RIGHT WINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15664, 18 July 1914, Page 3 (Supplement)

RIGHT WINGS.

BY MOEICE GERARD, Author of *' Tho Rod Form," " Lovo in the Purple," "The Pursuer," "The Heart of a Hero," "The Unspoken Word," ol.\

j COPYRIGHT. I I CHAPTER (Continued.) I Sylvia began to draw on her gloves will" feverish haste, while he advanced , cp the room towards her. ' At this moment Mrs. Howard-Vance, j who had been detained by greeting a ] friend in the dressing-room, came forward, to apologise to Sylvia. " 1 am sorry, dear. I met Mrs. Carrut.hers—she was congratulating me upon Rose's engagement I could not got away for a few minutes." "Thank you. I was just having a look ' ■it the room. I admire it immensely— you seem to do everything bo well in England." " It is pretty, and lias been much imI proved of late. The manager of tho I hotel, Mr, Sharpies, is a capable man, I and he is backed by Mr. Charteris in any improvements he wishes to make."

I "Does Mr, Charteris own this too!" I " Ye6all Corford belongs to him. It | would bo difficult to find a bettor landI lord anywhere." I The object of the eulogy came up as ' the last words were said. He caught i | enough of the sentence to understand its I reference. j '' You must not crec.it all Mrs. Howard- | Vance says about me, Miss van Annan," he remarked, as he held out his hand to , greet them. " She sees all lifo through j rose-coloured glasses; sho is that refresh- : ing contrast— optimist in a pessimistic J world. Even I become something almost j worthy in her kindly estimation." I Mrs. Howard-Vance shook her finger at j him. "You are fishing," she said. " I ! shall not rise to your bait. I shall say I nothing now but unkind things of you for the rest of the evening." 1 Impossible," he laughed, as ho greeted Sylvia. "You know that, don't you?" he said, appealing to the girl. On the lower level they were able to look down upon him, his head being only up to their shoulders. Was Sylvia conscious of his admiration? Sho certainly blushed. Had her glass already told her | that she was looking her very best on [ tha' evening of her debut in Corford society ? "Mrs. Howard-Vance is kindness .itself," Sylvia responded. " Who could be anything else to you ?" Mrs. Howard-Vanoe queried. "I am sure Mr. Charteris agrees with me." " I agree with everything you say, except when you describe my virtues; I readily concede those of other people." She shook her head at him. " Incorrigible !" By this time the dais was filling rapidly, fresh parties every instant- joining those who had arrived before them, and pencils were hard at work initialling the dance programmes. Charteris had taken the opportunity of being early in the field to secure four items on Miss van Annan's 1 card. Captain Gwnnan had already arranged with Rose the share ho was to be allowed of her attention in public. A buzz of conversation was going on, laughing and talking, while tho nrrangej merits were beir.g made. Soon all cards were filled, tho two girls from Shalo Castle being in great request. When an opportunity occurred, Grennan drew Charteris on one side. " I have not had a chance of speaking to you all day. Will you go back with me to tho Swift?" "Anything urgent?" " We start before dawn." I Just as Grennan said the words thero was a lull in the conversation near to them. Sylvia was standing with her back to them. Charteris, while paying full at--1 I tention to Grennan's communication, was ! at the same time conscious of Sylvia—of I tho stately column of her neck, of the | graceful poise of her head. ■ I As ho looked he became aware that she had heard what Grennan had said last. This was due not to it having been said 1 louder than tho rest, but to the cessation of other sounds, ' How be knew it Charteris could not have said. Sylvia had not turned her ' head. She had remained stationary; but i there was a rigidity about her attitude, (is if all her faculties were concentrated 1 in that of hearing. Suddenly the doubts which had troubled Cliarteris's mind earlier in tho day came over him. Aloud he said : " You will let me know when you are leaving to-night?" "Of course," Grennan replied. Tho musicians began to tunc their instruments. The sides of the gallery at the | far end were occupied by a few of the 1 I guests staying in the hotel, but not taking part in- the dance. Standing at the back 1 , of the gallery, so as to be hardly percep--1 j tible owing to those in front, and to the evergreens interlaced in the iron scroll- - i work which ran from one side of the hall (to the other, was a man. Charteris happened to glance in that direction and noticed the stranger, and set ; him down to be a foreign officer. For a ! moment it occurred to him that the man's 'attention had been concentrated upon him--1 : self and Grennan; but as they were at ; opposite ends of the large room, it could ■ : only bo conjecture. Charteris was about to call Grennan's attention to the stran- | ger, when the latter disappeared. It was time now for tne men to claim their partners. Charteris had asked Sylvia for the first dance; Grennan, Rose. " Miss van Annan, our dance," Charteris said. 1 Sylvia turned swiftly. It Seemed as if her thoughts were far away. She looked abstracted, anxious. I ' "I beg your pardon," she said. "I am I afraid I was thinking of something else. Is dancing about to begin?" 1 As she put the question, Rose Howard- > Vance linked her arm in hers. "Come, we will show them the way," ' and, laughing, she carried Sylvia of! down the steps of the dais into the ballroom - proper. "You have the best of it now. . Mr. Charteris is a splendid dancer, while ' i Mark has about as much idea of dancing 1 ' as he has of playing the violin. I have i j to do tho piloting even, although he works - i hard to compensate for bis advantage." I Grennan and Charteris followed th© two • girls. " What is that you are saying, ' Rose?" Grennan called out. > I " Nothing to do with you ; just a little ' private communication to Sylvia." f " I believe you were slandering a de- > fenceless man. If so, I shall bring an = action and have heavy damages." i Rose turned towards him, and gave him a dance half arch, wholly provocative, t "What kind of damages"?" she inquired. it •' I am not going to "tell you now. Come, t I will take vou away from temptation." With that they took their places, while 1 ' Charteris and Sylvia likewise faced one • j another, the music of a Viennese waits i alreadv vibrating through the room. It was a moment of anticipation, of eX' f pectancy, a moment in which two being: concentrated upon one anotner, singling a j each other out from the _ rest, - | It was an experience, in one sense, thai , ' both of them had had before. Yet eact ! knew at this moment that it was unique, t 'something to be remembered and lived ' over auain—one of those small hinges or i ' which the doors o l our lives turn or gooc . | or evil. Sometimes we only realiso their e ! afterwards, sometimes we see them at lh< i time, sometimes beforehand. t ; In the intensity of a subdued excitement a they began dancing. 1 It is astonishing how many phases the a brain can pass through and assimilate at ', ', most simultaneously, while the body goe. 1 - on acting as if independent of the driving power of tho mind. At first the joy o e motion predominated the physical exprcs I sion, the realisation of one of the most g perfect combined actions possible to tin , human frame, which dancing assuredly is s This was the primary record of those firs seconds. i Tho music stimulated them, now urging them on to more rapid evolutions, now lull e ing them to a soft motion, almost lan ! guorous, as the instruments _ took on i : cadence bordering on the triste, almos le the melancholy. Then out of this physical condition cam* r- impressions, more of the spirit, more o > r the ego. It was true, at any rate, o Charteris. Whether true of his com e. panion half-resting in his arms, her breatl ,1! upon his face, the sweet perfume of he; gown inhaled by bis nostrils, he could no [aver; but some instinct told him that, a

their motion round the ballroom was in sympathy and unison, so also were the mental a nd physical conditions through which they passed. Chatteris realised in that fairyland of "".(Stacy, after a deeper fashion than he had done before, that here, close to him, breathing his breath, was the woman of 'ill others who bad claimed, in the briefest possible time, his attention, his intense interest; nay, something stronger than either of these, something that had been to him hitherto only as a tale that is told. lie coldness of his reason might have rejected such a possibility; but the beatmi; of his pulses, the glow in his heart, told another storya story the purport of whiih could not be mistaken. It might have been thought that such a state would have brought with it only joy, or joy tempered by a doubt, which ail true men are assailed with, as to whether they ra.n be worthy of the love and devotion of the oil" woman. In this case there was something more complex, something which sent a chill through the heat of his emotion; some message of the fates seemed to tell him that bound up with this girl whom ho held in his arms wag a strand of doubt, of difficultya something which might come in and thrust them apart. Did Sylvia feel aught of this' He I looked into the depths of her eyes for a response, ami in the act of reversing he I seemed to be pursuing her, she stepping 1 backward, ho advancing, but so slowly I they might be said to be at a standstill. What did she feel for him? What had she to give him in response for all he might offer her, all a man ran give and lay at the feet of a woman? Sylvia van Annan read the questioning look in his eyes; her own glance look on a depth ..i brilliancy in place i>i the lan guorous satisfaction which had shone in them before. Afterwards Charteris remembered what ho had seen in that brief moment. It comforted him to think that among other things which might have seemed all-im-portant he read a certainty, to be recorded Liter on the sensitive plato of bis brain, and that was truth. Tho music 6eemed to them to cease almost abruptly. Chartcris led his partner, as if she were, dazed, to join Mrs. Howard-Vance, who, with her dowager friend, Mrs. Carruthers, had taken up comfortable quarters near the edge of tho dais, where she could see tho dancing to the greatest advantage. It seemed impossible to say anything; no words could be adequate to the experience of those moments they had spent together. Small talk was out of place, while to put into language anything of those impressions of the immediate past was inconceivable. OrJy when they had reached tho side of Sylvia's hostess did Charteris speak. Then' he asked her if ho could bring her something from the buffet, which was not in the dancing-saloon, but a smaller apartment on the opposite side of tho lone; passage which ran from one end of' tho ground floor of the hotel to the other. "May I bring you some refreshments?" She had to come back from her reverie from dreamland. Had they been walking in it hand in hand. or was she pie taring herself alone in some environment with which Charteris was unfamiliar, and I in which he had no part? He asked' himself tho question doubtI fully before she replied to his spoken | query. " Thank you, I should like- a little iced lemonade,"

Do you find tho room hot ?" Mrs. Howard-Vanco asked, "Hot? No, 1 don't think so. I had not thought ,of it until now; but I should like some iced lemonade very much." Chartcris brought it (or her, and stood before her at kilo she drank it. CHAPTER X. Charteris had one moro dance with Sylvia van Annan before the one which would entail his acting as escort to her for supper. But whether ho was daiu-ing with her or not, his thoughts were absorbed by her throughout the evening. He paid sufficient and courteous attention to his other partners to prevent their thinking him preoccupied in any way, but all the fame one portion of his brain, and the all-seeing glanco of bis eyes, were cognisant of Sylvia. He watched her curiously; he watched her with on? question trembling on his lips. Was her relationship to _ himself different as regards the sympathetic atmosphere of tho dance from that obtaining with other partners? He could bob she loved tho exercise for its own sake- The joy of the movement was continuously expressed as she glided round the room first with one man, then with another. But, nevertheless, something quite other ihan vanity told him she was a different person when in his hands from the Sylvia van Annan who accorded a similar privilege to other men. Just before the time came to ;laim her for the supper-dance there was an ir.ter val in the music. It happened that Caplain Grennan and Charteris were standing together, while tho two girls in whom they were most interested were on the dais with Mrs. Howard-Vance. Orennan was looking at his fiancee with intense satisfaction, tho satisfaction of individual achievement. She was his, in a sense, which had not been true a few days earlier. Charteris felt tho contagion of his friend's satisfaction. Rose was a girl any man might be proud of; yet, in his eyes, her personality paled before vhe vision of the beauty which her guest presented, bending down in the foreground of tho picture to speak to Mrs. Howard-Vance, tho position showing, even more than when she was erect, the contour of her shoulders and neck.

Grcnnan turned to Charteris "It is curious that two bo absolutely unlike as Rose and Miss van Annan should be such friends. I do not mean in appearance only, but in tempcramen:,." "Is not that the true bond of friendship between both women and men? I expect the? have one point in common." "What is that?" "The quality of tho heart- I should say they wen? both as true as steel." '" I think that, loo." Yet each was really only thinking of one, and that one rot the same. Tho slight pause which had occurred was arranged to giro extra emphasis to the waltz whi;b followed, and its duration was the greater for the r<*t which proceded it. Twioe when tho music was about to draw to a conclusion tho dancers clapped their hands, releasing their partners for tho purpose, to indicate their wish thai the dance should be extended. At the last something like exquisitephysical exhaustion superseded the rapid movement. Charteris had been carried out of himself after a fashion he had never experienced. Now he enjoyed something different—the additional resting on his arm of the partner who had shared with him the vigour and excitement of dancing. Directly afterwards the ballroom cleared as if by magic, whilo the supper-room filled It was a stending-up affair for the younger people, the dowagers alone sitting at small tables. Charteris had secured one corner of tho buffet, and was engaged in looking after Svlvia's comfort-, insisting on her having a'littlo champagne, much against her will, for her inclination was again for adeAfter * few minutes she said: "I should like a little air. Can that bo managed ? " "Yes, easily. I must get some wrap for you first. ' You would get chilled, for the night air is keen, and you are heated with dancing'" There was a protection in his voicewhich Sylvia appreciated. "Thank you," she said. "Yon are very kind. Are all men so thoughtful?" She shot him a glance of inquiry. Ho laughed. "I can only answer for myself, but I should fancy most men would think of it. What is your number in the cloak-room? ' She handed him a little square- which had been inside her glove, bearing tie figure 39. lie went off, and speedily returned with a, light-red silk opera cloak, which ha placed over her shoulders. (To bo continued daily,)