The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1906-10-06
CHAPTER XVI. (Continued.)

CHAPTER XVI. (continued.)
General Kenyon read the paragraph
in the Gazette with a shake of the
head. GAS we'll that it did not finish
with Her Majesty having no further
need for his services,'" he muttered
to himself. ''By Jove! There is some
mystery. l believe there is. And yet,
his keys, the servants who saw him,
his inability to prove an alibi; even
that f1ighty Polish countess admitted
his having called there, but she and
left again befor eleven-and only the
lads power of making one fond Of him
to set: against it ALL"
Ursula read it with eyes that flashed
indignation and then filled with tears.
my poor, poor darling! 1t is too un-
just, too disgraceful. What he must
be suffering now!" For Noel had
gone from Portsmouth when the tardy
Gazette appeared. Another aide-de-
camp filled his place at Government
House, and was the admired and
sought-after of the Southsea maiden,
and he had left no trace behind. Ur-
sula had watched and waited for him
to come to her at Nutwood, but he had
not given a sign. Then she wrote to
him, and poured her heart out in the
letter as she had never done before. .
"You cannot think l mean to accept
what you said that day at Government
House as final. I refuse my release.
Do you think I promised to be your
wife only while fine weather lasted
and not when the storms came? Is
my love for you the kind of thing,
Noel, that can be laid aside at will?
You know better. I will not think so
meanly OF you as to suggest that you
could think that of it. You know it is
as faithful as your own. And because
a terrible misfortune has hapreneM to
you, a thing that no one can under
stand, you ask me to take back my
promise to you. There is no taking
back. I am all yours for the rest OF
life that is left to both of us. and for
the life beyond that will have no end.
I->love-love-love you, Noel. I shall
never change, and so I claim the right
to still belong to you. l shall ask my
fathers consent to our marriage as
soon as I see him, if You will not.
Whenever you come to claim that sa-
cred promise I gave you l am more
than ready for you. Noel, don't make
me watt
And in answer to that he had writ
ten 1etter-passionate. heart-broken,
full of despair my best, my dearest,
Heaven bless you! But it cannot.
it must not be. I am dishonored, dis
graced, shamed in the sight Of those
who believe me a criminal. I cannot
stretch out to you a hand that is
stained, though I am gniltless Of soil
ing it. l cannot take the gift You Of
fer me. shall go down to my grave
loving you-and you on1y-the one
woman the world holds. But till |
stand clear in the sight of all my
world, and they acknowledge they
have misjudged me, must stand
aside out of your life. I am going to
try if there is any place for me in an
other land, since my own has shut me
from her doors. l sail for South 'Afri-
ca to enlist in one of the Irregular
forces there, and live by my pistol and
sword. 1t may be that the cloud out
there may burst sooner than any of us
look for. could almost find it i'll my
heart to pray that it may. l want to
fight hard with somethlng-some one
Il want to wipe from my name the
first smirch it ever carried. I want to
feel free to look On your face once
,hx, T nn1v rr2V
I may find the grave Of soldier in a
land that is not my own"
TWAS his farewell to her. How she
read and re-read and wept over, only
the silent hours of sleepless nights
could tell. Ursula knew the words OF
it by heart, and they were dear to her
even in their sharp pain-for.. the
worst trial of her happy life was hard
to bear.
He was in Africa; the other battal
ion of her fathers regiment was some
where out there, too. He must go and
ioin it on his promotion. She might
70 out, too. It gave new hope to he1
drearv future, from which the sun
seemed suddenly to have faded, to
think that they might be in the same
land again.
And then came a hasty letter from
her father-written from Plymouth
and sent ashore by the pilot. The tel
egram had just reached him of his
succession to the command of the 9th
er battalion, and he was to proceed al
once to the cape. Meet men in town
at the Metropole," the message <rar
that his letter brought: @:Yous9s.:mus1
get your things in as much: OF q hurry
as you can manage, for I have to sal
at once. It's rather rough on a1nlan
certainly, to hustle him out of tht
country again the ,f,rst time hess ret