ADAMSON WATERING HIS FLOWERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 250, 22 October 1935, Page 19

ADAMSON WATERING HIS FLOWERS.

when the opportunity arrived. Now he had challenged her and the way he looked suggested that he was hurt at her attitude. But Merrill could not abandon her fixed idea that Roderick had treated his uncle callously.

"That's as may be," she persisted, "but I happen to have looked after Mr. Stokes' welfare for a few years and perhaps I can claim to know him—in his later years, anyhow—better than you. I never found him what one might call a mean man and I'm quite prepared to suggest that there must have been some very good reason for his not doing what you asked. I think you were not very kind toijhim and I think I can see a little more clearly why he decided to . . Merrill paused, uncertain how to proceed. "You mean why he dropped both his nephews out of his will?" The girl nodded. "Yes. But I never could understand quite why he didn't do something for Carol. He, at least, was attentive to the .old man, even though tlu.y did always appear to be quarrelling." Roderick found himself suddenly hating this girl with "her accusatory opinions. What right had she to decide whether he had acted ungratefully or not? Ho wasn't going to lie down to her taunts even if she had invited him to stav at the manor.

"I begin to suspect that my esteemed cousin can do 110 wrong," he told her, icily. "Meeting him will be a new pleasure. I have always cherished the ambition to discover a paragon of all the virtues. As for my uncle's attitude towards lis, I can only think that with so charming a guide, philosopher and friend, he had ample compensation for the shortcomings of at least onf of his nephews. lam sorry that our little talk should have ended on such a discordant note. I was hopeful of discovering something of what I might call the real atmosphere of this beautiful old house during my uncle's declining years. Perhaps on another occasion Miss Grenfield, you may find yourself able to speak with less bias about it."

■Roderick arose from his chair trembling. Never before had he ever spoken so bitterly to any woman, but this girl had stung him and he retorted with all the indignation he felt. White-faced and tight-lipped, Merrill watched him go just in that same room she had watched Carol go that morning, but now her eyes were not moist as they had been 011 that previous occasion. They were lighted with the fires of anger. (To be continued daily.)

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