MARCUS QUAYLE, M.D.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18101, 27 May 1922, Page 3 (Supplement)

MARCUS QUAYLE, M.D.

BY E. EVERETT-GREEN.

"Author of " The Master of Marshlands," etc. COPYRIGHT. CHAPTER XrX.—(Continued).- ... " You mean votes?" " t only mean tho voto inasmuch as under present-day conditions the voto is tho only thing that legislators think of. Jn old days, though, women with tho requisite qualifications could voto, and occasionally d:,d. There was small use made of tlhe privilege, for it was little needed. Nowadays, Governments tako no cognisance of any section of the people unless thfey are electors. They may throw them a few sops, but they do not caro for, or heed them, for they havo nothing to gain or lose firm them urjless they can sufficiently intlult.ee the electorate. Marcus Q.uayle made a protest against some of the indignities tp which women aro subjected. But for all that he cannot or will not see yet—perhaps he never will — that such things always have been and always have to be, before any cause makes headway against injustice. Victims thero must bo. All honour to those who offer themselves up i" " Dinah, don't you bo one. Wo can't spnre you. Don't bo* too bravo." "I sometimes think that I am not bravo atj aIL Lorraine, one reason why I am glad that I have this house, and a good income, is for the work I want to do. I have offered a temporary homo here to any woman who has suffered in health in tho woman's cause, and before very long, I expoct tfo receive a few such guests. Those who havo hornet and friends of their own, will, of course, go to them. But some may want better care than their own people can give them, or would much enjoy a breathing space hero in this country place," " Don't you think you may bo doing evil that good may como!" "No more than when a soldier goes into battle and slays his foa When war has to bo declared, a fresh code comes into action. There aro causes which are worth fighting for. I think this is one." Dinah stopped short, smiled, and added, " That is my opinion. I do not say it is the right one. I am not arrogant enough for that. But iti is my point of view, and it is not tliat of Maxcns Quayle or my own brothers* And so let them go their way and Igo mine. And I beep my secret for the present, though I know that sooner or later something will come to upsot the apple-cart."

Lorraine found, as she often <Ti cL, that Dftiah's interests were not self-centred. Where tho young girl would have liked to talk of the concrete individual case, her thoughts always flew to the case of others. She loved her for this wide-minded sympathy, bull she was still no nearer having made out whether or not Dinah cared for Marcus Qnayle aa tlie gid felt assured he cared for her.

" Do you want to see my other home?" Dinah asked her on the day when this pleasant! visit must come to a close, and Lorraine's face lighted up. eagerly. " I should simply love it,, if I might." Dinah had dressed herself somewhat 'differently to-day* She always wore plain gowns, all d was fond of linen collars and sailor ties. These suited her well, just as the more ephemeral stylo suited Lorraine. Her travelling garb was of dark blue linen, and except that she wore a widebrimmed straw hat, she might almost hav e been taken for a hospital nurse. In t&e train Lorraine watched her as she skimmed the columns of the morning paper. She thought how different Dinah was from the woman she met in Georgina's drawing room, or in the crushes she was taken to in fashionable houses. How different from Lady Lindislea also, though she was often spoken of as a woman of energies and pursuits. lint which amongst all these persons would regard an accession to fortune as Dinah did? Which of them would hold the matter secret that they might develop ideas of . their own, and "avoid the arguments and importunities of such as wanted them to keep in the path of convention, and think first of themselves and their cwn self-aggrandisement ? Lorraine waa in measure interested in

tho things of which Dinah spoke, but a good deal mora in the human drama of her friend's life. She looked up into the face above her, set in grave lines, yet with a smile lurking deep down in the eyes, and she asked— " Wouid Dr, Quaylc be angry if he knew?"

Dinah laughed in her free, spontaneous fashion.

"Dear me! The impertinence of him if he were! My business is no affair of his. He does not ask iny opinion as to ' his doings. Why should mine be anything to him?" " But—but you like him, do yon not?" " Oh! yes. We are friends, but friends do not arrogate to themselves the authority over each other's actions." Lorraine was aware that in Dinah's company sho breathed an atmosphere totally -* v iiiflerent from the one to which sho was used. It wau as different from that of her sister's house, as those hot, scented rooms were from Dinah's cool, airy abode, with its windows set wide to the garden J cents and sounds. And now she was looking round Dinah's ether home—the tall, rather narrow house in Bloomsburv, with its signs of strenuous workaday life and sbsonce of all those luxuries which Lorraine bad associated with existence in town. She looked about her with wide, wondering eyes as Dinah moved to arid fro, up and down, with a simlo and a few pertinent questions to servants, giving a touch here and there to the rooms, and showing herself as much at home and the mistress here in this austere abode of work as she bad done in tho gracious spaciousness of Darkmere. " Oh! Dinah, do you like coming back here?" " Very much little one. This is home to me, you know, in a very real sense of the word. See, here is Hilary's room, with all his books and papers lying about. He does not like anybody to touch thnrn, P' 1 in my absence they £ot rather grubby. 7 must c.ome round with my duster. I am privileged, yoa know. Roger has a. den out yonder, abutting 0 n the strip of garden. Somebody built it out once for a workroom with a, latho. It is useful to him for his experiments, though he works a great deal in Marcus Quaylc's splendid laboratory. But now, dear, I must take you home and deliver you up to your lawful guardians. May I ask them to s>icire-you again to " Mrs. Moylo" somo other day?" " Oh, Dinah, if you would! It would ho heavenly! And dear old Mrs. Movie did say elio hoped that I woud come again booh." "Capital! Then wo can speak the literal truth! Shall I go with you, dear, Lorraine, you are not frightened, arc you?" " I'm trying to be brave. Dr. Qtiavle tells me f must. But I have been so bappv with you. And I simply hate to go back into it all again. Please como with mo Dinah." Dinah did so, and again came face to face with tho dark-skinned, dark-bearded man with tho cat-like eyes, whose face remained unpleasantly with her for long afterwards. His manner was suave and courteous. He kissed the visibly shrinking Lorraine, and "Bogey's" low. tierce gtowl found as if' were, an echo in Dinah's heart. Mrs. Moyle's messago was received with a smile, no definite response being i made. Lorraine seemed at once to shrink into herself, her eyes, alone making silent r.ppeal to Dinah, as though begging not t" he deserted. Yet Dinah had to go, and Went, with a curiously heavy heartWas it possible that in this house peril •iuggod the steps of littlo Lorraine?

CHAPTKR XX. " Well, how's your little old lady, Dinah? Has she been graciously pleased to spare you to your lawful owners? Quay I e saw her when you were up, and is qui to smitten. Says she is as pretty as paint, tho kind wo don't turn out nowadays. I've half a mind to run down to Darkmero myself one of these days and have a look at her. Sho might tako a fancy to me. It's all the fashion ot tho day for old ladies to take a fancy to hoys. I say, Dinah, what kind of a lord and masher do you think I'd make for Darkniere Manor?" Roger drew up his tall form, and swelled himself out with a comical affectation of self-importance. Dinah looked him up and down with that glimmer in her eyes which her friends and brothers very well knew, though they could not always traco iti to its source.

" i think that Mrs. Moylo would call you a ' fine figure of a man,' " sho answered. " But «J would advise you not to appear at Darkmero Manor without an invitation."

" Old lady a bit shirty?" queried Kennrk. " I expect she'd take more of a fancy to me. That fellow spreads himself a lot too much."

Hilary's low, chuckling laugh sounded pleasantly from his dusky corner. Dinah felt it vory home-like, and delighted to bo back again among her " boys." They were sitting together in the gloaming. Windows were open, and the familiar rumble and clip-clop end " honk-honk" of London traffic ma.de a background of sound for their talk. How different from the peaceful silence and delicate fragrance of the evening hours at Darkmero! And yet, from many dear associations, there was a certain delight to Dinah to bo here in the midst of it all again. "Pot calling the kettlo black—eh, Dinah?" lie queried. "Or is your old lady up in arms against tho lords, of creation?"

" My old lady, as you call her, is a good deal more down upon the ladies in ' creations,' responded Dinah, ftor eyes shining wilft a humorous light. " Modern fashions and modern methods do not appeal to her. Sho has a good deal of trenchant criticism to pass upon the modern ' hussy,' as she is pleased to call her."

"Good old soul!" spoko Roger, with fervour. " Thought sho was one of that kind from what Marcus said of her. Do you good 'So be with her, my dear sister. Give mo the good, old-fashioned sort of woman, who knows her place and her work in the world, and sticks to one, and does the other. The more you seo of her, my dear Dinah, tho better il will bo for the lot of us,"

"Well, I am likely to see a good deal of her in Use near future. There is a great deal to be done at Darkmero for ■which I am wanted. I like tho place and the life there very much, and when August comes, and you boys all scatter, I have almost promised to put in all my tune there. If I do, it will release a failamount of money for the common travelling fund, and you boys can take advantage of it." " That's jolly of von, Dinah," said Kenrick, who was in a chronic state of "stonybroke." Hilary growled a little in his corner, but Dinah tJurned swiftly upon him.

/It's all right, indeed. I would like Ken to have a good time. You leave him and me to settle his affairs. You two budding big men can settlo your own way. This child and I have our own little way with his. Kenny, hoy, I've been by way of luck lattely, and you shall have a good time when your mill ceases to grind. You can look up cruises of foreign travel, if you have a mind that way, and I think we'll manage by hook or by crook—" " Well, I call that ripping of you, Dinah! I didn't know that old MoCEer Moyle tipped you a screw." " Old Mother Moyle's affairs and mine are shrouded in a certain mystery," answered Dinah, with a ripplo of mirth in her voice. "If you ask no questions, you'll get no lies. Little boys must learn to open their mouths and shut their eyes, and take the good the gods send them." She was awaro of Hilary's eyes Used npon her from his dusky corner, but she was not afraid. The dimness hid her own slightly heightened colour. After all, she had helped Kenrick before when holiday season came round, and she had admitted to have had some " success " with her pen even before tho " Mrs. Moyle" episode. " Roger and I can both help Ken to a holiday this year," said the senior member of tho party, " without trenching on your funds, Dinah."

''Well, you do what you please, and I will please myself," answered the girl, gaily. " This infant of ours has a fine capacity for what he elegantly describes as ! making the fly'—eh, Ken." "Well, it ain't difficult at any tune,' admitted tho graceless youth, with a grin, " least of all when your out to do yourself well. There's many ways of flittering away the good things of life worse than bestowing it upon a hard-working, deserving chap like myself, with a beast of a billet., and a wretched screw."

Hilary and Roger each uttered an indefinite sound, -which Ken perfectly understood. It was his own fault that his " screw " was so low, and his work so dull. Had he stuck to his guns from the first, his position would by this time have been a fairly good one. That he was himself aware of this, was cne of the bitterest drops in his cup. A man who had worked side by side with him in his first office was now starting for Singapore with quite good prospectte of interesting work, and an improving salary. He turned to his sister with some eagerness of manner. " Tell you what, Sis, if this Darkmcre joh is working out well, and I could see my way to a trip to Canada or Vancouver, I'd bet my bottom dollar that/ I'd find a billet fast enough over there. Britishers are simply streaming out. They say openly that soon there will be a new England, prosperous, independent, decently governed, over there, to which the whole caboodle of the lx>tter born here will hare to fly to get free from mob law and revolution. I believo, too, 'Rotten' isn't the word for the state" of affairs ovor here."

" I think the now word Is putrid, isn't it?" Dinah queried. And thero was a general laugh.

" Well, if it is, it fits our present Government. !iko a glove. I'm keen to get away. Nothing like prospecting round. 1 sav, S's, do you think funds will run to it?"

" T think it's possible." was (bo considering response, "especially if I put in a good deal of my time at Darkmero. That releases money—"

" Roger and I can run this house perfectly well now, Dinah," said Hilary, in his quiet tones. "If there is anything to Ixs gained by a trip of this kind, as is quite possible, inquiries can bp made; and if you want to help Ken with your own income, don't trouble any more about housekeeping expenses hero. You paid the lion's share tor many years whilst wo were finding our feet. Now it ip right ancl just that tho tables should be turned.

"Thank you," said Dinah. "I will keep that in mind. Ken's plan wantr. careful thinking about; but there is no doubt about the wider life and better chances of the new world."

" For a man with brains, energy, and capital," quoth Roger. "I should have said 4 and perseverance.' " Dinah amended, and Kenrick learnt my lesson. I feel I could put my " All right, old girl, i'm beginning to seo tha same way myself. I think I've learned my lesson. I feel I could pu- my shoulder to the wheel out yonder. But Roger is right to a great extent about tho capital. That will be the trouble. You' do want something to start with." " That, perhaps, might bo managed," said Dinah, thoughtfully. " Ivly money is not tied up. Hush, Hilary, I am not proposing to hand over all, or even anything, at the present moment. I merely say that there is my five thousand odd over which I have control. Oh ! here is Marcus. Come in, Marcus, and join the family conclave." Marcus had tho freedom of that pleasant Bloomsbury bouse. He w-as privileged to walk in upon them unannounced. Indeed, he had heen standing unseen for a few moments in the doorway, and had gathered the gist of what had been passing. In old days ho bad shared such family discussions freely. "The infant on the war-path again?" he asked, as Roger pulled up a chair and Ken lighted the shaded lamp which Dinah preferred in this room to gas w

Talk flowed freely round him, the brothers speaking, Dinah brewing- coffee at the side table, and smiling upon them, Marcus listening and throwing in question or comment from timo to time. " Good business, very likely, if it can be done. \ ou'll want introductions to tho right people, youngster. I might help you there. And capital is an asset which no man can afford to despise. Perhaps—" " No," said Dinah, quietly. Marcus looked at her from beneath tho penthouse of his heavy brows. Each timo lately that ho had seen Dinah ho had been aware of some subtle change in her which eluded his powers of definition or analysis. Ho was also half reluctantly conscious of her increasing power to charm him. He observed fn her a serenity and dignity which seemed to him most admirable in a woman. And sho had helped him when he needed help. Sho had achieved what he would never have done alone. Was thero some shadow of mystery hanging over her life just now? TI is acute faculties had begun to suspect something. With his eyes upon her face as sho approached him with a cup, lie asked — "Perhaps your charming little Mrs. Moylo is the fairy godmother of tho pieco? Sho looks tho part to perfection."

" Does she not? That reminds me that my companion in the landau sends her kind remembrances to Dr. Quale, of whose fame she has heard. Sho helped me charmingly with pretty Lorraine. The pair are fast friends already, and Lorraine is to come upon another visit to Darkmero whenever sho can get leave."

"Good business!" spoke Marcus, cordially, and presently, when the brothers were talking amongst themselves over the

evening paper 3 which ho had brought with him, ho moved away towards Dinah's seat besido tho window, and asked her of tho visit and its results. Her replies pleased him. Dinah* said that both she and Lorraine meant to ride next morning in the Row. "Who is going to mount you?" ho asked, quickly. " For once I was going to have a horse from tho livery stable. Wc only got back to-day. I could not bo suro that it would have been convenient to you to mount mo." " You could have rung mo up to ask." " I could. But I did not- Kind as you arc. Marcus, I must not take advantage, and you have given me another well-to-do friend ?n little Lorraine." Had her colour rison just a little? It was difficult to say, as she sat, in the gloaming, the only light being red shaded. Marcus had never been one to ask intrusiv© questions; hut ho kept stock of his impressions, and these he sometimes turned on in succession lika a species of mental cinematograph. This process, when applied to his own patients, had not unfrequently led him to startling discoveries and to corresponding succcs.'ics. But now ho changed the subject. _ " Did you go homo with Miss Dumaresq ?" « Yes. She was plainly nervous at tho thought of going back. And in a way I was able to understand it. I "was very glad she had hor dog. It would have heen hard to leave her quite alone. There is somethig in tho atmosphere of that house which is detestable to mo. You know what Lady Lindislea's is hko. Well, this is a great deal worse- One feels as though tho air would sap all one's life and energy away " Ah ! you felt that also." "No ono coulrl help feeling it. Mrs. Marmol herself, who was meant to be a healthy, energetic person, lolls away her day in ease and idleness, enervated and stifled, though she thinks she iikes it. The little one rebels in so far as sho dares, but she goes in fear." il I know she does. Do you know what she fears?" _ " Mr. Marmol and his Greek Servant are her main terrors. And I cannot altogether wonder. The servant has the kind of face which might give anybody tho creeps. And you know tho man. You have seen his eyes. What you have not seen is the way lie looks at Lonaino. " Flow does ho look?" Marcus was keenly interested. "As though lie would hypnotiso her if he could, and sap away her will power. Marcus, that girl ought not to bo in his houFe." Marcos looked like a granite image in tho dusk. " Tho man has been plunging heavily in speculative stocks," be said slowly. " Rumour says ho has been hard hit many times." Marcus rose to go. IT is visits were seldom long ones. As lie held Dinah's hand he added, very sternly— " You are quite right. She ought not be there."

CHAPTER XXI. The accident to bis tenant farmer at a critical time of tho year was perhaps for Erakino Eysham the best thing which could have happened'to him at this juncture of his career. His life had been, as it were, pulled up by the roots, and he had received a nasty knock which had disturbed and upset bis menial poise and equilibrium. Life for the moment seemed a doubtful joy. It was difficult to take an interest in the future. He was too much attached to the place that had been his home to embrace colonial life as most young men in J;ke situation would have done. He had much of hi* mother's dreamy, idealistic temperament, and much of the traditional Eysham love of the old acres which had come down to them from generation to generation. A corner of this inheritancofremained his, and near at hand the one being whom he had to Ladv Luanda Rossitcr. Hhe would miss him sorely if he went. Ho had for years looked after her littio property for and with her., In

winter, when often she was kept a prisoner indoors, he managed everything for her outside her house, and many of her charming garden effects had been devised and carried out by him as a surprise lor her when she reappeared;

Possessed of ;t small remnant of liis income, house, 4 horse, a gun, and a dog, endowed by a great capacity for dreaming life away in a sylvan solitude, Erskine was at this epoch in danger of dropping into a condition of quiet indifference and gentle apathy as regards his future, from which the accident to Tornlin served to arouse him, turning him into tho man of action.

The small farm was dear to him. It wanted careful management, for it lay npon low land, and though this land was singularly fertile, it was often partially submerged, and the dykes and sluices required very careful watching. Also crops had to be garnered exactly to the moment, and nobody owning Heron's Farm could afford to lie caught napping.

Erskine flung himself into the breach with all his young energy and enthusiasm. Ho had watched farming all his life. Ho had lent a hand, as tho master does at all seasons of pressure. There was "lio tool ho could not effectively handle, no machinery with which he was not practically acquainted. The Eysliams had always made a point of mastering these things themselves, v and from his boyhood Erskine had watched and asked questions and lent a hand to the. mechanism till he had grown into something very like expert knowledge where agricultural machines were in question. His ambition had always been to reclaim more land, and farm it on principles at cneo practical and scientific. Some of the most interesting months ho had spent

abroad -were those when, in the company of a. certain fellow student —-Marcus Quaylo by name—he had made investigations and experiments, and studied the chemistry of Nature's laboratory with a view to using bis acquired learning in the prosecution of practical farming at Darkmero when the tirno should como for him to reign there with the command of adequate private means. This frustrated hope helped to crush him somewhat when he learned that Darkmero had passed from his possession—at least, that his own hand must severe the bond which kept it his in Jaw, when in effect it had been lost to him. But now something of the old energy, the old hope, awoko within him, and this was mightily augmented by the happenings of the next weeks. Whilst Tomlin lay in. hospital, slowly mending, his wife received a letter from a brother in British Columbia, asking her and her whole family to come out to hiin. <

He had plenty of land®. Labour was the only trouble. Tho Tom 1 ins had two strapping lads rapidly growing towards manhood, and three daughters, two of whom were old enough to give help with poultry rearing and dairy. The whole family longed to go. The man in the hospital saw his chance and caught at it. He was but a tenant here. Over yonder lie would soon own his land, and work it without the petty vexations and restrictions and anything but petty charges which threaten the extinction of the working tenant farmer hero. And Erskine, too, saw his chance. lie would release tho man of his obligations. He would .take over the farm himself. He would work it with Ri'oh labour as he could command, not spaying tho sweat of his own brow. (To be continusd on Saturday mxt-)