YOUNG HEARTS!

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 170, 19 July 1924, Page 26

YOUNG HEARTS!

By EFFIE ADELAIDE ROWLANDS.

CHAPTER XXIV. Diana chose her hours for wandering in the gardens and for walking when she reckoned that she would not be brought into contact with any member of the house party, but she found herself thwarted in this arrangement. Several days went by after that little scene in her bedroom between Georgette and Ann Morgan, and nothing had been done. Miss Delvine had evidently accepted the situation. At any rate, neither Ann Morgan nor the housekeeper heard anything more about being dismissed, and apparently Georgette was in the highest of spirits"and having what she would call a "thoroughly good time." Diana continued to have her meals upstairs in her sitting-room, and choso to go out, as has just been said, at times when she felt that she would not be called upon to meet any of Miss Delvine'- friends. But th.ro was one who watched her every movement, and gradually there came to the girl the fact that she was being followed, and that no j matter which way sho went, or what hour she chose, Henry Lyndhurst always cropped up from somewhere and attached himself to her. She did her be_t to dismiss him, but the fact that he was blind apparently to her desire to have no intercourse with him became more apparent as the days went by. She .poke of this to Ann Morgan, and the maid established herself as a kind of chaperon, always accompanying Mis--. Orland on her walks. Diana was now, to all outward appearance, fully restored to health, and with that restoration there came back to her a good deal of the old spirit which used to make her such a happy, sunny creature. Not that she forgot her father or ceased to grieve for him. Only that now she could accept her loss with resignation, and found herself wondering frequently o'er all that had passed with i her since she had left Winfrey. I Morgan had felt that it would be | helpful for the girl to know something j about herself, and therefore she had j spoken frankly of the strange mental | coudition into which Diana had fallen j when she had been in London. She had not hesitated to say that she considered that Mrs. Orland had practically worked to bring about that condition. "I don't exactly know what she did to you, miss," the maid said on one occa- i sion, "but I am certain sure that she did j do you a great deal of harm; and it's my belief she did it for a purpose." Diana had been standing looking out! of the window, and now sho turned, and I there were tears in her eyes. "I must have hurt a great many j people," she said brokenly, "dear Aunt' Margaret, and Peter! Oh, how sorry I , am! But I did not know what I was doing. ... I did not mean anything that I said or did!" And then Morgan put forward the idea which had been growing in her mind. "Why shouldn't you go to Lady Margaret, miss?" she asked eagerly. "Her ladyship will be leaving the nursing home very shortly, and I know that she I would be simply out of her mind-Vitli ' pleasun at the thought of having you with he.r. Can't you manage it?" Diana's face lit up, and then she became thoughtful. "I shall have to think it all over, Morgan," she said. "It looks easy, but one never knows." And then she had gone out to the grounds and had sent Morgan down to have her luncheon and while she had been sitting undr.r the trees some distance away from the house, she found herself suddenly addressed by Lyndhurst, and before she could fully realise what was happening he was making a proposal of marriage, and telling her how much he loved her. Diana was full of anger, but she controlled herself, and spoke quietly and gently. She thanked him, but she told j him that she could not listen to him. "I think you will understand, -Mr. Lyndhurst," she said, "that it is impossible for mc to entertain sucb a proposition as you make, because 1 am already pngaged to be married." Lyndhurst looked at her, and laughed iisagreeably. | "You're. thinking of Shirley," he said. | •'Well, you-may imagine you're engaged to him, but he doesn't- act as if he were an engaged man! While you have been ill he has been running round London mixing himself up with all sorts of queer people." Diana rose from the chair in which she had been sitting. "You are making a great mistake," she said. "You have no right to speak to mc in this manner. Please do not come near mc again. I wish to have nothing more to do with you." Pale with anger, Lyndhurst stood in front of her as she would have moved away, and then, as she tried to pass him, she caught him by the wrists. "I suppose you think you're the earth," j he _aid roughly, "jjust because you're | Diana Orland, but you've got to learn i your mistake, and I'm going to teach you the way to do it!" Diana's indignation was bo great that just for an instant Ehe stood and let him grip her wrists, and then with a jerk she freed herself, and at that moment she saw Morgan running towards her. and without another word she turned and walked towards the maid For a little while the girl could not speak, and then, when she did, her voice was shaken and trembling. "I must get away from here, Morgan," she said. "It must be dono at onco. I can't bear it any longer." But that was not the end of the scene with Lyndhurst, for when she was up in her room about an hour later Georgette burst into the room once more in a Qamiug rage. "I want to know how you dare insult •my guest." she inquired. "What do you mean by it? So you won't marry Lyndhurst, won't you? Why, you ought to go down on your knees and thank anybody that would marry a I crazy fool like you! If mother had done her duty she would have had you locked up in an insane asylum mouths ago. I' guess you've-got to come off that high perch of yours!" ; Diana, troubled, humiliated and indignant as she was, felt strength and pride come to her. "I want to have no further dealings with you, Georgette," she said. "1 am - going to speak to your mother. It is her duty to see that I am protected! not only from your guests, but from you!" Then Miss Orland said: "Morgan, open the door for Miss Delvine!" At that moment one of the maids, knocked at the door and, enteral. _Sh_ \ addressed herself to' Mis_^o--_i-d;;-'f "If you please, miss, thei-'8 a gentleman downstairs who. wants'to see you. He hopes you will 'be well enough to ■. do this." p She held out a silver tray as ehe spoke, and there was a card on it. A_ she passed to give, the card- to Miss. Orland, Georgette snatched it from'- the

j "Peter KMi-eyl" she exclaimed. Then in a voice thick with rage ehe tuxnea on Diana. •'No, you don'tl" she said in hex roughest way. "You're my mother*ward, and she's cut out this Shirley person from her acquaintance!" Diana spoke to the maid. "Please ask Sir Feter Shirley to be 6o good as to wait." She walked to the door, and aa Georgette clutched at her in a passion, both the maid and Ann Morgan intervened. But Diana, put the other aside quietly, proudly: "I am going to see your mother," she said. She was pale to the lips, but qnite firm and composed. "There must bo an end of this kind of existence and your mother must end it," she added. As she passed otit of the door, she repeated her message to I'eter, and the maid hurried away. Georgette followed her as Diana made her way to Mrs. Orland's room. 'Ton think you will get away with it, don't you?" she said. "Guess your mighty clever, but you'll soon find out I you won't do anything with mother! I She's got you in her grip and she means I to keep you there!" ! Diana took no notice, only quickened ] her steps. Thpy were met at the door '. of Mrs. Orland's room by her maid, who looked disturbed. She wa.9 beginning i to protest against letting them enter, | saying that her mistress was still very ill, but (leorgette pushed her on one j side and marched through to her mother's bedroom. I Mrs. Orland was no. in bed, sho was sitting up by the windo.', but she looked infinitely more ill when she was up than f when she had been lying on her pillows. As she saw her daughter and then caught si.eht of Diana, she seemed to | wilt. Her f.-iee, which was quite waxen [white, looked like the fnce of a dead woman. Diana was so shocked at her appearance that she stood with her •hands pressed to her heart, and would irave turned and pone away, only that Mr.=. Orland opened her eyes, thoso wonderful, beautiful eyes which now , had a pathos in them they had never j had before. She sat forward and madia motion with her hand n« if to brush i Georgette out of her sight. j "Go away," she said in a hollow j voice. "Go right away, Georgette. 1 1 want to speak to Diana alone. I must I be left alone with her." Once again dread and uneasiness took possession of Georgette. She did not know her mother in this guise, und sho was terrified of leaving Diana alone with her, but there was something imperaj tive in her mother's pesture, and so with a rough word she turned on her heel and went away. j Then Mrs. Orland beckoned '.ier stepdaughter to her, and the maid went away and left them together. Diana ! stood in front of that curiously changed j figure. It was almost impossible for I her to recognise in this prematurely aged woman, so haggard, so ill, the almost insolent, arrogant beauty whom her father had married. She was nervous and almost afraid, but she caught her courage in both hands. "I was coming to see you," she said, "because I want to ask you to let mc go away for a time. I—l canno- go nn j living here. Georgette is so rough, and so abusive, and there is a man, you know him, Henry Lyndhurst, who— who gives mc no peace." Loreta Orland s_.t and looked at the girl, andr'a little of her old sneering smile came back to her. "So: you come to mc to be protected?" she queried. "Well, you are right. You shall have my protection, and you shall go away on one condition." 'She fell back aga. - ist the chair and her eyes closed. Dismayed at her appearance, Diana looked about her aa tf to summon the maid, but Mrs. frland recovered quickly. "Sit down," she _a;d in _ a whisper. "Come close and I'll tell you what you have to do." Diana pulled a chair forward and sat down in it. She trembled a little, not only because of the strangeness of this interview, but because, only a little away from her, in the very same house, was the man she craved to see, the man she loved, the man whom now i she knew instinctively she had treated very cruelly, though not willingly. "I'll let you go." said that hoarse voice, "if you will agree to make over to mc some of your money. I—l—■ want a large sum, and I—and some of your valuables. I know you cannot touch your money just yet, hut you can .cive mc a document promising mc what I want; and you have some good jewels. I want them. I want to have my future sure. I want you to make that future sure!" She was speaking wildly now, and Diana eat and looked at her with an added quickness to the beating heart, and with this there pressed on her the feeling that She was In the presence of a wo<_i_in who was not sane. Why should her stepmother want money from her, or jewels,, when by General Orland's will his widow had I been left such a wonderful fortune and such splendid possessions? The older woman leaned forward and put a feveri-h hand on Diana's arm. "You hesitate!" she said. "So freedom is not worth so much to you? You crave to be away from here. You hate Georgette! You are frightened of mc, you are insulted by Lyndhurst, and yet when I show you how you can buy your way to freedom, you hesitate!" Diana spoke clearly and bravely. "I don't hesitate." she said. ' "1 a_u only just a little surprised. I—l thought you—had all you needed, but if you wsjit more, I'll give it to you. Freedom is more to mc than money! What is it you want mc to do?" From a table near her Mrs. Orland drew a writing-pad and a pencil; her eyes were glittering now and her thin hand trembled. "Write dowrt," she said, "what I dictate. an<? then you must sign it, and date it." Before she began her dictation, however, fiho caught her breath in a kind i of sob, and then she laughed a broken and painful laugh. "Only a little while ago," she said, "and I could have got all this from you without your knowing it! You worshipped mc! I could do anything I" liked with you! I had you iv tho hollow of my hand, Diana. I could influence you to do everything I wanted, but I lost my chance, and I let my opportunity slip, and now—l have to beg instead of commanding. You won't go back on your'word'" she questioned quickly, eagerly, "no matter what the others may say to , you —and .there will be many others to protest and object: you will stand by your written word, won't you?"' "You can have perfect trust iv mc," said Diana as , quietly as she' could. "'Now tell mc what I am to write." The words she took down were just a repetition of what-her stepmother 'had 6aid to her. She was to make over a certain ..amount of money to Mrs. Orland when she came into her estate, and she was to place in her stepmother's hands, v soon _i pwwihln. such jewallvy as

she possessed, and which had not been made over by her father in his will. As Diana signed the paper, not in pencil but with pen and ink, and dated It, Mrs. Orland snatched it from her, and folding it up quickly, slipped it into the bodice of her gown. Then she looked steadily at Diana. "And now you can go," she said. "You can go as soon as you like. I don't want to see you again. "I am through with you for good" and all!" Diana caught her breath quickly. There was something almost vicious in I the way these words were spoken, and i in the expression of the glittering eyes. She turned and went quickly out of the room, and she almost ran down the stairs. I They were quaint, low, wide stairs, | and as she reached a bend in them, she stood looking down in the hall. There, j walking too and fro restlessly, eagerly, she saw Peter Shirley. Diana's eyes were flooded with tears. After such a long spell of longing and loneliness, the | sight of Peter was almost too much i I for her. At that moment he turned j i and saw her, and they stood for a space j |of two seconds looking into one . | another's eyes, and then he hurried ! 'forward to the stairs, and a moment I | later she was in his arms. Heedless of I who might come he kissed her passion- ' ately, and she gave him back his kissee and clung to him with the abandonment of a child. When she could speak Diana told him that she was free. "And I can go away at once! Will you take mo with you, Peter. I—l cannot stay here another hour. Take mc to Aunt Margaret. I have been so cruel to you both, but I did not know what I was doing. Peter—l did not know!" Her remorse and self-reproach overwhelmed her. and then she for.ot them and n!l that had been so 'bitter ai-.d ' dreadful, for Peter's arms were holding ! her very close, and Peter's lips were resting on hers! Georgette was hovering about the corridor when Diana left Sir I'eter and ran up the stairs. She caught the other girl by I.he arm as Disaa was passing her quickly. "What are you going to do?" she asked. Her jealous eyes noted the I radiance, the look of complete happiness i land health which mad- Diana so beau- ' tiful. "See here!" she .aid; you can't do anything off your own bat, you know! I suppose that smart young man downstairs thinks he's going to take yon away, but he's out of his reckoning for once!" Diana caught her breath rather quickly, and then she said: "Will you como into my room a minute. Georgette? I want to speak to you." Half sullenly Miss Delvine obeyed. When they were inside the sittingroom, Diana called her maid to her. "Put some things in my dressingcase," she said, "I am going to motor up to London with Sir Peter Shirley. You can pack, and follow with the rest of the thingß." As the maid withdrew, she closed the bedroom door, and came towards Georgette. | 'You heard mc give Morgan an order," sin? sard, "and now you know that I am goi' ; away. lam going with your mother's permission. More than that, I am going at her express wish." Georgette bit her lip, and then she said with a sneer: "I guess you don't think I am going to believe that, do you?" Diana answered quietly. 'Tt is the truth. You can go to your mother and question her if you doubt mc. She made a compact with mc. I ' shall keep to my side of the bargain, and I have no reason to doubt that she will keep to hers." Georgette had walked to the window. Now she turned and looked with a curious expression at Diana. "Say!" she said. "'Speak plain. I don't catch on to your idea of a compact." "Your mother has relinquished all claim to her gum dianship," Diana said, "on the consider! tion that I give her my jewels, that I promise to make over to her a certain at-iount of money when lam twenty-one. She naked mc to ', write down a kind of agreement, which she dictated to mc, and which 1 have ] signed. I don't know, of course, I whether that agreement has any legal j standing, but I mean to keep to what I have promised." ! , Georgette had turned very pals, and suddenly she sat down In a chair. ' , "I guess you've got mc all knocked out," she said; 'but momma lias been ■ so queer these last few weeks that I don't know how to deal with ber." That uneasiness which had tormented her so much had now become definite fear. She was convinced that there was! something behind this curious action on her mother's part, something which she ought to know, and which would probably be extremely unpleasant. Diana suddenly felt sorry for her. ' There was such a tragic expression on Georgette's face. All the aggressiveness, the arrogance, had fallen away from i her. She looked crushed. "So you see, Georgette," the other girl said gently, "1 am free to go. I have bought my freedom, and somehow I don't think in your heart of hearts that you will be sorry. You know you have been kind to mc at times, Geor-1 gette. Won't you be kind to mo now, I and let us part as friends?" Georgette did not answer at once, but after a pause she looked up. "You don't'want mc as a friend," she said. "You've got so many. Everything's going to be O.K. for you now. You've got the man! You've got your proper place! You will be with your own people, and there will be plenty of money, so you won't want my friendship!"

"If I am going to be happy," said Diana—and she smiled, for she was Indeed happy—"well then, I want to have no ugly things to remember. I don't understand why your mother hati done this, and it seems to be news to you, but perhaps she has a very good reason, and in any case, 1 should think you would both be glad to get rid of mc. But I want to let you know, Georgette, that if in the future you need anything, or want my friendship, please turn to mc." | She held out her hand, and Georgette I paused before taking it in hers. Then ' she got up to her feet, and threw back her head. "All right," she said. "That's a bargain too, and mind you keep to it! I Now I'd best go down and get Henry \ Lyndhurst off the premises. Perhaps i you won't be so kind to mc when you know that I got him here on purpose to marry you! But more than once I have been sorry. He's such a worm! I guess it'll do mc good to give him some i plain words." j She turned and went out of the room, I and as she was al"ne Diana stood and . pressed her hands to her heart, and ! then covered her eyes. I It was all so wonderful, and so unI expected. She seemed to have slipped 1 back into the past, into those days when happiness had been hci daily, hourly portion, when thoughts and dreams of Peter Shirley had been as natural to her as drawing her breath —and the thought of him was even sweeter now. The knowledge that ho was below, that she had just been held in his arms, the touch of his lips on hers, brought a thrill to her heart such as she had never experienced before. Ancl then she faced such a wonderful future! She was going away from all that had been so jarring, so difficult, so depressing. She was go- . ing to travel through the sunshine, and [ the Bummer air, to join those to whom she belonged, and who longed to hflvc- her with them. It seemed almost too much to come altogether! (To be continue'! daily.)