Gerard Montagu:

GERARD MONTAGU :

A Winter ' s Tcde . BY EMRA HOLMES . Author of "The Lady Muriel , " "Waiting fo )

Her , " etc : ( Continued from page 290 . )

CHAPTER IV . Six months have passed away , and the early summer days have come again . Gerard soon returned to tho north after spending a very happy fortnight , so he said , at Weston-super-Mare , thanks to me , he observed , but my Avife thought perhaps the thanks Avere rather due to Lady Muriel .

I heard from him twice or thrice since , and he never failed to inquire particularly after her . He Avas getting on very Avell , I understood , but I could not help fancying he Avas overtaxing his strength , and one clay he Avould rue it . He used to start from Darlington ( where he had gone to

reside , as beiug move central for his business ) early in the morning , in time for Leeds corn market and , after travelling almost all day and attending the sale , he Avould get home at six or seven o ' clock , quite clone uphaving probably tasted nothing since

, he left home in the morning . Three or four days in the week he Avas travelling , attending even the London market at Alark Lane , and so , by his unremitting attention to business , Avas laying the seeds of disease in the race for wealth . He used to

comp lain of his head a good deal , but he Avould say when urged to take more rest that a poor man must work , that bread Avas so hard to get now-a-days , and that he had an object in view , an ambition , Avhich wealth alone Avould enable him to gratify .

Dr . Evans warned him that constant railway travelling had been proved to be most baneful , that it laid the train of brain diseases , besides affecting the health in other Avays , and Ave Avould not ansAA'er for the results if Montagu persisted in sticking so close to business . " Montagu only laughed at him , called him a jolly old

humbug , and told him about Lad y Muriel . He was his dear friend , and so he confided in him , though perhaps he would not have told his secret to any one e lse in the Avorld . And Dr . Evan ' s face , Avhich usuall y

looked so grave and sad , as if he bad secret cause of SOITOAV which onl y his OAVU heart could know , grew graver and sadder , and he Avent his Avay with a sigh on his lips and a pain at his heart . Yes , it must be OAvned that our hero had fallen in love Avith charming Muriel Mandeville , and absence only made his heart grow fonder , as Moore said .

Did Lady Muriel return his affection 1 Time alone will prove . " Mother , " Lord Chelmondiston said , strolling into her Ladyship ' s boudoir at Sneyd Park , Lord Kilpatrick ' s estate on the Orwell , " mother , I met Montagu in toAvn this morning . He ' s looking

shockingly knocked up . It ' s such an age since I had seen him that I Avas quite delighted , I met him in the Park , a most unlikely place to see him , he told me ; but he Avas so fagged Avith business that he had come out for an airing . I took him into the

Junior Carlton and gave him some lunch . He wouldn't come at first , but I may say I dragged him . " "My dear , I hope you did no such thing . " " Yes I did—figurativelyof course . "

, " Well , dear , " Lady Kilpatrick said , looking quite relieved to find that his Lordship had not had recourse to physical force to induce his friend to accompany him to his club , " and Avhat did Mr . Montagu say to you . "

" Oh , lots , mother . I believe he's knocking himself up Avith business . B y the waj ') he said he had met a relation of ours at Weston last autumn . "

" Impossible , Arthur . " " Quite true , mother . My cousin , Muriel Mandeville . " "Oh , the late Countess ' s daughter . What sort of a girl is she ? Her mother Avas pretty , but she Avas a governess , I believe , designing I daresay , and no doubt managed to make your father ' s cousin marry her . "

" That s a very unjust speech of yours , mother , and not like you ! " her son replied , indignantly .