AURA DURAND

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 33, 9 February 1891, Page 3

AURA DURAND

A DETECTIVE STORY.

By E. M. MURDOCH,

author of " the rival detectives," " the detsctive's daughter," etc.

CHAPTER 111. LE>"ORE. While Messrs Jocelyn and Bathursb v/ero discussing their beer at the ' Tivoli Garden, , a heavy laden passenger and mail train was disgorging itself at the Michigan Central Depot. People with anxious faces were hurrying to and fro, others were lounging in listless attitudes, 'seeing what they could see,' or waiting for expected friends or—victims. Streams of passengers were hurrying down the long: platforms, and pouring out from the various entrances, and industrious porters and enterprising hackmen were waylaying them after the usual fashion; runners were crying their various hotels, apple-women and pop-corn vendors were clatnmoring for a hearing. In short, there was the usaal scramble and push, the noise and confusion of a monster city depot. Into this Babel of tongues and sounds, there stepped—among the last of the passengers—a young lady. She was quite alone, and one glance would have sufficed to assure the observer that she was entering the city for the first time. She was dressed in an unpretending yet jaunty suit of buff linen, and on her head was perched a hat of coarse white straw with bands of black velvet, one side of the brim drooping over her face, the other turned up and ornamented by a curling ostrich plume, which curved defiantly above the crown, giving a piquant look to the fair face beneath it.

It was a fair face. Hair of a deep chestnut colour that would lighten to perfect bronze in the sunlight waa drawn off the forehead, and clinging close to the head in rippling waves, was twisted into a careless knot at the nape of the white neck ; a rounded, but nevertheless firm chin, that had one tiny dimple in it; mouth small and red as a rose, wit ha beautifully curved upper lip, white, and regular; nose neither Roman nor Grecian, but small, slightly cretonne and altogether piquant ; eyes that must, in some moods, have seemed strangely at variance with the little nose—large eyes, dark hazel in colour, with strange lights and shadows lurking in their depths ; beautiful eyes, with long dark lashes, and delicately pencilled brows that were almost straight; a low, broad forehead ; a complexion that was almost colourless, save for the ripe bewitching lips, yet had no unhealthy pallor ; she waa small in stature, with plump little hands, dainty feet, and gracefully sloping; shoulders. As sho stepped lightly down from the Pullman platform, hoidingin one little greygloved hand a lady's small travelling bag, she paused, and, while others hurried on, gazed about with a look of fearless inquiry. Then she began slowly moving onward in the same direction with the crowd, casting sharp glances at each lady whom she met, and never once looking at tho men. Finally she stepped in at the open door of the ladies' waiting-room, andlookedabout her eagerly ; then she turned away, looking a trifle disappointed, and quite at a loss whab to do next. At this moment a small figure clad in navy blue cambric entered at the upper door, and hurried towards her. 'Oh, Nora!' panted she as she gained the side of the young traveller, and seized her hand between both her own. ' Have you really come ? I'm so glad. And I thought I would never gee here, for the bridge was turned ' • Turned ?' ' Yes, turned for the boats, you know.' ' To be sure, what a stupid thing I am. Kate, it's high time I came to the city, don't you think so?' ' Of course I do,' laughed the little lady, 1 so come along now. No need to ask how you are, you never looked better.' • Same to you, Katie ; but I did begin to feol like a lost lamb, I assure you, when I did not see you anywhere.' ' Well, I'm here now ; hand over your checks,country girl; we will have your baggage sent straight up, and then take a car ourselves. , • Good ! I'm so glad you are not an aristocrat, who ride 3 in a carriage ; that would not be quite a novelty, but—this will be my first ride in a etreeb-car.' •The idea!' • Well!' laughed the brown-eyed country girl, "I don't see that it's very absurd, since all of my life that has not been spent at a university has been passed in a village of a few hundred inhabitants, where my two little rats of ponies, and my basket phaeton, are reckoned very grand, and where the sound of the locomotive is only heard from afar. ' As they say in the playbills, "this is positively my first appearance in any city.'" * ' And you won'b disappear for an age, will you, Nora V Suddenly the laughing eyes became clouded, and the girl thus appealed to turned her lace away from her companion to conceal a strange, half-scared expression that rested upon it. • I don't know Katie,' she finally said in an.oddly constrained manner. 'Now that I am left alone in the world, I may fancy becoming a feminine wandering Jew ; but,' with a little rippling laugh, and suddenly recovering her composure, 'I promise, if I ever do disappear, that I won't ride away on a broomstick.' ' I think you are the oddest girl I ever saw,' said KateSeaton, half petulantly, as they entered the baggage room and began to negotiate with burly porters for the conveyance of the luggage of the fair arrival. Lenore Armyn stood gazing unconsciously up Lake-street, as her friend closed her bargain with the expressman, and gazing, she murmured under her breath, ' This is chaos. I could " disappear " here, I think. It surely must be easy to lose one's self in thia great Babel. But, oh ! I pray Heaven the necessity for so disappearing may never come.' Are there such things as forewarnings ? AH day long, and often through the gay evening, that word 'disappear' seemed sounding in the ears of Lenore Armyn, and even then, as she stood gazing out on busy Lake-street, tho shadow was upon her. The shadow of a fate that was to make her a being doubly accused, hourly hunted, for weeks and months. As nine o'clock on that same evening Clarence Arteveldb stood ringing at the door of an unpretending ' two story and basement' brick, situated not far from Lincoln Park, on the ' north side ' of the city. Hβ was speedily admitted by a tidy housemaid, for Mr Charles Ruthven, the master ot the house, was only a bookkeeper in a down-town wholesale house, who, upon a salary of two thousand a year, supported a wife and sister-in-law, not to mention a small Ruthven, and at present, a half sister of his own. The housemaid and a small bond slave, whose especial duty it was to minister unto the stentorious-lunged young Ruthven before mentiondd, comprised his retinue of servants. Bub the Ruthven parlours were always bright and cheerful, and Mrs Ruthven was one of those charming informal little hostesses that are the especial delight of society young men, who love to lounge in a frieud'e p?~--

lour, where they can throw off restraint), and feel at bome'amoiif; the pretty women of the household clique. The occasion of thia present gathering; was a double one : first, the arrival of Miss Armyn, the beloved school friend of Mrs Kuthven's sister Katie : and sscond and of equal interest, the birthday of Mrs Ruthvan herself. It was not a party —the Ruthvcns never gave parties—ib was just one of those pleasant, every-eveningaflairs.whereevery guest, if a stranger, ha 3 ample time to form the acquaintance of every other, so few nre the invitations, and where music, cards, social frames, and waltzing in the back parlour, form the chief amusements. When young Arteveldt entered the large front parlour, he found himself the latest of the' guests. There was a little group assembled around the piano, another gathered about little Mrs Rnthven, apparently bent upon devising some new scheme for the amusement of the company ; a third indulging in what seemed a very lively £ame"of cards ; and last and furthest away, Miss Lenore Armyn, seated opposite a grave-looking young man, and fiyrhting , her way inch by iuch through a game of chess. Seeinghisentrance.Mrs Ruihven hastened to welcome him, and by this means dispersed her little knob of conspirators. At almost the same instant Kate Seaton dispersed the group of music lovers and came on his side. During the light and ordinary exchange of civilities which ensued, and while, later, he was exchanging badinage with the young people at the piano, Clarence Arteveldt° was noting carefully the faces of the few ladies of the party who were strangers to him. Ab last he singled out Miss Armyn as the speciai object of attention, and leaning lazily upon the piano, gradually dropped out of the conversation going on abouthim. « Ah, I have caught you, sir,' cried Miss Seaton,moving nearer him. 'You are looking at my triend, Miss Armyn, and you have no"t been introduced. Come,' laying alight hand upon his arm. But the young man drew back, saying, as he looked down at the frank face upturned to his, with one of his irresistible smiles— ' Not yet, Miss Seaton ; don't be in such hasto to get me off yonr hands ; your friend is playing chess ; see how intent she ia. If you should present me now, she would nob know me from one of her pawns when the game is done, besides ' ' Oh ! besides what, sir ?' 'Besides' —with a half laugh as he turned away from the piano and led her toward a tcu'-a-tel.e .in the bay window —'I would rather talk with you ; sit down here and let us gossip. You shall tell me about the ladies I don'b know, and I will make awful comments.' ' I dare say you will,' laughed Kate Seaton, not at all averse to a chat with this handsome young fellow, with the weak reputation and strong financial vouchers. 1 Well, sir, whom shall we discuss tirsb ?' 'Why, your dearest friend, of course,' laughed the young man ; ' that is the way all gossips do, is it not ?' ' Just as if you did not know that Lenore Armyn is my very dearest friend. You artful fellow.' 'Is she ?' carelessly. ' Then you can introduce her at a distance. Who is Miss Armyn ?' ' My dearest friend. I tell you, my most intimate school friend.' 'Oh !' in a tone of covert sarcasm. ' But that is not all you can say about her ?' ' I should think not,' indignantly ; ' she is the loveliest, best, bravest, brightest girl in the world. , ' Really !' elevating his eyebrows ; then with a glance ab the young lady in question, 'well, she is certainly a beauty, Miss Kate—l don't'knovv about the other qualities.' ' Well, I do. 1 know she is good and I know she is brave, and when you know Lenore Armyn you will not need to be told that she is not a fool.' There came a time when Clarence found good reason for recalling these words of Kate Seaton —' When you know Lenore Arirsyn you will not need to be told that she is nob a fool. , ' She is brave,' continued Kate, now fairly launched and determined to do her friend justice, 'and at school she used to do and say the most independent things; she is a true friend, I can bell you, but—l would nob want her for an enemy. I shall nob forget how she exposed one of our teachers who had been ill-using some of the younger pupils and committing no end of abominations on the sly. Lenore said never a word until she had found evidence enough to ensure her discharge twice over, and then she exposed her in presence of the whole school. And'oh, bub didn't she talk to her and to the other teachers. Lenore hates deceit. , ' Does she ?' glancing at the fair absorbed faca bending above the chess-board. ' Where is her home—dees she reside here ?' ' Why, no! she is an orphan, and can't exactly be said to have a home now, since her mother's death. Her mother died six months ago.' 1 Six months ! Why, she wears no mourning !' said he, surprised. 'No. It was her mother's wish that Lenore should nob wear black. I don't exactly understand why. 1 never saw Mrs Armyn, , ' Indeed?' ' Yes, " indeed." Wβ were together at school for nearly four yeara, but I never visited Lenore, nor she me, until now. Mrs Armyn must have been fond of the country, for she lived in a wee little village away up in Michigan. Lenore spent all her vacations alone with her mother, who was always something of an invalid, and I, of course, passed mine here. We have alwaye been correspondents, and now, since her mother is dead, I hope wo shall be companions, for Lenore does not intend to live longer in Fairlee. In fact, her mother wished her to sell their home and leave the village.' ' A strange mother, i should say.'

•So I thought, but Lenore does not want to live there ; she has some money and is not compelled' to work, but she wants very much to find an occupation.' 'Am I to understand that Miss Armyn is paying her first visit to the city ?' ' ' She is paying her first visit to any city.' • Um-m—she looks very self-possessed for a—rustic. , ' She is self-possessed, it is her nature ; but come, the game of chess is at an end, let us go to Lenore.' And they sauntered towards the chesstable where Lenore Armyn now stood, talking lightly with her late opponent, and fingering the chessmen carelessly. The ceremony of presentation having been performed, Kate Seaton slipped her hand from the arm of young Arteveldt, and turning toward the gentleman who had lately risen from the chess-table, said : 'Mr Fenno, those good people about the piano have been waiting for you ; they want a tenor and can't sing a quartette without one, so surrender, you are my prisoner.' And laughing ligbfely, she led him away captive. Left alone, Clarence Arteveldb turned toward the beautiful girl who stood before him, quite at ease, and with smiling face. There was nothing to criticise in the manner of this young lady he had just denominated ' rustic ;' she knew just what to do, and did it with a perfect grace ; she conversed with a fearless frankness, a racinese, and skill at repartee which was as refreshing as it was surprising to this worldly-wise young dandy. She seemed unconscious of either admiration or criticism, and entered into all the gaieties of the evening with a zest and abandon most charming.

When the evening was a*> an end, Lenore Armyn gave her hand to Clarence A rteveldb with a wwile and a jest, and never dreamod

of the shadow ho would cast over her young life; while he took his way home, mentally vowing her the loveliest girl he had ever met, and little guessing that because of her his days were numbered. ( To be Continued. )