THE HOLLOW OF HER HAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15097, 13 September 1912, Page 4

THE HOLLOW OF HER HAND

PUBLISHED BT SrECIAI« ARRANGEMENT.

BY GEORGE BAKR McCUTCHEON, Author of " Graustark," " Truxton. Kiner,"- eto. CHAPTER Vll.—(Continued.) r< Wjiex does she coir.© to the country? asked Hetty, bent on breaking his train of confidence. <• In three or four weeks. But, as I was saying, the mater has taken a great fancy to you. She" ""it's very nice of her." " Sho prides herself, as I said .before, but she always makes sure by asking questions." " i " ye? tlo Although she could see through von as if you were plate glass, sho made It a-point* to ask Sara, all the- questions sho could think of. Over in Nice you know. Of course, Sara, told her everything, and now she's quite sure she mi t be mistaken in people. . Reallb, Ml Castleton, she's very amusing sometime, 111 Hetty was looking straight ahead, her face set. . , , „«>> "What did Sara tell her about, me.' "Oh, all that was necessary to prove to mother that sho was right. As if it reallj made any difference, you know. "Please explain." "What is there to explain. Sue merely cave your pedigree, as we d say S the dog slow, begging your pax-don ma'am. Pedigrees are a sort of hobby with So mater. ° She collects 'em wherever gavo his moustache a little twist. Then my references are satisfactory, PO to epeak," said she, with a wry littlo Sm -'Perfectly," said he with conviction; •'if wo aro to put any dependence m the intelligence office." Wrmdall "Doesn't it stagger Mrs. \\ rancian somewhat to reconcile my pedigree to the position I occupy in Sara's householdthat of companion, so to say. .uked Hettv. a slight curl to her lip. He" looked rather blank. 1 don t b( ; - lievo she looks at you in just that light, paid ho uncomfortably. „ " I fancy voui'd better enlighten her. " Let well "enough alone," quoted ho "But I am a companion," _ insisted Hettv, a little spot of red in each cheek. "In a sense," I suppose,' said ho affably. "Of course, Sara puts you down as a friend." , " , , ■ " I think you'd better understand my real position, Mr. Wrandall." said eho

fil "I J 'clo," said he. "You are Sara's friend. That's enough for roe. Iho fact that your father was or is a distinguished English array officer, and some sort of a cousin to a lord, and thai, vou. have the entree to fashionable London, drawing-rooms, is quite enough for mother. That qualifies you to be companion to anybody, she'd say. And there s the end to it." She was looking at him in amazement. Her lips were slightly parted and her eyes were wide. For a moment she . was puzzled. Then a swift smile illumined her face. She understood. _ . , "Of course, in London, it really isn't anything to boast about, getting into-drawing-rooms/' she said, vastly amused. "Well, it is over here," said he

promptly. . " " " , " And it isn't always open sesame to be related to a peer." : " I suppose not." ;-■. - -" Nevertheless, I am .glad that -your mother and Miss -Vivian take me for. •' what I am. Do you, by chance, go in 7* for. pedigree, Mr.' Wrandall?" _ The shaft of irony sped over his head. Only dogs and horses," ho replied promptly. "It means a lot when it comes to buying. a dog or a horse." . "How do you feel when you've been ; . sold?" "I take my medicine." "As a good sportsman should." "I dare say you think I'm a deuce of a ,' prig for saying the things "On the contrary, I appreciate your - candour." "Don't hesitate to say it. I'm used to being called a prig. My brother Challiß always considered me one. I think he meant snob. But that was because our ideals weren't the same. By the way, you ought to like Vivian." " That depends." "On Vivian,, I suppose?" . . " Not . precisely. I should say it defends on your sister's attitude toward ' Sara." ' .. - ) " Oh, she likes ; Sara well enough. Viv's not particularly narrow, Miss Castleton." Hetty bestowed a smile upon him. . - "That's comforting, Mr. Wrandall," she said, and he was silent for a moment, : . reflecting: v " / "Do you know," said he, as if a light tad suddenly burst in upon him, "you got more poise than any girl I've seen?" " It's my bringing up, sir," she said mockingly. " ' "Ancestral habit," ho explained, with '. a polite bow. " Pedigreeable manners, perhaps." 1 ' v•" I wish the mater could have heard you say that," admiringly. "Don't you adoro the country at this time of the year?" " When I get to heaven I mean to have a place in the country the year round," ho said conclusively. - . "And if you don't get to heaven?" "I suppose I'll take a furnished fiat somewhere." :; . Sara was * waiting for them at the bottom of the'terrace as they drove up. He leaped out and kissed her hand. "Much obliged," he murmured, with a slight twist of his head in the direction of Hetty, who was giving orders to the chauffeur.

? "You're quite welcome," said Sara, with a smile of understanding. "She's lovely, isn't sho?" : "Enchanting!" said, he, almost too -loudly. • _ Hetty walked up the long ascent ahead of them. She did not have to look back ' to know that they were watching her with unfaltering interest. She could feel their gaze. , . ; - _ "Absolutely adorable," he added, enlarging his estimate without really being "aware that he voiced.it.. < Sara shot a look at his rapt face, and 'turned : her own away to hide the queer little smile that flickered briefly and died away. -\ Hetty, pleading a sudden headache, declined to accompany them later on in tho flay when they set forth in the car to "pick up" Brandon Booth at tho inn. They were to bring him over, bag and baggage, to star till Tuesday. " He will be wild to paint her." declared Leslie, when they were out of sight around the bend in the road. Ho had waved his bat to Hetty just boforo the trees shut off their view of her. Sho "was standing at the top of the steps beside one of the tall Italian vases. Sara, did not respond. "By the way. Sara, is she tho niece or the grand-daughter of old Lord Murgatroyd? I'm a bit mixed." " Her father is Colonel Oastleton, of tho Indian Army, and ho is the eldest son of a second son. if you don't find that too difficult to solve. Tho second son aforesaid mentioned, so to speak, was tho brother of Lord Murgatroyd. That would make Colonel Cn-stleton his lordship's nephew, but utterly without prospects of coming into a, title, as there are several healthy British obstacles in the way. I suppose one would call Hetty a grandniece." . " Mother wasn't quite certain whether you said nieco or granddaughter." explained Leslie. "'Her mothers dead, I take it. Who was she?" "Why are you so curious?" "Isn't it quite natural?" "Her mother was a Glynn. You have heard of the Glynns, of course?" She trusted to his vanity and was rewarded. The question was a sort of reproach. Certainly,' ho replied, without hesitation. The mere fact that sho spoke of them as ' the Glynns" was sufficient. It was proof enough that they were people 0110 ought to know, by name at least if th« 1° pr^ess intelligence regarding the British aristocracy. As 'a matter of fact he had 1106 heard of the Glvnns, but : that didn't matter. The Irish Glynns - °V?f. an - ~h e ventured, taking a chance at fitting the mark. He had a faint re StSilh g hcr sa - y llmt H»"i-

"You have only to look into her eyes to know sho's Irish," sho said, diplomatically. " I've never seen such eyes," he exclaimed. , "She's a darling." said Sara, and changed the subject, knowing full well that he would como back to it before long. "Is it true that Vivian and Mr. Booth are interested in each other?" "Yes and no," ho replied, with a profound sigh. " That is to say, she's interested in him and ho isn't interested in her—in the way I take you to mean it. I suspect it's an easy matter for a girl to fall in love with Brandy. He's a. corking fine chap." Then it would be very nice for Vivian, eh?" " Oh, quite —quite so. His forbears came over with Noah, according to mother. You know mother, Sara." , "Indeed I do," said she, with conviction. He laughed without restraint. " Mother can rattle off the best families in tho Biblo without missing a name, beginning with the Honourable Adam. Of course, she knows the Glynns and the Castletons and the Murgatroyds, although I dare say they haven't had much to do with tho Bible. Come to think of it, she did go to tho trouble of looking up the Castlcton family in the Debrett." v "Sho did?" exclaimed Sara, with a slight narrowing of the eyes. "Yes. Sho established the connection all right enough. She's keen for .Miss Castleton." '' Oh," said she, relieved. After a moment:. "And you?" " I'm mad about her," he said simply, and then, for some unaccountable reason, gave over being loquacious and lapsed into a state of almost lugubrious quiet-. She glanced at his face, furtively at first, as if uncertain of his mood, then with a prolonged stare that was frankly curious and amused. "Don't lose your bend, Leslie," she said, softly, almost purringly. He started. " Oh, I say, Sara, I'm not likely to —" "Stranger things liavo happened." she interrupted, with a. shako of her head. "I can't afford to have you making love to her and getting tired of tho game, as you always do, dear boy, just as soon as you find she's in love with you. She is too dear to be hurt in that way. You mustn't— I "Good Lord " he cried: "what a bounder you must take me for! . Why, if I thought she'd — But nonsense. Let's talk about something else. Yourself, for instance." She leaned back with a smile on her lips, but not in her eyes; and drew a long, deep breath. He was hard hit. That was what she wanted to know. _ They found Booth at the inn. Ho was sitting on tho old-fashioned porch, surrounded by bags and boys. As he climbed into the car after the bags, tho boys grinned and jingled the coins in their pockets and ventured, almost, in unison,. ,tho intelligence that they would all lie there _if he ever came back again. Big and little, they had transported his easel and canvases from place to place for three weeks or more and his departure was to be regarded as a financial calamity. "I could go to ten circuses this summer if that many of 'em was to come to town," said one small citizen as Croesus rode away in a cloud of village dust. "Gee, I wish to goodness he'd come hack," was the soulful cry of another. j "I don't like them pictures he paints, though, do you?" observed another, more critical than avaricious. "Naw!" was the scornful reply, also in j unison. ■

From which it may bo gathered that' Mr.' Brandon Booth was not cherished for art's sake alone, but for its relation to Mammon. The object of their comments was making himself agreeable to the lady who was to be his hostess for the next few days. Leslie, perhaps in the desire to be alone with his reflections, sat forward with the chauffeur, and paid little or no heed to that unhappy person's comments on the vile condition of all village thoroughfares, New York City included. "By the way, Sara," he said, suddenly breaking in on the conversation that went on at his back, and thereby betraying a secret wish that was talcing shape in his mind, "what have you done with the little red runabout you had a year or two ago?" . She started. " You mean— ; As she hesitated he went on. "It would come in very handy for twosome tours." "I disposed of it somo time ago, Leslie," said she. '"I thought you'd remember." Oh ——by jove!" he stammered, in confusion.

Ho remembered that she had given'it away a day or two after that awful night m _ March, and ho recalled her reason for doing so. He twisted the tiny end. of his moustache with.» unnecessary vigour I might say fury. It was a most unhappy faux pas. ItJ . " Softening of ■ the brain," he muttered, in dismal apology to himself. " And you paint-ed those wretched little boys instead of the beautiful, things that Nature provides for us out hero, Mr. Booth?" Sara was saying to the artist beside her. Of course, I managed to get in a bit of Nature, even at that," said he, with a smile.. " Boys are pretty close to earth, you know. To be perfectly honest, I did it in order to got away from the eminently beautiful but unnatural things I'm required to paint at home." "Your subjects wouldn't care for that," she warned him, in some amusement. " Oh, as to that, the comments of tho boys on the things I did up here weren't altogether flattering to me, so I'm chastened. .They were more than frank about them. We live and learn." "Where are the canvases?" "I immortalised them, one and all, by destroying them by fire and sword, only the sword happened to he a penknife. They made a most excellent bonfire." "And so you've nothing to show for your fortnight?" " Oh, yes. A most desirable invitation to forget my failures at your expense." " Poof!" " I don't blame you. It was inane. Still, I can't help saying,' Mrs. Wrandall, that it is a desirable invitation. You ■won't say ' poof' to that, because I won't listen to it." "On the other hand, it's very good of you to come." • "It seems to me I'm always in debt to Leslie, with slim prospect of ever squaring accounts," said he whimsically. " But for him, I couldn't have come." "I suppose we will see you at tho Wrandall place this summer." " I'm coming out to paint Leslie's sister in June, I believe. 1 And that reminds mo, I came upon an uncommonly pretty girl not far from your place the other day— and yesterday, as someone I've met before, unless I'm vastly mistaken. I wonder if you know your neighbours well enough—by sight, at least venture a good guess as to who I mean." Sho appeared thoughtful. • " Oh, there are dozens of pretty girls in tho neighbourhood. Can't you remember where you met" She stopped suddenly, a swift look of apprehension in hor eyes. He failed to note the look or tho broken sentence. Ho was searching in his coat pocket for something. Selecting a letter from tho middle of a small pocket, ho held it out to her. " I sketched this from memory. Sho posed all too briefly for me," ho said. On the back of the envelope was a remarkably good likeness of Hetty Castleton, done broadly, sketchily with a crayon point, evidently drawn with haste while the impression was fresh, but long after she had passed out of range of his vision. "I know her," said Sara quietly. "It's very clever, Mr. Booth." " Thero is something hauntinely familiar about it." he went on, looking at the sketch with a frown of perplexity. " Ivo (seen her somewhere, but for tho life of mo I can't placo her. Perhaps in a crowded street, or the theatre, or a railway —just a fleeting glimpse, you know. But in any event, I got a lasting impression. Queer things like that happen, don't you think so'?" (To be continued daily.)