"HIS DIFFICULT DAUGHTER"

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 77, 31 March 1928, Page 12 (Supplement)

"HIS DIFFICULT DAUGHTER"

By WINIFRED CARTER

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. CARMEN BUCKTO.V is the beautiful, impetuous daughter of SIR JAMES BUCKTON*. K.C., the great criminal lawyer. His wife had run away from him and joined a brother in Italy, where Carmen was born and where she spent the tirst eighteen years of her life. On her mother's death Carmen is brought to her father's home by MICHAEL ROCHESTER, who i* a relative of Sir James, as well as &is secretary. Before leaving Italy Michael has to rescue his charge from the attentions of PAUL VARLBY, a dissolute artist. In London, Carmen finds life grey and restrained, and one night her father is astounded at finding her giving an exhibition dance at a cabaret.

CHAPTER \ T n. Sir James jumped to liis feet, his first impulse to rush out into that blaze of light and drag Carmen away, hide her, anything to prevent her from being stared at like that. Then he dropped back to his chair. As likely as not she would evade him, giving him that challenging smile of hers, daring him to stop her, and go on in the teeth of his opposition. Had 6he no respect for his name, his reputation! Here she was delibertely trying to affront him, to shame him before his world. He did not realise that for once the people who watched forgot him altogether. The K.t'.'s daughter was lost in the genius of the dancer. Her audience was in the grip of sticli dancing that was seldom seen here in London. The room was hushed. Not a sound came save the haunting sigh of the band. As for Carmen, s-he was happy. For the first time since leaving Italy she was in a familiar world, a fantastic sunlit world, where 110 complaints had ever been made, but only love given. She was, in imagination, on the balcony, overhanging the bine sea, -and her mother waa lying on the lounge and crying out in delight at her dancing. 'It is well done, my little one." She wanted to go on dancing for ever, never to return to what life had become.

At the back of the room a man had just entered. As his eyes fell on the exquisite girl who held all eyes, he beaame rigid with interest. Varlev, taking his gaze from fascinating Carmen saw him and smiled. So Pryor, that expert, was held too. Yes, Archibald Pryor, theatre magnate, an authority in the world of the stupe, was more than held. It was as though the thing that had always eluded him was here at his hand. A born dancer! Pryor was a rich man and a successful one, but his dream was to find a dancer who could do big things. And here she was—youth, grace, motion, the very joy of living personified! He meant to secure her, whatever it cost.

Ora and her mother sat. fiercely resenting everything; the fact that Carmen should dance far and away better than anyone else there, her strange magnetism, most of all, her beauty!

And now it was over. With a haJfdefiant, wholly adorable tose to her head, Carmen swathed the shawl round lier, and stood smiling at the people. Her face was flushed, her scarlet bps curved in a smile, while her eyes, so lustrous and so dark, were pools of laughter.

And they clapped, clapped to the echo; that quiet, well-bred crowd forgot its breeding, and even stamped its feet. She stood as delighted as a child, then with an air of delicious abandonment, she kissed both hands, and turned to go back to her father. '

As she passed the table where the Westgates were, she loaned over, and in a voice dripping honey, she said:

"Bring your teacher of dancing to me, Mrs. Westgate. I'll see if I can't do something with her." "Oh, the naughty child," thought Miohaei, amused against his will. He had heard an account from Betty of the way Carmen had behaved that afternoon.

Everyone was staring with open interest, and so Mrs. Westgate forced a sickly smile, though she felt more like slaying the beautiful, insolent creature, who had no respect for anyone. Back at her own tahle Carmen slid into a chair, and began on her neglected dinner, utterly unconscious that she had done anything that was out of the way; on the contrary, she honestly believed her father would be gratified.

"Carmen!" he gasped, even mtfre staggered at this uncor.cern than he had been over the dancing. "What did you mean by making such a spectacle of yourself 1" "I thought you would be pleased. I knew that I was more of a dancer than any who were there to-night. lam good. I have no need to be told!" That enraged him. He could not understand her point of view, and thought she had deliberately set out to anger him. "Did it not please you then, my father?" she questioned regretfully, seeing the white fury on his fa<w. "Please me?" said Sir James Buckton, with quiet fury. "It was a disgrace." "A disgrace?" said Carmen sorrowfully. "But lam desolated. I thought you would be pleased with it, but you find it not good enough for here?" She waved her hand to the room queetioningly.

"Your dancing? I'm not discussing the merits of that," he said in a deadly tone. "If you do not understand why I call it a disgrace, then you are more ignorant than I knew." At that moment Michael dropped into a chair beside her. Carmen flashed him a glance of red-hot rebellion. "I do as I think my father will like! I dance, better'than the others here! I do as the others do, but if I do it, it is wrong! Everything Ido is wrong." "Why did you bring me here, father," she cried, turning on him like a virago. "Though I follow what the others do, I am wrong, all wrong. You should have left me in Italy! I am loved there." Sudden understanding of the whole situation flashed over Michael. She had never been to this sort of place before, and did not know that that couple of dancers were paid professionals! She did not realise the difference between the dancing that had gone before and that. The poor kid didn't understand.

"Why, Uncle," he cried, plunging boldly into the fray, "Carmen did not know those dancers were professionals. She thought it was quite au fait to do aa they did." Sir James Buckton's face did not soften at Michael's explanation. He had gone hot and cold during that terrible moment. Her artistry, her grace, that something so sought after, which Carmen had in full measure, pressed down and running over, made it only a more heinous crime. The indignity of Sir James Buckton's daughter dancing like that! He hated the notoriety. Even now people were staring, whispering, covertly, it was delegable.

"If you have finished we'll go," he said, with cold politeness.

"iliit I'm hungry," grumbled Carmen. "I'm going now. You can have some food at home."

He rose, and with one disdainful look back at Michael, Carmen, seething with indignation, rose to her feet. Flashing a glance round at the diners that for deliance could not have been matched, she glided after her father. It was Paul Varley's chance. "Miss Buckton," he said eagerly. "Allow me to offer you my congratulations on the most amazing and fascinating exhibition of dancing I have ever witnessed. You were great." Coldly Carmen's eves rested on the face of the man she had run away with! At that moment Carmen was not aware that her father detested Paul Varley. Her mind went in a flash to that moment when Michael had bundled Paul Varley out into the hotel yard, and then, quite calmly, had thrashed him. Into the angry eyes there came a look of cool amusement, and a little smile curved her lips. Why, it's Mr. Varley! So you have returned to England ? Ido hope you have recovered from the thrashing Michael gave you!" Paul Varley moved back, the angry colour suffusing his face. Most indiscreet of her. Her clear, carrying voice had reached other ears, as smothered titters told him. At that moment Sir James turned back, and saw Varley talking to his daughter. "Carmen! You are keeping me waiting, ' he rapped out savagely. In the car going back he stormed at her in the deadly way she was learning to loathe. She sat, one white shoulder turned in his direction, a look of indifference on her lovely young face. -As for that Paul Varley," finished up the irate K.C., "I absolutely forbid you ever to speak to him again. I want your word of honour, Carmen, that you will never see him again." Carmen turned and gave him a glance as ever his own could be And why, my father?" she questioned. M "Never mind about the reason. He is i a man I particularly dislike." 1 don't like him tremendously," confessed Carmen. "But he was in Italy and that means something." ' *1 am not asking what he means to you, said the exasperated Sir James. forbidding you to see him!" "L shall most probably see quite a lot of him, she remarked affably. Sir James could hardly believe his ears. "Does that mean that you are deliberately going to disobey me ?" thundered Sir James. "Most certainly," retorted Carmpn. At any rate, since you lind him so little to your liking, I shall most probably find him most attractive. And now, sinco I am wearied by your incessant talking, for though they talk in Italy I can escape there, I shall be thankful for a little peace." (To be continued daily.)