THE GRIP OF GOLD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, 1 August 1912, Page 3

THE GRIP OF GOLD.

By ROBERT HALIFAX.

(Author of “The Drums of Fate,” “The House of Horror,” “A Woman in Their Web,” “Law Society,” ect., etc.) (Copyright—All blights Reserved.) CHAPTER XXXiL YOU CAN GO! Gilbert Lancing, the most successful man in Felcotc, held his breath until the muffled shriek of a distant flying train had died away. Then he walked stiffly to the door, glanced out, listened for a while, and closed it again. It had gained him the time lie required. ff a growing fear palpitated beneath his bland insouciance, she was not to see it.

“Now!” lie said. “I have board you out, I hope. And just possibly others have heard something of it, too. Very well! Whether you know it or not, you came hero to-night to terrorise me—perhaps to blackmail me. To show you how frightened I am, I have taken the key from that door. I’m going to keep you a little longer. While you are unbosoming yourself you shall go a little farther. You shall make it clear in what way Gilbert Lancing lias ever wronged Judith Cottrell!”

“How suavely, how neatly, he can put it!” she said, half to herself. “The professional polish is over all! Some women might lie tempted to admire von still, spite of themselves!”

“Bot not you—eh? You are too deep, too far gone, for that; you have owned it. J want an answer to my question before you leave this house to do your mischief. Then, perhaps, you will sec to what extent the man cares !”

“I understand!” The calm, unnerving little laugh, a new thing in itself upon her lips, went across the white-aud-gokl room. “You think you can brave it out. You want to bo sure there is nothing to link my actions with your suggestions. I have, played ray part wrongly again! J should have hold myself in check yet a little longer; it left you secretly uneasy—uncertain as to the extent of my hold upon you. But now that ,T have spoken out and defied you i make you at once master of the situation. A woman who drops her mantle of pride, a*nd begs bare justice from the man who owes but cannot be compelled to give if, becomes at once a thing of the past in bis eyes. No, you have never wronged me! Let your listeners hear that. Wronged? It is only the empty word a woman uses when she realises that her life is to be a hell to struggle to forget!”

“Pshaw!” He tilted back bis head ami laughed right out. “That willl do! 'That talk is obsolete—this is a night in the twentieth century! You can go!” She watched him, as he sauntered across to a sideboard, where lay an open box of cigars. He picked one out, and crackled it critically against his ear.

“Was it 0110 of those that you smoked in the plantation that night?” she asked, quietly. “Do you think lie would recognise the scent again ? Do you think that, strange as he was to the place, he had any suspicions? He may even have guessed it was himself I was to marry, eh?” “I am not listening,” he said, as lie struck a. match.

The cigar was never to reach his lips. A hand suddenly dashed it away; the same hand swept down and scattered the boxful. She trampled upon all within her reach, and he dared not prevent the ruin. Ho quailed palpably as she swung him round—as the blazing grey eyes stared into his.

“There! You shall listen now! Your question shall be answered in full ! Wronged mo P No; that world outside would laugh at the bare* idea. You simply singled out for your attentions the quiet young nurs© who came fresh to the hospital where you first practised. It was never to ho considered serious love on your part —only a. ghastly, grotesque * mistake, on the part of the woman for seeing it in that old-fashioned light! You merely wanted to gain scientific experience in the vagaries of the feminine nature—the eternal mystery ! When your coolness deepened into aversion, it was my place to accept the inevitable. Have I not don© that — “Be .still!” he put in, hoarsely. “You’ll make me forget—” She struck away his arm, and went on in the rapid breaths:

“Have I not done that as no woman ever did before? Have I not passed you on the staircases, stood facing you in the sick-room, and never once tried to thrill you with a look or a whisper of what had been? Reply to that! Has anyone in all Feleote the faintest suspicion that you once held my hands in the twilight, and drew me to you—but enough! 1 have fought night and day to maintain the icy indifference. I succeeded; but tire process has destroyed all that-is noblest and best in a woman. And you—you have the shadow of that fact at your door foi; ever. You realise what I mean ?’ ’

“I realise that you are mad,” he whispered again. He had tried to smile, but the shine of sweat was on his handsome face now. “I succeeded,” site repeated; “but you were never worth a particle of the martyrdom. And at times a flame of fire leaps up within mo—ah, it

would frighten , you to see my face then, Gilbert! ■ It did to-night, when I stood out there and hoard you playing so brilliantly, so carelessly. You were quite safe, you thought. You hud led me into such a position that I could not expose you without exposing myself; you 'could play and sing to pass tho time. Once more, I abhor you to-night for that most despicable of all things in a man—complaisant selfishness? And yet—listen to this! ft is so strange!—and yet something has drawn me to wonder what there could be iri another woman that I never possessed. Something lias brought me here, determined to know. It is I who have asked a question, and I who will wait for a reply!”

She moved back. The cloak was fiung back far from heir once again ; she stood, defiant, her face hard and haggard with the long-pent-up scorn and agony of the loveless woman. “Yes, look at me well,” she whispered. “She what a change seven years may work in a woman. Take your time; no one-has called to see you ; no one would dream of disturbing a great doctor in bis privacy! I am going to bring you to your knees and soon you will know why. Como! This other woman-—what is the secret of her lasting spell over you? Is it because some superior insight has enabled her to value you at your true worth? I wonder!” “Judith, be warned!” he could only mutter, sunkenly. And she lifted her linger. (To be Continued Daily).