Miss MIDAS

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 95, 23 April 1931, Page 22

Miss MIDAS

NORMAN PENLEY

ASDFA

CHAPTER XXIII. Ollyett's New Ally. "So you do relax your 'dry' principles in favour of a little liqueur, Miss Scheer. That's excellent—so long as you keep the limit there." Luella Scheer was enjoying this crowded hour as she rarely enjoyed anything. A dinner with any man would have been an important event for her, but a business dinner," one connected with the City and with money-making, seemed too good to be true. And her host was none other than Marcus Ollyett, not one of the biggest men in the City, but certainly a personality, a man whose views were sometimes quoted in the newspapers. Altogether the episode was exciting. To have written for a job, and to have received in repy a discreet invitation to dine, informally, savoured strongly of adventure. But Luella Scheer had her head properly adjusted, and knew that a man like Marcus Ollyett would not invite her to.dinner because of her beautiful eyes, though they were in fact beautiful, particularly with the hat she was now wearing. And she knew it. He could not be said to know her, apart from that occasion, of which she reminded him in her letter, when she had conducted him into Heather's private office on his call some months ago. But under the influence of a pleasant meal and his tactful treatment of her the initial embarrassment had disappeared.

would try to show him that she knev a little about business, too. So she agreed to the terms, and foi half an hour she told what she knew but it was not sufficient for Ollyett, anc she promised to find out the rest of th< information. "If what you say is true—and I don'! doubt it for a moment —then, surely someone is advising her. Either that or she is uncommonly lucky," observec Ollyett. "I don't know that anyone is advising her, and I think I should have heard something of it," was Luclla's reply. "I'm sure someone is giving her tips, and directing her generally. "Then she won't need your assistance Mr. Ollyett." The remark came like a flash, and for a moment Luella doubted the wisdom of it. "Well, someone may be 'leading her up the garden,' so to speak, giving her good information to gain her confidence, and then, later 011, ho will get her money in * something which is unsound. I shan't feel easy about her until I've got her car. After all, it would be such a pity if that line old business went down through Miss Mclbour:i being badly advised." ° He seemed to have, thought Luella, a Curious solicitude for Heather Melbourn. If his designs went beyond business, if lie had a matrimonial eye on Heather, then he was looking in the wrong direction. She (Luella) would be in a position to decide Ollyett's relationship to Heather, and she would see that it conformed to her own idea of what it should be. If Marcus Ollyett had matrimonial intentions, he had better lookstraight to his front. She was not sure whether she wanted him, but until she had made up her mind, it was silly of him to think that he would gain Heather Melbourn's confidence.

| "A cigarette, Miss Sclieer? Ah, no! You told me you didn't smoke. Sensible girl. Well, now, let us sec that we quite understand one another. Let us sum up, as the judges say. I can't give, you a job—yet. Maybe that will come later. I should very much like to have you in the office. Meantime, you're with my friend Miss Melbourn, and I want to Miss Melbourn if I can. She's inexperienced, but, as you were saying, she's independent and a little remote from everybody. She said she would send for me if I could help her, but I shall wait until the cows come home before _ she sends for me, even though she might be longing for someone's advice. ' Well, now, that's where you can be useful to me. You must let me know what she's doing on the Stock Exchange. If I think she s all right I'll not interfere. But if I feel that I ought to interfile to save her from falling into something which I know to be a trap, then—" He finished with a gesture, and looked straight into the girl's eyea.

Under even the gentle influence of the creme de menthe the colour mounted to Luella's cheeks. She was not unattractive, thought Ollyett. She read the thought in his look, and was thrilled by it. This was the beginning of an acquaintance which promised much, but Luella was convinced that, first and last. Ollyett was a business man, and if shft failed him in the mission he had entrusted to her the acquaintance would break as abruptly as a piece of cotton. They had this in common —business came first with each of tliem. So Luella said: "I quite understand what you want me to do, and you can rely on me to do it. But one thing you haven!t mentioned. What about terms?" "Well, it's difficult to propose terms. Suppose you leave it to me, as between friends." "That's very flattering, Mr. Ollyett," she said, a trifle coldly, "but we can hardly be considered friends yet. And until we are, I'd prefer a businesslike | arrangement." "Splendid," he ejaculated, and meant it. That was the spirit he admired. "Suppose we say ten pounds a month until we cancel the arrangement, or until I give you a job ?" She hesitated a moment, not because she was dissatisfied with the terms, which were really generous, but because it was a sign of inexperience to jump at any offer. "See," he continued, noting her hesitation. "Ten pounds is equal to what? Say a three-piece suit, or a couple of frocks; or it would buy quite a passable coat, unless I'm misinformed." She laughed; an attractive contralto laugh. "Yes, you're fairly well"' informed, but if you'd put your offer not into terms of clothes hut into terms of Pennister Gopper sfines or Tractions, I'd understand better." Ollyett gasped with surprise. Which was just the result she hoped to gain. This man worshipped business. She,

CHAPTER XXIV. "Bosh!" Said Huntingdon. Gerard Huntingdon did not patronise tile Waterloo Club very frequently. For one thing, it consisted entirely of officers, serving or retired, and while he delighted in his profession, he liked to take his relaxation away from the military atmosphere. But when duty or private arrangements confined a man to town on Sunday, he has difficulty in killing the time, and 011 a wet Sunday, such as this, any ftlub is a desirable refuge. The place was almost deserted, save for a Jew lonely old fellows, who seemed to live in the club. There was not a member of his own age on the premises, and as he had spoken to no one but servants all day, and because his thoughts had been travelling again arid again to other Sundays at Dunmale, he rather welcomed the appearance of Lord Chidfold, for whom, ordinarily, he had little time. For a time they chatted in a desultory way about regimental affairs, for Chidfold was still interested in the service he had been obliged to quit, but, somehow, their conversation drifted round to Chidfold's new occupation, and to the city in general. In these circumstances, it was not long before Melbo.irn's name cropped up, and from his name, conversation passed to Heather. At other times, Huntingdon would have turned ofi at that point, or would have put an end to the conversation, but to-day he was moody, a little off his guard, and he allowed the fellow to drift on. Presently the young peer threw one leg over arm of his cliair and observed with surprising boldness: "I don't know, of course, Hack, just how you stand with Miss Melbourn, but they are saying surprising things about her in the city." Huntingdon gave an ugly frown, and straightened himself in his chair. "Don t misunderstand me, old man," Chidfold hastened to explain, needn't say there's not a breath of scandal. Everyone respects her immensely, but as you're not in the city, you mayn't have heard this, and the thing is distinctly interesting." "Chidfold, Miss Melbourn's business affairs, like yours, are no concern of mine. I must say that I'm not very curious about them." "Ah, but this is different . . . you must have heard she's been doing exceptionally well since she took over control of the firm. The papers have had lots about that. But what the lads on the Stock Exchange say is that she couldn't possibly be doing it without advice." "1 can tell you I am not advising her, if that's what you're driving at," interrupted Huntingdon, somewhat disagreeably

, Chidfold laughed at that. The thought of Huntingdon turning himself into a financial expert was amusing. He disdained everything concerned' with money, and always pretended to know nothing about it except that money was something made by the Mint and distributed by the banks. "No, Hack, I can assure you there's no suspicion on that score. The idea is this . . . and it comes from the fact that she's got no friends in the city who nould conceivably be advising her. They say that she's psychic." "The devil they do! And what's that, anyhow ?" Huntingdon's affectation of ignorance was well assumed. "Oh, spook stuff, as we used to call it at school. She's got some uncanny occult gift, they say, and that she's in touch with her father, who advises her. The old man was such a shrewd bird in operating on the Stock Exchange, and the situation there' just now is exactly the kind he would have revelled in. They say she is doing precisely what he would have done, and that—since she's very inexperienced in business —this psychic communication is about the only thing that can explain it.'' "Bosh!" " • - • ' "I thought you'd 1 say that, Hack. But it can't be bosh when half the fellows on the Exchange are saying it. Paragraphs have appeared in the papers about it. You just think it over. I may l>e an ass, but fellows who've spent all their lives on the Stock Exchange and have even made fortunes there, aren't exactly congenital idiots." (To be continued daily.)