The record-union., 1898-03-06

Cicely Brunei was awaiting him at
the garden gate that led out on to the
cliff. Behind her and above her rose a
group of solemn fir trees. their veivet
crowns clear cut against the blue. The
little path where she stood was edged
with a heavy hedge of laurestinus and
berberis, and at her feet some early
primroses peeped out beneath the gloss
of the evergreens. There was a smile
in the girls eyes as she watched her
lover coming along the yellow trackway.
the great breadth of sea twinl1ling and
| ing from the mellow light that shone
over Poole Harbor to the radiance Of
the girlface near at hand. Another mo-
ment the gate clicked to admit him, and
slender arm was entwined in his.
Il have been longing for you to come, T"
said the young lady, after the first greet
ings We're over, and Major Jardine had
bent down to kiss her more than once as
they passed under the fir trees.
| 1T has been such an exciting morn
| ing. Poor Joe"-Joe was a fat Belgian
hare. whose hut was in close neighbof-
hood to the house-"seemed very i'll,
and l had to ask Anderson to come and
look al him. Then my darling Nonpareii
finch would go on catching flies and
eating too many. though / wanted him
to come back to his cage, and we had no
end of bother to induce him to go in;
and, worst of all, dear MacAlister
here she glanced at the collie shifting
the breeze beside her-"got large bone
down the wrong way, and l was quite
miserable thinking he would cough till
he choked.'
| Major Jardine smiled down at the ca
ger face, with its peachlike cheeks and
shining eyes. He had lived at least
twenty years longer in the world than
she had, and was possibly obliged to
simulate a greater concern over Cicely $
recital than it was quite possible to feeI.
But he was SO genuinely in love with
her that at this stage her merest plati-
tudes seemed to him to be pearls drop
ping from her mouth, and the advent
ures of her dogs to be more interesting
than the proceedings of the present
Government. Cicely did most of the
toward the white house, which was shell
tered by another group of still taller
pines.
girl, taking off her hat IF Joe were only
quite we'll l should be perfectly happy.
The crocuses are coming UP wonder
fully. aren't they, Dering? / shall have
plenty for the church next Sunday. Now
come in and see papa" She stopped To
pick gigantic purple bloom and handed
it TO the tall soldier, who put it proudly
into his buttonhole.
People in London, and in former days
in society al Simla. had always looked
upon Major Jardine as a very cynical,
easily bored person-the sort of a man
who had never a word for young girl,
and in whose presence the subalterns
We're more than a little subdued. He
had way of raising his eyebrows and
| smiling silently at their remarks which
disconnected them. But having regard
| to his reputation as horseman, and to
| his almost professional knowledge of the
turf. their awe of him was not so great
as their admiration. During these sunny
February days his old friends would
have found him entirely transformed.
He was more than happy talking of cro-
cuses and rabbits and birds, in small
| villa by the sea, with only one little
girl to walk about with him and a rather
dull old gentleman with whom to play
piquet. and that love game, after an
early and very unattractive dinner.
! The only drawback to his happiness
was the necessity of making constant
| efforts to ignore past memories-recol-
| lections which once. long ago, it would
have seemed nothing less than a sacri-
! lege to obliterate.
Not even in inmost thought to think
| The sins that made the past so pleasant
to us.
At this time Dering Jardine wondered
how men could find much difficulty In
obeying such an injunction If he could
only have blOtted forever all remem-
brance of some five years of his past,
he would cheerfully have consented to
give up the same number or more at
the end Of life Now and then, when
he and Cicely rambled among the little
paths by the crocus beds. or along the
sunny walk that crowned the cliff. the
girl would rally him on his preoccupa-
ton How simple and how sweet she
was. thought Dering. The old-fashioned
type of girl who has no curiosity re-
garding sad or shameful stories, and
who would remain young and pure even
If her face should grow lined and her
hair whte-the ideal woman, whom sc
few win and whose heart held no idol
but himself The outside world. for its
part, thought Lady Cicelv Brunei ex-
tremely fortunate. She had no dowry
of her own, her father having sold his
estates years ago and in the quiet
routine of her life at sea place inhab-
tied mainly by invalids and dowagers
it had seemed improbable that she
would marry young, if at all. But a
country house visit and three weeks
of London had served to convince Ma
jor Jardine that his love was of an alb
solutely desperate quality, and a few
minutes alone with Cicely proved that
it was not hopeless.
Lord Overton was naturally over
joyed. His prospective son-in-law, if
a little old for Cicely. was we'll born,
popular, a good sportsman, and had
lately been left no less than half a
million in ready money by a well-known
banker. his mothers cousin. This last
piece of good luck had come upon Major
Jardine as a surprise. Most of his
youth had been spent in India, where
he had always known what it was to be
comparatively poor, and where more
than once he had even been in great
pecuniary difficulties He sighed a lit
tie when he looked in the glass at his
fast whitening hair. and realized how
late ii was getting TO enjoy these good
gifts of fortune. If ne had been a
richer man many years ago he would
have married and settled down and
avoided. The he fell TO
mCsing. He was once more in a garden,
@here the roses grew in bewildering
tangle. And there We're masses of