OVE and HATRED

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 16, 20 January 1931, Page 16

OVE and HATRED

By MRS. BELLOC LOWNDES

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. I . ! •

OLIVER TROPJENELL, who is in love with LAURA PAVKLT, the not very happily 'married wife of GODFREY PAVKLT, a country banker. He has received an anonymous letter stating lhat there is a godd deal of talk going on in the ncifrbboiirluHif] about liis wife and Oliver Tropcncll. He shows it to Oliver, who angrily declares that there is nothing in it. . KATTT WINSLOW, a pretty, innocent j divorcee, and former lover of Godfrey Pately. MRS. TROPENELL. Oliver's mother. LORD ST. AMANT, her old friend and admirer. GILLIE BATNTOX. Mrs. Tavely's brother, who has just returned from Mexico, where he has been living on account of an old offence and is now in business partnership with Oliver Tropencll. A scene takes place between Godfrey Piively and his brother-in-law, in which Godfrey orders him out of the house. Laura declares that she will never forgive her husband.

CHAPTER XT

Oliver Tropenell and Gilbert Baynton left shortly after this talk for business on the Continent and Mrs. Tropenell wrote to Godfrey—"Dear Godfrey," she addressed him, and signed herself "Your affectionate old friend," suggesting that he should allow Laura to go to town with her for a few. days. "I think they will "be away for some time and Gilbert speaks of going straight back to Mexico from France. It would enable her to sec something of • her brother before a separation which may last, as Aid their last separation, for years." "It shall be as you ask," the banker replied, "though Laura knows that in doing this she is disregarding my formal wishes. ' Still, I admit that, Gillie being her brother, it is, I suppose, natural that she should wish to see him before he leaves England. ,, : As so often happens after hours or i days of crisis, and even of quarrel, I things went better for a while after Laura's return to The Chase. Godfrey was happier, more complacent than usual, during those late autumn days. He also was ashamed—though not unreasonably so—of the absurd importance he had attached to those two vulgar anonymous letters! The banker had yet another reason for feeling life more pleasant than usual just now. He was engaged in a rather big bit of financial business of a kind his sou] loved, for it was secret, immediately profitable, and with a gambling risk attached to it. The only person to I whom he had said a word concerning the I affair was Katty Winslow, and even to I her, for he was a very prudent man, he had been quite vague. With Katty he was becoming daily more intimate. Laura's cold aloofness made him seek instinctively a kinder, and, yes; occasionally a tenderer feminine presence. For the first time, lately. Godfrey had begun to tell himself that Katty would have made an almost perfect wife. . . And Katty could have told you almost the exact moment when that thought had first Hashed into Godfrey Pavcly's brain. But she also knew that so far he was content, most irritatingly content, with the status quo. Not so she —and. one evening Katty tried an experiment which was on the whole remarkably successful, though its effects were strangely different from what she had expected. While dining alone with Godfrey and •Laura ~at The Chase, she startled, her host and hostess by throwing out a careless word as to the possibility of her leaving Rosedcan—of letting the house furnished, for a year. . . • Laura was astonished to sec how much this casual remark of Katty's upset Godfrey. Next morning he called at Rosedcan. "You weren't serious, were you " he said. "You don't really. mean that you want to go away, Katty? Where would you go? What would you do? Have the Standens asked you to go abroad again—not for a whole year, surely?" "No," she said slowly, "not the Standens. If you must know, I've been offered a furnished cottage rent-free by those friends of mine, the Haworths, who live<• near York. The truth is, I can't afford to keep up Rosedcan! I hate saying this to you, but it's the truth. "If you didn't go away so much— he began irritably* But she cut across him sharply, 'After all, I've a right tp go away if I like! But it isn't that Godfrey. I've gone into it all--really I have! Even if I left Ro'sedean I should still be too poor to go on living here comfortably." "How much too poor?" he asked. . Katty drew a long breath. In a sense she was speaking at random, but no one would have known it from , the tone in which she answered: ; "About a hundred a year— a little' less—a little more." ' Arid then Godfrey Pavely said some(bin" which very.much surprised Katty. "About that thousand pounds which was left to you the other day," he said hesitatingly. . , "Well? That'll only bring n thirtyfive pounds a year; you made all the arrangements," she added wearily. 'You wouldn't lef me-have it—as I wanted "I couldn't, Katty, you know that! , I 'didn't ask your aunt to make me your ti-ustee." , ~ "Well, that thirty-five pounds wont make any difference." . She was sorry now that she had told him.of the little house on her generous friends' estate. Perhaps he would offer to let her off the Roscdean rent. But Katty had quite made up her mind to cut the cable, and make a fresh start elsewhere. "Wait a bit," he said slowly, "women always run on top fast! When I mentioned that thousand pounds, I was not thinking of giving it to you, a s you call it, to spend. I was thinking of that foreign investment I mentioned to you last week. If you're wUling to take the risk, I might stretch a point,, for if things Vgfc ■'w'ell that thousand pounds might' easily be trebled in the course of the next two years. I'm so sure of that that I'm quite willing to advance you, say, two hundred pounds." Ho knew quite well that his,proposal was utterly illogical and bore, so to speak, no relation to the fact that the investment ho was proposing might turn up trumps. Katty's eye sparkled. She was veryfond of rea.dy money, and it was such a long, long time since she had had any. "D'you mean you'd really give mo two hundred pounds now?" she asked joyfully. And Godfrey, with his eyes fixer! on the grass, said in a. shamed voice, "Yes ! —-that is what I do mean."

Somehow it hurt him to feel how that sum of money, so trilling to him, aiVuntcrl her .so" keenly. He was better pleased with her next question.

"What sort of investment exactly-is it '!" "It's in the nature of a company promotion," he said slowly. "And, of course, you must regard anything I tell you about it as absolutely private." "Yes, I quite understand that!" ' Tie drew a piece of paper out of hii pocket, '"As a matter of. fact I've got a few facts about it jotted down here." She drew her chair rather nearer to his, and Godfrey Pavcly, turning his narrow yet fleshy face towards her, began speaking with far more and animation than usual. Katty, who was by no means a fool where such things were concerned, listened absorbedly w'lile he explained the rather big bit of financial business in which he was now interested.

After he had been speaking to her without interruption for some minutes, Katty exclaimed: "Yes, I think I see now exactly what you mean! There certainly doesn't seem much risk attached to it — at any rate as regards the- start off, as it were. But what made these French bankers pick you out, Godfrey? After all, they're doing you a very good turn." "I! don't exactly know why they picked me out, as you call it " he spoke hesitatingly. "But during that year I spent in Paris ] came across a great many of that sort of people. My father got me the best possible introductions." The piece of paper on which he had jotted certain notes and calculations was a large piece of foreign notepaper covered with small handwriting in the diluted ink which s#rae French business men use. "Can you read French," he asked doubtfully. She answered rather sharply, "Yes, of course I can!" and held out her hand. The letter, which bore a Paris address, and the date of a fortnight back, was from the French banking hoyse of Zosean and Co. It explained at some length that a client of the bank, a wealthy South American of Portuguese .extraction named Fernando Apara, had become possessed of an estate on the coast of Portugal to which was attached a gambling concession. The idea was to make. the place a kind of Portuguese Monto Carlo, and the present possessor was very desirous that English capital and English brains should be put into the company. The returns promised were enormous, and there seemed to be little or no risk attached to the business—if it was run on the right lines. "I have gone into the matter very thoroughly," said Godfrey Pavel}', "and I have convinced myself that it's ull right. 7'his Fernando Apara already lias a London office. I managed to see liiiii there for a few minutes last week. IC. real headquarters arc in Paris." . "And are you finding all the money?" asked Katty eagerly. "Will it be all yV.h , money and .my thousand pounds, God frey? In that case I suppose we shall get all the profits." Ho smiled a little at the woman'-? cupidity. "No," he said, "I haven't been able to find it all myself. But I've managed to get in a very good man. Someone with whom I've done business before Katty."

"What's his name?" she asked inquisitively. Godfrey Pavely waited a moment. "I don't, know that I ought to tell you ,: he said uncomfortably. "He doesn't want to. appear in the business." "Of course you ought to tell me!" All sorts of strange ideas floated through Katty's mind. Was he going to say "Oliver TropenellV She rather expected ho was.

"Well, I will tell you," he said, "for I know you will hold your tongue. The name of the man is Grcville Haward." "D'you mean the big money-lender?" Katty couldn't help a little tone of doubt, of rather shocked surprise, creeping into her voice.

"Yes," he said doggedly, "I do mean the man who was once a great monevlendcr. lie's retired now—in fact he's living—" and then he stopped himself. "Why of course!" Katty felt quite excited. "He's living in Yorkshire, near the Ha worth's! They've often talked about him to me! They don't know him—he won't know anybody. He's rather a queer feh, isn't he, Godfrey?" "He's absolutely straight abouf money," exclaimed Godfrey defensively. "I've had dealings with him over many years. In fact he's the ideal man foV this kind of thing. He has all sorts of irons in the fire—financially I mean —on the Continent. He's a big shareholder in the company that rune the Dieppe and Boulogne Casinos."

He got up. "Well. I ought to be going now. It's all right, isn't it, Ka'tty? You won't talk again of going away?" "Could you let me have 'that two hundred pounds this afternoon?" she asked abruptly

Godfrey Pave-ly looked at her with, a curious, yearning, rather &ad look. Somehow he would have preferred that Ratty should not be so—eo —he often formulated the thought to himself—eo ready to do anything for money. "Very well," he said. "Very well, my dear"—he very seldom called her "my dear," but he had done s6 once or twice. lately. "I'll bring it this afternoon, in notes."

"That will be kind of you," she eaid gratefully. "But look here, Godfrey, do take it out of my thousand pounds! Put eight hundred in this thing." Hβ shook his head and smiled. Women were queer,. curiously unscrupulous creatures! "That would be right down dishonest of me, Katty."

They were now walking across the little lawn, which was securely tucked away, out of sight of any prying window, and before going through the aperture, which had been cut in the hedge, they both turned round and claeped hande. "Thank you so—eo much," she said softly. "You've been a clear, kind friend to me always, Godfrey."

"Have I?" he said. "Hare I, Katty? Xot alwavs, I fear."

"Yes, always," and her voice trembled a little. ' -

He bent down and kissed her on the mouth with a kind of shamed, passionate solemnity which moved, and, yet, a little- amused her. What queer, curiously scrupulous creatures men were! "Go now, or you'll be late," she whispered. ' And he went. (To be continued daily.)