MIRANDA OF THE MOVIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 134, 8 June 1926, Page 18

MIRANDA OF THE MOVIES.

By ERIC LEACROFT,

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS*. JAXET THOKEft. daughter of the squire ot Thorpe, wb<SV financial circumstances are as unsatisfactory as possible, comes to London in the hope of mending the family fortunes. She meets MIRIAM SWATXE. a ein<?ma star, formerly a servant at Thorpe, and DICK COVERDALE. a scenario writer, formerly a sbepherd boy at Thorpedale, and, .vrith their nssistance. is engaged, uuder the name "Miranda May," by MR VAN ,QUISTE>\ of Millenium Films, Ltd., to play a small part In a new film called' "Bonnets Over the Border." OSWALD THORPE. Jauefs brother. Is heavily Indebted to • MR. JONAH, 'a moneylender, notorious for his high interest charges. One evenins i Jane-t, in lodgings at Fulham, Is able to I render Mr. Jonah, whose motor c» r ' dashes into a lamp post, a service. CHAPTER IV. Janet was assailed with a sudden weakness. AH morning she had been rehearsing her interview with the gentleman of Hebrew extraction who had caught her brother in his toils. She had been prepared to make promises, to tell lies, even to -plead with this stonyhearted usurer —to do almost anything to gain time, for Oswald, and ward off the new blow that threatened to descend on Thorpe. And now a perverse fate had thrown the etony-hearted one on her very doorstep, and she could not find a word to say. The enemy was so altogether different from anything she had imagined.

"I dont know how to thank you," lie i was saying, in that pleasant, slightly guttural voice. "You saved my life. Oh yes, you did. I wasn't unconscious, only I didn't feel inclined to move at the moment, and if you hadn't intervened the crowd would have killed mc with kindness before I had a chance to protect myself. . . " He regarded her kindly and held out his hand in farewell. The mere fact that Jonah was, or thought that he was, indebted to her, made it doubly difficult to open the subject of Oswald's debts to him. She had meant to take a bold line with Mr. Jonah —that other Mr. Jonah of ber imagination, from whom the reality had turned out to be so disconcertingly different. But she had never felt less bold in her life than at this moment v-hen the enem; was holding out his hand and thanking her, with a note of almost paternal kindness, for saving him from,the fury of the London mob. "Oh, we mustn't shake hands," she cried despairingly. "We're enemies." "We're what?" His eyes clouded in friendly bewilderment. "Enemies. You see, I know all about you." He looked at her sharply, then threw !up his hands in a quite un-English , gesture of humorous despair. ' "Then I am indeed undone. I thought, when 1 opened my eyes, that you must be an angel, but it didn't occur to mc that you might be the recording angel. I suppose it's no 'use asking you to be merciful?" ■

"None whatever," agreed Janet eagerly. "You see, I was coming to see you in Rupert Street, vhen " "When I came to see you? This is very exciting. I wonder if I can guess what you were going to say to mc?" "You couldn't possibly," said Janet. "Couldn't I? Well, I'll have a shot at it. You were going to say something like thft. Mr. Jonah,.you are a hard man, Mr. Jonah, you are little better than a common bloodsucker, and I do you a favour in condescending to speak to you at all. You have inveigled a dear friend of mine into • contracting obligations which he finds it extremely annoying to carry out. What right have you to ruin the peace of mind of a young English gentleman for the .sake of your wretched twenty per cent —or thirty or forty, •as the case may be. You are a blot, Mr. Jonah, on our civilisation, and I dislike you intensely."

The little man cowered dramatically under this imaginary accusation. His mouth drooped and he looked as if lie might at any moment burst into taars. It was gqod comedy, but Janet could not help feeling that it was not all assumed —that she' had really hurt his feelings by letting him know that his reputation had preceded him to her doorstep. "Oh, please," she begged. "I don"t dislike you in the It's purely a —a matter of business." "And that," declared - -Mr. ■ Jonah, brightening visibly, "is exactly what I should have replied to you. It is a mat-

ter of business. On the other hand, it isn't anybody's business, really, except mine and the young mans." "But how do on know It's a young man?" put in Janet quickly. "Two reasons," replied Mr. Jonah calmly. "One, they mostly are. I trade in young men, you know. And two, I'm driven to! that conclusion-by the faotthat it's-a young lady who—but wait!" Mr. Jonah interrupted himself to lock at her intently. He even stood back to look at her, like an artist inspecting his easel. Then Jie nodded slowly. "Charming country round' Thorpe," he remarked. Janet gasped. "You're a magician!" "I'm afraid not. I just happen to have a good memory for faces and types. And you-people, you know, are a pretty definite type. There's no mistaking that » . . . Janet interrupted him.' "I hope," -she said, firmly, "that you ' will be good enough not to mention my nose." "Happy," said Mr. Jonah, with a bow. "And if you'll extend the same to mine j I shall be doubly happy —though, to tell | you the truth, I've grown callous." j Janet smiled and sighed. Mr. Jonah appealed immensely, to her sympathies, but this would never do. The interview— this interview on which so much was to ..hang—was degenerating into farce. Perhaps this was due to the traditional bedroom setting. Anyway, it was time to come to grips. "I wish we'd met elsewhere," she murmured. "But since you're here, I must try'and say what 1 had to stay. You've ( said some of it for mc, and I'm grateful,! though, of course, I wasn't going to call you any of those horrid names." "As "a matter of fact, they rarely do. •But they think 'em." "Well, 1 don't," Janet pursued. "Oh, yes, I intended to hate you, but it.'s no use pretending that I do. You/don't seem to mc to be at all like a blood sucker. I, don't, believe you'd hurt a gnat." ■ "Of course not. I'm a gnat myself. My dear youag lady, as I'm two or three.times as old as you, I hope you'll ( i allow mc to give you a-wdrd of warning, y Don't trust to appearances! My innocent

Author of "Winter Corn," "Silversands," etc., etc.

charm—please don't say that 1 haven't charmed you—is part of my stock-in-trade. So is my childlike frankness. But don't let it deceive you for a moment into imagining that I'm not an out-and-out Shylock when it comes to business. I will have my bond. That's business, and I don't allow anybody to interfere with it. So please don't say any more about my transactions with your brother. I admit he's got himself into a pretty mess, but hs's only himself to blame," he concluded, looking at her with the syes of an impudent child. "So let's talk about something else." "Upon my word," said Janet fervently, "I should like to smack you." It would have been a Tilting ending to this absurd interview, but Mrs. Pellew decreed that it should be otherwise. It was interrupted by a slow and solemn knocking at the door, in the rhythm of the Fate Motive in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. "Oh, come in," bellowed Mr. Jonah.

"I intend to come in," declared Mrs. Pellew; and in she came, with an effect of having forced the lock. -"I intend to come in, and nothing • shall prevent mc coming in." "Nothing has," said Mr. Jonah. "No, sir. Nor nothing could. I might have known what it would be, when I let my rooms to a professional lady. Lady?" "Yes," said Mr. Jonah. "Oh, you can brazen it out," said Mrs. Pellew, "but I'd have you know that this is a respectable house, a*nd I'm going to keep it respectable, if it's over my dead body. But I'm not addressing yon, not that I'm aware of, I'm addressing Miss "

"Be quiet," said Janet. • "That I will not be, not if you go down on your bended knees an offer mc 'ush money. What I say is, it isn't the action of a lady to have a gentleman caller in another lady's room, and I'll say it from the housetops if you drive mc to it."

"Go to the housetop by all means," said Mr. Jonah, brutally. "And if you're wise you'll throw yourself off. You make my head ache. I dislike you. But if you say another word to Mies Thorpe I'll—" He caught Janet's entreating look and was silent too late. The cat wad out of the bag and had jumped straight into the arms of Mrs. Pellew, who caught it deftly, and would doubtless have made good use of it if there had not arrived at this moment the tenant of the room that Janet had so coolly appropriated. To her, as an ally, she confided the whole story of Janet's duplicity. Miss Kingdom, a- lady still young, with an intelligent face and traces of a Lancashire accent, promptly took' charge. "There's a story in this," she announced briskly. . "Let's have the facts."

She got them. It seemed to Janet that any further attempt at camouflage would only make things worse. At last she. fled to her third floor front, after taking an almost affectionate farewellof the inflexible Mr. Jonah, and surveyed the wreck of most of her hopes.

In the first place, she was discovered. Mr. Jonah knew that she, a daughter of Thorpe, was Miranda May. Worse still. Miss Kingdom knew that Miranda May was a Thorps, and had seen a story in it. ■ Within twelve hours the story would reach every corner of the land, even that right-hand corner that includes Thorpedale. And then the game was up; for how could she continue in her enterprise in face of a direct veto from the head of the .family? She would have to go home and be laughed at. In the second plaoe, Mr. Jonah would do nothing for her. She might as well have tried to argiis an obstinate child into giving tip a brandy ball that was already in its mouth.. And to-morrow morning she was to rehearse. . She approached the mirror again. Perhaps it was "true thfet cracked mirrors brought bad luck. This one. anyway, was no -flatterer: She resumed her seat at the window, a sadder .£irl. (To be continued daily.)