Levallion's Heir.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 132, 4 June 1907, Page 6

Levallion's Heir.

CHAPTER SXl.—iContinued.) j: The silence when the servant was g-one ; was like something- tangible: a bsrrier .- that could be felt- Gordon had abso- I lately nothing to say. and she was no I; better. While lie gulped down the un- ! welcome wine, without which he n;u>t '' have fainted, she wa> back again in ' that c-ountrv lane, counting ber thousand ,1 steps; back in the drawing-room of An- j nesley Chase, where "Levallion had been J' kind." Her heart was like stone ■■ in her as she watched Gordon co- * verily. How drawn "and hard his !■ face * was. and he was only nine j' and twenty. He did not look so very s far from death even now. and the 1 thought- hurt her, for all her shame that ,' she. should care. I .

-Did you get the second man?" she blurted out in the suddva knowledge that she must say something, anything. 'vKo!" -with a grim surprise that she should ask. "I may say that, he got mc. It was he who took mc back to camp." If she could have realized tbe pitiful return of those two scarecrow skeletons •who had been prisoners with the Afghans, known how they came home in the darkness, crawling, worn out, despairing, -when the blessed challenge of their own sentry came on their ears, for sheer pity she must have broken down: hare asked him without shame, as one asks the dead, why he had left her to break her heart; have said things that might ha.ye been the beginning of an end bad enough. t>ut. better "than the one her girl's feet must tread- But the scanty senteitfes drew no picture ior her. Instead she saw only that there -R-as a line of gold wire round his third finger that was half the Hze it had been, and wondered if it were his ■wife's ring. "They will give you the V.C. for the first man." she said hastily, and wondered how many men would get iho \ C. if it were sriven ior truth and not for valour. "I don't know. It was nothing- Every fellow would hare done it. Who toid you. about the V.C-. I mean?" "Levallion' , was on ?ter lips, when fear , saw the gold "wire of his ring catch tbe sunlisrht. The shame of a woman who has loved a man who jilts her caught her at her heart.

-My husband." =he said quietly. And this time it was Adrian Gordon who quivered where he sat. "I must go!" he said, cursing himself for a fool that he should be here talking to the girl who had seemed to him the very ficwer of the earth, and only a woman who loved rank and money. '•I must get back to town." Back to his lonely rooms, where the tint of her cheek and the curve of her eyelash, the bow of her young mouth, would rise before him line by line and make him revile -the fate that had let him find her out. Back to loudness, lo pain that racked him. to the lever thai -would make him

drain his water-jug before the morning, but each and. all of them belter than spring, as he did now. how she would not meet hi? eves- But the last person who should know he cared was Lcvaj.lion's wife. "You will tell LevaHion" —after all, he -svas not as callous, or. perhaps, a≤ brave., as *hp- he sould dot. say "your husband"—"that I had no idea I should not find him here. Perhaps he mil look mc up in town." "Is thai aJir" she said stupidly, seeing only how very ill he looted as he stood before her. 4. "All!" , surprised. "Yes. I -wanted to thank him; it was through, him I got to the front-" "I thought." She was faltering, and she hated herself. "Do you know," she said, with sudden, vicious cruelty, "that you have never congratulated mo r>n my marriage?"' and then could have died cf shame, for he •was answering her as a man does who is born, not made, a gentleman. "Levaliion is one of the best." quietly. "Certainly I congratulate you." Yet the -words were iiardly out of his mouth before she was angry again that he, who had deceived her. should say them. "Here i« Levaliion,' , she cried. "You had better congratulate him!' . He bit his lips that he ha.d not gone bpfore; turned sha-rply, and struck his shattered arm again?: her chair. The grinding torture turned the daylight black—he "was going—going With a quick cry Lady Levallion leaped forward and caught him as he fell in a dead faint. Long aitervrard the scene came tip before her husband's eyes, just as those two had looked against the sunsei. And at the memory of her quick, inarticulate cry he buried his worn, handsome face in his hand?. Eat now Lord Levaliion only lilted the weight that vas too hravy for hi* wife's strong young arms and laid his cousin on the grass. "The returned hero is not out of the graveyard yet:" he remarked. "Let him lie. Eavenel, and ring for the servants/" CHAPTER XIII. IK LEVALLION'S HOX"SE. "What shall I do?"' said Lady Levaliion to herself. "What shall I do?" She stood on the grass aud watched them carry Adrian into her house, making not the slightest attempt to follow. The sun dropped below the ledge of the rose-garden, and as its rim disappeared a chill crept to her bones. In a minute the servants would be back to take in the tea. things, the wicker chair that fate had stack in Adrian's way. They must not find her here standing motionless. And she- had nowhere to go that she raight be aloce. There was no room in all Levaliion Castlp where she could lock her door without, question and fight down the bewildered riain that was I making her sick. Her maid would be in ;her bedroom, Levaliion would come, as usual, to her dressing-room when his toilet was finished and hers all but done. j Truly Eavenel Annesley had been freer than Eavenel Levaliion., for she iiad dared to lock her door and cry.

She had not been as grare, though! Lady Levallion set her teeth and -walked slowly into the house and upstairs to tier goggle-eyed madd. The romantic return of his lordship ? s cousin had set every servant in i.he house &STQ2, btrt her ladyship looked so listless tkatTher maid daned not spaak till she was spDken to. ■srhich xvas some time, for Lady L>evailion ■s»ent straight to her dressing tabie and stood staring at rxerseli in the glass. Her face looked straage, vacant. It was not so she had dreamed she should look when Adrian rose from the deacU not so she would dare look irhen LeTailiCT earns in- Ske tuiaed jriti dxfgau:-

By ADELAIDE STRUNG, Anther of " Abore All Tfaicgs," ■ When X,otc Dawas," " A Sacrifice to Lore," etc.

jrng courage to make a toilet that should cover her changed looks, and saw a palelilac gown laid out on her bed. I -~" 0il * noz she said—and naturally, to her eternal credit, for she could have screamed so like was the thing to that long-gone Sunday frock—*Tm°too tired aacl pale. Get mc something else — pink! There's a pink thing somewhere." As she bathed her face in scented water she hid her drawn mouth in the sponge, for one blessed instant let it ■work as it would. Oh. lucky, lucky Nel Annesley, who bad only cold water to wash in, and could let her eyes swell if she liked! But when Lady Levallion laid down her damask towel and stood to he dressed in a loose dinner gown of pale-rose crepe de chine, sha was far

more lowly than even that far-away cirl had been. If her eye? were sombre it was only natural when she had seen a man drop like death at her feet. At Levallion's knock her cheeks blazed suddenly. '""Well?" she said, as he entered and her maid discreetly vanished. She wondered if Adrian were going to die, or if— and she almost laughed out hysterically —he were coming down to dins "with her and Levallion. What a cheerful dinner party he and she and Levallion! ** I put him -to bed. He's only just come to." He sank down into a chair as if he were tired and lit a. cigarette. I " Poor devil. I feel sorry for him! He wasn't fit to travel in the first place, j and it must have been, a shock to him— coming here! " "■ Why': ; " She was almost inarticulate. Did he know? Had Adrian told Oh. of course not. Xo man is likely to tr.U another that he has beha-ved like a villain to that other's wife. "How do you mean?" and she sat down opposite Levallion in the full light of a rosceolored lamp. She was not afraid, no one should ever say she had been afraid. If it would serve any purpose she would tell Levallion everything tiow! And with a sudden tightening at her heartstrings knew she could not betray Adrian Gordon in Levallion's house. '■"WelL" observed his lordship, drily, "it would have been a shock to most men to come home thinking themselves sure hetr $b eighty thousand pounds a year an-'. £:id out —it seems he didn't

know I teas married! " hastily, and leaving his sentence unfinished at the scarlet on his wifr's far-f. '■ You very absurd person,"' he said, ivith the impassive manctr she knrw meant tenderness, "don't look so appalled. H' , may come in for it yet."

But it was not a girl's shyness thai

had flamed oui in her face, but hot shame for Adrian, who had said he -was too poor to make her an offer openly. She moved restlessly. How long was he to stay under her roof'—that should have been his. " He looked very ill,"' she said. " Men do with a splintered bone in theix r.rm. and fever,™ Levaliion re-

turned rather dryly. " He can't be moved for some time, 1 faix-v. You ■will have to <3o the Good Samaritan. Eavenel, and cheer him back to lire,"' "I hate rjt_k people!* , cried Eavenel, hastily, and grew red again at her lie. "Yes. I do, Levaliion. Don't ever dare to get ill." "Well, there'll be a 'dearth of women's nursing and lack of women's tears' then! " dryly. " I can't say I ever sawany great restorative in the latter, except, perhaps to the woman," throwinghis cigarette into the graie. He had always known she was hard. Why did it come on him now like a dash of cold wat er ? - God knows I'm hard enough myself!"' he thought, as he made his way to his own dressing-room. ~ But she did not seem to have any pity for the poor devil." It was odd sorrow he telt himself for Adriaii, —ho had been so incoherently anxious to get back to town and not be a nuisance. Lord Levaliion was rather ashamed of his ewn weakness; it would have pleased hiati o have had his wife fuss pityingly over his ousted heir and let hire take refuge in cynical comments. "Though he mayn't be so ousted after all." Ke did a little cynical remark on his own Bfcotmt. "I may be rejoiced with sq-ualling brats." But something dark came into his face as if a past, folly had suddenly crept from its grave and faced him. "'lt is "better to strike into a new life, and go to dinner."' said Lord Levaliion aloud, to the bewilderment 01 his servant. He msdo an excellent dinner, certainly. tar for he had a new French cook, who had disdained to stay with royalty on aeotmtof being limited in butlers. Lord Levaliion mc; tired, as well as worried about his guc?t upstairs, and the Frenchman's cooking appealed to him; which was more than it did to his wife.

For at the fish the doctor -was ushered iEtc. the dining-room. She had not known Levaliion thought Adrian bad enough to ncej 3 doctor. She shook hands, mechanically with the good-look-ing. <-]oar-eyed man whom l/evallion introduced as- Doctor Houghton.. and mechanically motioned the butler to sot a chair for hfm.

"I'm afraid you win have a hospital on your hands. Lady Levallion." Doctor Houghton was looking at her with real pleasure in her wonderful beauty that was anything but girlish to-night. "There is trouble in that arm."'

j "And likely to be," interrupted Levaliion, "and you are going to send over a nurse, two nurses if you like, for he'll : stay here till he is well Eh, Eavenel f ! Lady Levaliion crushed her hands together tinder the table.

; "Oh. of course :'•" she said. And s-h" felt as if fa.tr must be standing behind her laughing at Adrian Gordon's unavail- . ing efforts to get rid of her. j "Have some of this, Honghton?" said LeTallion, as she refused a dish. "My -vrifc is delightfully honest —and hardhearted. She does not like made dishes, or people when they're ill." ""One -will lead to the other with you," ■ returned calmly, and laughed. i for she had seen Hxraghtoirs quick J glance at her averted face, and she felt as if he could read there all that Ler.allioa could not of hex horror at thi= guesi, vrhti En slit be dxia™ her roof.

Bat Doctor Eoositon "was lookias now at ins plate, as if he had not seen her dalated pupils, her hard, sot mouth.

i- It"s very gooi bnl it tastes almost too mnei of almonds!'' .he observed franHy. ~"Wiat is itr

"Qrtz Airkn,. 4aaft- aloM>ds sad

chsstnnts. a new cook, who can manage almonds. 1 shall hire something made of them-every day."

"Which -ffOl probably send Ton to your grave*? laughing. -"But* I congratulate yon °d the artist. By the way. Lord levallion, $ you could keep mc to-night; I should Uke to stay -with Captain Gordon."

""We would be infinitely relieved if you would.' , (Bott Sylvia. fwouM have marvelled at tie kindly voice, the glance vrithotit mockery!)

Both made Baveael feel an. unutterable sneak.

Why had she never told Levaffion all about Adrian-

It would have been better than this. To sleep, to live, to eat with linn in her house, and to be a stranger to him; hating Lim in one breath, loving him in the next, false either way to the bread she ate. '•What was that?" she said feverishly, longing for th<» time when she could leave the room. "I heard the bell rins."'

The dining-room was close to the hall door, its own door open: and a duil murmur of voices came from outside. Levallion half-rose —and sat down again. The thing in his thoughts was idiotic, impossible. "It's late for a »fcitor, but you can do anything in "•> Country!" he remarked cheerfully. "What was that, Mastersf" for the hall door had v shut and no one had come in. ""A lady, my lord. Come to inquire for Captain Gordon." "A lady! I he looked utterly taken aback —for lord Levallion. "Who was it?" "I couldli""t say, my lord." (Every servant in the house but LevaUion's valet was new. perhaps with reason.) "She was -walking." "Well, vre live and learn!'*' said Levallion piously, as the servants for the moment disappeared. '•And I, who thought my young friend had nearly killed himself to come and see ine!" he had had time to go over the list of his country neighbours, and knew Adrian had come to see none of them, even as he spoke She must have come down with him.

Doctor Houghton glanced quite purposely at Tiis hostess and looked away with haste, for the Lady Levaliion sat white and speechless. It was not enousrb for Adrian to come and confront her brazenly, but he must needs bring a woman down with him—the ■fireman probably of the gold-wire ring. "She knows who it was' , Houghton reflected stfittly, and then felt sorry for her.

"Most romantic:" Levaliion broke the silence with a lazy laugh. "They say ""he travels the fastest who travels alone,' but in my experience, company adds to the pace. I hope the lady's anxiety will not her awake.

And. clever as he undeniably was, it never occurred to Honghton that where Lady Levaliion was angry by guesswork. Lord levaliion was in a black rage, born of certain knowledge.

"Thou<»h 1 can't understand what she has to do -with that young fool upstairs:' , he refleetol grimly, as Houghtoa returned to the invalid. "Nor why she came. But! may find ou.t: r '

(To-be continue! daily.)