
Her companion gazed almost like one
bewitched by the glorious picture she
made.
"Will you Let me pass, Sir Jaffray?"
che asked, purposely avoiding his eyes.
He jumped to his feet and Redeemed.
''Do you mean you are going ini
Have I offended you? Don't CO."
The last was whispered appeal, and
he looked down at her and seemed to
search for her eyes with his. After a
long pause she lifted her face and turned
upon him gaze which thrilled him till
he almost trembled with the passion
which ragged in him.
Then she made as II to speak, but said
nothing, and her eyes fell again, as
though beaten down by the ardent look
be bent on her, and instead Of speaking
she sighed deeply and TREMENDOUSLY.
She moved on as If to pass him with.
out speaking, but he barred her path,
and as though unwittingly she brushed
against him, then stopped, drew back
and started and sank down again into
her chair, leaning her arm on the We.
randa and her face on her hand and Sit
ting quite still, like the statue Of en-
barrassed and emotional loneliness.
Sir Jaffray leaned against the rail Of
the veranda and made no effort to speak
for awhile, content to feast his eyes
upon her lustrous beauty and to yield
himself up to the full enjoyment Of the
emotions she had reused.
He was mad for the love Of her, and
she knew 1t we'll enough and meant to
be- his wife.
But she knew also that there were
difficulties to be surmounted first and
that she must act warily and cautiously
II she was to succeed.
It was more than 10 months since
that scene on the DEVILS rock, and she
had already made excellent use Of her
time in England. She had found Mrs.
Villyers, the widow to whom her father
had sent her, ready at first to give her
only very cold and formal welcome,
willing to do for o relative what the
demands Of duty. alphabetically inter-
preted, might require, but unwilling,
on account Of the i'll odor Of Lola's ia
Their with bis family. to take her into
the house on the footing Of an intimate
and loving friend.
But Lola had amply justified her
shrewd old fathers judgment, and the
winning tact, the clever usefulness, the
supple adaptability and the patient
temper which the girl never failed to
show won the old lady heart, until she
was almost loath to let her out of her
sight.
As the old man had predicted, more
over, Mrs. Villyers' introduction open
ed the doors Of every desirable house in
the county, and Lola's beauty and
shrewdness did the rest. She was the
beautiful Miss Crawshay, and nobody
ever tried to remember that her father
had enjoyed and deserved reputation
for such i'll conduct as had made his
friends pension him off on condition
that he never set foot in his native
country.
Lola was not long idle, moreover, in
her plans. She meant to marry.
She had heard nothing Of the man who
had forced her to marry him, and she
believed him dead. If he was still liv-
ing, it was almost impossible for him
to find her, she thought. Anyway she
would take the risk.
The homage which the men all round |
the neighborhood were eager to pay her
wherever she went soon convinced her |
that she could marry almost whom she |
pleased, and, as she had long convinced
herself that she had no love to give and
no reason to fear any yielding to
weakness Of the kind, she carried very
cool head indeed behind her very glow.
ing and fire raising beauty.
Her final decision as to the man she
would marry came as much by accident
as design on her part.
Among her distant connections was a
bright, shrewd, gossiping little woman,
Mrs. De Witt, whose married life was
in Lola's views a curiosity. The hus-
band and wife had no tastes In common,
except that they were both intensely
'ond of the comforts which money can
give. They went nowhere together. II
hey met in public, it was generally &C.