The House on the Sand

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 15, 18 January 1930, Page 12 (Supplement)

The House on the Sand

= By MRS. VICTOR RICKARD. 1

CHAPTER XV. Mrs. Havillard Seeks Advice. Mrs. Havillard, usually a most punctual woman, had not even started forth on her way to Knowle Park when Lord Braeside watched the meeting, between Needham Frewen and Carlotta Blankney. . She had wandered out into the garden soon after' breakfast, hoping to waylay Mervyn Trevor, and had missed him, for he had ridden off to Heatherfield'to order supplies of which he was in need. Neither was she any more fortunate with Carlotta, whose whole conduct since breakfast had been strange. . She had shown signs of a bad night, with red eyes and pale cheeks, and she had hardly looked at Mervyn or replied to..his anxious questions. She had' also avoided Mrs. Havillard with so much evident desire to be left to herself, that even that very determined lady had perforce to leave her alone. But though she left her alone, Mrs. Havillard by no means ceased to think of Carlotta Blankney. « ■She lighted cigarette after cigarette as she sat in a long chair, out in the blue and. gold morning, full of all the splendours and' sorrows of autumn. The Vir-, ginia creeper on the house which climbed to the topmost chimneys, had turned to flaming red, and the. tall sunflowers watched with their golden gaze. Mrs. Havillard was not aware of this, because her attention was fixed upon Carlotta. She was quite determined to save Mervyn Trevor from the girl, but at the same time she was inquisitive. She wished to ransack .Carlotta's past, and try to find 6ome explanation for her. She wished to discuss the affair with a friendly and discerning soul, and it occurred to her that .Needham Frewen was exactly the right person. Having come to this conclusion, she got up from her chair, put on her expen-sive-felt hat and, taking her , stick, she went down the avenue and out through the . gate , on to the'road. She did not know that Carlotta watched her departure and began at once to pack her suitcase with feverish energy; nor did she know that if she had waited a minute or two longer she would have met Trevor riding up the long inch by the river. The one person she did meet was a small boy, hurrying along in the direction of Cuckoo Hill, but it did not occur to her to ask him either where he whs going; or whether he carried any message for her or someone else. • She had a great many thoughts which concerned ; Needham Frewen, and the matter more directly in hand had dwindled in importance. It took about halt an hour's walking by the same short cut across the fields to which Carlotta had been directed by the stationmaster. She arrived outside the cheerful signpost of Hive of .Bees, where Needham Frewen was staying. Mrs. Havillard sat in the shady inn parlour, awaiting him. She intended to tell him all she knew concerning Trevor's young housekeeper. She heard him coming down the staircase, whistling an air which she always connected • with him. But she's got dimpled cheeks, She's got dimpled cheeks, And that's w* weakness now! She bit her,lip angrily. Needham had once made a fool of her, but now they were friends. She smiled at'herself iu a. dim mirror on the wall, with the air of- a woman trying on an. expression much as she would try on a new hat. He did not cross the hall very quickly. She heard him pause and say something in an undertone to the girl who ,had gone to fetch him; and then he called out an Unexpected greeting. "By Jove! You were quicker than I'd expected you to be." He swung into the room as he spoke, and his whole face changed. Grace Havillard got to her feet. Who had Needham expected? Who Avas it he imagined- awaited him?" She felt the old flame of jealous anger burn painfully in her heart. She thought she had forgotten what it felt like to love Needham Frewen, but she had not. She recovered herself more quickly than he did, and laughed with her yery well assumed lightness. "I came to see Hermione," she said, taking hjs hand and swinging it carelessly. "How is she?" . He looked displeased. "I packed hei* off in the car," he said shortly. "She had an engagement in town, and I stayed on, to see you, Grace." \ ? She glanced at him 'secretly and shrugged her shoulders. "I've come to you for advice, Ned," she said, using the old diminutive of his name. "I told you that I was very much worried about Mervyn. I am still more so now. The girl is breaking .her heart over something, and I begin to feel as though the mystery behind her is by no means, as simple as I had thought." .■■■ He sat down- beside her, staring at the carpet.' "I suppose it's the old story," he said.' "You told me last night there was a wedding ring in it. I needn't remind you, Grace, at your age, that there are wedding, rings and wedding rings. Our kind can be, bought., for a: few shillings and are nothing but stage property. - I become inquisitive about this girl." • "I know Mervyn quite well enough to realise that he will not give up the woftian he loves on ray suspicions , of her alone," Mrs. Havillard went on. .."I must have proof. I have been thinking over the story she told me the niglit I met her on the boat, and. I am sure she was lying-" T , : - "How can I help?" He spoke impatiently. "Why not leave it alone?" "I want you to meet her," Mrs. Havillard's voice was firm. "I should like to know.what you think of her. Come back with me now, to Cubkoo Hill and have lunch there. You .can tell me your impressions." A slow, dull flush" mounted to .his face, and he did not answer. She watched him, wondering. What was the reason of his hesitation. . "I won't come to lunch," he said heavily. "But, if you like, I'll come later. At' tea time. How would that do?" .. . . , • "Very well," she agreed, getting to her feet. She instinctly felt that something was amiss, and as she turned to the door, and he she paused. "I feel as if something terrible is going to happen, &he said. "That's girl's face haunts me, Ned. I'm certainly going to try to stop Mervyn from marrying her, but I have a strong premonition that trouble is coming." . She looked Up at him as he ■ stood there; arrogant, heavy ? of build and densely material, and she saw him smile. It was not a nice smile. -Needham • Frewen , did; not v. offer to accompany Grace' Havillard back " to Cuckoo Hill. He repeated his promise to come and see her later in the afternoon, and she made her way back alone. : Her sense of discomfort increased as she walked on alone. Even the distant sight of Knowle, with-its grey towers

against the sky, and the reflection that | she would have a tolerably pleasant 'meeting ' there . with Lord Braeside, did not lift the shadow from her mind. She had told Needham Frewen that she had a premonition • of fear' and trouble to come, and the very fact of; having said so seemed, in some strange way, to draw it closer to her. Though.: she'was a hard woman,, and had set out to smash what she regarded as a foolish romance, there was still a human side to Mrs. Havillard. She did not see the changing beauty of the day, with its shadow and sunlight sweeping over the undulating land, and only the utter loneliness of the place as she followed the bridal path v up the hill affected her. -'S. No doubt Carlotta had chosen Cuckoo Hill for its very loneliness, isolation, thinking that there she would be hidden from her past, and yet there was to be no such safety for her. Mrs. Havillard plodded on, for she was growing fatigued. Did anyone ever really escape from the dead years? What of herself and Needham Frewen? Needham could still make her suffer, which was proof that she still cared for him. The house was empty when she got back. Luncheon had been laid in the , dining room, with dainty attention to datail. In the kitchen, plates' were warming over the stov/J, and there was a finality about all the arrangements which suggested the housekeeper to be absent. At once Mrs. Havillard's suspicions awoke. She went softly and quickly up the wide staircase and into the l.ittle room into which she had bundled Carlotta's belongings with the haste of'anger only the previous day. The room was bare and very tidy. From the" dormer window Mrs. Havillard saw a distant view of the golden fields and pine-ridged hills. She also saw Mervynbusy at the Tar end of "the poultry farm, working with Willbrook. Again she looked at the room. There was not the smallest sign that anyone had slept there, or intended to sleep there again. The coverlet was folded and the dressing table quite bare and carefully tidied, so that there was not a scrap of loose paper anywhere, to tell tales., Carlotta's handbag was gone. Nothing, not a trace of Mervyn's housekeeper, remained. _ Mrs. Havillard drew a quick, sharp breath. ' > ' • ' J If things had looked curious before, they looked doubly so'now! Flight was only resorted to by the desperate. Carlotta Blankney had something yery painful to hide when she decided to run away. • Again she made a close tour of inspection. The-grate'drew her like a magnet and some incalculable, instinct made her move the papers under the coals. She drew out a screw of paper, the corners were charred, but there were a few words still legible. Mrs. Havillard's cheeks flushed and her eyes grew steel-hard. She knew the writing perfectly well. No need to wqnder from whom the letter had come, "—in the' wood on the way to Knowler ——this afternoon You know I-love you my right——never let you go." The woman who read the words knelt as though turned to stone, and then as she knelt she saw a . email .photograph lying face downwards on " the boards u'ndef the bed, - where it had. escaped notice., Getting to her feet,, she crossed the room, and stretching out her arm, she picked, the photograph from the floor and looked at it. ;■ Though small, it was very clear, and showed a picture of ah elderly and smiling man with his arm round Carlotta, who was also smiling. On the back there was written the words "Daddy and me.",. , . ' j Mrs. Havillard's mouth tightened into a cruel line. She had, indeed, discovered very much more than bhe had expected in the little upstairs room. When Mervyn came in as hungry as a hunter, for lunch, he found Mrs. Havillard sitting at the table waiting for him. "Where's Carlotta?" he asked, a shade of anxiety in his eyes. "She looked awfully done this morning and I've hardly seen her." Mrs. Havillard' said nothing, and her silence alarmed the young man. "Grace!" he said anxiously, "is anything wrong?" "Sit down, Mervyn," she said kindly. "Something is wrong, but let me ' say at once that it is nothing either you or I can help.or alter." . He sat down as she had asked him to, and his face grew suddenly white. "Carlotta?" he said quickly. ' . Mrs. Havillard avoided looking at him. She had found it very hard to conquer her desire to rage and storm. There was no doubt in her mind that Carlotta was on a vulgar intrigue with Needham Frewen, and that Needham had come there to meet her. It wasn't chance nor accident which had brought him' to Heatherfield. . The girl was sly enough and cleyer enough to arrange a very skilful rendezvous with a man whom she knew to be married. . This, then, was the innocent, helpless creature who had saved Mervyn's life and made him love her. No doubt she- and Needham intended to go away together, and a rage against Carlotta divested Grace Havillard of the very last remnants of justice. But she had sense enough to realise that to tell'this-story..to Mervyn would be a fatally stupid move. She must approach by another path. "She has gone," Mrs. Havillard said slowly. "I did not see her, Mervyn." "Gone!" he sprang to his feet. ' "But she can't have done'that:, and not said good-bye to me." "She has." Mrs. Havillard put her hand firmly on his arm. "Has she left no word ? No message ?" "I have made a discovery which explains a great deal," Mrs." Havillard spoke with.an icy quietude of manner and voice. "Tell 'me, Mervyn, she did say that ■ there was a reason why she and you could not marry?" "She said there was a reason," his boyish face was grief-stricken, "but I would not have it so. There is no reason on earth strong enough to part us." Mrs. Havillard got up and stood behind him. "Look at that," she said, and she held the little snapshot qn a flat palm. "I think the explanation is clear enough, Mervyn. Alistair Forde is Carlotta's father!" "Alistair Forde!" he sat down again, staring at the photograph. He remembered the letter she had given to Otterly. It had been addressed to, Alistair Forde. But Carlotta had denied all knowledge of the name of Braeside.- '';j ; ' ' - • , ."Perhaps you know of this," Mrs. Havillard asked quickly. She could tell that there was some link, some point of junction in Trevor's mind. / "She told me nothing,", he said doggedly.. 1 "I wanted to know hothin?. Why should .1?" y "And you don't see where this leads?" she spoke gently. 1 The. sunshine poured in, through the open window audMhe curtain 'waved faintly in the wari# wind. Everything

waa intensely. peaceful,- and the cawing of rooks in the elms beyond the garden wall' jadded to the drowsy quiet of the day: but though there "was silenco between the man and the woman in the room; the silence .was not that of peace. "Mervyn," Mrs. Havillard spoke again. "It *is very hard on Carlotta!" "What?" he turned, to her. "Something that is in no way her fault. Alistair • Forde never married until ten years ago when he made a roue's mes-alliance with a Frenchwoman. "I know of this from Braeside. He was glad at least to feel that at his death there would; be no child of Alistair Fordeto inherit. Carlotta is over 20, and whoever her mother may have been, she never married AJistair Forde." Grace Havillard was secret and careful. She kept to the point which 'did not, as' she fully expected, weigh one straw with Mervyn Trevor. Why should Carlotta suffer for what was no fault of hers.. Why should he and she be parted, merely because her father had always been a blackguard? There was no reason, no sense in taking up such a line. % Mrs. Havillard gave him the world's point of view, but with evident reluctance. She f,elt very much as he did, and she cheered him by saying that it would be quite easy to persuade Carlotta to alter her views. Trevor was all for hot pursuit. He wanted to start off at-once and find her, but Grace Havillard argued that he ought to take a different line of action. He would be in a far stronger position to overcome Carlotta's misgivings and her very natural feeling of distress if he were backed up by/ Lord Braeside. "Go to Braeside and tell him. Bring the photograph with you," she said. "Make hira agree to accept Carlotta. He has a right to know all this. . . . I will go to the station and bring her back. There's still time." . Her arguments seemed reasonable enough to Mervyn Trevor, and he allowed lifer to persuade him.

"He is a man of the world and a gentleman, and he will not blame an innocent girl," Mrs. Havillard said with a passion of feeling. "I was to have .gone to see him this afternoon. Go instead, Mervyn. He will he oh the terrace waiting for me, bnt I will stay here, and you shall go to him. ■ Once that is done, it will be child's play to find Carlotta. I

am certain—certain, that this is far the wisest course to take." In the end he agreed to everything she suggested.. She kept him by sheer, force of will until the hour drew close when she knew that, Carlotta would bo: keeping tryst with Needham' Frewen. ; , — Let him see for Mmself! Let mm fi.ua them there together.; There would be no more need of argument to prevent Mervyn's marriage, and beyond Grace Havillard crushed the agony of jealous fever closer to her heart. Needham would have been caught out at the game ,he had played once too often. This time Hermione would know of it. ; Her veins tingled and her heart beat 1 fast. Mervyn .Trevor was a match for Frewen, who was soft, good-looking and self-indul-gent; he would not accept his fate \yithout striking down the man who had fooled him and the woman who had betrayed-him with such cuning. As for the story of Carlotta's origin, Grace Havillard could have laughed aloud. Who cared who her father was? Quite probably she was the child of Alistair. Forde. She was. crooked and a liar. She had the taint of a bad start. • • Outwardly anxious and sympathetic, Grace Havillard watched. Mervyn Trevor start out to go by the short cut to Knowlo Park. They had talked for a long time and he had been. late. It hardly mattered. Lovers in a wood were seldom in any great hurry to part. It was with a heavy heart that Mervyn set out towards Knowle. Poor little CarlQtta. How foolish, how foolish that she could ever have so mistrusted his love of her. What was a "bar sinister"? Nothing at all to him. He loved her and she loved him. Nothing else mattered. She had fled away |rom him simply because she was proud and childish in her sweetness, creating a barrier where none existed. He had made up his mind exactly what he intended to say to Lord Braeside, and thought over the arguments lie intended to use as he swung along, his dog at his heels. At any rate, as Grace had said, they had at last discovered that root of the trouble. Everything else was now easy. Danny the spaniel ran on ahead and as he came through the thicket to the open glade, just where the footpath began to ascend up the steep rise to Enowle Park, the dog returned, to him barking frantically. ■ . .

Trevor hurried onwards. Danny had made a discoverywhich: agitated his canine mind, and Trevor called to him, but he fled off again and his master followed I at a run, plunging through the thick l • tangle towards the - open space whert the low afternoon sunlight dreamed to its maze of glory. When he got there, Trevor Btood and stared, the colour died out of his face, and an exclamation of horror escaped him. (To be continued daily.)