Miss MIDAS

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 81, 7 April 1931, Page 17

Miss MIDAS

By NORMAN PENLEY (Author of •' The Loveless Isle," etc.")

| SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. The one obsession of .rich old JAMES MELBOURN was pride in his achievement in setting his name high in the financial world and a desire that his son DOUGLAS should follow in his footsteps. But his son loses his life in a motor smash. James proposes, therefore, that his daughter, HEATHER, an attractive girl of 23, who is about to become engaged to GERARD HUNTINGDON, a young Guards' officer, shall take the place of a son. Heather consents, thinking that it is a passing whim and that her compliance will help her father to recover from the severe shock resulting from the tragic death of Douglas. CHAPTER V. The Firm of Melbourn and Daughter. "D'ye see the time?" . James Melbourn spoke gruffly, in just those tones in which he would address an unpunctual junior clerk.

Heather threw her gloves nonchalantly into a basket full of correspondence, and did not notice the deepening of the frown upon her father's face. Her back was turned to him.

"I've been lunching with Gerry at the Ambassadors, daddy." • "And have they no clocks there?"

He was very cros3. "But, daddy, when one lunches with a man—with' a man who is virtually one's fiance—it isn't polite to be continually looking at one's watch, or at the clock, if they have one." "Well, there are other girls in this office. And I suppose they have fee— young fellers who take them to lunch sometimes, but they're back here by two o'clock, as business people should be."

"Then I'm to consider myself a member of the staff, am I, and rush away from lunch to be here at two?"

"Yes, and ye've greater cause to be. This is going to be your business. There's not one of those girls out there who wouldn't give up everything for that prospect. What's more, here we are, nearly half-past three. Stock Exchange closes in ten minutes. Supposing ye wanted to do some business quickly, where are ye? Prices have been moving about all the two and half hours ye've 'been away. Have ye seen them? No! Could you do any business now, even if ye had seen 'em? No. Will ye see them now before the house closes? No. Then where are ye? "And I'm saying nothing about the telephone calls, and the staff coming in and out for more than an hour, asking for instructions about this and that."

"Now, daddy, you know you've told themjust what to do, and you've done what was to be done far better than I could have done it."

"That's no' the point. I shan't always be' here to help ye." "But you are here now, and everything has been done properly, so why upset yourself ?"

She had crossed the room and was standing beside him, patting the outstretched hand with which he had been gesticulating. But he was not to be so easily soothed. He withdrew his hand, and, stressing each word by digging a finger into his blotting pad, he continued :

"The present doesn't matter so much as the future. Very soon you'll have to take charge of this business " "Well, I'm learning, aren't I, daddy?" "Why, yes, you're picking it up very quickly—for a lass. But all you learn about finance will be little use to you if you don't show a sense of responsibility. - The more you've got in your head, the more necessary it is for you to be here during the busy hours of the day turning it to account. That's one of the secrets of success in business. I learned that very quickly. Some men haven't learned it yet. That's why I could buy 'em up to-morrow and not notice it in my pass book. "Those junior clerks out there could take four hours for lunch and we should not lose much; but if the people in authority are away while the market goes marching on, well, it's serious. Ye see the point?" "Of course, daddy. But, you know, I was lunching with Gerry—and I don't see much of him nowadays." "Well, does that matter a lot?" "What do you mean?" "Do you think you can be his wife and run this business as well?"

Heather was taken aback by this very blunt insinuation that she should break with Gerry—for that, clearly was what her father meant. She was about to reply rather warmly, when she recalled that her parent's mental health was not yet restored, that she was just acting a part, just humoring her father, in an effort to assist his recovery. So she replied, a little wistfully: " l "I hadn't thought of that—not in that way, anyhow."

Exhausted by the anger that had possessed him, James Melbourn sat with his bearded chin pressed against his chest, and, there was a silence during which Heather divested herself of her smartly-tailored coat and patted her hair before a mirror prior to resuming her work.

If her father had been meditating a reply, he was cut short by the entry of his chief clerk, Mr. Petter, with some urgent questions of a new industrial issue.

When Mr. Petter had left, Heather was carefully informed by her father of all that was involved in the conversation. She seemed, as always, intensely interested in his explanations, and when, subsequently, he put to her a few test questions, she showed quite plainly that «he had learned her lesson rapidly and well. For all that, it was a gloomy James Melbourn who sat by the fire after dinner that evening while Heather was busy writing letters—or rather a letter, and a long one. „ James could see with painful clarity that although, after a month's experi- , ence as his right hand, the girl was learning the technique of the business satisfactorily enough, she would never have, even in minor matters, a sense of responsibility, or a feeling of confidence in herself so long as he was at hand to direct her.

Probably, when he died, she would rise nobly to the occasion like the actress - understudy who flashes into the theatrical firmament when, from sheer necessity, she is forced to take the place of a star.

Responsibility suddenly thrust upon a light-hearted and light-headed fellow had often transformed the man into a thoroughly self-confident and reliable person. It might be so, too, with women. Heather might "come out" on the very first occasion on which she found that she was absolutely alone, wi£h no one to whom she could appeal for help.

Before he retired that night, James Melbourn had half-evolved a plan whereby the whole weight of responsibility for the business should be transferred to Heather.

And as, preparing for bed, he took some papers from his breast pocket, he scribbled on an old envelope, already bearing several "reminders," a note: "'Phone Phlange for appointment."

Now, Phlange was his solicitor and confidant. Phlange knew more about Melbourn's affairs, both commercial and personal, much more than anyone else in the world, much more than Heather. And Phlange had beeen watching Melbourn's eccentric behaviour with great misgiving.

CHAPTER VI. Enter Mr. Beaucourt. "Quite a passable crowd for Saturday evening," observed Gerard Huntingdon to Heather Melbourn as he lighted a cigarette after the first dance. This was the first time Heather had danced since Douglas' death, and the pleasure of it was enhanced by the perfect floor and the efficient band of London's newest and most expensive dance club, the Hautmont.

"Why, is the Saturday crowd usually different from any other?" asked Heather.

He stroked back his hair with an odd movement, peculiarly his own mannerism, and spoke out in a terse orderly room style:

"By George! I always forget how little you know about town. Your stern parent has kept you strictly on the chain. You're the country cousin, of course, hut the catch in it is that you wear the town cousin's clothes, and no one would suspect the inadequacy of your education in the things that really matter!" _ '

She was thrilled a little by the reference to her clothes, for, as was appropriate, she had just banished the last trace, of mourning from her attire, and to-night elie was dressed as she had longed for months to be dressed. What was more, everything from shoes to posy had come up to expectations. "Gerry, is all that a compliment? If so, it's well disguised." "No. , It's just a plain statement of fact. No one seeing you now would suspect that you don't know the difference between Saturday night in town and any other night." "Please, please don't begin to talk so 'educationally." Daddy does that all the week."

"My poor child!" he said sympathetically. "I forgot. But, to answer your question. Practically everybody who matters goes out of town on Friday night or on Saturday morning, and so, usually, the club crowd on Saturday is poor both in quality and quantity. Of course, I've never before brought you here on a Saturday evening, have I?" "No, before Douglas died you used always to come out to Dunmale, or we met at parties. . . . How long ago that seems."

"By Jove, doesn't it! Only to-day I was wondering how long your worthy parent will require this 1 treatment you are giving him—because it is only a form of treatment, isn't it?" "Yes, it began at that. I thought that if I humoured him by going up to the office, and by pretending to be the heir, so to speak, he would become quite rational and Eack me from the concern. The fact that he hasn't sacked me is proof that he hasn't come to his senses yet. But I find I am really learning the business, really getting into it, so that, by Friday evening, I'm 'all in," as the Americans say.

Never since she liad left school behind had Saturday meant so much to Heather Melbourn as it meant now. After live days' hard work, travelling to and from London every day—and about seven hours' application to a task which did not appeal to her very strongly, she longed for the week-end. Physically she was strong enough, but mentally few young women are equipped to deal with those problems of commercial finance which, normally, are the affairs of sophisticated men, whose nervous equipment develops, with experience, a peculiar tensile strength. By lunch-time each day Heather was mentally fagged, and, at times, bewildered. After a hasty lunch with her father, in a dingy chop house he had patronised all his city life, she would return for a shortar but more intense spell of juggling with figures and bills, Stock Exchange quotations and money market reports. Usually when they reached the homeward train she would throw her head back on the cushions of the first class compartment and wonder if she were not sacrificing too much to parental affection.

Huntingdon's remark had brought the question back again. Was she not sacrificing more than could reasonably be expected of her? Clearly, Gerard thought so, and had said so, as plainly as politeness would permit. "Let us not talk about it," she said suddenly, and her foot £egan to tap the floor in response to the lively, tuneful foxtrot into which the band had burst.

He took the hint, and soon they had joined the score of couples who to-night made the Hautmont Club quite the right place for those whcf like neither a crowded nor a deserted floor. (To he continued daily.)