A Wandering Bride

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3486, 28 March 1912, Page 3

A Wandering Bride

BY MARION WARD.

Author of “Love’s Thorny ' Path,” “His Fair Lady,” etc.

(Published by Special Arrangement: All Rights Reserved.) CHAPTER XTHE RAILWAY ACCIDENT. It was only eight clays., since' iiei wedding, but the suffering of years, seemed to have' been compressed into the time. As the train rushed southwards, Loveday tried in vain to decide on her next step, but only one thing was certain, happen what might she would not return to her mother.

She had Mrs Barrington’s sovereign and a, few, oh ! how few, Shilligs besides between her and destitution, but the outfit purchased for her -dry Airs Dn veil try had perforce been left behind at .Northe!iff, for, even if she could have got the trunk .and its contents to the station,, Lcveday would not have thought it honest to remove the things bought- with her employer’s money. She had very, very little of the latter commodity herself, but before leaving North cl iff she had thrust into the pocket of her jacket a tiny box in which she liadi stored away her wedding ring and keeper. Both were of considerable value, and she hoped to be able to sell them. “I had better stay in London,” was Loved-ay’s final decision. “If Igo to the Great Northern Hotel for the night, I cail look for a cheap lodging to-morrow. I daresay I can buy a handbag near the station before I go to the hotel.”

But- the bag was never bought and the Great Northern Hotel did not receive Loved ay that night. About an hour after Airs Barrington had left her, another traveller came to ..interrupt her solitude, a girl about her own age and rather pretty, who told Love_ day she had joined the train at York, but there was a crying baby in her change into a quieter compartment, carriage, andi so she was glad to “Are you going to London?” asked L-oveday, who felt it would seem churlish to refuse to talk. • 'Yes, and I have never been there in my life before. The train.gets in at half-past seven, «o it will be quite dark.” “Perhaps you have friends to meet, you?” suggested Loveday. “I am going to stay with an aunt whom I have never seen,” said the girl. “I have had rather a hard life of it since mother died, for my lather married again, and his second wife hates me. She made me into a kind of drudge to her children when they came, and even managed to turn my father's heart against- me.

“AA r hon things were very bad, I plucked up my courage and wrote to my aunt, mother’s only sister, who I knew bad just come borne from IndiaI did not beg of her, you know, I could not- have brought myself to do that, but I told! her just bow things were at home, and I asked her if she could find me a situation with one of her friends as nursery governess. I did not mind asking such a tiling as that, but 'I could not have bogged her to give me a home.”

“T quite understad,” said Loveday, wishing she, too, possessed an unknown relation. “And instead of the situation vour aunt offered you a home?”

“She wrote and said I’d better coj.iv/ on a visit- to her, and, as she had >w daughter, she thought we might- make each other happier for being together, but that if we did not ‘fit in,’ smwoukl try her 'best to find me a really nice situation after Christmas.” “How kind of her!” “Isn't, it? You know,” went on the girl, -who seemed impelled in some strange way to confidence, “I had really no claim on her. Father and my stepmother declare she will be horrified when she secs me, because I am such a little rustic, and have had no advantages! but I am hoping, she may manage to like me, just for mother’s sake!” “I am sure she will,” said Loveday, who thought the pretty, childish face very winning- and attractive. “I expect you will be very happy with her. AVhat is her name?” “Airs V-ernon.? But I am to call her ‘Aunt Lucy, v Atv name is Lucy, too—Lucy Marsh.--” If til© aunt proved to Tie a great lady, there might be a good deal for the little girl to pick nip before she passed) muster among her friends, for the yo-unger Lucy looked a simple country girl; but from lier very heart Loveday envied the child. “You. look so tired,” said Lucy, quietly, “couldn’t you put up'your feet and try to- go to sleep? No one can get hi now to disturb us, for I know the train does not step between Peterborough and; London,” “I am very tired,” admitted Love-) day; “and we have nearly an hour and a half more. Perhaps if I had a nap I should be better.” . .. Lucy rolled, up. her own cloak tomake a pillow for her new friend’s head and covered her with a 'shawl, for her innocent heart had gone cut to. this beautiful, lonely girl, who seemed even more desolate than • herself. On and on swept the train in its rush London wards, Loveday sleeping: saundjly, worn cut by trouble, Lucy Alarsb watching her and wondering what sorrow could have brought those-dark

shadows beneath her .lovely eyes.- , : “If only, she would , tell me her story and where she lives, I Would'ask Aunt Lucy to be good to her,” mused the girl. > . That was Lucy’s last conscious thought,, and it was a kindly one, as kindly as th c child’s own heart. A few-seconds later there came a loud, crushing noise, followed by a tremendous jerk. Lucy was flung violently to the ground; the whole compartment was overturned, and the lamp went cut.

The train had run into some goods trucks, which had been left by mistake on the permanent way instead of being shunted to a siding, and; tlm engine and the two- first coaches were a complete wreck. When the rescuing party, some halfhour later, made their way along the line to the compartment -where the two girls were alone, they found- one quite dead, the other stunned and unconscious.

It was the solemn words again: “One shall be taken and the other left”; hut which of those two lair young lives had been thus suddenly quenched—the 'girl -whose affectionate aunt eagerly awaited her coming, or the fugitive bride, for whom *-.»®re seemed no place or peace on this side of the grave? (To be Continued.)

As indicating the great damage that is being done in AVakapuaka orchards by opossums, Air. G. Hall brought- to the Nelson Alail office last week a* number of apples which had been nibbled bv these creatures, die states that they are eating hundreds of apples every night, while a crop of nuts will be entirely spoilt. The opossum seems to be a greater pest- than the rabbit. Air Hall considers there must be some hundreds in the AVakapuaka district. The extraordinary part about it is (says the Alail) that the opossum is protected.

At Xi eh all's Theatre. Taihape, a few days ago, Torn Burrows, the champion club swinger, succeeded in establishing a new world’s record for club swinging with a .minimum of one hundred evolutions per minute. Starting at -four minutes past eight on a Thursday night, be kept- going continuously maintaining the necessary speed, until six minutes post, 11 on Saturday night, thus breaking the previous record (held by biniseilf) oa 51 hours, by two minutes. The performer was' watched continuously by relays of a committee formed of local business people, who certified to the correctness 'of the -performance. At the concluding stage on Saturday night the theatre was packed bv an enthusiastic crowd, who wildly elite r od the champion as he finished has arduous task.

A AA" air a rap a road contractor bad a singular experience recently. AVhen feeding his her sen in the morning he found that four of them were non est. Finding their tracks, he started off in pursuit, riding a bicycle, and ascertained that a man had gone past at an early hour in the morning with four draught horses, .-hollowing up ms due. he came up with his team close to Alastert-on. Asking for an explanation, lie was informed in reply that the man in charge was going to do some ploughing in the district, and as the four horses seemed a likely team he bad “just brought them along." The contractor did not press Ins inquiries any further, but coming to the only natural conclusion "with regal u to the man’s mental condition, lie started back with his horses, only too pleased to have recovered them so easiiy-

The defence of the New Zealand University against the. strictures of the Times is being continued by J rofessor Sale “At the risk of exposing himself to derision by comparing the constitution of that University with those of Oxford and Cambridge, Professor Sale points out that these are the only two universities similarly composed of entirely distinct one r ivaF colleges. If, as the Tunes says, Oxford is right in taking care that no student shall be examined bv Ins m n teacher, how is New Zealand to take the same right course without going to England for examiners. *At present there are no learned men m New Zealand except those who aie /teachers in the four rival colleges. 'lt makes no difference, so far as ji paper examination is concerned, whether the ‘external? examiners live a quarter o t a mile or 1000 miles oi 15,000 miles away. And for alLpiactical purposes New Zealand is neaiei to England than to any other place in the world.” There is one remedy which, although drastic, Sale thinks should be cousidercd t at is to drop the practice of an aiding honors, senior scholarships and other distinction, and confer only pass degrees, so that there shall be no competition- He supports hen.tilv tie demand of the teaching staff ol A c-to-ia College for an mqmrj, especially as regards their relations with the council “Nothing can go on satisfactorily until, those relations aie of a thoroughly friendly charactei.

AVERAGE MAN BETTER OFF TODAY THAN 100 YEARS AGO. The advance of civilisation has undoubtedly improved the condition or mankind. People generally are better clothed, better fed, better boused to-day than ever their forefathers were. . , . Medically, the attention they get is vastly superior also. The age _oi blood-letting is gone; anaesthetics and Rontgen-rays, etc., combine to make ’ surgery less painful and moie effective: , . , Time was when the healing virtues of the earth’s natural mineral springs could be participated-in only by those living in the vicinity, or the few who could afford to travel to them. . today, tlio waters of these mineral springs (with all their healing qualities unimpaired) are bottled and distributed, and may be partaxten ot by purchasers who need not leave home. Here in New Zealand to-day the famous AVai-Rongoa Natural Alineral Water is distributed throughout the length .and breadth of the Dominion, and thousands are, vApvriencmg the benefit of this, the best of all the Dominion’s mineral waters. _ . The advantages, of drinking WaiRongoa regularly cannot he over-esti-mated. It contains properties which make it both tonic and aperient. Charged as it is with if s own natural gas, its effect if to exhilarate and invigorate the system, .to promote digestion, to check acidity ot the stomach, and to euro rheumatism, gout, etc. The best advico, we can give to anyone is to drink it daily. —Advt. • •