A GIRL TO LOVE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue 9303, 20 March 1907, Page 2

A GIRL TO LOVE.

By BERTHA CLAY,

Author of "Thrown on the World," "Her

Mother's Sin," "Beyond Pardon," "The Lost Lady of Haddon," "Dora Thome," 'An Ideal Love," etc.

CHAPTER XIX.

"MY WEDDING-DAY TO-MORROW!"

'l'he last train to everywhere appears to travel at an exasperating snail's pace. It stops at> every miserable little station to pick up mail-bags, or milk-cans, and loses five mmmtes at each of them. The officials are usually sleepy and ill-tempered, and if an impatient passenger utters a protest, he is treated with scorn. And when the train romps home in the small hours of the morning, amd the belated travellers have a few miles to walk, the wea their is sure to be unkind.

And this was Victor Pelfoam's -experience. It was 1 a.m. when he alighted at Birmingham station, and there was no train to Soho. He hastened to the cabstand outside, but the yard was as innocent of cabs as though such things had never been invented.

"The theatres always clear 'em off,' a policeman told him.

So he started to walk home in a drizling misti. It was not a. p-leasant 4 walk, either, as he had to taavers© some of the most lawless byways of the big city. Three times he had to enquire his way, and whetn he was knocking at Miss Kennedy's door, the chiuroh clock leerily chimed the hour of two.

It was opened almost immediately by John Rutherford.

"I had an idea that you would come by t u e last train," he explained. "So I sat up for you. What an abominable night! You must be wet to the skin."

Victor smiled lather dismally.

"You are on awfully good fellow, Rutherford, Victor said, divesting himself of 'his wet coat.

"Then I did light in giving your address to Mr Trenwith? I was terribly afraid afterward, but >he was so insistent, so pleading. It was all "for your good; mistakes have been made, and he would hold, me morally responsible for some awful wrong!"

"He wired' to me; I got your letter and the telegram together. I am completely mystified. The enclosure, too, demands my presence at Worcester, so I came back at once, as I can't be .bothered after my marriage. Even now I mustn't let the grass grow under my feet, if I am to cram the whole of the work into one day. Mrs Oraig and Isla are (returning to-morrow aftemnoon. Fish Mr Trenwith's telegram out of my coat pocket, Rutherford, and Tead it."

The curate tunned every pocket inside out, and them Victor remembered that he had left Miss Leighton's letter and the telegram in the coat he had been weaning at Seaholme.

"Bother!" he muttered; "and I know I neglected to lock the bag. My head is like a sieve."

"Hush!" Rutherford whispered suddenly. 'He shot to the door, and jerked it open, just in time to see the figure of a man vanish into the darkness.

"Kennedy," he remembered, his face very pale. ■ "He was spying upon us through the keyhole. He has been perteotly sober to-day, and I believe that he is more daaagenous now than wnen in drink. Hello! it's nearly thuee o'clock. Now, then, off -to .bed, or you will have the dawn in your eyes!"

•'To bed, but not to sleep," Victor said. ' Good night, or, rather, good morning."

But, to his surprise and disgust, he slept soundly until half pa6t ten, and even tihen was only aroused' by Rutherford poumdmig loudly on his door.

"Do you want to wake the dead?" he called out grumpily.

"Wake up! I though* that you were gone, until I turned the knob."

"I was tired out yesterday, and have lost part of it to-day in consequence. This comes of measuring, and planning, and worrying generally. Tell Miss Kennedy to bring up a cup of tea, there's a good fellow."

Within fifteen minutes Victor appeared, dressed for his journey, and Rutherford greeted him with a laugh.

"Now, suppose this had been your wedding-day?" he said. "I shall have to keep an eye upon you to-morrow!"

"'lt's an abominable nuisance, and I feel like kicking myeell." He was consulting a time-table. "There isn't another train until after twelve, .and what time I 6hall get beck is a problem. I must telegraph to Isla this afternoon."

"'I shall be on the lookout for you. Amd don't forget that the knot .has to be tied at nine o'clock to-morrow morning! I'm off now to interview out new organist." Victor sent this telegram to Jasper Trenwith from Birmingham station : "Am coming direct to your place by the twelve-five. PELHAM."

the twelve-five.

Arrived at Worcester, he jumped into a caD, andi was driven to Jasper Trenwith's house. Mr Trenwith was out — 'had been out since early momaDg, the butler told him, but the secretary was in the library.

Victor -was conducted to the library, but the secretary could give him no further information. His master was away, but might Tetuxn ait any moment.

"i telegraphed) before twelve," Victor saSd, biting his lips with impatience. 'Yes, sir. The telegram is in Mx Trenwfth's private drawer."

The secretary began to operate bis typewriter again, and the click-click-clicking of the machine "was more than Pelham could endure. He looked ftt his watch.

"Hali-past two, tie murmured. "Luckily, I didn't dismiss my cabman." Then to the secretary : "I'm going to Pehcßnas, and will be here again before six o'clock. You understand!" "Yes, sir."

Victor strode away, in a very bad temper. For one thing, he didn't relish an interview with Nathalie Leighton, and the ambiguity of Jasper Trenwith's telegram iiad bothered him from the moment he had received it. He wanted to solve its meaning.

"'Now, how shall 1 meet Miss Leighton?" he thought when the cab moved away. It's a ticklish job !"

He puffed at a cigar, and reflected^ until he was at tne doors of Pendinas. A footman stepped forward and told him that Sir Charles and Miss Leighton were out for the day.

Victor was relieved ; he became almost cheerful. B2 left h!s card, and told the cabman to drive to a hotel in the city. He was hungry and weary, but inexpressibly gJad that the interview with Nathalie Leighton had been avoided. It would be so much easier to write, now that he had dutifully paid a call. He lunched well, and lounged about until five o'clock. Then he telegraphed to Isla that business was keeping him late" than he had expected.

At half-past five the cabman letniimed, and once mote Victor "was driven to Jasper Trenwith's house, only to mee/b with disappointment. He .talked to the secretary for a while, .and was just leaving, weairy of the whole chase, when a telegraph boy, mounted upon a red bicycle, wbMed' down the avenue. The secret airy took the message from this boy, and murmured : "It's for me, and from the governor. H'm — h'm!" he continued aloud. "'Wants the automobile to meet him at Worcester station at seven o'clock. Doesn't allow too much time." Then, turning to Pelham : "You will Wiait, sir?"

"Yes; I'll walk about the grounds and smoke."

"Very good sir. I must look up the chauffeur, and order diinnesr for eight. THis household is conducted on most irregular lines. I wondjer that the governor doesn't get married." • Victor smiled, and his blood tingled pleasantly.

"I shall be married to-morrow," he tnougbt. "It is difficult to realize at times-. How much has happened within a few weeks! The events of a lifetime wifrh the swiftness of a dream — and such a dream!"

He was feeling easier in his mind now. Jasper Trenwith would be home soon after seven, and there was a .train to Birmingham a/fc *fl.ght-swenty-three. That would -suit Pelham famously. And' then for his darling Isla!

He -walked in the gardens and the paik ; then he peeped into the splendid conservatories, and Sam Price regarded' him suspiciously. Sam hated strangers. Hadn't his beloved master said that every man's hand was against him? Sam took the woTds literally, and his hand was against every stranger who came to Jasper Trenwith's house- He saw something base amd sinister even in Victor Pelham's face, and watched' him scowlingly and furtiveSo the time was wbiled away umtil seven o'clock, and Victor strolled to the gate of the lodge, to "wait for JespeT Trenwith's coming.

(To be oontimued.)

"My opinion is tnat the -worst boys at school often make the best men," said the Magistrate at the Willesden Police Court, referring to a boy who persisted in playing truant and running away from home.