NEXT SATURDAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 103, 5 May 1926, Page 20

NEXT SATURDAY.

A BIG i&gtfALMENT you Must Ndf miss.

No Oiie else cairie. ,tio Ofle, indeed; sate pals of Jules* called during the next three, weeks, and tHe> golden-girl, whose arm hfld healed, stttyed ofy apparently entirely eOriierit •wiili. decile. "Hie iheifief it that -(Vhifch is gcttiHi' 1 decile eaid wl§6ly, aid felie *as quiie tigWi Val iiad ilit.lier liedd itKeii slie had fallen,; aiid stie hrtd fofgdt'tea fill abolit lief Hfd with Eonald; about Chiekj about lief MrMftpi. Cecil*! got lief il little hi&ak di-'esS tit getttfe thin, clitlfeitig MlifT; teijk iier W the big e§tJib= ISslliileitt, fiiliJ ttbtsliiied a fcertli fdf lief a3 A iriaimeqtilii. TM CUlef of Polifcg flaisliga fiie ehdft Speech , , Mt hMk alid tHet Rdfiald'e ddfk wiiii.wiid iilieery; tiiifiJn'feiiitiglfY '^Everj'thing , which could be done, has been done," lie repeated. "Madame la Coratesse was in this house, and escaped

from this house. You admit. Milord Sands, that your wife and yourself were not happy together.- Therefore it is permiss&ble to conclude that Madame la Oomtesse vanished voluntarily; Madame is of ample 1 tittderstaitd, and it is quite possible she lias" Igft France for America—for anywhere." He opened his hands widely. Why not? There was ndthiflg to prevent her, and she will have travelled tinder ati assumed name." He leant.forward and tapped Ronald's knee" authoritatively. "If Madame -la Comtesae were dead, •theii we should kntfw— =-Milord must conSole himself with that thought," Console himself! Hotiald got up. and walked dut of the big splendid building. • Console himself —and his whole being was obsessed with o'iie 'Sense of his own selfish ' cruelty to Val. She had left him be- ' cause he had treated-her so rottenly. \ H6IW- Came over, and stuck to him. Pat.Mallinson never failed him. The 1 dayg dragged on ofi leaden feet, it seemed to Ronald. ' ;■ "He had to go to London to see his lawyers one week, a.nd Iris, seeing him driving, .hailed liiiii. ~ Ronald stopped unwillingly.- All his life—his easy London life—seemed so utterly 1 removed from his. life now. Iris seemed a being ffbm another world. She laid a hand on his, and Ronald coloured faintly, and drew his away, and Iris laughed maliciously; but she let him go; She watched his car threading its way dow-ri B6nd Street; Mc was lost to her now, she knew, for ever, and she thought with a certain shrewd insight, how odd it was that Val present should never Mad attracted, but V&l lost, unattainable, should triumph. For a very personal reason Iris felt furio.us'at Ronald's absorption; she was tefrilcally'hard lip, and she >had incurred many of her worst bills during the time she had firmly believed Ronald, as her husband, would have to pay them. That hope was quite dead now, and she was being dunned daily. She returned home that morning to fiiid a iriah wittt a- writ, and; someiiow liis presence, the fact she had- seen Itonaid, seemed the two list straws. "I'll chuck London, and ,try pastures new,"' she decided. After all, there was always Monte Carid, Aix les Bairis, places where you could gamble, find mightmake a fortune, and .so pay all your bills. Tie next day found heir in Paris, at the Ritz naturally, since she' "was so hard up—and-in ardent pursuit of clothes. And/ irony of ironies, it was Iris who discovered Val hi the slender, gbldenhaired mannequin who came in so lightly aitd swiftly, to show off a, boyish sports 5 costume 1 . ■ . Iris stared, let her lorgnette fall, retrieved it, and stared again. She 'beckoned Madame Elise. "Wliti la yottf hew , girl! , ' "An American- Madame' Warden, you like her style?" A faint siiiile curved . iris , painted Meittli.- • "Seiid her to nic"; will ydUf" Val came across quite, readily— her dilrk eyebrows met for ati instarit as she gpea At Iris. "Weli, I,, .itit skid to her, '%hafr'am I to tell Ronald f !i " It-was Val who stared now: she saiit iv 'French :\\ •

"Pardonj Madame?" and Cecile swept up, took her hand* and asked languidly: "llaclamfc desires ——?" "I will take the modeL" Ceeile, drawing Val back, breathed a sigli of reliefj for a moment she had believed Val had been, discovered, and, until Juleg wrote again, she intended to take no risks. Iris drove back to the hotel, gazing between narrowed lids at the street, and. seeing no one. What to do? How to turn this disebvery to her own advantage 1 Obviously, Val had lost her memory., and obviously, the elder girl was afraid she, Iris, had recognised her. Necessary to go father carefully. Still undecided, Iris almost fan into Ronald in-the hall of the Eitz. He apologised stiffly, and on inrpulss slid" said, "Ronnie', tliefti il sdinefclimg I mtist say to y6U;" After all, she had realised in , a flash, it iriight become known later on tlidt she had seen Val; spoken to her and had never told anyone. She laid hef hand oh fioiiaid's afiiij and i just theii the hotel courier came up with i a bill for five thousand francs. And, of course, Iris had riot five "thousand, j Even then she did blush, she did feel a j stab of shame, but the thought of the i eriofnious relief which wtiuld be hers if j she could face the world free of -debt, urged lic'r oh. She had quite , made up her mind now. She SfeW Into the little room to the left*of the big door, it happened to" be empty, and at oiice Iris said in a low voice. '_• "I want ten thousand pounds* Ronnie. I must have the money. Witt you give it to mc, here and now, if I tell you whjSrfe Val is?" Ronald neither questioned nor hesitated ; all he said was, ''Good God, where i| she?" ! Arid then & pang Of real feeling stabbed Tris' heart, SHg felt the teats rush to her eyes—such instant cafe, such", expression 61 love—for it was lbvg, in Ronald's v6i6e. and she had Once" betrayed him, and had nevef cared—biit now—nn this_ second, she had a glimpse of what a man can-feel for a woman. . . . She said shakily: "I sup'p'dse 1 km rotten to -want to sell this information, 'but I am at the end of uiiless I have mohey." ''You shall have it to-inorroiv. I'll give you an LO.tt. noiv; but where, where is she. Iris?" He was actually trembling , ; hi s hand, ft>f hi§ peri* was so tinsteady that 'the pefi "dropped. He wrote ati 1i0.1J., scrawled his signature, and Iris took the bjit of paper; saying stonily, ''Elis;e'§, Riie Racine. Val is a marinotiuin lost her memory—" But. she spoke to ah empty room, Ronald had gone; she sjt-w hiih driving away, bareheaded in tlie giifiligiit. (to be CbncludeVL) ■