THIS WOMAN TO THIS MAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16234, 20 May 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

THIS WOMAN TO THIS MAN.

BY C. N. AND A. M. WILLIAMSON. Authors of "The Lightning Conductor." "The Car of Destiny," " The Golden Silence/* " Th» Princess Passes." etc.. etc.

COPYRIGHT.

CHAPTER XVII.— (Continued.)

As Knight wandered from one wintersaddened garden after another Italian garden, the Dutch garden, the rose garden—he searched his soul, asking it how much more he should have to tell the girl about his past. In a kind of desperate resignation, he persuaded himself that there was nothing he would not be willing to tell her now, if it were for her good, and if she wished to hear. But something within him said that she would wish to hear no more- Knowing what she knew, she would think more than enough. She would deign to put no more questions to him, even if she felt curiosity. She would doubtless refuse to listen if he volunteered a further confession. He was instinctively sure of his ground there; and in his bitterness of spirit there was a faint gleam of comfort: certain details of his degradation (she would think 'it that) might be kept decently hidden. For instance, he would not have to tell her how, as a boy in Chicago, he had learned to make "strange use of these clever, nervous hands of his which she had lovingly praised as sensitive and artistic." He could almost see the girl shudder and grow pale .at hearing how proud he had been at sixteen, of being admitted to friendship with a ''swell mobsman," as fascinating as any "Raffles " of fiction; how it had amused the fellow to teach him a deft and delicate touch, beginning his lessons with the game of jackstraws, in which he was given prizes if ho could separate the whole stack, one straw from another without disturbing the balance of the pile. It would gain him no credit in Mary's eyes if he should assure her that, though he knew how— none better— had somehow never cared to put his skill in practice, but had always preferred leaving that part of the industry to others. No excuse could help him with her, and he was glad she need not know all the ways in which he had served the eccentric friend and employer with whose interests he had been associated more or less, since his twenty-fifth year. How disgusting would seem to Mary, the inside history of the Monarchic episode, upon which he had rather prided himself until love for her had begun making subtle changes in his view of life. He and .old Max Grayle had laughed together at the patent lock on. which the agent depended— a lock invented bv the retired member of the firm himself'' and followed by a second invention, even more clever; a little instrument designed to open a door, in spite of it. There had been the drug, too, which, leaving no odour behind, had the same effect as chloroform, and " took" even more quickly. Max Grayle had read of certain, experiments made by a professor of chemistry in Jena, had gone to Germany to see the man, had bought the formula, which had not yet proved itself entirely successful, had added an ingredient on his own account, and triumphed. These parts of the complicated and well-fitting scheme had seemed deliriously amusing to Knight i.i those days; that Grayle should use his secret skill against his own brothers and nephews, in the business he -had made; that the great expert should add to his 'fortune by stealing from his own firm, or rather, from the great insurance company who would repay their losses; that in such ways, with such money, he could add treasures to his famous collection, practically at no expense to himself, and have besides, the exquisite pleasure of laughing in his sleeve at th« world; it had all added zest to the work. And Knight had been pleased with some small inventions of his own, praised by Grayle; a smart hiding place in the heel of a boot, almost impossible to detect, and another, equally convenient and invisible, in the jet standard of Madelena de Santiago's crystal. He had actually enjoyed the excitement when he and Madelena and their two assistants, among other passengers on board the big ship, had voluntarily consented to be searched for the missing jewels. And he had laughed sneeringly at the credulity of those who had believed in Madelena's trumped up vision "of the small fair man," the lighted life-preserver dropped . into the sea at night, and the yacht which sent out a boat to pick it up. For that other vision in Portman Square, he was not responsible, but it was he who had suggested the "pictures" for her to see on shipboard. He hated the recollections now. Even Mary herself could not think it more contemptible than he did. Still worse was the remembrance of Mrs. Ellsworth's latchkey, the keeping of which had been accidental at first. Afterwards, he had gaily regarded its possession as a gift from Providence. The 'way to Ruthven Smith's house was made clear by it; and, better still, through it the dragon could be punished for years of cruelty to the captive princess. " Char" had been the man to whom fell the honour of 'bestowing the punishment and leaving a missive from the princess' rescuer. Knight writhed in spirit as he wondered whether the princess guessed the fate of the key. He wondered also if she asked herself what part he had had in the mysterious disappearance of the Valley House heirlooms. She would loathe him more intensely, if possible, could she know how her presence with him on that public "show day" had helped to cloak with respectability his secret fnission. How vilely mean he had been, in distracting her attention from the two Fragonards and from the cabinets containing the miniatures and the carved Chinese gods or jade, while he "marked" the prizes for the eyes of bis two assistants. - How unsuspicious and happy the girl had been, trusting him utterly, while behind her back he manipulated the diamond—his useful diamond—he always carried for such purposes. Even' then he had the grace to be ashamed of himself for his i disloyalty, though not for his dishonesty, as quickly and deftly the diamond cut! the glass faces of the cabinets directly I opposite the miniatures and the Buddha i meant to enrich Mr. Grayle'e secret collection. He had been glad to hurry his unsuspecting wife away, and let the eager pair of " tourists" crowding on his heels finish the work he had begun. It seemed to Knight, as his thoughts travelled heavily along the past, that no other woman but just this Mary Greenleaf, this fragile white rose that had freely given him its sweetness, could have turned him from the vow of vengeance for his parents' fate, which he as a boy had sworn against the world. Day by day, week by week, month by month, the fragrance of the white rose had so changed him that, looking back at himself as he had been, he saw a stranger. Had it not been for certain engagements made with Max Grayle and others— gagements which had to be kept because there is honour among thieves—that " den" of his in Portman Square would long ago have been shut to his " At home" day visitors. No more "business" would have been done on those or any premises; this party of Easter quests would not have been invited to Valley House; and the Malindoro diamond, sleeping away its secret in Mary's breast, would still be guarding his secret too. While the others were at church she had sent him the diamond by Parker— the blue diamond and the rose sapphire; her engagement ring also; the pearls he had given her the day before her marriage, and all his other gifts (except the wedding ring) -which had not been stolen on the night when the Annesley-Setons' silver went. It had been a blow to open the box brought to his room by the maid without a word of explanation— less a blow because it was deserved It was only less severe than it might have 'been had the wedding ring been with the rest. And perhaps, Knight reflected it would have been had Marv known of another trick played upon "her; those clever 'reconstructed" pearls, gleaming ropes of them, and paste diamonds added to her collection only for the purpose of disappearing in the "burglary." A hateful trick, but necessary he believed it at the time, while despising it. Well he was punished for everything at last— everything vile he had done and thought in his whnl« life, even those things the White Rose did not know! He was young still, but he felt old, villainously old, old in sin and old in hopelessness, for youth cannot exist in a heart deprived of hope. It seemed, to Knight that his heart had been deprived

of it- for a time immemorially old yet '■■', suddenly he recalled the fact that only a few momenta before to the time ' when he had begun counting his sins one by one, like the devil's rosary had been thinking with something akin to hope of the future. "What if, after all" he began to ask himself. But stumbling about nnseeingly from avenue to path and oath to lawn, he had wandered near the" house. By what seemed to him a strange coincidence he had come to a standstill almost on the spot where he had stood last night when Mary, at her -window, called him in. She had loved him then. She had called him in to be forgiven. But her iorgivesess, divine as it was, white and wide-winged as the flight of a dove, had not been sweeping enough to cover his guilt. What a ghastly difference between last night and this!" It was right that the face of the moon, so bright then, should be veiled with ragged black clouds. And yet. what if— The man's eyes strained through the darkness of that dark hour before the dawn. "If her window is uncurtained, I*ll take it as a good omen," he said. Noiselessly his feet trod the wet, short grass, going nearer to the shadowed loggia, to make sure. The curtains were drawn closely, and the window was shut. CHAPTER XVIII. DESTINY AND THE WALDOS. After the cablegram came, calling them to America, it took the Nelson Smiths an incredibly short space of time to wind up all their affairs and to break all the tiesmany and intricate as the clinging tendrils of a vine—which attached them to England.

Of course, as their friends pointed out to them, it wasn't as if they had had a home of their own. Luckily for them unluckily for the Annesley-Setons had taken the Portman Square house only month by month. And in Devonshire they had been but paying— paying i— guests, as all the world surmised. Everyone protested that they would be dreadfully missed, and begged to know their plans, and whether Mr. Nelson Smith's business on the other side (something to do with mines, wasn't it?) would not be finished so they might come back anyhow in time for Henley and Cowes? But the American millionaire's answers were vague. He couldn't tell. He could only hope. And his . manner, unflatter—was somewhat indifferent. It was Mrs. Nelson Smith who seemed depressed ; "quite a changed girl," Constance said, "from the moment that cable message arrived at Valley House." Connie thought, and mentioned her thought to others, that very likely the truth was Nelson Smith had lost a lot of money. In contradiction to this theory, he was known to have given sums to various charities, just before starting; not those new-fangled societies he had tried to bolster up while he was in London, but hospitals, and orphan asylums, and organisations of that .sort which opened their mouths wide. Still, nobody could say for a certainty how much he gave, and it was argued that Lady An-nesley-Seton was sure to know more than most people about Nelson Smith's private affairs. The story of his losses ran about and grew rapidly, healing regrets for his absence-' Soon they dropped out of their late friends' conversation, as a subject of living interest. It was much the same with the Countess de Santiago. Whether her plans were affected by those of the Nelson Smiths, nobody knew; and she said that they Were not. But about the time that their departure for America was decided upon, Madelena had a sharp illness. It was, she wrote Constance (who made inquiries, fearing something contagious), an unusual form of neuralgia from which she had suffered before. The only doctor who had ever been able to relieve her suffering,' lived in San Francisco, and in San Francisco she must seek him. She had at first some idea of sailing on the same ship with the Nelson Smiths; but for a reason which she did not explain, she changed her mind the very day after making it up, and engaged a cabin on a boat which started a week earlier. She was missed also, for awhile. ' But then it was remembered that the crystal visions had been mysteriously more favourable for those who included the countess in their nicest parties than for those who asked her only to their second best. Little malicious digs she had given here and there were recalled, and those who had thought her most wonderful when she was in their midst began in absence to doubt her infallible powers. " Rather theatrical don't you think ?" said the Duchess of Peebles. " It's much more satisfactory to go to a woman who can pay with money and not invitations." So Madelena was not mourned for long; and the AnnesleySetons were fortunate enough to replace their lost American millionaire with one from Australia. He was" old, and his wife was fat; but you can't have everything. The Nelson Smiths took passage, not m one of the great floating palaces patronised by most self-respecting millionaires, but in an obscure, cheap little ship; which rather bore out the gossip about the man's losses. As a matter of fact, however, they chose that way of going by Mary's strongly expressed desire. .It would have been v Knight's way to vanish forever in a blaze of glory, as the setting sun plunges behind the horizon. " I , want to go in a ship," she said, which none of the people we know have ever heard of. I couldn't bear to come across anyone I met before." But, as it turned out, she was forced to bear what she had thought unbearable. At the top of the gangway as she went on board, a slightly shrill voice called out, Why, how do you do! Who would ever have thought of meeting you two gorgeous . creatures on board this little tub V With a sinking heart Mary recognised a Mrs. Waldo, an American woman (there was a husband in attendance) whom she and Knight had met during their honeymoon, at the Knowl© HoteL The pair had i been so friendly and kind, that the Nelson Smiths had asked them to Portman Square more than once, during the three gay months that followed. But it was cruel thought Mary, that fate should bring them together again now, just when she and the man she had married were at the parting of the ways. Mr. and Mrs. Waldo were returning to New York in its waning season, because the furnishing and decorating of a houso they had bought was just completed They begged Mary and Knight "to be their first visitors.

x But I—J mean m husband is goine straight to Texas," Mary stammered, «we musnt stay, even for one night. If - there's a train the same afternoon—" There's a lovely train," Mrs. Waldo admitted, unable to resist praising the American railway system. "We call it the 'Limited.' You can have a beautiful stateroom, and run right through to Chi. cago without changing. I suppose you're sure to take the New York Central, and connect at Chicago with the Santa Fe. If % & % We '? see *£"* off > won't we, Steve ? « with a glance for the silent husband, and bring them books and chocolates and flowers V ««w What was left for Mary to say ? Short ot informing the kindly couple that they wore not wanted and had V better mind their own business and refusing to tell SS-fifc. d ° exceft Mary and/Knight had staterooms adjoining, with a door between them. That was to save appearances, «d it was no one's business that the door was never have hadV 6 * mi S hfe «^S fiSJrti.*** w u hole len * ih of fehs ship between their cabins. Mar kept to here as constantly as her jangled nerves would allow; but the sea was almost provokingly smooth, and she proved to be a good sailor. She felt as if she would become hysterical, and perhaps do something foolish if she tried the experiment of shutting herself up from morning to night. She paced the deck, therefore, and was dimly grateful to Knight because he seemed always to be in the smoking-room when she took her walks. At meals, however, unless she ate in her stateroom, they could not avoid each other; and again she felt cause for gratitude because Knight had accepted the Waldo's suggestion that they should take a table for four. In spite of the Waldo's unwelcome attentions their society was preferableinfinitely preferable —to a duet with Knight. They talked on these occasions and the sharpesteared scandal-mongers could have guessed at nothing strange from their manner But, save at luncheons and dinners they scarcely spoke to each other. * (To be continued on Wednesday next.} - - >: