The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1906-05-05 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

WARDEN.  news of the engagement between your daughter and my son. Da Marsden's face flushed deeply, 4171 d his blue eyes assumed a certain einely ea. prewion habitual to them when clispleseeL He said no more until he had ceremoniously ushered bis visitor into his study and closed the door. She declined the chair be offered, and stood facing him by the ineplace, watching him as though to read in hie face what line of argument would best edemas' the ends she hod in view. "And now, madam," said the doctor, in 1 his most dignified and uncompromising manner, "may I ask wine obyietiona you have to the propoeed zaatch between Lola and your eon" Madame de Vatig was silent for a moment and then elected to reply by another question.  -;;Tkr'iret, will you tell me what are the fade concerning Lola with which you aTe aritioue to....tictitiß.int.. me" _  "I an tell you them," he answered slowly you can firet assure me that you ATO perfectly wiling that this mhrriage may take place. If not—" "Well?"  "Well, you must forgive me for putting it in that way, but in that case my avows,/ would give you the excuse you require for breaking off the match and thus making bwo people very unhappy." "I require no excuae." she said. "I do emphatically object to tile marriage. More than that, I forbid it, and you must forbid it ton."  "On what grounds" "My diotalenrittre." she answered, her lea. tures and 1,7 contracting as if in pain. "and the unsuitability of the whole thing. Lola is a child, she knows nothing of Aubrey. Besides, she is in love with another man. And Aubrey does not know his own mind. The whole thing is out of the question: it was most injudicioo, most wrong, to countenance it without consulting mu: and I am sure, Dr. Marsden, you are too prom' and too honourable to allow lola to be engaged to a man whores mother declines to receive her as her daughter. "Then, naadavm you do not know me." said the doctor, his obetinate temper the=aroused. "I have always had the respect and admiration for you, and I will even go so far as to say that one of the reasons why I was so much pleased over this engagement was that Lola would be re:atni to a lady I esteemed as highly as I do you. But you lower the opinion I had formed of you by advancing such flimsy pretexts for breaking off what &Peale to me and to most people a most suitable match. I should be very sorry to abet any man in quarrelling with his mother, but With my daughter's future happiness at stake, as wail as that of year eon, I shall not think of retracting the full consent 1 have already given until you can prove to me that you have some better reason ..h an a mother's jealousy for withholding yetis." So he looked down at her, unyielding: and she looked up at him, desperate, Far. eased, but unyielding also. "You will not believe me, then, wlen I tell you I have weights: reasons tor my conduct in this matter?" she said, in a low voice.  ma.dani, I cannot believe that you have weighty reasons for objecting to Lola aa a daughter-in-ltvw, unless I hear them explained to me."  - "My ol:Txte.7t7o.ne are not to your daughter, Dr. Marsden, but to my son." Her hands were tightly clasped upon her cane. The hard :wok in her eyes had given wag to one of utter wietchednuie, and in her voice there rang a note Of the keenest pain. Surprise keptthe doctor orient all de Yalu gracious dignity and suave chasm of manner and appeeXaCCO had , disappeared: she stood before laini a sorrowful, white-haired women, forted to disclaim ! a secret that had eaten into her life for ! more than twenty years. "Yon drive me into telling you what I have sworn that no one but myself and one lother person should know,- she said. "Dr. Marede.n, I have often heard you speak of hereditary influences. My eon's great-uncle committed suicide in a fit of insanity: his uncle died in a 'maison de sante' in Brasil. ! Hie father, my husband, is not dead, as ' the world thinks; he is mad, hopelessly !mad, and has been so for more than twenty years. I saw with my own eyes my niece I lying dead, killed by /ny husband's hands; and not twen.ty-fonr hours ago I was standing in my husband's cell listening to his incoherent raving& It WM hie illness that took me to Paris, and I rationed to hear that my ecui, descended from generations of snob madmen, was to be the husband of your daughter. Wil you give your eoneent to this marriage now ?"  (To be eoutirmed).  1