MYSTERY of MANOR HOUSE

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 274, 18 November 1936, Page 22

MYSTERY of MANOR HOUSE

WHAT THIS STORY IS ABOUT. MAR.TORT antl LENA LESTER live at MANOR HOUSE, and JANE, their old nurse, is looking after them while their parents are abroad. ' • LENA, who is rather proud, objects .to MARJORY having anything to. do with people who are in a less fortunate position than themselves.ETHEL DRAYTON, who has come to live at the COTTAGE, is .sure that MARJORY will be her friend, and wonders how she can get to know LENA as well. -She determines to masquerade as a.bo.v, in order (o attract LENA'S attention, although her mother does not think that her plan will succeed. Now read on.

CHAPTER IV.—(Continued.) "Only come and see, Lena!" cried Marjory. "There is such a nice boy gcJing past and —why, he must be that girl's brother. He's just like her, only taller." Lena, who was busy sorting a box of ribbons, looked up when she heard mention of a nice boy; but when Marjory said that he must be Ethel's brother, she proceeded with her sorting. She would have nothing to do with that girl; she had been very angry with Marjory for speaking to her, and now when Marjory begged her to come and look, she replied coldly, "Certainly not, and ] wish you would come away." But Marjory had no intention of coming away. Seeing that she had made a mistake in mentioning Ethel, she continued hastily, "Perhaps he, isn't her brother after all. He does look jolly, and is awfully nicely dressed. Just come and look once, Lena," Lena, curious and relenting, joined Marjory, and was surprised to see such a handsome boy. She flushed with pleasure. "Well?" said Marjory. "Well!" repeated Lena. "I guess you're sorry now about the way you've treated that girl." "No, I'm not," retorted Lena, a little vexed. "If he looks a gentleman, she certainly doesn't look a lady. Besides, who says that they are brother and sister?" "He's exactly like her, anyway, and, if you'd not been disagreeable, we could have known them both."

"Well/' said Lena rather snappishly, "I suppose it's not too late." and she "waitM at the window with Marjory to see the boy pro back again. He had seen them onee. so he would surely look up again, and perhaps—

> holiday adventure

"There he is!" cried Marjory, "and he's not going to look. I expect his sister has told him about us and he won't take any notice. Well, it serves you right, Lena," she added, as Ethel passed on without having shown the slightest intefest in them. Lena left the window, thoroughly annoyed, vexed with herself, with the boy, and with everybody. She had never known anyone—certainly no boy —to see her once and not to look again. All that morning Lena remained cross, and after dinner Marjory was glad to leave her and join Jane, who was busy scrubbing the attic floor. To be out of the way she sat on an old linen chest, her hands clasped round her legs and her knees drawn up. "Lena's so cross," she began. "She won't play and she won't go out. She won't do anything." Jane said nothing, and Marjory continued. "She's specially cross to-day, and I know what it ie. She wants to be in love again." "In what, miss?" asked Jane, surprised. "In love,'" repeated Marjory emphatically. "She's often in love, you know. Always when we are at the seaside. All the boys like her. she's so beautiful; but the- girls don't. They call her stuck-up, but Lena says they are jealous."

"In love" was rather a strange name for Lena's • friendships. She was only in love with herself, but she liked to be romantic over her acquaintances, and to fancy herself a princess in a story, courted by whoever happened to play the nrinee at the moment. "But there's no one round here that Miss Lena would look at," rema,rked Jane; "Oh, isn't there!" cried Marjory.. "There's a boy at the cottage that she's dying to speak to." "The cottage!" exclaimed Jane. "Miss Lena, never held as thev were gentle folk;" "That's just it. Jane. That's the vexing*part. You see she didn't know that there was a boy. He makes all the difference. She won't say so. but I know she's awfully vexed with her- ! c e if. She's pretending to read now, but I'm sure she's thinking of that boy all the time." "Why won't she go for a walk?" asked Jane. ■ . "Don't know." said Marjory, shaking her head. "We might see him if he I went out. though I'm sure she wouldn't walk that way. Still, I'll go and ask I

her again," and Marjory slipped down from the chest and went to find Lena.J To Marjory's surprise, Lena was not in the nursery. She called her, but obtained no reply. She looked in all the rooms - in vain. "Then she's gone without me," eaid Marjory to herself. "Well, that is too bad of her, but I don'fr care, she can't Jjavp been gone long, so I'll put my 'tfiings on and go after her. I shall be sure to find her."

CHAPTER V. As Marjory had said. Lena was only pretending to read. She was cross. She felt now that she had been foolish, and she wished she had behaved differently. But how could she have known that such a shabby looking girl would have such a nice, gentlemanly brother? Was it too late to make amends? And could she do so without loss of dignity? All these thoughts passed through Lena's mind. She felt very restless, yet she did not know what to do. Something urged her to go out. but she had 110 wish to take Marjory with her, and she was relieved when Marjory went to talk with Jane. This was Lena's opportunity. She •threw her book down and ran into her bedroom for her hat. She chose the large white felt with feathers, knowing that it would look well against her red ulster. Then with her hands in a little white muff, which hung from her neck by a gold chain, she gave a final glance at herself in the long mirror, and, thoroughly satisfied, went Out.

She was a beautiful gill, and she knew it; and it was the desire to show herself that prompted lier to. walk towards the cottage. Ethel, grown tired for that day of her boy's clothes, had gone upstairs to her room to change, when, happening to glance through her tiny window, she saw Lena in the distance. Instantly, it occurred to her that she, as a boy, was the cause of Lena's solitary walk, and she at once decided to waylay her. Seizing her tam-o'-shanter again, and fixing her hair firmly under it, she hurried downstairs and went out the back. She must come up on Lena suddenly from the fields, rather than meet her in the road,,and in her mind she selected * certain gate as an appropriate meetingplace; to get there in time, she ran very quickly through two fields. She was climbing oyer the gate just as Lena approached, and without hesitation she sang out, "I say, you haven't seen a little fox-terrier down the road, have you ?" Perched on the top of the .crate, she awaited Lena's reply and took breath after her hard run. Lena, surprised at being addressed — for she had been quite unaware that anyone was near—looked up quickly, and then, blushing, looked away again.

"Xo. I haven't," she replied, and stood still, hoping that this bo}- would say something more. To Lena this meeting was a piece of wonderful good fortune. Little did she think that it was Ethel sitting there and laughing at her. "Hm!" continued Ethel, not knowing what to say. She had begun about the fox terrier and felt that she must follow up fhe subject a little, though she knew perfectly well that Nip had accom-

■panied Mr. Drayton. "It's very awkI ward. Stupid little beggar not to follow." Lena made no reply. "I say," Ethel went on after a slight pause, "do people steal dogs in these parts ?" "Oh, no," replied Lena, pleased at being able to say something. " Somebody would lie sure to bring him back." "Then I shall leave the little brute to find himself," said Ethel. "I've been down to tlie village once to-day. I'm not going again."

"I know, I saw you," Lena ventured to remark. "You saw me?" cried Ethel, staring hard at Lena. "You are the girl at the window." \ Lena nodded, flattered to think that, after all, the boy had noticed her. "So you are," murmured Ethel. "I think 1 shall leave that confounded dog and go back home. I say, may I walk with you?" "I-I'ni not going far," said Lena prettily. "Aren't you? Well. I'll corne as far as you go, if you'll let me," replied Ethel, and dropped from the gate to Lena's side. 'For a moment or two there was Isilence. Ethel could not think of anything to say, and she wondered what the end of the affair was going to be. Suppose Lena should find out? The silence was becoming awkward, and Ethel began to whistle and to shy stones at the trees nrit very far away. What should she say? From time to time she stole glances at Lena, and at last burst out with "I say, what a jolly hat you've got 011." Lena laughed and looked pleased. "Boys don't usually notice girl's hats," she said. "Don't they," remarked Ethel. "Oh. well, you know. I'm different. I always notice them. I think that's a ripping hat 011 you. I wouldn't like to wear it myself, though." "Well, of course you wouldn't," said Lena, very much amused. . "Tell me." continued Ethel, who felt she was being quite successful, "do you always dress up like this, or are you going anywhere'?" "I'm not going anywhere at all, except for a walk, and I'm not dressed up," Lena replied. "Aren't you- Well, you look awfully nice, you know; but I should hate always to feel so ladylike." Lena laughed again, merrily; it was so funny to hear a boy talk of feeling ladylike. She turned to Ethel and said quickly, "I don't see I'm any more dressed up than --011 are?" "Me!" cried Ethel, taken aback a little. "I'm not—you don't think I'm dressed up, do you?" "Well, I don't know; you look awfully nice, too, you know," said Lena, blushing at her own holiness. Then she added quickly, "Your sister hates clothes, doesn't she?" '-'v sister! Ethel, you mean?" said Ethel, remeinberinsr just in time that she was not Ethel. "I don't know her name," replied Lena. "But there's only one, is there?" (To be continued next Wednesday.)