THE DIVA'S RUBIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13845, 3 September 1908, Page 3

THE DIVA'S RUBIES.

ÜBMSHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

» ■; .BY F. MARION! CRAWFORD, Author of " Arethnsa," " Soprano," - Zoroaster," etc

/CHAPTER VHl.— (Continued.) > "Look here," he said. "I'm going to tell you something. I took a sort of interest in that Tartar girl the only time I saw her. .1 don't know why. I daresay, I was .taken in by her—just ordinary 'taken'in,' like a tenderfoot. I gave her that fellow's address in New York." He nodded towards Kralinsky. . When I found he was there, I wired to Logotheti to tell her, since she's after him. I suppose I thought Logotheti would go right away and find her,' and get more mixed up with her than ever. It was mean of me, wasn't it? That's why I've told you. You see, I didn't know anything about ail this, and that makes it meaner still, doesn't it?"

Possibly if he had told her these facts forty-eight hours earlier she might have been annoyed, but at present they seemed to be rather in his favour. At all events he was frank, she thought. He declared war on -his rival, and meant fight according to the law of nations. Lady Maud would not be his friend if he were playing any double game., bat she had stuck to him throughout his trouble in : -" the spring, he had emerged victorious and reinstated in public opinion, and she; had been right. Lady Maud knew him better than anyone else, and she was a good woman, if ever- there was one. Yet he had accused himself of having acted "meanly." Margaret did. not like the word, and threw up her head as a horse does, when a .beginner holds on by the'curb., .;

"You'need not make yourself out worse than you- are," she answered. ; "1 want to start fair," said the millionaire, " and I'd rather your impression should improve than get worse. The only real trouble with Lucifer was he started too high up." -'• ■ This singular statement was made with perfect gravity, and without the slightest humorous intention ; but Margaret laughed: for the first time that day, in spite of. the storm that' was still raging in the hear distance of her thoughts. "Why do you laugh?" asked Van Torp. "It's quite true. I don't want to start too high up in your estimation, and then be turned down as unfit for the position at the end of the first week. Put me where I belong, and I won't disappoint you. Say I was doing something that wasn't exactly low down, considering the object, but that mightn't pass muster at an honour-parade, anyhow. And then say that I've admitted the fact, if yon like, and that the bettor I know you the less I want to do anything mean. It won't be hard for you to look at it in that light, will it? And it'll give me the position of starting from the line. Is thai right?" "Yes," Margaret answered, smiling. "Slang ' right" and English 'right!' You, ask for a fair field and no favour; j and * you shall have it." ;

" I'll go straight,'. Van Torp answered. He was conscious that he was hourly improving his knowledge of women's little ways, and that what he had said, and had purposely expressed in his most colloquial manner, had touched a chord which 'would not have responded to a fine speech. For though he often spoke a sort of picturesque ■ dialect, and though he was very far from being highly educated, he could speak English well enough when he chose. J t probably seemed ,to him that • good grammar and well-selected .words belonged to. formal occasions and not to everyday "life, and that it , was priggish ~to~ be . particular' in avoiding* slang, and .cowardly to sacrifice a hereditary .freedom -from the bonds -of the conjunctive mood. ■" " I suppose -Lady Maud will come, wont she?" he asked suddenly, after a short silence. . . , . ,' . ... "\ i" " I hope'so;" Margaret said.> "If not, ' she will meet me in - Paris, for she offers to do:that in her letter." ' ■'*_ "I'm staying on in this place because you said you didn't mind,'' observed Van Torp. "Do you want me to go away, ,if j she arrives?" ,-..'• f ; ■,- v,jf:- _'''•'' ■-.■-. vr v.- ; i '..'. "Why should I? Why shouldn't you stay?" * '•:[[■?';: V : , :: '; ' ; V : '. : :?/■;«■ .' ot : U\ ; "Oh, I don't know. I was only thinking. ; Much obliged anyway, and I'll certainly stay if you don't object. We shall be quite a party, sha'n't we? What with us three, and Lady Maud, and Kralipsky there" , • "Surely you don't call him of,one of our party !" objected Margaret. ; " He's only list been introduced to us. f'J daresay Mrs. Rushmore will ask him to dinner or'lmicheon, but that will be all." ' : "Oh, .yes! I suppose that will be all." f But his' tone roused her curiosity by its vagueness. ■ - .. ■t ■' "You knew him, long f ago," she said. "If he's not a decent sort of person to have about, you ought to tell us—indeed you should not have introduced him at all if he's Ja. bad lot."' ...".■'.." / Mr." "Van Torp did not answer at once, and seemed to be consulting his recollections. '. *

" "I don't know anything against him," he said at last. '■'* All foreigners who drift over to the Slates , and go West haven't left their ; country for the same reasons. I suppose roost of them come because they've got no money at home and want some. I haven't any right to take it for granted ]that a foreign geDtleman who turns cowboy for a year or two has cheated at cards or anything of that sort, have 1? There were all kinds of men on that ranch, as thero are on. _ every other, and in every mining camp in the West, and most of 'em have no particular names. They get called something . when they turn up, and they're known 'as that while they stay, and if they' die with their boots on they get buried as that, and if not, they clear out when they've had enough of it; and some of 'em strike something and get; rich;;as I did, and some of 'era settle down to occupations, as I've known many/to.'do. But • they all turn into themselves, again, : or turn, themselvesi into ; somebody else'; after'they go back. While they're' punching J cattle v they're generally just ' Dandy Jim' or 'Levi Longlegs,' as that fellow j was, or something of that sort." i "What were you called'/" aeked Mar-j "I?" Van Torp smiled faintly at the recollection of his nickname. "I was always Fanny Cook." Margaret laughed. "Of all the inappropriate names! "Well," said the millionaire, still smiling, " I gueee it must have been because I was always sort of gentle and confiding and eweet, you know. So they concluded to give mo a girl's name as soon as they saw me, and I turned out a better cook, than the others, so they tack<id that on too. I didn't .mind." • ' Margaret smiled, too, as «he glanced.at. his jaw, and his flat, hard , cheeks, and thought of his having been called "Fanny. "Did you ever kill anybody, Mite Fanny?" she asked, with a little laugh. A great change came over his face at once. - ■•"■■'-' '- ■',' . "Yes," he answered very gravely. "Twice, in fair self-defence. , If I had hesitated, I should not be here." "I beg your pardon," Margaret said quietly. "I should not have asked you. I ought to haye known." . ■' • "Why?" he aeked. "One gets that kind of question asked one now and then by people one doesn't care to answer. But I d rather have you know something about my life than not. Not that it's much to be proud of," he added, rather sadly. . , "Some- day you shall tell me all you will," Margaret answered. "I daresay you did much better than you think, when you look bticlc .*" * "Lady Maud knowsi all about me now," he said, "and no one else alive does. Perhaps you'll be the second that will, and that'ill be all for the present. They want us to come up with them, do you see?" Mrs. Rushmore and Kralinsky had stopped in their walk, and were waiting for them. They quickened their pace. f "I thought perhaps this was far enough, said Mrs. Rushmore. "Of course I could go on further, and it's not your usual walk, my dear; but unless you mind—" : "Margaret did not mind, and said so readily ; whereupon Mrs. Rushmore deliberately took Van Torp for her companion, on the wav. back

"I'm sure you won't' object to walking slowly," she said to him, "and Miss Donne and the count can go on as fast as they like, for they are both good walkers. I am sure you must be a great .walker," she added, turning to the Russian. He smiled blandly and bent .-'his-head a little, as if he were acknowledging a compliment. - Van Torp looked, at him quiet"l should have thought you were more used to riding," said the American. "Ah, yes." The indifferent answer came in a peculiarly oily tone, though the pronunciation was perfect. "I was in the cavalry before I began to travel. But I walked over two thousand miles in Central Asia, and was none the worse for it." Margaret was sure that she was not going to like him, as she moved on with him by her side; and Van Torp, walking with Mrs. Rushmore, was quite certain that he was Levi Longlegs, who had herded, cattle with him for six months very long ago. jffo be continued daily.)