LILITH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18297, 13 January 1923, Page 3 (Supplement)

LILITH.

BY FLORENCE WARDEN. \ . (Copyright.) .. CHAPTER (Continued). :. Bletchley, the manservant, came down the steps to help his mistress out of the carriage, and noticed at once that something was wrong. She was trembling, from head to foot, and it was with the very slowest footsteps that she reached the front door, where Simmonda •<• was waiting to take her upstairs. 'Why, ma'am, what's the matter? You look upset," said the maid, as she substituted her own arm for that of the man, and proceeded to carry, rather, than to lead, her mistress to the staircase. .. Mrs. Ames shcok her head impatiently. "There's nothing the matter with me. I'm perfectly well," she croaked out sn a-broken voice that belied her words. •Where's Miss Lilith " she asked sharply, "a. little strength returning to her voice under the stress of a new and vma emotion. , T „, "She's in the garden, ma'am. 111 go and bring her to you as soon as you ve got to your room." But her mistress cut her short. : "No, no. Don't bring her. I wont have her brought. Keep her away. And don't tell her I'm not well, or anything like that. Just tell her, if she ass* about roe, that I want to be quiet, quite , fl«iet." , , , ~» ' Her voice faded away on the last word, and Simmonda just managed to get into the bedroom before the little old lady crumpled up in ber arms, a mere inanimate bundle of silk and ■ lace, with the diamonds in her ears and at her throat gleaming pathetically out of her disordered finery. Notwithstanding the orders she had received, Simmonds had already decided that Miss Lilith must bo informed of her mother's collapse. Tho maid undressed her mistress and put her to bed, and then she went straight down into the farden, and informed Lilith that Mrs. ,mes was ill. Lilith at once prepared to run into the house. But Simmonda detained her. "Oh no, miss, don't go in," she urged quickly. "Mrs, Ames sdd particularly that I was not to tell you there was anything the matter with her. She says she only wants to be quiet. She said it very particularly, miss. I think slid meant it." Lilith stopped short and looked earnestly at the maid. "Did she faint? Is she really 31, or only worried?" the girl ;>asked quickly. "She didn't faint, but she.looks awful. And she seemed mors anxious that yos shouldn't know than anything." Lilith frowned.

"Shall I go for Doctor Mallory, miss?" "No. Not till I have seen her."

Already Lilith had made a shrewd guess that it was mental rather than physical trouble which was the cause of her mother's in dispositionMrs. Ames had, she knew,, been to The Towers with the express object of obtaining an interview with Sir George Paradine, and she decided not only that Mrs. Ames had obtained the interview she sought, but that it was the cause of this sudden indisposition. . Lilith felt that her own fears bad been fully justified; instead of ingratiating herself with Sir George, as she had hoped to do, Mrs. . Ames had heard something from him to causa her the deepest dis* tress. • .:'.'._

What was it?

'That Mrs. Ames had been conciliatory was to be inferred from her character, and so far Sir George had certainly not spread any scandal about them. Why, then, had this interview produced such unfortunate results?

In spite of Mrs. Ames' prohibition, Lilith went upstairs, and, warned by the maid's words not to obtrude herself, peeped intecthe room through the half-open bedroom door, and looked ' anxiously at , the prostrate figure lying in bed with closed eyes and with features drawn into lines of unspeakable suisering. " Mamma! " hurst from the girl's lips, asi a passion of tender sympathy welled up in her heart. x To the girl's horror, Mrs. Ames shivered, and opening her eyes, gazed at her daughter with an expression of agony m poignant that the girl shuddered and d)rew back as if she had been stabbed. What had happened? What could have happened? What was it that Sir George Paradine had said to have this terrible effect? ■'

For a moment Lilith hesitated, and then she sprang forward to the But her mother shrank from her and turned away her head, so that Lilith was forced to stop short, as if she had been physicalily repulsed!. " Mamma, what has happened? What did Sir George ; say to you?" she demoded in-a broken whisper. "Without answering her, Mrs. Ames shook her head.

Lilith turned quickly to the door, and Mrs. Ames suddenly sprang up in bed, ;with unexpected and feverish energy. "Where are yon she demanded. ■ And as Lilith hesitated, she hurried on: "To see Sir George Paradino? I forbid yon to go. I forbid it, I forbid it. If you do it will kill me. Do you bear? I forbid you ever to speak to that man ~ :.. again." -. .* | There was fever in her eyes, in her ■voice 1 , _. in her manner. Whatever might bo Lilith's own wishes, to act in defiance of such-a mood, of such a frenzied prohibition, was impossible. Lilith shrank back and stole out of the room. CHAPTER IX. * On the day following the visit of Mrs. Ames to The Towers, Sir George Para, dine called at Old Court to inquire after the lady. Bletchley assured him that she was not seriously indisposed, though he admitted tfhat she was keeping to her room. When this visit was duly reported to Mrs. Ames, the old lady asked sharply whether he had seen Liilith, or asked for her, and on being assured that he had not, she appeared : .(Satisfied. SimmosKls 'watched her mistress with furtively curious eyes as the old lady, propped among her piilowß, and with a writing case on her bed-table, wrote page after page of what seemed an intermin i able letter. The maid awaited eagerly the order to post this budget, but she was disappointed. Late that evening, when the gas had been lighted, and when Mrs. Ames had sent Simraonds down to have her supper, Lilith, coming out of the dining room after her solitary dinner, saw a ghostly figure on the staircase In the wide hall. For * moment she did not recognise her mother going noiselessly up the stairs. Then she sprang forward, crying anxiously: , ." Mamma, mamma, is that you? Where are you going? What have yon been doing? You ought not to have got up?" But she got no answer. The' ghostly figure disappeared with a sudden forward Bpring; and Lilith, turning, shocked and vaguely alarmed, found Simmonds at her elbow, with a strange expression of face. The maid put her finger to her lips. "Don't go up, miss; leave her alone," «he whispered. " She doesn't want to be seen." " But where has she been? You ought not to have let her get out of bed," said Lilitb quickly. Simmonds smiled. "It isn't so easy to make her do anything she doesn't want to do, you know, miss. But I did what I could When she ordered me downstairs to my supper, I didn't go far; I \wa\> hung about and .watched her." ."Watched her! Why?" |. Simmonds looked down. gj... . "You know how she's been carrying on since she came back from her drive yester- ..:'.. «ay. She's been all of a shake half the time, and not half herself at all." -''Why won't she see, me?" demanded r With sharply. . , "That's more than I can tell, miss. It's . just part of the puzzle. : Anyhow, as I say, A watched her, and 1 fallowed her, and; I ;; ;; know whwe , tQ.V-. ■;■•.-: ' ' .-.'■ i / v ; - And where was iif-* ' r

''Out by the side door to the pillar box at the cross roads. She went to post a letter, a letter she'd been writing pretty well all this afternoon."

Lilith curiosity appeared to fade away on the instant. - At least she asked no more questions, but turned, away with a white face and a look of anxiety and bewilderment. 1

Lilith was utterly perplexed &y her mother's behaviour. She had not been admitted to the old lady's bedside, but had been . put off by messages containing "one | excuse or another. "?', I Standing at the door of the dining room, with the handle in her hand, She turned abruptly to whisper to Simmonda. , "You don't think her mind's affected, do you?'-; But Simmonds, who was a shrewd woman, shook her head decidedly. ; "It Would take a lot to affect flitrs. Ames' mind, miss," she said drily. .. ■. ? "Do you think we'd better call the doctor?" : ■'■ ■•■'-.• "No, miss. She'll pull round. It's best to leave her alone," she said. K But Simmonds, although (he thus did her best to appease the young lady's fears, herself waylaid Doctor Mallory when he rode out,on his round on the following morning. Standing at the side door in the wall, when he greeted her with a "Nice morning!" she said. oh, sir, we're having a pretty time of it with Mrs Ames!" Mallory drew rein. ""What's the matter, with her?" 'I suppose you could tell better than we can, sir, and you ought to have been sent for last night, only if* is as much as my place is worth to do that against her wishes. But she's been that trying! Doesn't seem to now what she wants two minutes together, won't see Miss Lilith, sends her out unkind messages, and then sobs to herself under the .bedclothes. letting alone that she got up, Went oat, and posted a letter, though it was as much as she could do to drag herself back to bed again." Doctor Mallory frowned. "And how does Miss Lilith take it?" he inquired with & sudden change to a more sympathetic tone. "It breaks ray heart to see the poor young lady I Of course she doesn't know what to do, doesn't dare go and see her mother, or send for you, or anything. It's all a worry together, and I shall be glad to be out of it.' i

"Well, you mustn't run away and leave them in the lurch; it would bo too hard on Miss Lilith." '"

: He rode away in a very uneasy frame of mind. The mystery surrounding the Indies of Old Court seemed to bo growing deeper, and wherever he went on his rounds that morning the topic was sure to come up for discussion in one form or another.

Mallory did his best to laugh at the gossip he heard, and to suppress the spitefulness which characterised a good deal of {£.

Mrs. Cooke, m particular, wa,s inclined to bo very severe, and to look upon the reported illness of Mrs. Ames as a mere symptom of her intention of shutting herself up as too good for her neighbours. "Mrs. Ames is a true Victorian," pronounced Mrs. Cooke decidedly, "with all the prejudices and lackadaisical whims of her period. The women of her generation were taught to consider themselves hothouse plants, too delicate to bear the creeses that only brace up us modern women. And she's bringing up her daughter in the same silly way. I don't suppose the girl has ever handled a golf club."

Doctor Mailory could not allow this criticism of Lilith to pass unchallenged. "There's nothing sickly about the daughter, at any rate," said he. "She can run like the wind. To see her skimming along the sands with her dogs is a revelation of womanly strength and grace." Mrs. Cooke, who nad sent for the. doctor to prescribe for Joanna, who was always catching cold, was distinctly displeased by this attitude of his towards the intruder from Old Court. .']

"I'm afraid I am not reTy appreciative of those heavily-built yo-mg women,' she said, "but of course some people ad mire them. In fact someone has admired Miss Ames sufficiently to marry her, I understand."

'■•'.. The remark waa m. the nature of a blow to Mallory, but he took care not to Ifci {Mrs. Cooke fpercedve tofiait be felt. - "..- '* :.' «' Indeed," he said very coolly, "did she tell you that herself?" " Oh, no. It's part of the unpleasant atmosphere which surrounds these people that they never tell anybody, anything about themselves.'' "But you learnt of the marriage from a reliable source?" said Mallory in 8 peremptory tone.. Mrs. Cooke seemed a trifle disconcerted. " Oh, as to that, of course I cannot answer for its being true. Please don't say I told you it was. It came to me in the ordinary course of conversation." 7 " From Lady Bainber, perhaps?" said Mallory, pressing his question sharply. " The most ill-natured old scandal-monger that ever infected a village." Mrs. Cooke was rather alarmed ,at the seriousness with which he treated her spiteful gossip. ; " Pray don'i mention it to her," she pleaded.::.;':.>'"'.'.*; "But she ought to be checked," said Mallory. "Such things ought not to be said at all except by people who cau prove them." Mrs. Cooke shrugged lier shoulders. The earnestness of the young doctor displeased her. ■■■■■ ■ 1.-.'" .':. "Perhaps Lady Bamber can prove what she told me," she said, rather coldly. " Perhaps," agreed the young doctor as he rose to go. "At any rate I shall try to find an opportunity of letting Miss Ames know the unkind things that have been said about her."

Mrs. Cooke at once became a prey to great agitation. "1 am sure you will not do that," she said. "Think of the unpleasant position you would put me in, if my name were mentioned in the matter. I merely repeated to you what Lady Bamber told me, and Sir George Paradine, who was present when it was said, smiled in a very peculiar way, as if he knew some thing about it."

•■'■." I shall take the opportunity of asking Sir George Paradine about- it," said Doctor Mallory shortly. Mrs. Cooke, when the doctor had left the house, said very snappishly to Joanna that it was strange how the mystery which surrounded Lilith Ames seemed to have turned the heads of all the young men in the place. "I knew Sir George Paradine admired her, mamma," said Joanna "And really it's not surprising, for she's better-look ing than any of us." " That's a matter of opinion," said Mrs. Cooke sharply. : But it was not, and Mrs. Cooke knew it. .;■ ■■■; -: Mallory left the house in a tumult of feelings. Although ho had : no means of knowing whether this report about Lilith Ames was true or false, and, although be was strongly of opinion that it was merely ill-natured gossip, still the sug gestion that she was not the girl she passed, for, but a married woman, gave him de«'p uneasiness. ■ Without allowing himself ; to develop, definite hopes, Mallory had .long ago begun to associate Lilith in his • mind with all, things pleasant, and tw dream vague dreams in which she was the prominent figure. He had long since discounted the story bo had heard from Sir George Paradine, and thinking it over and over again, be lieved that he had come upon the solution of the problem suggested by it. Sir George had asserted that Lilith was an adventuress, who had entrapped and ruined a .young man named Eric Horley. And Doctor Mallory had heard, by accident, from another • source, that Mrs. Ames had been recognised as a woman who had been living in London some years before in extreme poverty. Putting these two stories together, and playing upon them the light of his imagination, Mallory was inclined to believe that Lilith, with the intention of helping her mother, rather than herself, might have drifted into an engagement with a rich man without greatly caring for him. She might have profited by his generosity without any guilty intent, and the distress from which she was now evidently suffering, might well be the resujt of selfreproach which she scarcely I deserved.; If this Eric Horley had effected to be the possessor if great wealth and had: j then come to grief by excessm expenditlure, it would be very unfair to (impute all L :/

the blame of his ruin to Lilith. Mallory was aware that this heat = arrangement of facta about which he knew little was somewhat fantastic, but his feelings for lilith were already too strong for him to be impartial in any matter that concerned her. The thought that she might be a married woman irritated, and. disconcerted : him. Not till that moment had he realised the strength cf his own hopes in regard her. He felt that he must contrive a meeting with her without delay, and put a direct question to her if he ; could not get at the truth wilihout that. In' the meantime he was angry with himself for having let his temper get the. i better of him in his recent interview with Airs. Cooke. What he had said to her about lady Bamber was inexcusably indiscreet. That is was true made things worse. Mallory was well enough off to be independent of his practice, but he had no wish to leave Shingle End, when he could ride and shoot and.be ne*r Lilitb Ames. And he felt that a few Snore mdiscretions might well make hit continued residence in the neighbourhood uncomfortable, if not impossible. It was in the highest degree unlikely that he would have much difficulty in arranging a meeting with Lilith, as their homes were on the same road, and not more than half a mile apart. That very day, as he was riding slowly homewards, he caught sight of her with her dogs a little way ahead of him. It was in a lane where tall trees mad© an arch overhead that he reined in his horse to a walking pace as he came up with Lilith. " How do you do, Miss Ames? " said he, as he raised his hat. She looked up, and he saw that she was paler than ever. A sleepless night had dulled the brightness of her eyes, and caused dark rings to appear under them. His heart leapt up with compassion and something more. ..-,■..,- " How do you. do? "said she with 'a smile so faint, so sickly that without more ado he dismounted and took her hand in his. ....,'■■ V V ■" You are not taking care of yourself,*' he said with gentle reproach. " What is the use of my prescriptions if you won't follow the directions ?" She shook her head sadly. " Your prescriptions don't have a chance," she said, trying to smile. But the muscles of her face quivered, and from her lips escaped a weary little sigh. " You are unhappy," said the doctor, in a low voice of deepest feeling. ' "Yes. Oh yes. Of course I ought to say *no I. am not,' but to you I can tell the truth. ' It is hot I who am ill; it is my mother. And the worst of it is she won't admit it, won't let anybody do anything for her. It's breaking my heart."

" But about yourself? All is not well with you. Come, confess it: there is something else that is troubling you." She -shot at him an anxious glance, as if afraid that he might have guessed too much.' . c " Nothing troubles me so much as my mother's illriess," she said. "I am young, and I can bear worry and distress of mind. But she is delicate, and a blow threatens to break her."

"You mean she has received a blow?" Lilith looked up at him shyly, and bent her head in assent. Then impatiently, she threw off her constraint and faced him.

" Why shouldn't I tell you all I know myself? It isn't much. She had an interview with Sir George Paradine two days ago, and since then she has been like the ghost -of herself." Mallory. did not attempt to hide the interest he felt.

" And you don't know what It was he said to her? '%

'*• haven't the least idea," sand Lilith solemnly.^ Mallory was puzzled. That the girl was sincere he had no doubt, but yet it was hard to understand her alleged ignorance. Sir George had professed to know the history of the ladies, and Lilith had acknowledged as much. What did this attitude of hers mean then ? Could Sir George have threatened them? It seemed; unlikely; the baronet was conceited, but had not given him the idea of being ill-natured. . <*' Have, spoken to Sir George yourself ? asked Mallory. v - •■ ',- - -i » " No, ; mamma ;won't Itit- hie/* -replied Lihth simply. <juite see why; Sir George : must; have; been disagreeable, and she can't, bear j the : thought . that he should-be as nasty- to me as he was to her. But for ;my part I; wojild, rather stand up to, him. and know ; the worst," she ended defiantly. ';.... Mallory loved her attitude, her spirit, her pretty daring. Whatever ishe might have done, he felt sure that neither Sir George Paradine nor any other 'living man could have resisted an appeal from her. On the other hand he felt by no means anxious that she should cast herself as a suppliant at, the feet of Sir George Paradine or any other man. "Shall I speak to him for you he asked quickly. : And as he spoke he bent down low. and tried to look into her eyes. She shook her' head.' *':.' ,'t "What could you do?;. Nothing," she said -with; a- glance ofi despair. But Mailory insisted. ..-;:-;:':,. i :'• -. " • " How; do, you know? ?k It : would-be better .that-a man : should speak to/him,'' But again she. shook her head; ' •■■'.;{».'":''. " It;#6uld;-scem "so; strange for you to do it. Look, 'what toi short time you have known -li ttle. you;Jknow:about us. "I »know/ enough to take your part through thick 'and thin with anybody," he said hotly. Instead of affecting surprise or annoyance at his presumption, Lilith showed by the glow of her cheeks, the sparkle of her eyes, that this passionate outburst touched her deeply. " You mustn't speak like that to me," she said softly ' But as she spoke she laid her hand upon his shoulder, with a caressing gesture that fired his blood. "Why not / You know what I feel. Why shouldn't T speak He had let himself go, abandoning himself freely to the passion that shone in his eyes and rang oat in his voice*. If he had been checked he could have drawn back, he could have mastered himself.

"■ But JLilith did not check him. On the contrary by the smile that hovered round her lips, the sparkle in" her blue eyes, he could see that the words he uttered were music to her ears. She seemed to drink them in thirstily, as if she had been longing for just such an outburst of tenderness, as if it was putting new life and new hope into . her.

Weil," she said softly, not looking up, and still, keeping her hand on his shoulder, "you may go on, you may say it again, and again; I promise to forget it. to meet you tomorrow as if you had never spoken like that to me."

But I don't want you to forget it; on the contrary, I want you to remember, to believe every word I have said. I want you to believe a great deal more than that Won/t you believe that I love

yot'l?" She bowed her head gently once more arid (answered very seriously, almost in a whisper :'-.*• I thought you did. I was afraid you diet." - . ■" Why afraid?" " She heaved a sigh. i "Because; I can t listen to you. I can't. I can't." ••' ,; . .' " Are yon married already!" demanded Mnllorv sharply Sho started back with sudden alarm. "No, oh no. ; What makes you ask that?" ..", V ; But Mallory did not answer the question. .■: '■' ;&■'■>};:",■■ ''"•' •."•' : " ' ', " If you are not married already, why on earth shouldn't you marry me? After all your talk of trusting me, of confiding in me, why shouldn't vou go'through with .it?' .■'" She laughed mockinerlv, and then looked up into his face with fierce despair. ■ i *' Do you think I wouldn't if I could ?" she demanded with r-ckless misery that struck him with sudden terror. " I tell you, if. von can't guess it of your own accord, that nothing on earth would have made me so hanrtv as to become your wife. But I can't, and I feel lam doing wrong m even speaking to you, in letting you say things to me that I shall cherish in my heart and, remember for ever." She tried to draw back,; but Mallory seized her hands and held her fast. '•Do you think I am going to let you escape from me like that?" he demanded, speaking in a very low voice, but with commanding passion that frightened her and maso per tremble. ** Do yon think

yon can play fast and loose with a man, stir his feelings to' the very depths, and then say ' Oh, good morning, so glad to have' seen you!' as yon would to a casual acquaintance? You can't think ; so, and you don't." , '~ Lilith, as a matter of. fect f was no longer trying to get free; bending her head, so that he could not see- her face, she left her hand in'•« his, and remained quite still, except for the • convulsive heaving of her breast. i There was silence for ft few moments. Then she said gently r: v "I haven't treated yon like a casual acquaintance, you know." Still she did not raise her head. : "Well," said "Mallory, "yon don seem to know your own mind." •'■ '■'-.-■ -.'■' \: ■_ He was. going on, but suddenly .she checked hiro, and looking up with . a flushed face arid eyes that sparkled with emotion, she said: ' , • j ' "That's it. I don't know my own mind. 1 am living in a maze ; sometimes I think I have the clue in my hands, and then it escapes me again. Oh, I don't know what to do Mallory shifted both her hands into one of his and put the other on her shoulder. . - ; "Wouldn't it help you out of your difficulties if you were just to make up your mind to do what I want you to do, and to tell your mother so? There's just this advantage over marriage, that it makes a sharp dividing line, it sort of winds up the past, and begins afresh." Lilith stared up into his face with ft look of horror. "What do you know about it? Sir George Paradme must have told you more than you said he did," she cried abruptly. Mallory jsbookjus head.,:,,, v t

"No, he didn't. But its easy-to guess that there is something . weighing on your mind, and if it is some sort of tie that you want to break, I have offered you the means of doing so." Lilith's face quivered. "And you would marry me like that, without knowing all about me, in fact knowing very little about me?" she said. In his eyes there burned the fire of a passion which makes little account ofobstacles. At that moment ho would have married her in the face of a world of doubters. •;'C.-" ..' "Of course I would. At least, Irwofeld not marry any woman without knowing all' about her that matters. I know all j that matters about you." ..; ;'"'"'.:;■'"■ The happy little "smile that hovered over her face would have melted .'». heart of marble Mallory, who was riot-, marble, but putty' in,her hands, bent down and kissed her. s>'-"''5 > '-"'' .-.'V-pv'.-. _ '■J- She. protested faintly. ,'..."••'' • "You • mustn't -do that,'' : she.' said, * What you've got ,to do is to go away and forget me. I can't marry you now, I can't marry yon ever. I feel guilty m having let it go so far. But now its got to -stop."" But Mallory laughed confidently. ,y •'You can't help ./yourself,"' Re-.said, "and I don't believe you want r to. ; You called to me, and I came; that what happened between us Now you ve got to take the consequences. I shen t let yo» go. You talk. about ties, yet. you say you are not married. Short of that you must be free." ./-..■,"". ■~,:; . ~.....,.:'; She Bhook her head feebly., "One can be bound, bound in honour," she. said in a low voice. ■'■;■'-"

Mallory remembered what' Sir George Paradine had told him, and he replied cautiously: .'..' . , • , >■ .: "You are not .in honour bound to be miserable for life, which would .almost certainly entail making somebody else miserable too- In real life the man who marries a woman wbo doesn t . ewe about him is the most unfortunate beggar going. It's only in melodramas that the heroine is persecuted by the fellow she doesn't want." ' . , - ' . m „j But the expression of her face Bn° we <? that she was unconvinced, that he had not hit the right nail on the,head. "It's of no use to say thpSe things, she said wearily, "because you have to speak without knowing. Do yon suppose I wouldn't jump at you if it were possible for me to do it Does a .woman ever throw away the certainty of happiness if. she can help it? ''_ '-■ "Women do all sorts of inexplicable things," said Mallory impatiently. 'Its inexplicable, for one thing, that a girl should make a show of perfect X confidence in a man whom shea deliberately keeps in the dark about things he has a right to know " > . , Lilith. as, if stunned, drew back so sharply that she released: her hands from his grasp. • With a.. sudden change . % deep distress she stood before him, ■■. bent and trembling, and then said in a frightened whisper: '■■'■•'■., \ "You- would have a right to. know if I only were concerned. Indeed, I've told you all I aW tell. ; Perhaps even : too much—" ~./- "''■ ~ ' '',",". "Nothing can't bo too much ? and you've told me nothing," said Maliory. Lilith was silent for a -few? moments, standing, with a;puzzled frown, before him. fin do continued on onuraay oexv.j