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te ce tit hella eG REY, Lette
\
at the sky, now streaked with the red rays of the coming
sun. \ ‘‘Oh, Austin, if I could only go to some place where
I could forget her! She haunts me—haunts me day and
night! Go where I will, do what I will, I see her before
me, just as she looked as she stood on the hill waving her.
hand the last morning ”’—his voice broke—‘‘ the last time
Isaw her. Oh, my darling, my darling!” ©
He stopped with a great sob, and then hurried on, draw-. .
ing his hat over'his eyes.
Austin Ambrose watched him with keen scrutiny, much’
as a surgeon might watch the subject upon which he was
experimenting with saw and knife.
‘ Blair,” he said, panting a little, for his victim walked.
fast. ‘ You should fight against this weakness. Itis ruin-
ing you, body and soul, It is not fair to yourself, or to
your best friends. ‘lo me, for instance, orto the earl.”’
‘The earl!’ said poor Blair, with a bitter laugh.
‘What does he care?”
“Or to. Violet. Don’t'be angry, now,” for Blair had
turned upon him almost savagely. ‘‘She is your friend,
and you know it. Why don’t you go and’see her?’’
‘“Why? Because I can go and see no one!” groaned the
unhappy man. ‘‘I tell you my lost darling haunts me
continually. I see her so plainly sometimes that I can
scarcely believe she is really dead!”
self, .
_ “How can I mix with my fellow men in the state I am
in? You must give me time, man!’’ he cried almost sav-
agely. ‘Give me time!”
They had reached Blair’s chambers by this, and with a
nod he turned and slowly mounted the stairs.
Austin Ambrose, left alone, leant against the lamp-post
and, panting a little, lita cigar, his cold, gray eyes fixed
upon the light that shone in Blair’s window.
**You fool!’ he muttered, ‘‘ You simple fool! I’ve got
you in my net—and her, too! Give you time!. Yes, you
shall have time, but whether you take long or come © .
quickly I have got you!”
For a week after. this. Austin Ambrose saw nothing of .
im; he was missed at his club, and—very mucli—missed
at the Green Tables. No one could tell where he had gone,
but in truth he was wandering with a knapsack on his
back through an out-of-the-way part.of the country, soli-
tary and companionless save by his own sad thoughts. _
At the end of the week Violet Graham was sitting
moodily by the fire, thinking of him and of the dark mys-
tery of Margaret Hale’s death, wondering whether all ber
ome
\ WILD MARGARET. | 809
AustinAmbrose started, then smiled reassuringly to him-