Hers To Command

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 264, 7 November 1931, Page 15 (Supplement)

Hers To Command

By REGINALD TEMPLE, zz; Author of ~ —"WHAT HARGREAVES KNEW,"= — Etc.

CHAPTER IX. —(Continued.)

They chatted, about ordinary matters until Perkins had placed the coffee on the table and had poured out two cups with a ritual which could hardly have been surpassed by Gustave at the Especial.

.When Perkins had gone, Monica leaned forward tv/ Piers.

"And now I want to talk to you a little," she said.

"Your knight is at your command," remarked Lindon in an assuring tone. "Well, I want you to do something for me," she said. "It will not be an easy task, but you've got to do it. But first there are several things about myself which I must tell you. I suppose you •regard me as a bit of a mystery. Lady Rose does."

"Well, to be frank, so do I," said Piers. "I should only be deceiving you if I said I didn't."

Monica laughed a trilling- laugh which even reached the ears of Perkins at the back.

"Oh no, you wouldn't be deceiving me. I know exactly how. you regard me. Well, I'm going to take just a little of the edge off the mystery. .Firstly, let me tell you a little about Lady Rose and myself." "Yes, I've wondered about that," said Piers, "especially after you said yon were not what one calls ordinary friends."

"Well, the difference between us and ordinary friends is this, that I am paying Lady Rose to be my friend. There, what do you think of that?" It was Lindon's turn to laugh.

"Well, that's one of the funniest things I've heard," he said. "I mean it's funny, because it puts both Lady Rose and myself in the capacity of being your employees. What are you, a sort of firm ?"

"No, I'm not a firm, Mr. Lindon," she said seriously, "and, if I were, I shouldn't be a limited liability one. You'll probably discover that in good time. No, I pay Lady Rose to take me among the 'really nice' people. You know—or perhaps you don't—-how difficult it is to mix among them if you aren't one of them. Which reminds me that I don't know very much about yourself, except that you have been abroad most of your life."

"That's about all there is to know," said he, anxious that she should not become aware of his own aristocratic connections. He had a momentary feeling that she might drop Lady Rose and transfer the society business to himself •—a thought which appalled him, for he felt that he would have to obey. He had ■ already told himself that he would obey her commands to the letter, so far as it lay in his power. After all, he had entered into the bargain and no one but a cad would draw out. In a way it was an adventure after his own heart. Monica pursued the subject. "Tell me, Mr. Lindon, are you a Sir or a Lord —or —or —"

He cut her short with laugh. "I certainly am not," he said, feeling relieved that he had given his denial before she had reached the word Honourable. His relief, however, was short lived, for Monica suddenly regarded him squarely in the face, so that he seemed to be looking right into the depths of her dark blue eyes, the bluest he Lad ever seen.

"Well, you just certainly are," ehe said with deliberation. "You are the Honourable Piers Lindon, younger son of the late Lord Oakley."

Piers sat back in his chair with a start. Then he made a gesture of capitulation.

"I give it up," he 6aid. "You must forgive me, though you will admit I gave the negative before you mentioned the Honourable. And anyhow, do please tell me how you found it out.'' "I shall not tell you anything of the kind," said Monica with a hint of anger. Then, relenting, she said: "Yes, I will, though. I don't see why I should add to the mystery between us. Heaven knows there's enough already. I happened to be reading a society paper yesterday and saw some reference to your baby nephew who is with his mother on the Riviera. It mentioned how limited were the connections of the Oakley peerage, saying that the Hon. Piers Lindon, who was generally abroad, was the only other branch of it. There, now I've told you Honourable. Now perhaps you'll tell me why you didn't want mo to know. Thought I was a golddigger, I suppose?"

"I thought nothing of the kind," replied Piers. "How could'l, when I've had a thousand pounds out of you?" "That seems fair argument," laughed the girl. "I suppose you really needed it, or were willing to accept it. You're not rich enough to be making a joke of this, are you?"

Her eyes shone as she asked this, and Lindon, unused as he was to women, suspected, quite rightly, that tears were not far away. He answered her straightly.

"Monica," I am not making a joke of it," he said.

Monica was startled by his use of her Christian name, but she made no reference to it beyond a smile.

"Very well, then; now we understand each other on that point, at any rate," she said. "Let's see, where were we? Oh, I know, I was telling you about Rose. I wanted her —well, to get me into society, but I don't wish you to ask the reason why."

"But surely you are friends apart from that?"

"Of course we are, but you must see that it is a peculiar situation. She is, as you say, my employee, but she is also the daughter of a duke, which, again, I am not. Very, very far from it as a matter of fact." Lindon raised his brows with interest as she said this, but she made no-fur-ther reference to it. Presently he forgot it as she sprang her next surprise:

"You remember at our first meeting we discovered that we had both been to Moggimolo? And you said some girl had left there under some sort of a cloud or something?"

"Well, I was that girl," she said quietly.

What surprise Lindon experienced he was successful in hiding. He merely continued to look at her, waiting for her next words.

"You're not going to order me out of your chambers after "I am not—Monica," he said. "Very well, then," tlie girl replied. "1 will now tell you the first service you cah render to me." '

CHAPTER X. An Awkward Caller. By this time Lindon thought the conversation needed a little braking. _ He felt that he could not take it all in at that speed. First there was the revelation that Monica had only become the friend of Lady Rose because she was paying the latter to help her up the social incline. And there was also her knowledge of his identity, which she said she had gleaned from a society paper, a statement which he wished to weigh up before he accepted it. There was also a reference to her own father which left him guessing improbable things. And then, as though these words were not enough surprises to be sprung in ten minutes, there was her admission that she was the girl of whom he had heard in that strange, remote settlement in the heart of Senegambia.

He- passed a hand across his brow. "Half a minute, Monica," he pleaded. "This is becoming rather swift. And so soon after breakfast, too. Phew!" ,

Monica laughed. A faint flush had crept into her cheeks and had made her look extraordinarily pretty. It pleased Piers, for he was beginning to wonder if lie had not encountered a perfect exhibition of brazenness.

"I thought you'd be a little surprised," slie said. "Yes, I'll go easy for a few minutes. Any questions you want to ask?"

"There are plenty," said Piers.

"Then you may ask them," she replied.

"Well I'll begin with two," said Piers. "Firstly I am curious to know just why you were so desperately anxious to pay your way into society—" "Don't you think I'm as good as most who are in it?" '

The query came with true feminine petulance. "Of course you are, so far as I know," said Piers in a slightly brutal manner, which he immediately regretted. After all, there might be some explanation of the Moggimolo affair. "Yes, you are," he added without qualification. _ "Thank you," said Monica with the air of one receiving no more than her due. "And what is your second question ?"

"The second one you may think impertinent," - said Piers, "but you said I might ask you any questions I liked." "Well, what is it, Mr. Honourable?" she asked.

There was something disconcerting, almost defiant in her tone, but he asked his question nevertheless. "My second question is: Who was your father. You made an oblique reference to him a few minutes ago. Who was he? There, now, I've asked you my two questions." "And I shall not answer them," she replied briefly. "But —but—you said I could ask them," he said complainingly.

"But I never said I would answer them," she said, and, when he came to think of it, she hadn't.

"Very well, then," he said, "I will not ask them again. All the same, I'd like to know why you said I could ask them." "That's easily explained," said Monica. "I was just anxious to know what, among the things I've told you, made you the most curious. See. I just want to understand you. Some day perhaps I'll answer them, but not to-day. And now, I suppose, you really are going to turn me out of your chambers?" "I'm going to do nothing of the kind," he said. "I'm in the position of the gentleman referred to in the Scriptures, who, having put his hand to the plough, cannot turn back."

"Then I take it that I may now proceed to give you your first real piece of work?"

"That's right."

"Well, it's this," said Monica. "I want you in some way to get rid of a gentle-, man named Mr. Marley." "Do you mean kill him ?" asked Lindon with a grim smile.

"No, not unless you wish. Perhaps when you know how horrid he's been to me you may wish to kill him by the slowest and most painful method. But. at present I just want him kept out of my way." Lindon, still amused, asked: "And where is the gentleman at present?"

"He's staying at my hotel," said Monica, "and he's a piece of very bad business." '

"Do you mean he's showing a tendency to familiarity, or something of that sort, because if so I'll slip round and kill him at once, and bring the body back here." "Don't joke," said Monica with humorous severity.

"I was not actually joking," answered Lindon. "What I meant to say was that if this fellow's been objectionable to you, then I'll deal with him. Please tell me a little more about him."

"I'm afraid you're impetuous," said Monica, eyeing him critically. "You jump to conclusions. This is not an ordinary case of a man being rude to me. It is a case of a man having power over me, or at least knowing something about me which is very disconcerting." Lindon gave a low whistle. "Something to do with the Senegambia affair, I suppose," he said. "Which reminds me that I want to have a chat about that little matter later on. You've said that you were the girl concerned with as much nonchalance as though you were telling me you once went to Brighton. Still, a little more about Mr. Marley, please." "How much did ypu hear about that girl in Moggimolo? About me, I mean."

"Very little," said Piers. "It just happens to be a place where feminine society is not plentiful, and I heard some of the men talking about it in the small hotel there. One of them said: 'Well, we've had one pretty girl here during the past year, so we can't grumble.' Another one replied, 'And she didn't stay long, the little thief.' I was not personally interested in the conversation, for I was leaving the place the next day, so I didn't listen to more. But when I met you and heard you had been to that outlandish place, I naturally wondered if you were the girl. I don't even know the details of the affair. Perhaps you will tell me later."

"I'll tell you now," sajd Monica. "I stole the Van Dien diamond from a man who was staying in Moggimolo, a man named Newsome."

Lindon could mot repress his astonishment. The name of the precious stone was familiar to him.

"So you. see/' said Monica, "the kind of girl you are serving. At this point, if you like, I will give you back your pledge. I want to be fair to you. Would you like to call the bargain off?"

(To be continued daily.)