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f en But her small hands grew tighter on his armâ€"tighter, but still tremulous. ‘"You had better go on and pass me by, Jess," he said, hoarsely, bitterly; "I am not fitâ€" Go, Jess! Godâ€"God bless you!â€"goodâ€"bye!" ‘"No!" she said;and her voice viâ€" brated with a woman‘s determination bom of love. ‘"Iâ€"I want to speak CHAPTER XXIIL j They stood quite silent for a moment or two, Bruce breathing heavily with thé; effort at selfâ€"control, Jess‘s bosom heaving under the shock of the sudâ€" den meeting. She saw the change in him; it was worse than even Lady Marvelle‘s description had led her to imagine; saw it, and, instead of getâ€" ting virtuously| indignant, was filled with pity. She felt as if, girl as she was, she could throw her arms round him and ery, "You shall go no further on the road to . ruin. I will save you!" though she had at that moment not the least notion of how she would set about his salvation. As for Bruce, shame, remorse, and the pangs of unga.tisfied love tore at him equally, as he looked at the lovely face which had grown so thin and ethereal since he had last seen it. He was the first to speak. He stopped. dead short, and looked at her, the look of a man who sees the ghost of the woman who is before his mental vision day and night. "Jess!" he said hoarsely. Then as if he remembered suddenly that he was not fit to speak to herâ€" for, alas and alas!â€"his brain was dizzy and his eyes hot with the wild life, the incessant dissipationâ€"he groaned and waved his hand. "Go on, Jess! Iâ€"I must go!" ‘And he moved as if to pass on; but she put out her trembling hand upon his arm. That is the way with womenâ€" when they jove. He was coming towards her with his head bent, his steps slow and listâ€" less, and a thrill of joy and sadness, and even of fear, ran through hefi. She prayed that he might not see her, and yet dreaded that. her prayer should be answered. He came nearer, would have passed her, but just as he was nearly past, he looked up. She caught sight of his haggard face, with "wreck" written large on it, and utterâ€" ed a faint cry. "Noâ€"no!" she panted. "Youâ€"you must not go!" _ And at her touch he stayed. ‘ "I don‘t know how you have managed to steal into my heart so quickly, my dear," she said tenderly, ‘‘but you erept in the first night I saw you, and when I thought that you jsyould be Bruce‘s wife, I felt as if God had at last given me a daughter. Thereâ€"â€"thereâ€"â€"don‘t cry.. You will come and see me often! I mean often. Come whenever you like. And, dear. we will not speak of Bruce again." > "Oh, Bruce, Bruce, my dearest, my love!" she murmured brokenâ€" heartedly. _ And then, at that very moment, as if her love and her pity had acted as aâ€"charm, and conjured up his presence, she saw him. It was dusk, but if it had been quite dark she could not have sat in the (tgriage any longer. @she got down at the beginning of one of the large throughfares, and walked on quickly, scarcely seeing the things around her. A storm of pentâ€"up love, of anguished pity for Bruce, raged within her breast. A wiser woman, a woman of the world, would have been tempted to blame him, perhaps to feel contempt for the madâ€" ness which possessed him; but Jess, innocent Jess, only remembered that he was mad for love of her. For love of her! "I will walk the rest of the way," she told the footman. Jess went down to the carriage; but after a few minutes the confined space seemed to be stifling her, and she pulled the checkâ€"string and alighted. Soon after she rose to go, and Lady Marvelle, wiping her tears away, took her in her arms, and kissed her soothâ€" ingly. Then she. sat silent, her fingers clasped tightly, her head bent for some minutes. ‘‘You were right to tell me," said Jess. ‘"You must do your duty father," said Lady Marvelle. ought not to have told you! because I know you love him love him. Forgive me." "It is my duty to stand afar off and see himâ€"the man I love‘"â€"she did not blush or stammer now at the sacred avowal, but looked almost sternly before herâ€"‘"go to ruin; for that is what it means? Oh, it is cruel â€"â€"cruel!" ‘"‘¥You had married him? Yes, my dear," said Lady Marvelle. "Ah, forâ€" give me, my child." For Jess had winced as if the old lady had struck ‘her. ‘"Yes, it is my fault; and I can do nothing. I have ruined his life, and I can doâ€"nothing!" she repeated in a dull voice, her eyes fixed on vacancy. ‘"‘No, my dear, you cannot help him You must do your duty." "Wait! Wait until heâ€"he kills himself! You said that he is very ill?" ‘‘¥es, ill, body and soul." ‘"Andâ€"and. nothing can be done! Oh, it is wicked, wicked and cruel!" burst from Jess‘s white lips. "Andâ€" and he is good. Yes, he is good, I know that! I have heard him talk! I know that he would have been so different, if â€"ifâ€"* ‘‘Yes, I love him!‘" said poor Jess, with the tears welling to her eyes. "Lady Marvelleâ€"Iâ€"I would die for him,.â€"die to save him! Oh, tell me what I can do!" Lady Marvelle shook her head. ‘‘No one can do anything ," she said. ‘"‘None of us could go near him; indeed, he would not see us. We can only waitâ€"" " You must not say that,.my child," she said soothingly. "It was not your fault.‘ You love him, he told me, my brother told meâ€"‘‘ TLady Marvelle put her thin hands upon Jess‘s clasped onesâ€"scareely less thin, by the way. . "Andâ€"andâ€"it is because of me! Oh! I have done this! It is I who have injured him!‘‘ she panted. perhaps; but not Bruce. It drives him mad for the time, and sometimes the madness lasts so long that it means utter ruin and wreck." phomromonunonore mUpuivayiunâ€"gIUunUIUiUpUsUInUnUIU: USUnUlUunUnUsUsUunUusUlUsudUiUuIUUoUIUiUVsUIUul Jess could almost hear her heart % ug s {Continued from last week) by your "Ah! I But it is we both "It would be easy enough ifâ€"if I had some hope of you, Jess. I would wait and work for ten years, if there was any hope of getting you at the end of them. But there isn‘t, you see. I know the sort of man your father isâ€"as hard as nails. and as unbendins I know the sort of man your father isâ€"as hard as nails, and as unbending as I am. It will be a fight to the death between usâ€"a fight in which I shall go down." She was silent a moment, giving her aching heart time to beat; then, in "I do not wish you to go," she said, gently. . "I want to speak to you, Lord Ravenhurst. I want you to promise thatâ€"that when you leave me, in a few minutes, you will go to Lady Marvelle. She wants to leave London, to go into the country; you will go with herâ€"for my sakeâ€" Bruce." _ A He shook his head. 10 "I cannot. You ask too much. I should go mad in the country, Jess. It is no use talking. I know what you mean, and I am grateful to you for trying to pull me out of the mudâ€" God bless you, my dearest!â€"but it is useless. When one of us Clansmeres is on the.downward road, we don‘t stop until we reach the devil at the end of it!" \ Jess shuddered. "Forgive me!"". hHe broke out. "Oh!*Jess, why not go? The sight of you, though it is such a joy to me now while you are here, will drive me mad when you are gone! Stop! I know what you think of me, that I am a weak fool and a cur! And I am â€"in this business! But ~I‘m built that way, you see," bitterly. ‘"Waitâ€" and, for God‘s sake, don‘t ery!. Don‘t listen to meâ€"but, yes, listen, Jess! I can‘t go to the old lady. The sight of meâ€"as I amâ€"would break her heart. Bus I‘ll leave London." "Leave England?‘ she echoed, with a sinking of the voice and heart. He nodded. ‘"Yes; I intended doing so before I saw you. I have been making arrangeâ€" ments. A friend is getting me a berth in one of the Border forces out in Africaâ€"" The tears filled her eyes, so that the gasâ€"lamps, lighted now, shone as in a mist. She caught her breath, and turned to him. A faint cry escaped her, ‘"â€"In Africa!" she breathed. ‘"Yes," he said. "It is the only thing I can do. There is, or will be, some fighting over there, and they will be glad of me. I shall try and keep straightâ€"" "An! yes," she cried gratefully. "If you will do that!" ‘"Yes, I‘ll leave England altogether, Jess." ~â€"‘"Eager to leave you! You know what joy it is to me to sit beside you here, to have you near me, to hear your voice, â€"even though I know all the whileâ€" that I am not fit to do soâ€" that, if I were not a cur and a selfish coward, I should get up and rid you of my presence." ‘"You don‘t understand," he said, between his teeth. "If you knew! No, I won‘t say a word in my defence. I am a bad lotâ€"hopelessly bad. Look upon me as madâ€"stark, staring mad, Jess, andâ€"and let me go away!" ‘‘Not yet," she said; and her hand went out towards him, but stopped short of touching him. ‘"Why are you soâ€"so eager to leave meâ€"Bruce?" The tears were in her voice, but he dared not look at her eyes. _His heart burned with shame and remorse. ‘"Perhaps I know it," came the almost inaudible response. "Ahn! Bruce, how could youâ€"how could you be soâ€"soâ€"wicked?" ‘"She put it that way, did she?" he said, grimly. ‘"It was very good of her; she might have told you the truth." ‘"Yes," said Jess; "I have just left her. And all her talk was of you â€"of you of whom she is so fond. Ah, Bruce!" "Andâ€"and she told you that â€"that Iâ€"Iâ€"" he faltered. "Had been ill, were illâ€"very ill," she finished for him softly. "All the more reason that I should keep away from herâ€"and from every one who has an ounce of regard for me still left," he said. ‘"You have seen her "Becauseâ€"because she loves you!" said Jess solemnly. ‘"Her heart is aching at the thought that you have ceased to care for herâ€"have neglectâ€" ed her." ‘"‘Why have you not gone to see Lady Marvelle?" she asked, evading the direct subject,thereby showing her womanly tact. He shook his head. ‘‘Why should I+ go to her?" he asked moodily. ‘"Hush!"" she said; and the sweet, almost solemn whisper, as tremulous as the first note of the lark soaring at heaven‘s gate, went to his heart, and awed him. "Did you think that I should pass you as ifâ€"if we were strangersâ€" and when you were ill and He hung his head. j "If I am ill, it is my own fault," he said, "and as for my trouble, you can‘t help me, Jess." And he laughed < the short, bitter laugh of a cynicism born of his miserâ€" able condition. ‘‘Why did you stop me, Jess?" he asked in a low voice. ‘"Better let me go lon my way. It is the devil‘s way, I know, and no road for you!" They came to a seat, and she sank sat down and stared in front of him. He had had some champagneâ€"a fairly large quantity, at the Warâ€" wickâ€"had slept not at all, and scearcâ€" ely eaten, so that he felt confused and bewildered; in fact, his nerves were in rags, and his sudden meeting with Jess shook him, so to speak, from head to foot. They walked side by side in silence, and entering the park, made their way 1lo one of the sidewalks. The passersâ€" by glanced at them, curiouslyâ€"at the pale, almost white face of the beautiâ€" ful girl, and the haggard and worn one of the man; but Jess did not notice the curious glances; she was walking as in a dream. Joy in his presence, agony at the change in him, warred within her. to you, Lord Raâ€"Bruce. Whereâ€"? She looked round. "Come into the park," he said, huskily. He still hesitated. His manhood cried with no uncertain voice: "Let this innocent flower of womanhood go on her way, lest your look and touchâ€"though love prompt them â€"â€" defile it." But his resolution melted beneath the love and pity in her voice and eyes. 9» 9+ She drew a long breath, as if his words had caused her heart to cease beating for a moment. ‘"There is one thing you can do," he went on, more slowly â€" almost solemnly; "you can marry me!" Jess stared, and turned her lovely eyes upon him with a wonder too great for expression in words. ‘‘Marryâ€"you! Bruce! But my fatherâ€"" I know it!iâ€"you can do this! Mark me, Jess, even as I ask it, I know that I am not worthy. Thereâ€"there are things which if you knew"â€"he was thinking of the recent weeks, not Deborahâ€"‘"you would get up and fly from me as from a mad dog! But you must never know! If you did, you would know that you could never marry me!" Pregnant words to be recalled in the afterâ€"time! ‘"You can marry me," he said still more solemnly. ‘‘"Will not consent, will never conâ€" sent. If you wait for that, you wait for the impossible," he said. ‘"Mind, Jess, I find it hard to forgive him, even though he is your father! His "I will tell you," he said; and he turned to her with something like his old air of command and mastery. "If you still love meâ€"forgive me, dearest, She would have laid down her life at that moment willingly, cheerfully, to save him, and counted the sacrifice as naught. But dying will not help a headstrong man with the inherited passions and vices all in full swing, and hurrying him fast to the devil. He stared in front of him, his brows knit. He was sober enough new, and all his senses awake and quivering. The word, the idea of "hope" had flashed through him like an electric spark,. ‘"What can I do?" she repeated, almost with a moan. lips She knew he spoke the truth, and her heart was filled with dismay, with the cold foreboding of the certainty of his ruin. And it would be she who had wrought it! ‘"What can I do?" broke from her ‘"Jess, to leave you here, to go away out of ‘Enmgland, perhaps for years, knowing that you were free, that your father and your friends were striving day and night to marry you to some one else, wouldâ€"you might just as weil hang a ton weight round a swimâ€" ming man, and ask him not to drown!* ‘"‘The perpetual dropping of water will wear away a stone. It will be like that with you. I know it! Some day you will meet some manâ€"some good fellow, like Frank Forde, for instance â€"and he will fall in love with youâ€" how could he help it?â€"and they will press and coax you; they will never let you alone night or day. until you have married ,him!" She was silent. "I know," he said bitterly, "and I‘ve no right to complain. Such a man would be more worthy of you than I am. I can see it all clearly. You‘d resist for a time, then you‘d give way. That soft heart of yoursâ€"which makes me love you soâ€"would be against me, Jess! You would marry him and be happy, while I"â€"He pausâ€" ed. ‘"I‘m brute enough to hope that I may never live to know it!" ‘Oh, cruel, cruel!" she sobbed. Remorse caught him by the throat. SÂ¥es, I‘m . @ brute! . I know. it! Forgive me, Jess! But the thought of what will be sure to happen, as sure as that lamp‘s alight there, makes me mad!" He sprang to his feet and paced up and down; then he flung himself into the seat again. me." She checked the denial that sprang to her lips. "Your father, your friends will take you here, theré, and everywhere; and everywhere you go, and every day in the week they will teach you to forget "Listen, Jess; I am going to the bad, I know; you know it, too. You can save me. Promise to be my wifeâ€"" She shook her head. â€" "I will promise never to marry any one else," she said brokenly. He laughed shortly. "Ah! Jess, no . womanâ€"not one woman in ten thousandâ€"ever kept such a promise! I wouldn‘t ask you â€"let youâ€"make it! I know so well what would happenâ€"will happen! I shall go away, out there to Africa, and you will be left behind here in Engâ€" land; you will see other menâ€"‘" She drew away from him with patient reâ€" pudiation and indignation. She was silenrt, and he went on with breathless haste. wife?" Even in the midst of her misery his avowal struck a chord of joy and rapture. , "Oh, Bruceâ€"Bruce!" she faltered. "And that‘s why I‘m going away," he said. ‘"Even if I had not made up my mind to go, I should go, now I have seen you; I couldn‘t bear any more such meetings! But, Jess, what did you mean by ‘hope‘? Will you‘"‘â€" he stretched out his hand to grasp her arm, but let it fall without touching herâ€""will. you â€" promise to be my ‘"No," she said in a low voice. ‘"There can be no unfitness, Bruce, if =â€"if you love me stillâ€"* "Is there any one moment of the day or night that I don‘t think of you and long for you! If I love you! My girl"â€"almost fiercelyâ€"‘"no. man ever loved a woman as I love you! I can‘t live without you; that sums it up, Jess; life is not worth living." He meant that the life of the last few weeks had besmirched ‘ him too deeply to permit him to approach her, and she so understood him then; in the light thrown by after events she read his words differently. "Hope!" he said. ‘"Do you mean thatâ€"that if I waitâ€"Jess! But, ah! thatâ€"that if I waitâ€"Jess! But, ah! you don‘t know all!l I‘m not fit! I never was, at my best, and now‘"â€" his voice sankâ€" "there is a barrier between us, Jess!" "Nothing is ever hopeless," she murmured, her eyes sinking; then she raised them to meet his bravely. For this was no time for fearful modesty and maidenly shrinking. This man, whom she loved better than life itself, had to be saved. His breath came fast. the softest, sweetest voice, she murâ€" mured: % ‘"Thereâ€"there is always hope!" His face flushed, and he turned to her with feverish swiftness. ‘"Hope? What do you! mean, Jess? Do you mean thatâ€"" THE TIMES & GUIDE, WESTON. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1917 5) ‘"But you are going away to that hateful ~placeâ€"Africa!" she murâ€" mured, the tears blotting out the lamps again. He grew grave in a moment. ‘"But only for a time. If there is any fighting work in hand, I shall scoreâ€"I will score! And then, dearest, home I come. And I can go to your father, and say, ‘I‘m not the hopeless vicious idiot you thought me! I have come to claim your daughterâ€"my wife!‘ " They sat for some moments longer, almost in silence; for there are some occasions and circumstances too deep and thrilling for words. Then Jess withrew her hand from his and rose. "I will come with you to the end of the street. I must not be seen, Jess! And you will meet me here the day after toâ€"morrow?" He laughedâ€"a very different laugh to that which a few minutes ago had tortured her. "I am so happy that I can scarcely persuade myself that I am not dreamâ€" ing. My wife! My wife! Think of it, Jess:" "As there is a Heaven above us, I will try to be worthy of you, Jess!" he responded, with something like a sob in his voice. _ ‘"‘I must go nowâ€"" ‘"Moet me here toâ€"morrowâ€"no, not toâ€"morrowâ€"the day after,". he said. "I will make all the arrangements. Oh, Jess! my own, my life! . You have given me hope and life!" given me hope and life!" ‘"Have I1?" she said in a low voice, as she nestled to him. ‘"And are you happier, Bruce?" "Bruce, I trust you! Youâ€"you will not beâ€"wicked any more?" * ‘"‘My dearest! My darling!" he breathed." "Oh, thank God! Jess, I swear to youâ€"" She laid her trembling fingers on his lips. He fell aâ€"trembling, as well he might. Thenâ€"there was no one near â€"he caught her to him and kissed her, ‘the passionate, burning, kiss of the man who has been near hell‘s gate for just the lack of that kiss. Jess turned to him, her heart, her soul in her eyes Love seemed to radiate from her whole being. "I trust you," she said. "IL trust you because I love you, Bruce. I will do what you want!" ~ j "Epeak to me, Jess," â€" he said at last. ‘"Is it to be or not? Will you trust meâ€"‘‘ .At the word "trust" he broke down and hesitated. "No, don‘t trust me!" he cried with a groan. "I‘m not worth it=â€"" She could not speak, her heart beat so fiercely. She thought of her father. She owed him obedience, trust; but one shall, so says Scripture, cling to one‘s husband and leave one‘s father; and if she married -Brucel, he would be her husband! After all, as she had vowed never to marry any other man, what wrong would she commit in marrying Bmice Ravenhurst? He would leave her at the church doorâ€" ‘"‘Think, Jess! Think, dearest!" he said, his eyesâ€"so much clearer now â€"dwelling on her face. "It is you who shall decide!" Then a sense of his unworthiness rose. and overwhelmed him. "Oh, my darling, it is asking too much! If you knew all! Jess,if you say ‘Yes,‘ if you marry me, promise me, before Heaven, that whatever you hear, you will stick to me!â€" However bad it mayâ€"and it cannot be blacker than the truthâ€"you will not cast me off! I am deceiving you, keeping things backâ€"but I can‘t. lose youâ€" I cannot!" "I promise," she said in a low voice. ‘"Andâ€"and you will do what I ask you? You will marry me secretly ?" he said,in a voice husky with emotion. "All I ask is that you should bind yourself to me; that while I am away, trying to prove that I am a little less unworthy of you, I can feel that you are mine! I want to be able to say to myself, when the black fit comes over me, ‘Jess is mine; she is my wife. She cannot marry any other man, because she is mineâ€"my very ownâ€" legally, indisputably. I‘ve only to keep straight, and push my way to the front, to be able to go back and claim her!‘ That‘s all!" If amongst the readers of this story of Jess‘s life I should be fortunate enough to count a tenderâ€"hearted girl, let her put herself in Jess‘s place, and ask herself what she would have done under the cireumstancesâ€"not forgetâ€" ting that Jess‘s lover was sitting near her and pleading with passionate earnestness. I will leave the issue to the tenderâ€"hearted girlâ€"reader. The blood _ was running swiftly Through Jess‘s veins. The change in him wrought its effect upon her. â€"She saw the feasibility of the proposal. After all, how could she, having a heart in her bosom full of love for him, consign him to a life of exile and hardship and danger, with the cerâ€" tainty that while he was away she would forget him, and mary another man? But if she married him secretly, parting from him at teh church door â€"at the registrar‘s officeâ€"she would have bound herself to him beyond all chance of loss; she would have filled him with the spirit of hope, with the desire to prove his manhood. In a word, she would save him! ‘"Yes! Don‘t think that I am going to trade upon your. love for me, dearest! No; I will go out there, and win some kind of honour, name. There will be fighting, and I can prove that I_ _ am something better than the worthless kind of idiot which your fatherâ€"God knows how justly!â€" thinks me! . When I‘m able to prove that, I‘ll come back andâ€"claim you!" ‘"Yes," he said, his eyes flashing, his whole face transformed. It was wan and haggard still, but the hideous traces of his mad dissipation were already disappearing. Oh, marvellous miracle wrought by love! ‘"Marry me secretly, and at once! I _ will leave you at the church doorâ€"at the regisâ€" trar‘s, if you‘ like! we can arrange which it shall beâ€"you shall go back to your fatherâ€"and I will go to Africa." "To Africa?"‘ she echoed. Her brain was in a whirl, her whole heart beating so. furiously that she could scarcely think,least of all,speak. She stared, and shrank away from him slightly; but as she saw the look of pain cross his face, she drew near again. "Withâ€"without it, Bruce? Ah, no!" ‘"‘Why not?" he said. ‘"You spoke of hope just now, Jess. What did you mean? That he might be induced to give his consent? When? When it is too late? Do you think any man can go on living on indefinite hope forâ€"God knows how many years!â€" and leave his darling to be tempted to forget him and marry another man? No! Do this, Jessâ€"marry me secretly, and at onceâ€"‘" ; "Secretly!> At once!" she breathed, without knowing that she spoke. reasons are not good enough to warâ€" rant his parting us and sending me to the devil! He will never give his conâ€" sent, but you can marry me without 161" (To be continued) IS THAT YOUR TROUBLE ? Then Advertise in this local paper. THE TIMES AND GUIDE : WESTON Your Paper, Not Ours â€" Now Use It. We werent detting enough Jocal Bt_t_s‘..»g F“'%W Egt ] "‘,'."-_._ E jlr T & '329' ;.@: [ WE STAND READY TO SERVE YOU IN WHATâ€" EVER WAY WE CANâ€" AND MARK THISâ€"THERE ARE MANY WAYS A LIVE LOCAL PAPER CAN BE OF SERVICE TO A COMMUNITY. PUBLIC OPINION IS FASHIONED THROUGH THE COLUMNS OF THE PRESS. WE INVITE CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL THE MUNICIPALITIES IN THIS SECTION. 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