The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-05-02
tcontinued From Yesterday,
CHAPTER Xxx.

|THERE had been something in
Bertha's face of late which had
seemed a sort of reproach to
Lady Muriel. She did not know what
the girl had absolutely discovered; still
she could not divest herself of the i'm
preston that she knew something, and
she was. therefore, greatly relieved
when Bertha. having accepted Angey
Tramberley's invitation, had started for
Richmond.
Once alone, however, and minus the
nursing and the worry of Bertha's ILL
ness, Lady Muriel had ample time
to devote her thoughts to the
absent Christian, and that she
did do so, almost to the extinction OF
every other subject, there is little
doubt.
Christian. whose letters used to be so
frequent that if she had not wisely
burnt them they would have filed
boxes, now never wrote at all.
For a time Lady Muriel was irritated
to the degree of making herself most
disagreeable to everyone with whom
she came in contact. Then the phase
of her feeling seemed to. change. and
Lady Muriel became a victim of fits of
the most abject dependency, which,
for the time. seemed to check all her
usual activity of mind.
Illicit though it was, she had a fer
vent, deeply-rooted affection for Chris
tian, there is little doubt; scarcely had
she even recognized the depth of it
herself till she found herself, as it were,
deserted by him and left in solitude
to ponder over the happy days that
might have been had she not elected
to divide her homage at the shrines o
lPlutus and Cupid.
She lost her sleep by night, her peace
by day. and was beginning to ook sc
thin and haggard that ever Mr.. Aston
noticed it and grumbled that he had
no sooner got rid of one invalid out
of the house than it seemed he was To
be burdened with another. .s p
In the factory everything is, as he
describes it, at skies and sevens since
it was given out that Max Schippheim
intended to marry hat little pauper
drab, and what lunacy had possessed
the senior partner when he decided OH
such a step he could not for the life OF
him conceive. One very certain thing
was that if such an ill-assorted mar
riage ever did take place, they might
as we'll close the Arundale works forth
with, for there would be no managing
the people; they were in a state of
/ slumbering INSTRUMENTATION now.
4 And this does not suit my pocket,
Muriel. We shall be paupers, dye
Z hear, if this tomfoolery is allowed to
go on"
This last sentence was the invariable
refrain of all Herbert Alston's many
J growls to his wife on the subject of
Max Schippheim's intentions toward
Patty; the curious part of the affair
being that she who had been so keen
in stopping this marriage, now seemed
perfectly Indifferent as to whether it
took place or not, while Mr. Aston was
keenly alive to the fact that such an
alliance would be most injurious to the
interests of the business.
That his wife would have seen this
as. clearly. as he did, and have helped
him in her powerful way to arrest its
, completion and their utter ruin, he had
fondly hoped; but he was mistaken.
Lady Muriel apparently perceived none
of the personal inconvenience that
/ would arise from Mr.. Schippheim's
Z. marriage with Patty, or, if she did per-
ceive them, was utterly Indifferent on
the subject, and all Herbert Aston
t could say would not arouse her.
. The fact was, all her thoughts were
t engrossed in contemplation of the
= strange behavior of the absent Chris
= tian, and she never attempted to divert
, them to any other subject.
No wonder Herbert Aston gazed in
2 wonder at his wife, and, at times, had
serious thoughts of sending to London
} for f~rst-rate advice. All this while
Paul Brumeau had not left Arundale.
BY the terms of his agreement, he was
to have three months notice before de-
parture, and not much more than as
many weeks had passed since the
, morning Max S%chippheim came sud
e denly upon him and Patty. Paul Bru-
meau die, not wish to cave APundale
i The position he hold there suited him
T the pay suited him, and, moreover, he
e basked in the favor of the lady at Dale
House. He had been carried away into
the commission of a foolish act by the
impression Patty's beauty had made or
him, but he saw his mistake, and, like
0 a clever man, from the moment he
> saw it, he set himself, if possible, t
I. repair it.
I The modus operandi to effect thi:
= was, he decided, as utter n entire al
u obliteratlon of himself as was possible
I never allowing himself to be either seer
or heard when he could help it. %
course, he went into the p-ainting-roou
at the works and gave his lessons anC
: drew his mastery designs; but out o.
hours he became a cipher; he inter:
, fered with no one, never went e
I Dale House, and consequently had no
had one conversation with Lady Murie
, since Max Schippheim's marriage hac
beer announced.
{ Fatty stayed at Daleford. ~patientl.
. working with Mrs. Bligh and meeting
) the master occasionally by the mill; l
seemed as If she too had a desire Il