Part 59 (2/2)

She blushed.

”But do you still care for me?” he asked with earnestness, putting his arm around her slim waist and pressing her to his breast. ”Promise me, Dolly,” he pleaded--”promise me that you will be my wife!”

”Do you love me sufficiently?”

”Can you doubt me?”

”No,” she replied, in a tremulous voice; ”I do not doubt you, Hugh. I will be your wife.”

Then she bent her fair head, and hid from him her tears of happiness.

The only light that can show us the road to better things is that which s.h.i.+nes within us. The words he uttered were tender and rea.s.suring, and for a long time they stood together talking of the new, bright, and unclouded life that lay before them.

Meanwhile the exquisite gradations of colour on sea and land had faded, the glow upon the horizon had disappeared, the wind had fallen, and all was calm and still in the mystic gloom of the dying day.

Startled by hearing voices behind them, they turned and faced Jack and Gabrielle, who had approached unnoticed.

After a hearty laugh and some good-natured chaff in English, the purport of which was not thoroughly understood by mademoiselle, Hugh grasped the artist's hand, and, wringing it warmly exclaimed--

”Congratulate me, old fellow! I'm beginning life afresh from to-day.

Dolly has consented to become my wife.”

”By Jove, is that so?” Egerton cried, in pleasant surprise. ”Well, you have my heartiest wishes, Hugh.” Then he added, after a moment's hesitation: ”Strangely enough, I, too, have to make a similar announcement.”

”What?” cried Hugh and Dolly simultaneously. ”Gabrielle has resolved to give up the stage and become Mrs. Egerton,” he answered, with a happy smile. ”We knew one another years ago in Paris, and although no word of affection was then spoken, we have to-day discovered that we love one another.”

”Yes,” added Gabrielle, her accent making her voice sound pleasant to English ears. ”Having released him from the thrall of `La Pet.i.te Hirondelle,' and proving that he was not guilty of the crime he believed he had committed, I am going to many him. It is as it should be--eh?”

And she laughed contentedly.

After many mutual congratulations and expressions of surprise, they crossed the stile, and continued their stroll through the dell towards the village, where the scattered lights had already commenced to twinkle.

The two men walked together at a little distance behind.

”Hugh, old fellow,” the artist remarked confidentially, ”I'm glad Dolly is to be your wife. I feel confident that you'll never regret the step; for I know, perhaps better than any one, how pure and honest she is, how dearly she loves you, and how acutely she suffered when you forsook her.”

”Don't mention the past again, Jack, old fellow. We both played dice with the devil, expecting to throw sixes,” said Hugh, as they stepped out upon the broad highway. Then he added, ”I feel a.s.sured we shall now be happy and contented. Let us look only to a bright and prosperous future, and let us forget forever the grim shadow that fell upon us, the shadow of The Temptress.”

The End.

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