A LUCKY YOUNG WOMAN.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 149, 24 June 1911, Page 16

A LUCKY YOUNG WOMAN.

By F. C. PHILIPS.

CHAPTER XXII. —(Continued.) Drawing-room at St. Austell Tower 3. Five o'clock going on. Dramatis Personae —Lady St. Austell, the Duchess of Lincoln, Lrtdy Lindsay, and Lady Henry Forrester. The Duchess: When do you expect the happy couple, Lady. St. Austell? Ought they not to be here by this time? Lady St. Austell: I believe they are due, but our local line is so erratic that I never expect people for an hour after their stated time.

Lady Lindsay: Is the bride pretty? Lady St. Austell: She had £8000 a year. "C'est tout dire.

The Duchess: Yes, beauty would have been superfluous. How long have they been married V"

Lady St. Austell: About a month, I think. I know it is their first appearance in public, if one can call one's friends the public.

The Duchess: It was a good match for Lord Cheltenham; he was np to his eyes in debt. Lady St. Austell: Well, she got his title, and made her own conditions, and they were pretty hard ones. The Duchess: Really? I never heard. Lady St. Austell: Oh, yes; he had to swear he would never gamble, again sell his racehorses, break with a creature in South Belgravia, and give up Mrs Montagu Foster. Lady Lindsay: How monstrous of a girl to know of such things! Who could have told her?

Lady St. Austell: The disappointed men, I suppose, who wanted to marry her.

Lady Lindsay: Is it possible a man could be so dishonourable?

Lady Henry Forrester: Ha! ha! men indeed! Lady Lindsay, you surely do not believe in men's honour. It Went out long ago with duelling.

Lady Lindsay: I know some honourable men.

Lady Henry Forrester: Do you? 1 don't.

Lady Lindsay (sharply): Then I wonder you are so fond of their society.

Lady Henry Forrester: They amuse mc.

Lady St. Austell (aside "to the Duchess) : And pay her bets.

The Duchess: But she always •wins. (Aside to Lady St. AustelL) How can you have sucli a woman in the house? Lady St. Atistell: She amuses St. AuStell, and keeps people going. You know she had an affaire with Cheltenham ; hence her bitterness. The Duchess; Of course, every one knows that. Lady St. Austell (aJoud): I hear a carriage. I suppose they have arrived. Yes; here they are. (Enter Lord and Lady Cheltenham.) Introduction. Effusive hand-shaking. Lady Cheltenham undergoes a volley of ill-bred stares which slie bears with the utmost coniDOSure.

Lady St. AustelL (handing Lady Cheltenham a cup of tea) : I suppose it i 3 useless to offer you this non-intoxicating beverage. Lord Cheltenham?

Lord Cheltenham (laughing): On the contrary, I love it. Pray, don't implythat I "drink.

Lady St. Austell (handing him a cup): No! I only thonght you might prefer something; else. (To Lady Cheltenham). And what sort of a journey have you had?

Lady Clicl tenham: Detestable—very rainy, and a horridly slow train.

Lord Cheltenham: Fancy a wife, who has only been married a month, calling any journey with her husband detestable!

Lady Cheltenham: It was not your fault, but I have got so sick of travelling. We seem to hiive Jived in railway carriages for the last month.

Lady St. Austell: Have you been to Aix?

Lady Cheltenham: We have been all over the continent, and I never wish 'to see the interior of a church again. Lord Cheltenham: What an impious remark!

Lady Lindsay, (to the Duchess, sotto voce): I dare say she wishes she had never seen one with, him! She appeare to have a temper.

The Duchess: So has he; he wont stand much of that sort of thing.

Lady Henry Forrester (in a soft tone to Lord Cheltenham, who has sat down on a small ottoman beside her): My congratulations come very late, but you must nevertheless accept them. I was at Luchon when I heard of your marriage.

Lord Cheltenham (smiling); You are very kind.

Lady Henry Forrester (to Lord Cheltenham) : She is very handsome. (Lord Cheltenham shrugs his shoulders.) But she is, as you will soon find out when other men make love to her.

Lord Cheltenham: I don't think they will. Lady Cheltenham has principles, and has not been spoilt by the world: she is only twenty.

Lady Henry Forrester: Really? I must still further congratulate you then. i

Lord Cheltenham: It is perfectly true; she very much dislikes flirting married women.

Lady Henry Forrester: And had £200,000! Where did you denicher a treasure combining so many excellent qualities?

Lord Cheltenham: I met her at Woolston.

Lady Henry Forrester (hesitatingly): And has she made you share her opinion about flirting married women? Lord Cheltenham: I never cared but for one married woman. Lady Henry Forrester: One at a time, I suppose, you mean. Lord Cheltenham: You know perfectly well what I mean.

Lady Henry Forrester (laughing and rising): The conversation is getting personal. I will go and change my dress.

The Duchess (to Lady Lindsay): How indecent of that woman 'to carry him off before he has been in the room five minutes!

Lady Lindsay: My dear Duchess, Frenchwomen are all alike; they cannot exist without admiration and excitement. She will make that poor young thing perfectly miserable.

The Duchess: Lord Cheltenham will scarcely he fool enough to prefer her painted face to the bright English beauty of his wife—for she is really goodlooking.

Lady Cheltenham (to Lady St. Austell): Have you many people in the house, Lady St. Austell?

Lady St. Austell: You have seen all our party with the exception of the men.

\ Lady Cheltenham: Who 19 that

French lady? I did not catch her name. I Lady St. Austell: She is Lady Henry! Forrester —an amusing little woman. Lady Lindsay: I never heard her say anything amusing. The Duchess: She keeps it for her admirers, who, I am bound to say, appear to fully appreciate it. Lady Cheltenham: But her husband. Lady St. Austell: Oh, I fancy that Lord Henry and she understand one another. Anyhow, he never seems to turn up. She is of excellent family. She was a Beaureguard, you know. Lady Lindsay: She is very unpopular. Lord Cheltenham: With women. Lady St. Austell: I like her. I think she is harmless; silly, perhaps; but my husband is devoted to her. Lady Lindsay: I believe most people's husbands are; she has a culte for them.

Lady St. Austell: Lady Lindsay, you are positively uncharitable. The dress-ing-bell has gone some time; we must really go and adorn ourselves. (Enter servant with card which he ' hands to Lady St. Austell.) Lady St. Austell (reading card) : Lord Henry Forrester! Well, this is talking of the devil and seeing his hoofs with a vengeance! Lady Lindsay: You don't mean to say that Lord Henry has turned up? (Aside to the Duchess.) A fortunate thing for Lady Cheltenham. Lady St. Austell (to servant) : Show this gentleman into the study, and let Lady Henry be told that some one wishes to see her. Fragments of conversation between the Forresters. Lord Henry: Ah, tv ne veux pas m'envoyer une misero de 50,000 francs. Eh bien, nous allons voir!

Lady Henry: Je n'ai que dix mille franca au monde, mais, prends-les et de grace vat-ten. Je t'enverrai davantage demain.

Lord Henry: Tv le jures? Lady Henry: Lord Cheltenham est ici—cela te suffit-il? In the drawing-room before-dinner. Lady Lindsay (to Lady Henry): And so at last we are to have the pleasure of seeing Lord Henry?

Lady Henry Forrester: I am afraid not. He only came on important business.

Lady St. Austell: But he has not gone, surely.

Lady Henry Forrester: Alas! He begged mc to make every excuse possible, but he was obliged to catch the night train to London. You know diplomats are not their own masters. He starts for St. Petersburg to-morrow.

Lord Cheltenham (aside): A little journey that will cost mc a thousand or two, I'll be bound."

Lord Cheltenham seated writing letters in morning-room at St. Austell Towers.

Lady Cheltenham (entering) : Lord St. Austell was asking for you. Have you not finished your letters yet? Lord Cheltenham (impatient, and hastily covering a note he is writing): I am nearly ready. I was going out with St. Austell, but if he is in a hurry, he can start without mc.

Lady Cheltenham: Your correspondence seems very important this morning (catching sight of cheque-book on table.) Who have you been writing cheques for?

Lord Cheltenham: Sfy dear Amy, curiosity is not only the sin that lost the whole world, but it is an extremely vulgar vice. What can it interest you to know which of my tradesmen I have been paying.

Lady Cheltenham: It does not interest mc in the slightest. Shall I put your letters in this bag?

Lord Cheltenham. Yes, you can takethese (gives her a packet, and carefully places one in his Dreast-pocket.) Lady Cheltenham: It not that one to go?

Lord Cheltenham: No, it's of no consequence—it's not quite finished —and now I must be off. Are you going to remain here?

Lady Cheltenham: Yes, I have some letters to write. I suppose I must let people know where I am. Lord Cheltenham: Good-bye then. (Exit Lord Cheltenham.) Lady Cheltenham (soliloquising): I must break off this entanglement he has with that horrid little Frenchwoman at once. And yet how is it to be done? 1 cannot make a scene, but I will not put up her insolence and airs of condescension to mc. She was perfectly odious last night with her airs of proprietorship and mock humility. 3 wonder if that note he has so carefully hidden from mc is intended for her. It would be very wrong to hold up the blotting-paper to the looking-glass, I suppose; what my husband would call a vulgar vice (holds blotting-paper hesitatingly in her hand.) It is early day to begin suspicion and jealousy, but if he is carrying on an intrigue with that woman I am determined she shall be exposed (holds the paper up to the look-ing-glass and reads fragments.) "Dear Berthe—sorry for your trouble—enclose —you ask for—not repetition—" Berthe! that must be that vile woman, and yet what can she have asked him for? Surely not money? (Turns the paper about and reads " £1000.") A thousand pounds! How disgraceful! How infamous!—he gives a woman a thousand pounds who is staying in the very house with his wife (suppresses tears). No I will not cry. I will tell -her I know all, and inon her leaving the house at once, iffkings the bell. To servant.) Pleasa let Lady Henry Forrester know that 1 wish particularly to see her here for a few minutes.

Enter Lady Henry Forrester. Lady Henry Forrester: Ah! dear Lady Cheltenham—how cold these coun-try-houses are with their long, dreary passages—did you wish to speak to mc? Lady Cheltenham: I will be plain with you, Lady Henry. I have discovered, I need not tell you how, that you have renewed the—intrigue you had with my husband before my marriage. Lady Henry Forrester (insolently): Apres.

Lady Chentenham: He gave you a cheque for £1000 this morning, and 1 sent for you to tell you that you either leave this house to-day, or I expose your conduct to Lady St. Austell.

Lady Henry Forrester: Mon Dieu! what a storm in a tea-cup! Intrigue! Exposure! Expulsion! Disgrace! What delicious heroics My dear Lady Cheltenham, you were not intended for the present generation. You ought to have lived in the days of the Arcadian shepherdesses, you are so delightfully simple. My intrigue, as you call it. with your husband, consists of some valuable State secrets which my husband procured, Heavens know how—for I don't understand these things —and which he brought down, just having paid for them the sum in question on behalf of your husband, who was most' anxious to obtain the information. Lady Cheltenham: A most plausible explanation, I must admit, Lady Henry. But unfortunately I happep to have read the note which accompanied the cheque; and though I will not discuss with you the services you. have Tendered my bus-

mand, as you have been fully paid for them, I am sure you will see the ■wisdom of leaving this house. Lady Forrester (wincing): You are very cruel, Lady Cheltenham. I could explain everything— (recovering herself). However, having paid a high price for your husband, you are perhaps right to be exigeante. Lady Cheltenham: I am not exigeante, but I am disappointed, as I thought I had paid all his debts when I married him. (Enter Lady St. Austell and the Duchess of Lincoln.) Lady St. Austell: My dear Lady Cheltenham, I have been looking for you everywhere. What have you two beeu talking about? The inevitable toilette, I suppose. Lady Cheltenham (looking Lady Henry full in the face) : Lady Henry has been making mc her adieux, and I believe was just going to seek for you. She has had bad news. Her husband, you know, is going abroad, and she does not like to leave him alone. The Duchess (aside): She certainly never leaves other people's husbands alone. What can have happened? Lady St. Austell: I am most distressed. Is it imperative that you should go? Lady Henry Forrester: I am afriad it is (smiling). You know—La femme doit, suivre son mari. The Duchess (aside): Yes, but you generally follow someone else's, which I expect is your present little game. Lady Henry Forrester: You must make all my excuses to ces messieurs. I am afraid they will not return before I leave. (To Lady Cheltenham). My best compliments to your husband. I dare say his "diplomatic" business will soon call him to town, and then I may have the pleasure of seeing him. Dear Lady St. Austell, you must soon come up to my little bicoque in Park-street and u'o a week's plays. Duchess, it is only au revoir; I shall meet you in Paris in October (Sotto voce to Lady Cheltenham.) Quant a toi, vipere, je te xepincerai plus Itard. (Exit Lady Henry.) Lady St. Austell and the Duchess (together to Lady Cheltenham): You have gained a glorious victory. What does it all mean? Lady Cheltenham: It means simply that Lady Henry has got the nostalgic dv foyer, and is returning to her disconsolate husband. The Duchess: But they are never together by any chance. Lady Cheltenham: Wtell, ■! would rather not discuss her—she really interests mc so very little. Before Dinner, in Lord and Lady Cheltenham's Dressmg-room.) Lord Cheltenham (angrily): And you dared to turn her out of ,the house! You showed a lamentable want of taste. However, the degradation was for you, who placed yourself in a most humiliating position. Lady Cheltenham: I was placed, you mean.

Lord Cheltenham: You have no selfrespect. How did you get hold of mv note?

Lady Cheltenham (laughing): That will only be revaled with other important secrets on the judgment day! Lord Cheltenham: You must learn once for all that I will not be interfered with.

Lady Cheltenham: Then you must carry on your liaisons with greater caution in future. I decline to be outraged by the presence of a woman like Lady Henry Forrester in any house in which lam staying. (Descends to draw-ing-room smiling.)

The Fraulein hated the whole affair. She had thoroughly distructed Lord Henry from the first, and was all tho more incensed against him iox being the cause of her difference with Marcia, and the gulf that seemed daily widening between them.

The landlady at the house at which they lodged noticed the estrangement, and spoke of it with much gesticulation and even tears in her eyes to her husband, Francois. Francois, being in his way a philosopher, replied that no woman ever knew her own mind. "Souvent femme varie, Bien fou gui s'y fie J"

Madame told her husband that he was a pig of a brute. The good man chuckled, lit his cigarette, and went down to his favourite cabaret, where he sat down to console himself with a glass of yin ordinaire and water.

Now it so happened that there Bat down by him an Englishman, evidently to the experienced eye, a gentleman's gentleman, who produced a meerschaum pipe, cursed French tobacco, and mixed himself some cognac and seltzer.

He was very pleasant, was this same Englishman, and not at all reserved or awkward, like most of his compatriots. In fact, before long he and Francois were on the best of terms, and Francois had told him all the news of Dieppe, including that of his own household, in which he felt sure his new acquaintance would take an absorbing interest, the whole thing being so very droll.

The stranger was a capital listener. Francois, who was hardly allowed to open his mouth at home, rather prided himself on his conversational faculties; and very probably the two might have gone on talking until now, had not the Englishman suddenly discovered that he had stopped too long already in such good company, and that he would be in all probability soundly rated by his governor. So he paid the reckoning as a hospitable man should, and strolled away, gently whistling to himself a once popular air, the words of which refer to the hopeless passion of a broken-hearted milkman, resident in the neighbourhood of Paddington Green, which he somehow seemed to find consonant with his own meditations.

When he reached the Royal Hotel, he walked straight through the small courtyard, and making his way to Lord Henry, who was standing under the verandah, respectfully touched his hat. There was no one as it happened within earshot. "Well, Peters?" "I've seen the husband, my lord, and he's told mc as much as he knows, and I think that's about all. Miss Conyers and the old lady have been quarrelling, and are now hardly on speaking terms. The landlady's sorry for this, aa she doesn't want of course to lose steady, regular paying lodgers who give no trouble. The husband doesn't know what the quarrel is about, and says he doesn't care. The two ladies, as a rule, always used to go out together, but now they generally go out separate. The. old lady looked to-day as if she'd been crying, and Miss Conyers, so the husband said, looked ferocious. That was his word, my lord." "Very well, Peters, you can go." So Peters went, or rather vanished unobtrusively, as a servant who knows his work ought, and Lord Henry strolled' down to the Casino. There, under the awning on the terrace facing the sea was Marcia, with a volume of Tennyson,

which she was not^rea6^T~lw^ Diets was nowhere visible. "I am so glad you have come" ..'•!» Mareia. "It is dreadfully SS fij

Then why stay? I atn s ; ek f place myself. The races are over J*' body is going, and I should have IS' long ago myself if it had not you. Let us g0 straight to Parish very afternoon Y ou have marry mc. Wliy delay it? We cm V married in the Embassy at once T pose we are both of age." , *" Marcia laughed. Then she began ♦» trace imaginary figures oa the VoMnd with the point of her parasol. ™ "There is a train at four" confix i Lord Henry. "It is now only two S mind about packing, or anything of tw sort. We shall be in Paris shortly S& eight, and you can get anything Z want there in a moment." ."

Marcia hesitated for some few eewi Then she looked up in her Wn manner, shook her head as if to shatw down the tresses of her hair, and S one more second said, "Yes., we 3, S n e j T ° S f , frOm hercllai r and'thev walked side by Sl de out of the Ca2 grounds into the Grand Rue. Herei™ , slight purchases were made, and tW soon found themselves at the station.^ There was no trouble or worry aboni tickets or any other such preparation Mr Peters with an immovable face C got everything ready. A coupe had W secure. In it there was fruit and wW and a large caraffe of frozeiTwater and an entire assortment of journals TW,»! Marcia had fairly looked round ker'aS taken her seat, the train nad started. From Dieppe to Paris is but a tnfl. over four hours. The day was one of those glorious summer days which a™ only to be had along the coast of France ' To Marcia, now thoroughly ' happy jj seemed full of new beauties. She dJdW feel inclined to talk, and her ; c6 mpail ion guessed her mood, hardly Speafip except now and then to call attention to some old village church or quaint farmhouse, some river vista of the Seine flowing peacefully seawards. The shadows lengthened; the cloiidi began to fall. The swallows were flm. low. Soon came the suburbs, and'then the fortifications, and then as the twin drew up at the St. Lazare Station, th« door was opened by the ever-attentive Mr Peters, and Lord Henry ; swinAiz himself down to the platform, held\t his hands and assisted Marcia to descend, A good valet is a jewel far beyond the price of rubies. There was a motor waiting, and in a moment Lord Henry and Marcia were being driven rapidly along the busy Boulevards to the Grand Hotel. Their arrival had been expected, and rooms were ready for them. 0 There was a chambermaid.of superior grade, who quietly and quickly took u> on herself the functions of lady's maid) arranged Marcia's hair, aridas far as waj possible assisted her, so (skilfully: and effectively, that Marcia herself, aa she looked at her own reflection in ihe tall cheval glass, could hardly believie that she had but just arrived from a Jmrried journey. A single blossom of white stephanotis in her hair, and a spray-of-the earne flower at the side of her circular Scotch brooch, completed' the-toileti " : ■■ Women do not dress to please otnei women—to exasperate them if you vriflM and to please men. Marcia/as I hail said long ago, had an almost faultiest taste in dress, and on this occasion she was fully satisfied with, her own. appearance. ■ • _•'-'■ - ... •

Lastly, the maid handed here box of gloves, from which, Marcia selected the pair that best harmonised with L her dress. So she passed through a corridor which the maid pointed out, anl found herself in a large salon brilliantly .lighted and exquisitely decorated wipi lowers. In one corner of the room was a grand piano, and by it a low case filled with music. Here and there in niches'or on pedestals were statues of Parian. Ikt feet sank into the carpet. The firepW was filled with strange and beautiftt ferns. The open windows looked put on to a .balcony fitted with cushions, carpeted and furnished, the whole covered in with a great Venetian tent of red and white, through the drawn"curtain of which could be seen, the broad Boulevard dcs Capucines full of anotioa and life. Marcia turned to Lord Henry, held pat, both her hands to him, and said, '3t is beautiful. Thank you, Henry, for ill your thoughtfulness." " . ■ <f You light a dull old place .up, Jfl sweetheart," he answered, 'Tike ad* mond in-the depths of a mine." And Iβ put his arms round her, gently pressed her head down on his broad chest, and gave her a long deep kiss between let eyes. (To be contined next Saturday.)!-