OVE and HATRED

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 15, 19 January 1931, Page 16

OVE and HATRED

By • MRS _ BELLO C LOWNDES

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS,

OLIVER TKOPEXELTD, who is in lore with LAURA PAVELY, the not very happily married wife or GODFREY PAVELY. a country banker. He has'recciveel an anonymous letter stating (hat there is a good deal of talk going on in the neighbourhood about his wife ami Oliver Tropcuell. He shows it to Oliver, who angrily declares- that (here is nothing in it. KATTY WIKSLOW, a pretty, innocent divorcee, and former lover of Godfrey Puvely. MKSV TKOPBNBFjL, Oliver's mother. LOUD ST. AMANT, her old friend and admirer. GILLIB BAYNTON, Mrs. Pavcly's brother, who has jiiHt. returned from Mexico, where lie has been living on account oi ! an old oll'cnce and is now in business partnership with Oliver Tropenell. A scene takes place between Godfrey Puvely and his brother-in-law, in which Godfrey orders him out of tin; house. Laura declares that she will never forgive her husband. CHAPTER .IX.—(Continued.) Again she said slowly, imprcseivety, "Yes, Mr. Bayjiton, 1 urn sorry indeed for poor Laura," "I'm sorry, too. Not thai, it much ma tiers! J didn't want fco stay at The Chase. I always thought it a gloomy place in tlie old clays, when I was a child' —i mean when it still belonged to. Mll3. Tropcuell's people. Of course, I shall see Laura again—Godfrey can't prevent, that! In fact he admitted that lie couldn't. ■' There was a. little pause. And then Katty, her eyes bent downwards, said, "J didn't quite mean that, Mr. Bay n ton. Of course,* I'm very sorry about .your new row with Mr. Puvely. for it must be hateful to Lama to feel that she can't h;ue her own brother in her own house. But —well —" She threw her head back, and gazed straight across at him. "Can you keep a. secret?" she asked. "Ye?, of cour&e I can!" He looked at her amuse;!. "1 want you to keep what I'm going to s;iy absolutely to yourself. I don't want you ever to hint a word of it to Laura—otill less to Oliver Tropencl.l." "Of course 1 won't!" He looked a.t her with growing curiosity. What was it she was going to tell him V "i wonder if I ought to tell you," she murmured. lie laughed outright. "Well, 1 can't make you tell me!' .

She t'clt pi'juod at his iiidiffercnco. "Yes, I will tell you. though it isn't my secret!" she exclaimed. "But I fee] that

you ought to know it—being Laura's | brother. Laura." Her voice dropped, she spoke in a very low voice, "Laura i* in love with Oliver Tropenell, Mr. Baynton. And Oliver h in love with Laura—a thousand more times more in love with her than she is in love with him!" J She gave him a swift glance across the tea' table. Yes! Her shot had told indeed. He looked extraordinarily moved and excited. So excited that lie got up from hie chair. "Hood God!" he exclaimed incredul-. uusjy. "Laura?" And then "Tropenell? Are yon euro of this, .Mrs. Winelow?" I "Yes," she answered in a quiet, composed voice that carried conviction. "J am quite sure. They arc both very,' very unhappy, for Uh.'v are good, highminded people. They wouldn't do anything, wrong for the world.' , ' "And Pavely?" he asked. "What part does my fine brother-in-law pluy? Does piopcr Godfrey know? it priggish Godfrey jealous?" She answered slowly: "I. think that Mr. Pavely suspects. He and Olivor 1 Trcpcneil vit: , g'eut friends until .[uite lately. But there's cbldvutts now. 1 don't know what happened. Jiut some-' thing happened." "I sec now why Tropenell has stayed here so long. 1 thought it must be a woman! I thought some prudish, dull | English girl had got hold of him " He waited a moment. "JVell, I'm eternally grateful to you, Mrs. Winalow for giving me this hint! You see, I'm very fond of Tropenell. : It's a peculiar kind at feeling™there'e j nothing in the world I wouldn't do for, him. Good God! J. only wish he and | Laura " He was going- to say "would have the pluck to bolt together!" but Katty supplied a very different ending to his, sentence.

"Ah," she exclaimed, '"I only wish that Laura and Oliver could marry. They're made for one another. You can't see them together without seeing that!" She went on feelingly, "Laura was dreadfully unhappy with Godfrey Pavely even before Oliver Tropenell came into her life.. She and Mr. Pavely are quite uneuited to one another." There was a queer bitterness in her voice. And then Gillic N Bayn ton suddenly re-raembered-—remembered the flood of gossip there had been at one time concerning those two—pretty Katty Fen tan, as she had been' then, and Godfrey Pavely, the" man who later became his own brother-in-law. He gave,her a queer, shrewd' glance, and Mrs. Pavely went on, rather quickly and breathlessly. "You mustn't think that I dislike Godfrey Pavely! He's been very good to me —as good as Laura. I'm what they call an innocent divorcee, Mr. Baynton, and they both helped me through the trouble.' It was pretty bad at the time, I can tell you. But, of course, I can't hflp seeing—no one could help seeing— that Godfrey and Laura aren't suited to one another, and that they would each be much, much happier apart." At the back of her clever, astute mind was the knowledge that it was quite on the-cards that Oliver, or Oliver's mother, would say something to Gilbert Baynton concerning herself and her intimacy with Godfrey Pavely. She must guard against that, and guard against it now. So she went on, pensively, "I don't know, to tell you the truth, for ' which of them I'm the more S (j n .y—Laura, Godfrey, or Oliver! They're all three awfully to be pitied. Of course, if. they lived in America it would be quite simple; Laura and Godfrey would be divorced by mutual consent and then Laura would be able to be happy with Mr. Tropenell." "And nothing of that sort possible here?" asked Gillie curiously. "This old England has stood still!" Katty shook her head regretfully. "-No, there's "nothing of the sort possible here. Of course, there are ways and means—^ The oiher fixed his eyes on her. "\es? ho said, interrogatively,. ••I feiir that they arc not ways and menus that Godfrey ami Laura -vould rvor liMiil I henisclvcs u>. v "Then there's no cutting the Gordian knot?"

But that wasn't quite what Katty meant to imply. "I don't know," she said hesitatingly. "Godfrey would do almost anything to avoid any scandal. But then, you see, one comes up against Laura—" He nodded quickly. "Yes, I quite understand that. Laura would never do anything she thought wrong—queer, isn't it?" Gilbert Baynton stayed ,on at Rosedean for quite another half-hour, but nothing more was said on the subject which was filling his*mind and that of his hostess. They walked about the pretty, miniature garden, talking in a desultory way over old times, and about some of the people they had both known years ago. And then, at last, she took him to the gate. They looked at one.another like two augurs, and he said under his breath, "Well, it's a pretty kettle of fish I've come home to, eh? I thought there was some mystery. I'm very much obliged to you for having put me oji the track to solve the riddle." "Ah," she said, "but the riddle isn't solved yet, iMr. Baynton, is it?" He answered, gravely for him, "No, those sort of riddles rire very hard to solve." Ho hesitated, then exclaimed, in a meaning tone, "Still, they are solved sometimes, Mrs. Winslow." CHAPTER X. It was late the same night, a warm, St. Martin's summer night, and Mrs. Tropenell, sitting alone after dinner, made an excuse of a telephone message to join her son and Gillie Baynton out of doors. After Baynton's return from The Chase the two men had gone off for a long walk together over the downs, and they had come home so late that dinner had had to be put off for half an hour. Instead of joining her lotcr, they had gone out again, but this time only into the garden. Noiselessly she moved across the grass, and then, just as she was going to step under the still, loaf-shaped pergola, she heard her son's voice—a voice so charged with emotion and pain that, mastered by her anxiety, she stopped just behind one of the brick arches and listened. * "You'll oblige me, Baynton, by keeping your sister's name out of this." "Oh, very well. J thought you'd be glad to know what that woman said to

me—l. mean Mrs. Winslow." "I'm not glad. I'm sorry. Mrs. Win slow is mistaken."

I The short sentence came out with laboured breath, as if with difficulty, and (he one who overheard them,* the anguished eavesdropper, felt her heart stirred with bitter impotence. How Oliver cared—how much Oliver ca red! I "Why are you so sure of that?" Again she heard Baynton's full, caressing voice. "Laura's a very reserved woman. I'd rather believe her best friend—apparently Katty is her best friend—about such a thing as this. You've admitted ' that you love her." ! As the other man made no answer, .Gillie went on, speaking in a very low ■ voice, but with every word clearly audible from the place where Mrs. Trope- , ncll stood listening: '"Of course, I won't mention Laura—as it upsets you so much. But, after all, my hatred for I Pavely and my love for my sister arc the two.strongest things in my life. Surely you know that well enough, Tropenell! I can't bar Laura out." I And then came tfie answer, muttered between the speaker's teeth: "I understand that, Baynton." ! "I'm sorry I repeated Mrs. Winslow's talc. But, of course, it did impress me— lit did influence me. I'd like to believe it, Tropenell." The secret listener was surprised at the feeling which Gillie's vibrant voice betrayed. I Oliver mutteio:l something— was it, "lid give my soul to know it true"? Then, in a lighter tone, Gillie exclaimed, "As to that other matter, I'd rather keep you out of the business alto'gethor if 1 could. But I can't—quite." : What was it that Oliver answered .then? The two men were now walking J slowly away towards the further end jof the pergola. Mrs. Tropenell strained her ears to hear her son's answer: "I don't want to keep out of it." Was that what he said, in a very low, tense I voice?

Gilbert Baynton was speaking again: "It is my idea, my scheme, and I mean to carry it through. I shan't want much I help—only just a little help from you." And then she heard her son's voice again, and Jie was speaking more naturally this time. "Of course, we'll go shares, Gillie. What d'you take me for? Am I to have all the profit, and you' all the risk?" Mrs. Tropenell breathed more freely. They were off from Laura now, and on some business affair. She heard Gillie Baynton laugh aloud. "I'm quite looking forward to it —but it will be a longish job!" Oliver answered, "I'm not looking forward to it. You feel quite sure about this thing, Baynton? There's no time to draw back— now." "Sure? Of course I'm sure!" There was triumph, a challenge to fate, in the other's tone. "I've always liked playing for high stakes—you know that, eh?" "Ay, I know that " "And I've never looked back. I've never regretted anything I've done in my life " There was a ring of boastful assurance in Gilbert Baynton's tone. "I can't say that of myself—l wish I could.". "You? Why, you've a milk-white record, co?npared to mine!"' Mrs. Tropenell moved swiftly over the grass, till she stood at the end of the dark, arched walk. Then, "Oliver!" she called out, "there's a message from Lord St. Atnant. He wants to know if you can go over to the Abbey next week, from Saturday till Tuesday. Re says there'll be some shooting. I told him you'd ring up before going to bed—l hope that was right." "Yes, mother. Of course I'll, ring up. I'll go in and do it now, if you like. Gillie and I have had a long business talk." And then she heard Gilbert Baynton: "I'll stay out here a bit longer, Mrs. Tropenell. I'm getting quite used to the cold and damp of the old country. I don't mind it as much as I did a week ago." Mother and eon walked across the lawn to the house. When they were indoors, he broke silence first: "Gillie had a bad row with Pavely this aftei'iioon. I don't think it's any use his staying on here. Pavely won't allow Laura to see" him again at The Chase." I

Mrs. Tropenell uttered an exclamation of dismay.

"Yes, it's unfortunate, 1 admit. And I don't think it was Gillie'e fault. He described the scene to me in great detail. He was quite willing to go as far as I think he could be expected to do in the way of apology and contrition. But Pavely simply didn't give him a chance. Pavcly's a narrow-minded brute, mother."

"Is Gillie very upset ? Is he much disappointed?" ehe asked in a low voice.

"Yes, I think Gillie is upset—more upset than I should have expected him to be! He's disappointed, too, at not having seen little Alice. He's really fond of children, and, as he truly says, Alice is bound to "be his heiress—unless, of course, he should marry, which is very unlikely."

Oliver was speaking in a preoccupied, absent voice, as if he was hardly thinking of what he was saying. "We're thinking, he and I, of going to the Continent next week. We've got business to do in Paris—rather important business, too. Of course, I'll try and come back here before leaving for Mexiec/." Mrs. Tropenell felt as if the walls of the room were falling about her. Oliver had always spoken of late as if he meant to stay on in England till after Christmas.

As they came through into the house she was startled by the expression on her son's face. He looked as if he had had a shock; he was very pale; it was as if the healthy colour had been drained out of his tan cheeks.

"Oliver?" she exclaimed. "Do you feel ill, my darling? When you came in befor dinner you looked a≤ \1 you had caught a chill."

"It was rather cold on the downs, but I feel very much as usual, thank you, mother. A talk with Gillie always tires me. I think he's got a rather " he hesitated for a word, then found it "obstreperous vitality." (To be eon tinned daily.)