THE WRATH TO GOME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18943, 14 February 1925, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE WRATH TO GOME.

BY E. PHILLIPS OPPKNHEIM. Author of "The Hillmun." " Tho Moving Fincor,'' " Tho Tomptinn ol Tavernake," "The Delorri,'' "Tho Wicked Aliii-fiue?.-," Etc., Kic. (Copyright.) CUAPIER X.—(Continued). Dinner, served ' as t.liey crept at halfspeed toward'the harbour, was a wonderin I meal. (.Irai.it V chef." who had ransacked Monte ("aridon the previous day, and motored over to Nice to collevt tho materials for olio of his favourite sauces, had surpassed- himself. Everyone, except Gertrude, seemed in the highest possible spirits. Cornelius Blunn, growing pinker with every course, sat, like an over-grown ami over-eaten child—sometimes witty sometimes ingenuous, always amusing. Rose Lancaster on one side and Susan on the other were admirable and appreciative foils for Ins gallantries. Gertrude, on Grant's right, was a little silent and intense, Lymane,' on her other side, sulky and inclined to be, melodramatic, but his neighbour declined altogether to take him seriously. " Don't you understand the situation?" she protested. "I cannot flirt with you any longer. My husband will be heie within a few hours. I must bring myself into the necessary state of mind to receive him. It is, perhaps, a calamity, but it must bo borne."

" You have tlie whole of to-morrow," he muttered. " It will take mo the whole of, to-mor-row to find myself,'' she assured him. " Here have I been encouraging Mr. Slattery and listening to you, with all the licence of a fairly respectable but susceptible grass-widow. Otto is very jealous, and I am a dutiful wife. I have little more than twenty-four hours to forget you both. 1 must be left entirely alone. I have promised to dine with Mr. Slattery to-morrow night, and a promise is a thing I never break." " I rather understood," Lymane interrupted bitterly, " that you were dining with me and coming somewhere to dance afterwards." " That was the night after, my friend. Alas! there's nothing in the least

modern about Otto. I'll give everyone fair warning that while he is hero I shall not ho allowed to dine or flirt with anyone. To-morrow night is my lastevening of freedom. Don't he .surprised, Grant, if I lead you a i-errihle dance." " I will give a dinner-party to-morrow night." Cornelius Blunn exclaimed, turning to Hose .Lancaster. " I invite everybody. I have some other friends over at Nice. 1 will wire for them. l'rinee Lutraht and his wife .shall come. T will spend the whole of to-morrow arranging it. I cannot equal Ulis festival, but 1 will see what can be done. Accept quickly, please, every one of you." There was a littk; affirmative chorus. Cornelius Blunn looked across at Gertrude. She set her lips, and shook her head. " I shall not give up my own dinner," she declared defiantly, " and I decline to let Mr. Slattery off." " Very well," Bhnm acquiesced goodhnmouredly. " I shall either alter the date of mine or it shall be an opposition. 1 shall have the roof removed from the Hotel do Paris for a quarter of an hour only, and presents dropped down from aeroplanes for every one. I shall have Mademoiselle' Lebrun from Nice to sing to us, and Coquinct to tell us stories. I shall—" "If you are trying to tempt me, I am quite firm," Gertrude interrupted. "If you give yonr dinner to-morrpw night I shall dine with Mr. Slattery." " My attitude towards your husband.in this matter," Blunn declared," will be ofte of pained but remorseful silence." " So long as it really is silence," Gertrude laughed. " I have ordered coffee and liqueurs on deck," Grant announced. " We are just entering the bay and the moon is up. You ladies may need your wraps, but it is quite warm." They trooped up the companion-way. Grant looked for Susan, but she had hurried on with young Lancaster. On deck they found that they were already headed for the narrow opening between the red and green lamps of the harbour. The great sweep of the bay was outlined by a glittering arc of lights; the towering hillside in the back-ground was bespangled with little points of fire. The , Casino

flared out in front. The moon, yellower and fuller at every moment, seemed to give a note of artificiality to the little scene. Susan and Lancaster found their way into the bows and stood watching the phosphorus. Lynmne brought Gertrude her coffee to the chair which she had chosen close to the rail, "Do you really mean about to-morrowlie asked. " Of course I do. Why not " You were not engaged lo dine with Grant Slattery," ho complained. ' You made that up." "What if J did'! .Mr. Slattery is an old friend; he talks about things that interest nte. and you don t, she confessed. " You are very young, and you think because you are private secretary to a Prime Minister, that you have to wrap yourself in a mantle of impenetrable reserve. I'm positively ill talking to you." " Come out to supper with me to-night and I'll talk about anything you like in the World." " Supper to-night," site repeated. " Shan't we be tired " You can rest for two or three hours. Let me call for you— say at twelve o'clock." " Well, you can come and see me at twelve o'clock, anyway," she agreed. " You're a very nico boy, and I didn t really mean to bo angry with you. \ou remember our bargain?" "Rather!" lie answered, rapturously. She looked over her shoulder. Grant had descended from the bridge and was coming down the deck. " I shan't say a word about it, of course," Lyinane assured her. " I see there are hopes for you, after all," she declared. CHAPTER XI. Grant walked into the Carlton at a quarter past twelve that evening, the exact hour mentioned by Cleo in the note which the commissionaire at the Sporting Club had given to him. He handed his coat and hat lo the vestiaire, made his way inside the room, which was as yet sparsely occupied, and strolled across towards where Cleo was seated alone. She welcomed him with the sparsest possible smile. "'You permit me?" he asked, with his hand on the back of her chair. " Certainly," she assented. " Sit down if you wish, but I have changed my mind. I have nothing to say to you."

Ho summoned a waiter and ordered some wine.

"That seems unloit unaie," lie remarked. " May I havo (lie pleasure of providing you with yutir atrustomed beverage j"" " You can order some tea for me. and as many cigarettes as you like. But 1 Jive, nothing to say (o yon." "Why this change? I am here at your invitation."

" It is permitted always to ;i wman to change her niitul. Frankness is best. I have changed mine because Itash has changed liis attitude towards me." " All up with ilio little liidy From the Cafe do Paris?" Grant queried.

" He lias finished with her," she con fiiiocl. " I wish I'had killed hei'."

" Consider how different everything would have been," (.rant' pointed mil . "Behold ourselves seated, friends in this very pleasing place, alive and well. If yon had killed that young lady, where would you Lie now ? In that uneonifort-able-lookiug edifice which these wise people of Monte, Carlo keep out of siylif, awaiting your trial." " I am satisfied if you are," she said shortly.

" Of com\u\ as a patriotic Aiuonoati," ho went 011, " there are tlrawbix-ks to the situation. You were going to explain to me, if I remember rightly, exactly how to save my country from, her impending doom, and you were also going I<> reveal to me various nefarious schemes directed against her." " Nothing that I said was 1 rue. It was just spite."

, " Well. I don't, know that it much matters." lie observed, sipping liis avinc. " I didn't believe it anyhow."

, " Why didn't you believe it ?" ".Because," he. told her, " I have had some conversation with Count Itash. I have come to the conclusion that that young limn is not a fool. Under those circumstances I do not see how ho could possibly have confided important political secrets to you. Nor can I conceive any sane reason for his having put them upon paper, in such a fashion that you could have stolen them. Therefore, the existence, of any means by, which you could have read the riddles of Basil's brain does not seem to me possible, so I think you were romancing." " Really," she confessed, " I find you unusually quiek of perception." " And to be equally honest," lie rejoined, "I find you only attractive inasmuch as you are entirely removed from the commonplace. You are not goodlooking enough to be a danseuso here. You just have qualities that go to the ordinary man's head. Shall we have one more, dance before I make .my disappointed way back to the hotel?" Again there was the* beginning of that smile, which she seemed never to finish.

i When the dance was finished they found | their way to two easy chairs in a far i corner of the bar. The smile was no | nearer breaking into fruition upon her lips. "If I were not in love with Sammy, I think that 1 should" rather like you." "I am not at all sure he deserves you." "I am, as you have suggested, plain and ordinary. Yet I have gifts. Sammy, at one time, loved me desperately. If ho ceases to love me and puts another in my place. I shall destroy him. At present his passion has returned. He has been very sweet to me for many hours, and so, Monsieur I'American, let us say good-bye. He does not like you. and it would do me no good to have him come here and find us together." "Mademoiselle, voir would doubtless prefer, under the, circumstances, that I <]uit the restaurant." "It would be to my advantage, in case Sammy should come," she admitted. "If you were with a party of your friends it would bo another matter." Twice, during that few hundred yards down the front, Grant, stopped, fancying that he was followed. Each time, if there had been a shadow behind, it faded away. He entered tho Casino, which he seldom visited, without exactly knowing why, avoided the Circle Prive, and hung about the tables around the entrance where the stranger visitants to Monte Carlo congregate. He drew near a table and threw a louis ori his favourite number. It lost the first time. He repeated his jstake and won. He turned abruptly round with his winnings, and was not in the least surprised to find Itash standing behind him.. "You are fortunate," the young man murmured. "They are a small part of life, these games of chance," Grant replied. "Listen," Itash expounded. "If you treat life like a science to be lived by the direction of the brain, day by day, then life grows dry as dust in the living. It counts only for the hucksters. But if one treats it as a gamble—then life is entrancing." "Philosophy on the floor ot the Casino," Grant observed. "You haven't lost your Orientalism, then, in Berlin and London ?" "I have only learned to value it the more. Without it no man can do more than climb to the middle places. In this world one needs the gambler's instinct." "You'd be a dangerous fellow." Grant remarked, "to be trusted with the whole of your patrimony within these walls." "My whole patrimony, my name, and my honour," he said, "are already at stake, but it is not the spinning of a wheel which decides my fate. Will you take a little supper with me at the Carlton, Mr. Slattery ? I have a friend who awaits me there —an acquaintance, also, I believe of yours." "With the utmost pleasure," Grant assented.

They climbed the hill and went back to the 'l'arltmi. <.-Ic«» was still seated along at Iter (able. She watehed the two men enter together. lta-.h was very ceremonious.

"You have already mc( my friend, Mr. Grant Sluttt'i'v." he ventured.

"1 liavo I.akon advantage of Mademoiselle's ollicial position here." Grant lias(cued 1o intervene. "I have Riven myself the. pleasure of dancing with her." "In thiil ease. Mademoiselle will permit ns to join her," Hash suggested. "But you have wine already upon your .table, (Jleo! How is that ?"

She glanced nt: tJi«» bottle which Grant h;id loft throe-quailors filled.

"They come here, these men, after a dance,'' she explained. "They order wine. Tin: management prefers that I accept.." Hash waved it away impatiently and gave a fresh order. Nevertheless his eyes were ssomhrelv lit.

"Among Orientals," he confided, "there is always one trait which survives—the trait of curiosity. Now that, I have you here together, tell mo, I beg, on what subject did yon Iwo converse so earnestly in the corner of the bar there, last, night or was it two nights ago?" "I was endeavouring to persuade Mademoiselle," Grant, replied, "that the tango, as a dance, is an incomplete affair. The most perfect dances in the world have been those in which the steps are absolutely registered the minuet, for instance, Dancing in the profession of Mademoiselle. It happens to be my chief amusement." Hash turned upon his guest with rapierlike suddenness. "Your chief amusement, but not your only one, Monsieur." "I play golf. T sail mv yacht a little, I am an indifferent hand at tennis," Grant acknowledged. You have no moie serious occupation in life?" Itash demanded. "My friends, T started life Irving to be serious " said Grant, "I needed a profession. I embraced diplomacy and then—see what hapnened to me. I was left seventeen million dollars, tha whole of the Van koorden estate I fell where manv a better man has 1 * fa Hen before. I am an idle man now for the rest of my days." Itash, himself, took the bottle from the ice-pail, filled his own glass and Grant's to the brim. Ho appeared to have recovered his composure. The shadow of some fear seemed to have passed him, "It is what I have been* told," he admitted. "Such wealth might dazzle any one. So I drink to your health, Mr. Grant Slattery. I have had a nightmare. It has passed." They drained their glasses. Itash was himself again. He leaned towards Cleo, "You will dance with me?" he murmured. She rose at once. There was a bustle, in the entrance-hall. Gertrude and Arthur Lymane were being ushered in. (To be continued daily.)