THE YOUNG MAN IN QUESTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18929, 29 January 1925, Page 5

THE YOUNG MAN IN QUESTION.

BY MRS VICTOR HICK.\ItD. Author of " Blindfold," " The Light Above , the Cross Roads," "The House of Courage," " Cathy Rossiter,' etc. (Copyright. i CHAPTER XXL Mrs. Omen had not waited for her sister, but had gone down to Harrow by an earlier train, , . , , , It seemed likely that she might meet Gideon in the garden if she got quickly back, and so she hurried up the hill and began to look for him. Voices*fioni the summer-house drew her steps in that direction, and she heard Mabel oaxon s laugh. So that girl' was altei lucent's secretary! Mrs. Omen fea a sting of annoyance. She went on, and decide< to listen and judge whether Mabel was really to be blamed or not by v>'hat she was able to overhear, ana when Gicleon s voice came to her, saying tho banal and stupid words. '' Darl ing. I love you, she crept a little nearer, her anger getting the better of her sense of honour with, regard to private conversations not meant for her delicate ear. To her surprise, as she. slid round a path at the back of the summer-house, she discovered that she was not the only person interested ;n what was going on within. The man who had picked up her parcel in the street was standing leaning against the woodwork, and there could be no doubt at all as to why he was there. Their eyes met, and he made a sign to her to bo silent, slipping off by the little path, and beckoning to her to follow him. "Look here," he said, leading her into the garden, where the sun blazed down in its full strength, "you may think you caught me in rather an equivocal position, madam,"—he swept off his hat. "You did not. You may think perhaps that the love-affairs of Mr. Windover's secretary are not my business. \ou would be wrong. They are. I can say no more. Let this bo a secret between us"—he looked at her more carefully. "We have met .before. You may not wish it known. It is not a thing that any lady so distinguished as you appear to be would wish to be known. Let us agree to keep our own secrets and each" other's." "But what a scandalous thing for my brother's secretary to do!'' she said, angrily. "How very disgraceful. And that girl. I'd like to smack her." "Such is life," Tenor said, with a smile of concession to the weakness of humanity. "And you?" Mrs. Omen looked at him with surprise. "What brings you here? Are you a detective ? Is there something against Mr. Slade?" She seemed to hope that there was. "I am here on a visit." Malachy Tenor sat down beside her. "Mr. Windover invited me. He is a delightful man. Original and forceful." "And he asked you to stay?" "Why not?" "Why not indeed? Yet there was something not altogether ; convincing in Mr. Tenor's southern beauty, or his cuff-links and general air of greediness. Ho seemed to eat with his eyes. "And yet you spoke of this secretary of his," she said, pettishly, "as though you were watching him." "I am probing a little matter for my friend Mr. Windover," Tenor replied, carelessly. "Ho likes to bo sure tf bis man, and after all it isn't much to do for a friend. My name is Malachy Tenor," he continued, politely, introducing himself with a flourish of hand and elbow, but he was not, prepared for the stare of wild astonishment with which she greeted his announcement.

"You ?" she gave a gasp. "Bat then I thought—are you perfectly sure?" "Entirely so. I live in London. Not, of course, in that horrid little street where wo met, but in a perfectly delightful flat in Sloane Square. I had been "calling on a queer old man I know. Professor Charlton, one of those strange and very interesting hermits one reads of in the papers. Men of colossal mental powers, who are not known to fame during their life-time. He is a man of that type. I go to see him because of his brilliant conversation, I am not in the least narrow-minded on the subject of locality, if by going to Ames Street I find the mental companionship I seek." "But Professor Charlton ?" she faltered. "I thought,' I fancied —•" -she got no further with her surmise, as she saw Mrs. Vesey waving to her from the far side of the lawn. Mrs. Yesey looked dreadfully agitated, and. with a fresh sense of fear in her heart, Deborah Omen made her way quickly towards her sister. Once she- | turned to look h&ck. and noticed that Malachy Tenor was disappearing throi the bushes in the direction of tha, summerhouse. "Deborah," Mrs. Yesey said, in a strange, strained voice, "we may expect to have a very unpleasant interview with Yinny at lunch. I met him in that street, and he went straight on to see that woman. She will be sure to say that you and I both called, and he will be furious." "Oh, how awful!" Mrs, Omen's face grew deadly white. "I think I'll go home." "You will do nothing o£ the kind." Mrs. Vesey spoke firmly. "It has to be got through, and I expect you to take your share. Who was that flashy young man you were Viking to ?" "I want to tell you about that, though I do not consider him "flashy." I think he has a Spanish charm about him. The strange part of him is his name. Who do you think he really is ?" "How could I know?" Mrs. Vesey sat down on a, stone seat and fanned herself with a pocket-handkerchief. "What silly questions you ask, and with my mind so worried. That woman will put Yinny up to making a scene. It will end in his ordering us out of the house." "But I want to tell you about the strange man, Deborah. I must tell you. It is so strange." j " Oh, the man—the man ! After all, what does he matter ? I'm thinking of Vincent, and it positively makes my shoes feel too tight, I grow nervous. I did try to reason with him, but lie- put me off and would not listen." "His name is Tenor, Malachy Tenor." Deborah ignored her distress, and made the announcement with a really dramatic gesture. "What?" Mrs. Vesisy'i attention concentrated at once upon her sister, as she sat there _ the living impersonation of moral rectitude and practical housekeeping. "He told you that?" '"He did, and, he is an intimate friend of Professor Charlton. He said that, too." Marion Vesey was not given to ironical laughter, but on this occasion she burst into a sound which resembled the scream of an angry peacock. "And you actually believed him? You swallowed it? You were fooled to that extent ? Now. listen to me, Deborah. What you have just said goes to prove most certainlv that Vincent is on the alert, and: is already taking precautions. He must have suspected that something was likely to ■■ become known, and to forestall us, and put us off the scent, he has introduced this mountebank into Westfold to state in your hearing and mine that he is Malachy Tenor and that he knows Professor Chariton. It is clever," she frowned—"very clever." "I never thought of anything so deep," Mrs. Omen said, faintly. "Can you really believe it, Marion ? " What a" dreadful Pwe the world is, and so full of pitfalls, Do you know that Vinny's secretary is making furious love to that j horrid little Mabel Saxon, in the summerhouse, at this very moment? Mr. Tenor is here *o watch him, he practically said so to me, and he also said ho was an old friend of Vinny's," "He would say'anything he was paid to say," Mrs. Vesey replied, sternly. '■Not that anything matters very much now. because that creature, Miss Flassy, will have used her influence. Wait until you see what, is going to happen at lunch." She made a gesture of silence as Gideon came in his leisurely way across the grass, and she smiled at him mechanically. "Ask the footman to bring me a glass of Madeira," she said, haugntily. "I don't feel very well. It was obvious to Slade that the new arrival had caused a commotion in Westfold. Almost as soon as he appeared Windover had snatched up his hat and rnshed of£ to London, and ,'meanwhile

Mr. Malachy Tenor attached himself 1a Gideon Slade. As. ho. was-exactly the typo of man to whom Gideon most objected/ he did not encourage his friendly overtures. He felt that Windover also wa& strongly disposed to kick his new guest out of the house. Strange, then, that ho did riot do so. Strange that he accepted him with a- docility that was very iin usual to him, and introduced him to Slade as "a friend of mine whom I never expected to see again-" It was blackmail or. nothing. All that was Windover's trouble, and did not really disturb Gideon Slade. savo for the fact that Malachy -Tenor appeared to have taken a strong liking for" him. and would not be shaken off. He had written out ten pages «>f "I'ro Rise of Rationalism," and was- dreadft-'il-y exhausted by his task, but it had been done. Tenor, who followed him to his room, had watched him through halfclosed lids, smoking interminable cigarettes, and lounging in a deep diair. "'Are you writing a book?" he asked,- " Much worse. Writing out a book soma one else has written," had been G'ckon's reply. "And, by the way, old sport, it. makes me nervous to be watched. L'oii t you think you could take a walk?" Even that pretty straight hint- had taken no effect, and Malachy Tenor merely moved into a different chair. " I am a sociable animal," he replied, "I like my fellow-man. It gives me a. pleasafift feeling to to watch you work so hard. You must appreciate the -gentle* man's book very greatly to go so far as to copy itfiut. Are you committing "it to memory?" . To that suggestion Gideon had made a> ribald reply which he did not repeat to Mabel Saxon, when he met her later in the summer-house. One tiling Gideon did not know was that Malachy Tenor had heard everv: word of his conversation with Mabel Saxon. Ho did not know that with a silent, snake-like movement oP his body he had slid away the instant Gideon £Ot> up and went out of the summer-house.-But his dark eves were full of malice, when at last they were all assembled on the lawn waiting for Windover, and when Gideon greeted Mabel as though they had only met that day for the first time.Tenor had merely exchanged a significant regard with Mrs. Omen, who flushed, and. pointing her toes, looked bitterly at-the grass at her feet. In spite of her glass of Madeira Mrs.. Vesey's courage was low, and a heaviness hung over the group. John Templeton. was on edge, and his nervousness in irritability of temper. "I don't seem to know you, sir, h® said, frostily, to Malachy Tenor. _ "No, that's so," Tenor said, inaiffer* ently. "Then I may tell you that I am Mi\i Vincent Windover's nephew." y "You have a fine man for an uncle. congratulate you." "Shall"I tell you what the Duke said the day his pet parrot swore at him? Gideon' suggested, as the conversation languished; but he only received tho coldest of glances even from Mrs. Vesey. "I should prefer not to know," sh« said screwing up her mouth. She did uot like the looks of Tenor, whom she. regarded as a paid impostor, but sha had begun to dislike Slade even mora vigorously. , , • 'Mr. Tenor moves in really gooft society/' Mrs. Omen went and meets the very nicest people." "Fut never more charming society than that in which I now find myself, he said, gallantly. "Ah! Mrs. Omen, yoit say that, you-Jead.the. sheltered life, ana I am glad to think it is so. Admiration, adulation, and flattery might have mad* you a different woman, if I may say so without offence. As it_ is, ( you remain unspoilt, apart, and starry. „ Tenor was heartily tired of ■ his life oj struggle and hazard, and he wondered, whether Mrs. Omen had enough money to stand herself a husband. Her brother was an asset in anj' case, and. even iJ. she were not wealthy, she would be dhlo to provide him with a home. "One grows weary of the life or. garden parties and balls," Tenor said, lowering his voice, "of those state dinners and '.receptions. They won't let one off* Directly ono is in the swim, dear lady, one has to go on swimming. I admit thah I find it very fatiguing indeed." Mrs. Vescv got up and withdrew to sk distance, talking excitedly to John Templeton, who grew whiter as he listened.The sense of impending doom deepened, and even Mabel, and Gideon became*, aware of it as they stood apart. (To bo continued daily.)