HOVE and HATRED

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 18, 22 January 1931, Page 22

HOVE and HATRED

By MRS. BELLOC LOWNDES

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. OLIVER TROPENELL, who is in love with LAURA PAVELY, the not' very happy wife of . ■-1 4■ : ' :; . - ' '••' .-: ■* ■" • GODFREY PAVELY,;a country banker.--He has received anonymous letters stating that there is a good deal of talk-going on in the neighbourhood about his. wife, and, Oliver Xroperieu. "He them ■' to "J Olivet, who angrily declares that there is i nothing in the accusation. . . |- WINSLOW,' a ■ pretty, innocent 1 '""'divorcee and former' lover of Godfrey I Pavely. Since her divorce she had been living near the Pavelys and has resumed hecj--friendship with Godfrey. >- He promises to advance her two hundred pounds in connection with a foreign investment in : which he is interested. > ,j , Oliver's ■ mother.' " <. ! LORD ST. AMANT, her old friend- and i admirer. j • OILLIE BAtNTO&V Mrs. Pavely s brother, ] ! :^^ a sjußt, returned.from Mexico, "where ■ living . on account of an old Ip now in business partnership ] ' Seen rri^ ope^eU - , A scene takes place : inSw ih S avely and his brother- j of the ho^o 1C T God£re '7 orders him out wi 11 nc:v>t [Q r rrivj! U >, a d ?, cla , rcs that she : AViiislow, knew Giinsw and ', Kat »y : abroad, tells hini That nv ore he went J re '.passionately in and * Laura . Oliver'and-, Gillie Koto ° nc , an °ther. When 01iTer ; retnrnE t « n business, is still in France and hp r « a ?. ks if Glllie returned to Mexico frnm n s thtt t be saw- him off. - from Btavre » where he'; ; ' . . - CHAPTER XIII. | It :is strange what a difference the return of a friend may make to life'' Laura, Pavely felt another woman as she l t busied herself that happily! waiting for Oliver Tropeneil. Honestlvl she Hoped that Godfrey would come back by the early afternoon-train; lie, too, Would be glad to see Oliver. ' But* the time went by„ : .and' there came ho message through' from London ordir:n - t£ie car to be sent-to.the and er^a P s , ;. i

. At last a little after live, Oliver Trope, hell came sauntering in, very much as he used to saunter in during the long' happy summer days, when they had justbecome friends. . s They had tea in" Alice's day-nursery, and . after tea they had all three played l games till' nearly seven. Then, reluc- l tantly, Oliver. got up, and said tha.t he < .must go home...; ; - .. ... | Moved by an indefinite feeling of peace as well as of contentment, Laura sat up long that night, waiting, for .her husband. 1 She had made up her mind to tell him not only that Oliver had come back, .but J also that her brother was on his way to i Mexico.. Half ashamedly she' asked • her-j self why they should not all three go,. back to the happy conditions . which had j lasted, all the summer ? ' . ■ But there came neither ..Godfrey nor news of liini,. and Laura spent the evening of a day of which 1 the f date was to become memorable, not unhappily in reading. • ! When it came to -lnjlf-pa'st■■ eleven*•• ? h u , knew that her husband- would not .-be j home that night, but, even so, she sat up till the tall lacquered clock in tlie hall struck out the chimes of midnight. Then, a little reluctantly; she went upstairs, telling herself that if in the rriorning there was .still, no news of Godfrey,' I she und Alice would stroll along to Rose- 1 dean.. KJatty might' know - something of' Godfrey's movements, for when she had; . been last,at The Chase an illusion had' j been;made to a bit of business he was to' ■ d 0... for.; her in. - London,^-which ■ would 1 necessitate some correspondence. I Katty. Wirislow, cin~-'waking, up next' : morning, knew at once, though'she waa- 1 ' v snuggled down deep in her warm bed ' that it was much colder than it had been' ! • the'evening before. She shivered a little 1 - telling .'herself that.perhaps she was not' l in>as good condition, as usual/for she 7 . s??*, just come back from spending Chnstmae-aod. the New .Year- away^-

Oddly, or perhaps naturally, enough, her thoughts turned to Godfrey Pavely. She wondered vaguely where he was, and if lie would be home to-day! There had been a kind of half arrangement between them" that; they would travel down from London •• together on • : .t-he Thursday afternoon, but Katty had not found Godfrey Pavely..at the London station, though she-had lingered about j up to the very last moment before taking, regretfully, a third-class ticket. j | -She had rather expected lie would i come, if only to apologise for having' ! failed her during the journey. / Though. Mrs. Winslow ,meant to keep the fact strictly to herself —tor it was one that .might 'have somewhat surprised even' the -unsuspicious • Laura —she aiufc Godfrey had actually spent a long day. . ; together during -the dual absence from liome. . ' ■ . t 'j ' It had 'fallen •.out-, as. such pleasant meetings sometimes do fall out, very 1 naturally ami innocently, just a .week •! ago to-day. . . . .. i Katty, on" her ' way fvom the : south : to. ..stay with- her, I friends, the Ha worths, had nin. up. against Godfrey Pavely at-King s Cross 1 That had been a really extiaoulma y ' coincidence, and one- of which- it would have been- foolish not to take ad\anta D e. . i For it turned out that he' also was going to Yorkshire, and on the business nil !which they were both interested, to spend a night with the ex-moneylender Greville j ; Howard! That gentleman, it seemed, ■was making certain difficulties about the >. matter—he wanted to stay , hls Jj. n he • had - seen .the French bankeis who, were concerned with the . aba!' -. •- s ie spent'- each-spring in the South pf.irante I that would not be such a difficult}, as it seemed. Still, .it was a bore, and the | other had felt he had better go and see . him. -V .- " - ■' ' f After- a pleasant journey : together, as | they were steaming into York station, Godfrey suddenly asked: go | on to your friends at once? Cou dn t ! you telephone to .them to "meet you by a 'later train? I'm in.no hurry.. And., smilingly, she had consented. > ... : j As they wandered about the old city,. , and lingered awhile in the great Minster, , neither., of them said a word that ..the i , whole world might not have overheard, j J They visited some of the curiosity shops j I for. • which. York is• famed, and Ka'tty's,| I companion,; with that new* -generiq'sity J. I which" sat on hini'-.so, strangely, bought I j a .beautiful and very eo.stlv old 'cut;glass'' i pendant for Rosedean. v ;..... i "meet a-soul : -that-either t jot. them knew .excepting, ; yes, stop— ,|after;,they d said good-bye (Godfrey, . . a ra .ther . shocked look on • hUs -face,

for Kattv, impudent, foolish Katty, had woman-like seemed to expect that ha would kiss her in a corner of an empty waiting-room where at any moment they might have been surprised by some acquaintance of one or the other of them!)—after, as arranged, they had said good-bye, and lvatty was engaged in taking her ticket for the branch line station* for which she was bound, a curious thing happened. She suddenly neard a voice, a man s voice, which sounded pleasantly familiar. Who ' could it be? The association evoked was wholly agreeable, but Katty could not place in the chambers of her memory the owner of the rather peculiar accents which were engaged in. asking when the next train back to London would start. She had turned round quickly, only to see a small queue of people behind, her, among them surely the owner of that pecifliar voice. But no, she did not know anyone there, though among them a man attracted her attention, for the simple ' reason that he was staring at her very hard. He was obvio sly a foreigner, for I his skin was olive-tinted', and lie had a ; sniall, black-pointed beard. He stared at Katty with an air of rather insolent admiration. And then he broke away from the queue, and walked quickly off, ' out of the'' booking office. j A little before eleven, just «s Katty i was beg aiing to think it was. time for her to finish dressing,. she heard the • gate of her domain open arnd the voice of little Alice Pavely rise) up through the still, frosty air. ! There came a knock at tne door; then '■ Harber's . voice : "Mrs. Pavely wants to know, ma'am, if she can come up and speak -to ..you just for a minute ?" . "Ask Mrs. Pavely to come up," said Katty, ■ pleasantly. i A minute later Laura walked forward jinto the room. It was the first time she 'had been in Katty's bedroom since Rose- : dean had first been furnished. | "I've come to ask if you know where Godfrey is? We expected him home on Thursday., Then he sent a telephone ■1. message saying that lie couldn't be back ; ! till yesterday. No time was mentioned, but as he had a lot of appointments at i the* bank we, of course, thought he would I be.back early. I myself sat up for him i last night till after the last train, but ] now,- this morning, I've heard nothing •I from him —and Mr.' Privet has heard I nothing." ' ' ; ■ i "What an odd thing!" exclaimed Kattv. She really did think it very odd, .far- Godfrey was the most precise of men. . - *' She .waited a"iuorneiit, then jaic tnltlifully,:"No,; I haven't tlie slightest idea) • where he is. He- wrote- me- a-line-ilast

week about a little investment of mine. I've got the letter somewhere." Katty was trying to make up her. mind as. to whether she should say anything concerning that journey to York. At last she decidcd not. to do so. It had nothing to do with Godfrey's absence now. ; v '■ '' \ "Doesn't Mr. • Privet know where he is?" she asked. "That really is very odd, Laura. Perhaps he's had an accident," she. said. "After all, accidents do happen. Have you done anythng, Laura?" Laura shook , her head. "What seems to make the theoi-y of an • accident unlikely is that telephone message. You see, he telephoned quite late on Thursday saying that lie would stay in town over the night. But he didn't send a similar message to the bank, as anyone knowing Godfrey would certainly have expected him to do, and he didn't let them know at the Hungerford Hotel that he would be away for. the night. It's all rather, mysterious." "Yes, it is," said. Katty. She got up, and for a moment .or two the two young women stood together not far from the bay window of -Katty's bedroom. : , ./ V : -.. Suddenly Katty exclaimed, "Why, there's Oliver Tropenell! What an extraordinary thing. I thought; he ' was abroad." * "He came back yesterday morning," said Laura quietly. . v (To be continued daily.)