John Sheldon's Ward

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 283, 30 November 1933, Page 27

John Sheldon's Ward

By DOROTHEA CORBOULD

CHAPTER VIII. For a few moments there was silence. Elizabeth's eyes, full of horrified dismay, were fixed upon the face of the woman before her; then to the horror and dismay succeeded a look of disgust. "Your brother ? Is that why you came here—that you might let him know where I am?" she asked, "Indeed, no. I came for the reason I have given—to visit my birthplace and, because I knew of no other place, to have a rest in the country here. Let me tell you about myself, Miss Hyde. You know that my father was rector of Marshfield and that he had two daughters, but I did not mention that ho had a son. Austin was the eldest of the three of us, and my father intended him for the Church, but unfortunately they did not agree on this point. Austin wished to enter the Civil Service. He was clever and ambitious; the Church had no attractions for him; and tlie upshot of it was that he and his father had a violent quarrel, and Austin left his home never to enter it again. We were always great chums, he and I, and it was a terrible grief to me when he went away. For years we heard nothing of him, and then, when I went to New York, suddenly one day I met him. It was a joyful meeting, as you may imagine. He told me that while trying to get work in London he same across an old schoolfellow who was going to some relations in Canada in the fintrapping trade, and invited Austin to accompany him and try for work there. "I think, from what he told me, that my brother must have had a pretty hard time of it for some years, but at last ho fell in with a man in Montreal who had a vacancy for a clerk in his chemical works in Ontario. Austin obtained the post, and in time became Mr. Hyde's— your father's —manager and his greatest friend; so much so that—but you will doubtless know the rest. When I came to England, and decided to visit my old home and spend part of the six months I intended to remain here quietly in Shrimpton, I wrote to Austin, telling him I had come across you, and that you were living here with your guardian. I had a cable in return, begging me not to mention our relationship or that I knew anything about him (lie had taken our mother's maiden name, Melford, when lie left home, to avoid answering to any inquiries as to his whereabouts).

"When he wrote, he explained the reason, which was your extraordinary dislike of him. Of coursc, I cannot understand anyone disliking Austin." Elizabeth had listened to Mrs. Gilrow's carefully rehearsed story with outward calm but inward raging and an undefined dread of she knew not what. Austin Melford knew of her wherabouts—that was the principal point she had grasped. He would come and ingratiate himself at "Adencroft" and enlist John's sympathies, which, after what the latter had said tho other might, might not be so difficult to obtain. "I am sorry'you fold Mr. Melford where I am," she said at length. . "Of course you know I met him in town the 'toy my guardian took Miss Gayle and jnyself there. Is lie remaining in England?" **■ "I do net know exactly. He told me he had an offer of a berth somewhere up in the North, and thought of accepting it. Miss Hyde, I do hope you arc not going to visit your dislike of my brother upon me; indeed, .1 cannot help being his sister, can I? and.until he told me 1 had no idea Austin'afriendship with your father'''did not, extend to his daughter. It is a pity, for he admires you so much, Miss Hyde, yoilr character an ■" - "My money,". Elizabeth laughed bitterly. "Oh, yes, I am quite aware of his feelings towards me, and appreciate them at their true value. But I must not, of course, be rude enough to disparage him to his sister, especially jf you" are fond of him; only. I am sorry" you are his sister, because I thought. I was going, at first"> to like you so much.": "And cannot you like me for myself and forget my relationship to your 'bete noir'?" Mrs. Gilrow smiled-the.charm-. ing smile, she kept for such occasions, and Elizabeth began to feel she had been too hard upon her. "I will try," she said, more gently than she had yet spoken, "only please don't think me rude if I ask you not to mention Mr. Melford's name to me; it is like a red rag to a bull, and I've not a good temper any more than I am goodlooking. I wish I was both!" "My dear Miss Hyde! You do yourself an injustice. No one can be without good looks who has nice eyes|,- good teeth and pretty little hands and feet. Besides, you have a good figure, too. You must let me advise you about improving it. No girl should neglect herself in that respect. You had a lovely frock at the garden party. May I ask if you got it at Debenham's?" "No; at Madame Clarice's." The conversation reverted to chiffons and, tea appearing at this moment, Elizabeth found herself chatting quite amicably with her enemy's sister, and' Mrs. Gilrow felt within herself that she had scored again. But when her visitor had departed Elizabeth gave herself up to one of .her now rare moods of angry, miserable depression, telling herself that at last had come the bolt from the blue which was to destroy all her happiness in'lier present life at "Adencroft." One moment she would , tell herself that Austin Melford's words that last evening at Millport had meant nothing, that his look when he forced her to meet it had not really alarmed her.

i "You need not think that I shall give up trying to win you for my wife," he had sg,id. "Your father approves, and when I take a thing in hand I never fail. You may resist as much as you like, but hi the end your will must succumb to mine." But she knew that at the time she had believed him, 4 that some hypnotic influence made his words much like a prophecy; and as she recalled them now the same dread and repulsion made her shudder. "John doesn't care who marries me," she said to herself, and stamped her foot in impotent wrath. "He has his Myra Gayle, and they will marry and be happy ever after, like the handsome liero and beautiful heroine in the novels I've read lately. Why don't they sometimes make tho girls ugly and disagreeable like myself? There would be some interest in reading how they succeeded in getting husbands —and, after all, .sometimes I feel sure Myra doesn't love John as much as he loves her —as much as I should love | the man I had chosen—and John is such a dear—so kind, so chivalrous, so —— I Elizabeth Hyde, you are a fool! What! business is it of yours whether Myra Gayle cares for him or not? He would never.have chosen you, "my girl, be quite sure of that, even if he had never met anyone else, so why. bother your head, about him? And I won'U" - She stamped

her foot again. "I'll be hanged if I do! There's Aunt Lucy come back. I must go and tell her that I was right about Mrs. Gilrow being a liar." No further mention was made of Austin Melford, and about a fortnight afterwards Mrs. Gilrow gave an afternoon party at "The Laurels," everyone invited accepting with alacrity. It was a lovely day, and Elizabeth, after finding that her "bete noir" was not present, enjoyed herself immensely, her hostess going, out of her way to make much of her and taking flattering interest in her "toilette," which she declared was the most beautiful and becoming one she had seen. The flattery was not without its efl'ect upon the girl, who all her life had never been told anything but that she was plain and uninteresting, and she began to feel that she had misjudged her hostess and that she liked her very much indeed—a change of front which Mrs. Gilrow was quick to notice and to act upon. She interested herself in the girl's appearance, and singled her out on all occasions for special notice. They would be seen going motor rides together, revisiting, as Mrs. Gilrow said, the haunts of her childhood, though Elizabeth could not help noticing that she had either forgotten or knew nothing about any of the show places in the neighbourhood. Altogether the charming widow gained a footing in the "Adencroft" household -which promised well for any future schemes her brother might choose to entrust to her. Just about this time Elizabeth noticed that her guardian seemed depressed and not himself. His business worried him was his explanation when his aunt's martyr-like tones suggested he was looking ill and that he wanted a holiday— an idea which he promptly scouted as an impossibility. At length one day came tho explanation.

Myra Gayle had, after much argument and protest from her fiance, accepted an invitation to spend tho autumn in Scotland with the friends whose party she had joined for the cruise in Norway. The Sparlings had rented the shooting box of a friend of Mr. Sparling's somewhere in Inverness-shire, and were inviting a few guests for the shooting and fishing, some of them eligible bachelors and one or two girls, Myra being amongst the latter; for the Sparlings, being yotmg people themselves, liked to gather a merry party round them.

Now, it is very probable that, had Myra merely spoken of tho invitation as having been given because she had mentioned how much she wished to visit the Highlands and her friend had promised that if they decided to go to Scotland they would ask her to join them, John would not have raised the objections he did to her going. But, like many others of her sex who, to test their powers, delight in making their lovers jealous, she was constantly harping upon the other invited guests, particularly the aforesaid eligible bachelors, their wealth, position and other attractions, and hoping that the amusing and interesting addition to the Norway party would again be included in the invitation to Scotland, until her fiance, who had borne all her teasing with exemplary'patience, was goaded" at last into declaring that he was sick of the fellow's very name, and that if she couldn't choose a more interesting topic of conversation he would take his departure and leave her to dream of the absent Adonis in peace.

"Jack hates my going away," Myra confided to Elizabeth. The girls were fairly good friends, the former being a little afraid of her fiance's "ward, and 'Elizabeth tolerating her for. John's sake —"he is jealous of possible admirers, and thinks I shall flirt with all the men of the party—s osilly of Jum. Of course, I mean to enjoy myself, why shouldn't I ? One can only be young and pretty once."

"John isn't like other people," was the reply, "lie*wouldn't go away and flirt and enjoy himself,"as you mean to do; ho is far too fond of you." . "Well, and I'm, fond of him—if I wasn't I shouldn't have accepted him, because I should never do for a poor man's wife, and have to grub along on nothing a year." "John wouldn't let his wife 'grub along' as you call it," was the reply, f'he doesn't like doing that himself. He likes everything nice about him, and he has always had it, I am sure." "Oh, yes, I daresay, but I should like to get away from Shrimpton and have a nice home in London, and plenty of servants and a car, and—all that." "Well, I hope you'll get them, that's all," Elizabeth said in her blunt fashion, "but if I were your fiance I should chuck you—right away, and get someone else who would appreciate me, not what I had," and she walked away, but not before she heard Myra say: "Perhaps you would like to be the someone else yourself." It. was a random shot, and Elizabeth took no notice, consequently Myra was unaware how nearly she had hit the mark. But the shaft had gone home, and like a lightning flash John Sheldon's ward suddenly realised that she loved him with all the strength of her warmhearted, generous, passionate nature, and that for her, with no hope of being loved in return, life would he.a.blank for her as long as she lived. But Elizabeth was not one to wear her heart on her sleeve or pine away in secret over an unrequited love. She went on with her daily occupations •as usual, and made herself so useful in the household at "Adencroft" that, [though another maid had been added to the two who had formerly composed the domestic staff, Miss Sheldon often declared she could not imagine how she ever got on without her. Elizabeth had learnt, to drive her "ear herself, and went for long rides alone, Miss Sheldon distinctly disapproving, and showing it by refusiug. to enter. the car except when the chauffeur was driving. John, however, had no such scruples, and allowed his ward to drive him to his office whenever ibad weather made walking something to be avoided if possible. (To be continued daily.)