The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-17

nniteiy negative than her brillia nt beauty was positive, of such warning repeilence that it's activity helped to quicken his departure.
 when ne had gone, Stephen moved on her way more slowly. She felt that to seem to finger would put her m the wrong; 1t would never do now 70 let Leonard think for an instant that she had the slightest concern at parting from him. Henceforth she was no longer free to move at what pace she would. She had a secret to keep an appearance to preserve.
 No longer free! The haif-formed thought was a momentary ansuish; {; 1t was as though her virginity had left her. But thought and purpose and the resourcefulness to carry tn ern into being and if necessary into action, are born of anguish. The moth erhood of pain is factor in the making of q strong life.
 As Leonard's steps grew fainter in the distance, she stopped. Then came the rsh of thought. the quick reaction from her high strung nervous tension. She would have given the world to be able to sit down and weep there and then, shamelessly amid the shade and shelter of the trees. The thousands eyes of nature. animate or inanimate, had no dread for her. It was the eyes of her own kind which were full of peril. Not for all the created world would she have had any one of her house. not even passing scullermaid, see her eyes red or a pallor of her cheek. Henceforth she must be mis- tress of herself: of her entire self and heart so thoroughly that by no mis- chance or forgetfulness could her secret be betrayed. Henceforth! The thought was full of endless awe. but Nt1 a took up the burden of her pain and went on resolutely crushing back for the present her thought as she crushed back her tears. though the effort cost her such pain as she thought must be the pain of death. The punish ment of her arrogant unwomanliness had, she felt, indeed begun. All at once there burst on her with peculiar vividness the idea that her secret was not in her own keeping. She could herself be silent under torture; but could she count on Leonard! Ills attitude and conduct towards her had been such as to inspire either con fidence or respect. Then with selt- torturing persistency, and with the keenness which the desperate nature of her situation induced, she ran over ali her knowledge of Leonard Everard's character. The process was not a long one, for it came in series or intel lectual flashes.
 There was, however, this good to her in the new anxiety: 1t had for the moment taken her thoughts from herself. By the time that the thinning of the trees and the opening of wood land vistas made her aware of prox- inity in the house, she was more sure of her ability to stand scrutiny ana to baffle curiosity.
 When once a woman is set, whether by herself or others, to a task which has anything of a social nature, all the resources of her upbringing seem to lend their aid. With seeming non chalance she passed to the wide lawn from amongst the grove of carven box trees She came like sunbeam, with the sunlight making her hair to seem like leaping flame as she moved, for she had taken off her hat which she swung idly by the, strings as she tripped over the close-cut grass. trilling forth a little song. She strolled all round the garden built beside the rib of rock that rose from the sward, and form whose heart gushed the stream of bright water which rippled down the white paved rivulet which led it to the rose garden. At the fountain she stopped to feed the gold fish es which came fearlessly to snatch greedily the crumb from between her fingers. And then gay and debonnaire,