HELD APART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12402, 26 October 1903, Page 3

HELD APART.

I "T.";-/''.'-'..BY;E.;KOES![AiS: SILVER,■,■''.. Author of "Hate the: Destroyer,", "A Daughter of Mystery, "The Golden Dwarf," "Warders of the Deep," Etc.,'' ** .■'-..- , !; r ;SYNOPSIS;OP, PREVIOUS CHAPTERS, ; . The story opens in the, seaport of Groudk (Cumberland), and Chapters I. and 11., whici appeared in Saturday's Supplement, intra duce the reader to John Daveual (a diver), Moira Davenal (his adopted ; daughter), ' Sii Guy Vanbru&h (in lore with Moira), Dennis Ilartigan, a».-dissipated ship's steward, and his blind ; sisi«r Kit. Moira, who had been adopted by Do-venal when a child, thinks thai ha is her father, and is very deeply attached to him. In Chapter I. Bir Guy Vanbrngh, when about to leave for London for a few days, makes Moira an offer of marriage, and as she gives him no decisive answer, he states his intention of reopening, the question on his return. Ilartigan, on appearing on the scene after Si. Guy's departure, has a conversation with Davenal regarding Moira'B parentage. Da-venal, who loves Moira as if she were his own child (as she believes! she is), receives a hint from Ilartigan that 'the latter has some intention of claiming the girl; and in order to silence him he agrees to pay Hartigan £50 a yea* so long as Moira, is undeceived." Chapter 11. narrates a. conversation between Ilartigan and his blind sister, in which the latter tells her brother that -a, snatch of a nautical song which he has been singing reminds her of an incident on the breakwater many years before. On this occasion., she being then a child, she was sitting on the landing-steps of the breakwater when iiho heard two men conversing near her. One of the men, in a voice resembling her brother's, sang the song referred to, and then she heard something thrown into the water with a splash. This statement has a very, disconcerting effect on Hartigan. CHAPTER 111 MISTRESS, AND MAID. " Preposterous, Davenal, perfectly pre* posterous. I have been move than generous to you all these years, to say nothing of tho sums which, from time to time, on one pretext or another, you have obtained from me. You should have saved a considerable amount, and I cannot consent to any further exactions." "I'm sorry for that, ray lady," was the quiet response, and a pair of spare, slightlyyellowed hands fluttered about the haughty grey head of the woman who had previously spoken. She was lounging in a comfortable chair before her triple-mirrored toilet-table, languidly submitting to the manipulations of her maid. A portly, -.well-preserved personage of the dowager type, selfishness was stamped upon her as. with a seal. "What you can possilily want with the money," sho exclaimed, plucking at the laced sleeve of her dressing jacket, "I am at a loss to tell. A thousand pounds—it is simply black" She checked herself. The maid went on with her operations. Shis was a compactlybuilt, hard-featured won: of forty, with heavy brows and pinched, secretive lips. ''Blackmail, you would say, my lady," she observed, in a self-possessed undertone "I wouldn't use such woxds, my lady, they might be overheard, aj.d—-and misunderstood. You see my—a certain person is— who is a ship's steward, my lady, is leaving the sea soon and we had thought of taking a country public-house together. That was why I ventured to represent to your ladyship my long services and fidelity to —your ladyship's interests." Lady Tarleton twisted a worn weddingring upon her hand. " You are distressingly clever, Davenal," she retorted, " but I'm tired of being bled. Had I been wise, I should never have allowed you to play the leech with me. Your veiled threats are futileto injure me would only be to injure yourself." " So you've often said, my lady," answered Hannah Davenal, "and yet you' have, as you remarked, been more than generous. You could not forget that there is a difference between the, rope and the broad arrow. Your portion would have, been worse than mine." , : Her mistress shuddered. Hannah Dave.ial laid down the silver-backed tortoise-shell xuiib she had been jising. . " "However, my lady," she said, "I will be generous, too, if only for my own purpose. You are weaker' in mind than I, and yon are growing eld. I will tell you a secret some day you may be glad to have learnt, whatever yon may be now. It is this, you think yourself worse than you are. For nearly twenty years you have believed that there was blood on those white hands of yours. You have been wrong. Yet, for that very reason, your peril, in one way, has been greater than, you suapected." > Lady Tarleton stared at her maid, surprise and alarm struggling in her face. "For nearly twenty yes.rs," pursued Hannah Davenal, "I have had your and your daughter's future at my mercy. The bubble t helped you to blow I could have pricked— how completely you cannot guessat any moment. And, when I think how you have grudged me the few pounds 1 have asked fou for, I could find it in iny heart- to wish I lad done it." . J . She looked at her mistress in the mirror— sternly, masterfully. Then she bent over md whispered in her ear.. > White as was the cambric that covered her withered shoulders. Lady Tarleton's .hecks grew whiter. - Suddenly the scarlet ilush of rising and desperate anger swept nto them and she parted'-her lips to speak. , "It's a lie," she said hoarsely, "a clever ie! The thing was impossible, impossible!" Hannah Davenal smile;!. "I did it, my lady," she answered, "you can have proof'. jo down to Groudle Tower and look." Lady Tarleton studied her with a kind of helpless curiosity, mingled with impotent wrath. But a shadow had fallen upon her haughty countenance shadow of a great rear.. "And you did this—alone?" she said slowly. Her maid was opening the doors of i wardrobe. "No, my lad}-," she replied, "I had help., My husband helped me." Lady Tarleton knitted her brows." " Your husband J" she rejoined, " what, rou are married?" " Yes, my lady," was the reply. "I was named twenty-two years ago. What gown will your ladyship wear?" Her mistress gasped. "Twentv-two years!" she repeated. " And your husband —what of him?" " He's a ship's steward, my lady." responded Hannah Davenal grimly, " and not a man to settle down kindly at home— least, when I married him. So, when I found out what lie was by nature, I told him to stop at the sea till he really wanted a home and a wife. He took on then with the China trade. But he's working his way home now, and I'm tearing like settling down myself, my lady." She broke off and turned to the wardrobe again. "The grey zibeline, I suppose, my lady I she said. " Your ladyship will be driving to-day, and it's very cold." Lady Tarleton had leant on the back of her chair, and was gazing into the fire beside i.er. l ou can certainly keep your own secrets, Davenal," she remarked, " and you shall have money to sefde down with this absurd husband of yours.. But, really, you musnt expect me to believe that -preposterous story about— * ''•?,f.? aid before ' raj lady," observed the maid, it can easily be proved. Her mistress laughed' scornfully "By your husband's testimony?" she said Hannah Davenal brought the rough cloth walk-ing-dress. • "No, my lady," she returned : "by vour own eyes." y i Lady Tarleton fell to; gazing into the fire once more. "Why do you tell me this now." she asked. Her maid slipped the skirt over her head. "It suited me to wait, mv lady," she confessed. "I was very' comfortable in your service, and I thought I might get a bigger I price—you'll pardon me speaking so frankly my lady—if I put off showing my hand till you had come definitely into your" rights, my lady. But time is getting oh, and, as I ex"- j plained, my lady, my husband is leaving the sea, so I ventured to—" ■ - ; She brought the bodice of the dress, and ' field it for her mistress to don. Lady Tarleton met her with a full, (searching gaze. • ■ "Pact up a few things," she directed,, brusquely, "I wilj go down to Groudle and investigate these-—these amazing assertions of yours. After all, why don t you' own that th: , whole -thing in a ■ clever fabrication, i got up to fleece mis of; this particular thousand you have set your heart on. Come, i confess, and you shall have not a thousand, but fifteen hundred."' - ' ■' ' t ..-■■' **

.-' " A thousand will do me, at present, imj lady," was the significant reply. Lady Tar leton drew a. sharp breath ■ • •i-.; ! , : "Davenal!" she { exclaimed. ■ "Understand me—" .. She was interrupted. A third person—ar arch and youthful brunette— burst" tempestuously into the room. ■ • ■ ".Mamma," she cried, " don't you want tc ■see Guy for a minute? He is in town on a flying visit,' and has called. ;.' He can't come again—he's going North to see about fishing •up that yacht* of his, and meanwhile he ha: got to buy a new dogcart, give evidence in a Chancery suit, and attend a public dinner. "My dear Irene," said her mother coldly, " I wish you wouldn't run upstairs and then .gasp out long sentences. I shall" be charmed to see Guy as soon as Davenal has finished dressing me. But you could just as well have sent up, and not broken off your tete-a-tete with him. on my account. Whom do you suppose he called to see—me ? Would to heaven he had found you in anything but that hideous cycling costume!" Irene Tarleton coloured, laughed, and made her exit from the room no less hastily than she had entered it. She was a robust youE girl, in the quite definitely shortskirted dress to which Lady Tarleton had referred so disparagingly. Her mother's reference to " gasping" was certainly a libel, for though sne came as near as a self-respect-ing young lad} may to: running down the .stately flight of stairs that gained the hall of the great town house, her breathing did not seem to be in the least degree affected as she re-entered a dainty drawing-room, to find herself in the presence of Sir Guy Van•brugh., " Of course mamma wants to see you," she said, ; " you must stop just a moment more, oven though it does bore you horribly." Guy Vanbrugh shrugged his shoulders. "It won't if you'll stay and talk to me," he answered, " but aren't you going out on your bicycle?" • " Just got back," rejoined his cousin. "You know I always did believe in early rising. Mamma says 1 am positively mannish in my energy. But, never mind me, Guy, are you really never coming back to town for more than week-ends? I wonder you don't leave the Sylph where she is and build a new yacht !" ' "And present Neptune with another ten thousand pounds' worth of old iron?" ejaculated 'the other; " not II" "Are you quite sure,'' demanded Irene Tarleton casually, running her fingers over the keyboard of a neighbouring piano, " that there's no other attraction up Worth ?" Sir Guy Va.nbrugh started. "Irene," he exclaimed, "youyouoh, nonsense, you can't have been hearing any gossip !" Irene clapped her hands., My dear Guy," she said, "you have given yourself away finely. I only meant to chaff you, and I have stumbled on a secret. Tell me who she is, Guy? I won't be jealous, I promise you." Her cousin hesitated. " Not yet, Irene," he answered. " I—it may not come to anything. I may not prove lucky." " Of course you will," retorted Irene. "Oh, won't mamma be wild? She doesn't dream that we're net billing and cooing this precise moment. I am glad, though, dear old Guy! It's quite a load off my mind. Not that there ever was any real risk of your falling in love with me." "Or you with me,"- added her cousin, cheerfully. " What a blessing we are such good chums, Irene ! Haven't you any confidences to entrust to me !"'■ Irene slipped away. "Not for worlds!" she said; "and here's mamma." An involuntary, if scarcely audible groan escaped from Guy Vaubrugh's lips. Lady Tarleton was indeed sweeping into the draw-ing-room. He turned to her politely. "I'm so sorry to have called at this unconscionably early hour, aunt," he began. " But I wanted a glimpse of Irene, and I'm only in town for a brief while on business. I go back to Groudle to-morrow." "And is there any actual probability of recovering your poor Sylph," said Lady Tarleton absent-mindedly. ' She was eyeing shrewdly the faces of the two young people. "We are practically sure of it by now," responded her nephew ; " I have a very clever diver at work, a man named Davenal, a native of the place. He promises to float her in the course of a few days." " Davenal!" repeated Irene, "he must be a relation of our Davenal, mamma ; she comes from Groudle." "Possibly," answered her mother, suppressing a little yawn of indifference." Well, I hope he proves successful, my dear Guy; yachting, especially in the Sylph, was always my passion, and, after a London winter, Irene could do with some sea-air." Irene burst- into a peal of merriment. "Don't I look delicate, Guy," she said; " am not I fading away before your very eyes ?" ? ■ ■'','•'■■. Lady Tarleton frowned. "You are in-/ corrigible, Irene," she commented testily. Guy Vanbrugh looked hastily at his watch and made his adieux. He dreaded a. duel of words between the audacious Irene and her diplomatic, but irritable mother. Lady Tarleton, for the nonce, spared her daughter a lecture. "Irene," she said, when the door had closed behind her nephew, "I'm going down into Cumberland to-night upon matters of urgency connected with the estate. I shall be back in forty-eight hours or thereabouts. Do, for heaven's sake, refrain, from indulging your passion for the unconventional in my absence." Dear me," observed Irene, ignoring the latter portion of her mother's remarks; "how sudden, mamma! Why not have gone down with Guy to-morrow?" "Impossible!" declared her mother. "I want to be at Groudle to-night. Davenal accompnies me; she is packing now. Go and fake that hideous frock off and you can drive with me to the station." Irene made a reluctant mouth, but yielded. It was noon when Lady Tarleton bade farewell to her daughter at the window of a first-class carnage. Hannah Davenal, with a luncheon-basket and a reserve of wraps, was in an adjoining third. The sun was high over the glass span of the express departure-platform at Luston when the train drew out of the terminus, evening had long fallen before it steamed into Carlisle. The maid superintended the transference of her mistress and the hitter's belongings to a coach on the small coastwise railway that runs from the old Northern city southwards. She had telegraphed from town, and ■ a closed victoria met them at the local station which was their ultimate destination. Hannah Davenal entered the vehicle with her mistress, but neither spoke. Lady Tarleton was absorbed in a gloomy reverie. The night had proved moonless and windy, and they seemed, as they were driven across the broken upland country of West Cumberland, to be plunging into a black void of space. At length the victoria stopped. It had penetrated into the square courtyard of a gaunt, baronial residence, with a huge and ruinous keep at one corner. They ha* 1 reached Groudle Tower.' A stolid servant or two waited upon them, under the superintendence of an ancient housekeeper. Lady Tarleton supped in irritable solitude, and retired at once. Hannah Davenal imitated her example. The household at Groudle Tower gossiped for a while, and then also sought slumber. One hour, two hours, chimed from the church iu the distent valley, and then Lady < Tarleton's door opened silently, and Hannah Davenal emerged. Lady Tarleton followed her. Both women were cloaked and muffled. In the great hall below, Hannah Davenal turned sharply to the right. ■" This way, my lady," she whispered, " to the old justice-room." Lady Tarleton bent her head. Her face was set, and her eyes sparkled under her hooded wrap. The justice-room was a vast and wainscotted apartment, heavy with; long disuseand the winter cold. Hannah Davenal struck a match and went towards a panelled cupboard with an upright sliding front. She pushed up the latter, and showed' a row of large keys, each with its wooden tab and dingy string. " Most of them are useless now," she said, "but the key we want has always hung here. Eighteen years ago I took it down and used it, as' we are going to use it now." Lady larleton drew a sharp breath in the silence, but her maid either did not hear or did not heed the action. "Wc can get out by one of these windows," she went on; "they are quite low, and open into the courtyard." She. blew out the match as she spoke, stepped across, and thrust up a heavy sash, f then gave; her hand to her mistress. Lady Tarleton climbed over the sill into

the • fresh and windy '. darkness. Hannai Davenal glided after her. The window closed gently, and the justice-room, vacanl once more, was left to its [ wonted quiet. A century-old : , clock. in the hall, with c monster pendulum that sounded in the jus-tice-room like a muffled minute-gun, ticked '■away half an hour. Then the window of the ancient apartment reopened, anc Hannah Davenal, stepping in, turned tc assist her mistress. • Lady Tarleton was white and thoughtful. '-: But a quiet, almost surreptitious, smile hovered upon the lips of Hannah Davenal.. \ ■": .'■. '• '. (To be continued daily.)