LOVE, THE CONQUERER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18996, 18 April 1925, Page 5 (Supplement)

LOVE, THE CONQUERER.

BY CARLTON DA WE,

Author of " Tho Temptation of Solma," I " Euryalo in London," " Virginia," " A Tangled Marriage," Stranger than Fiction," etc. (Copyright.) CHAPTER VI. | TOOT!; .AND (JI.AW. With Clare's departuro the atmosphere i changed, grew tense, ominous. Mrs. Kincross forgot her languor, M.". Glegg his ' manners. His little eyes gleamed ferociously under their ginger brows; the 1 points of his ginger moustache bristled, i "What tho devil do you mean by barging about like a cart-horse!" he snapped. Anyone more unlike a cart-horse it ' might bo difficult to imagine. A thoroughbred now, if you like, slender ,of limb and glossy of coat, proud of eye and ) elegant in action; but a cart-horse! Tho , offensive phrase, however, left her unruffled. Perhaps the curl deepened a little i round her lip; nothing more. "What's your game, Jamie?" sho • asked quietly, yet in a tone which appeared instantly to modify his aggressive attitude. .. "What do you mean ?" he growled. "What I say. What game do you think you're playing with Clare Mallus- ; ton ?" "No game. I'm serious." i "'ln what?" "I'm going to marry her." His jaw , jutted out defiantly; iiis whole attitude was a provocation, a challenge. Plainly j evident to him was the smile that played round her lips, hut otherwise she remained culm, unruflled. "Who said so ?" she purred softly. "I did. You heard me." "I have heard you say so many things that weren't true." "Now you're hearing ire say one that is." "But she would never marry you, Jamie, arid anything else in her case is unthinkable." "Why shouldn't she?" "One of your class . . my dear man !" The mobile mouth curled scornfully. He felt as though ho would like to smash it. "You swallowed uiy class easily enough," he sneered. "Oh, no, not easily; no one could swallow you easily. You must be under no delusion on that point.." "I get what I want," he said, "and that's the main thing."

I "You won't got it in this instance, ! rest assured of that." I He smiled amusedly. "Look here, old I girl, we needn't quarrel. It's time. I settled down again, and I can't many you." He said something more which caused the blood to sweep over her face, which brought a momentary gleam of anger to her fine eyes. "So that is what you think of me ?" she asked in a low voice. "You know I think of you as one of the best, the very best." he reiterated ; "hut things can't go on for ever. There comes a time when a man feels lie wants his own, his very own; when ho wearies of promiscuity. There's only one road that leads to happiness," lie added sententious! y. "Tho straight and narrow?" Her amusement deepened in tone and look. "That's so," he answered defiantly. "But you can't follow it, Jamie; it's not in you. You never liked it when you had a chance, and you can't use it now." Again he made a remark which set her eyes aflame, tingled her pulses. The long lithe figure writhed. Oh, tho unutterable thing! "Having sold yourself to the devil, you'll find he'll make you stick to the bargain." • "I'll compromise with a fat cheque." "You cannot compromise with fate; there are no cheque books in heaven—or hell." "You probably know something about tho latter," he sneered. "Isn't that so very like you. No, my dear man, it won't do; once step aside you are lost. You have your limitations, Jamie, recognise them and curb ambition." "There is nothing a man may not achieve in this world if he can afford to pay for it." "Yet I do not think you will achieve Clare Mallaston." "What makes yon think so?" "Jamie Glegg is not commonly accused of being short-sighted," she replied, smile and tone being singularly provocative. ■ "What are you driving at? Look here, you've got something up your sleeve. What is it?" She pulled up her sleeve, displaying a perfectly moulded arm. His eyes rested on it; his lips 100 had often traced those blue veins. "What is it?" she repeated. "You're a clever one, Madge." "I'm beginning to doubt." "Whatever happens I shall remain your friend. You know that?" "I know you are the soul of honour, my dear thing, but 1 also know the value of a. dicer's oath. It would be strange, j don't you think, for a woman to break her heart over a broken promise?" "Frankly, I think it would take more than that to break yours." "And you who have lived so long in the world of men see no better than this."

"No better than what? Come, what aro you trying to tell me?" Presently ho would get really angry with her, Sho continued in., a provocative, irritating tone: "Puppies, they say, take nine days to sco; men nine weeks, nine years, or never; women at once." "What did you see at once?" "Darling." Ho started; then his face grew fierce and fiery. Seeing that sho had stung him, her self-complacent smile deepened. "Darling?" lie snapped. But sho had shaken him; uncertainty added zest to his look, and her enjoyment. "She is in love with him, my dear man; she has been from the first." Now this was a shaft dispatched at random, but it found its mark. If any slick is good enough to boat a dog with, any artifice was pardonable which humiliated this vain, pompous and incredible creature. "Pooh," ho answered, affecting a contempt which by no means deceived her, "you're wide of the mark this time, my girl. If lam no class, as you say, what the devil do you call him?" "The class that counts with a woman. It's hard to describe, but we feel it instinctively You haven't it, Jamie; you can't cultivate it, and you can't buy it." "I believe you're ha'f in lovo with him yourself. I've watched your languid airs and graces." She was still smiling. "I shouldn't wonder." "Well here's your chance, silver mine and all." He laughed at the coarse brutality of the, jest. Her brows came together, her lids lowered; ominous sparks scintillated through her lashes. "Of what use the attempt—in the circumstances?" Sho knew her man, and the best of all methods to shake him. "I don't believe a word of it," "You mean you don't wish to believe a word of it. Perhaps I'm wrong; even a woman's instinct is not always infallible." "But you don't think you are?" She marked his tone of uncertainty; knew that she was shaking him deeply. "I have told you what I think; it is for you to prove or disprove." Clearly he was in doubt. Nothing had been further from his thoughts than that Darling should prove a rival. A stranger, coming out of nowhere, a nondescript with a nebulous record behind him. And he was Jamie Glegg, known of all men, sought after by many, flattered by women, handsome, well-bred women. Preposterous! " You're guessing," he said. " Perhaps." " What have you seen, what do you know ?" " Enough to c'onvince me that you aro backing a loser." "Meaning myself?" She nodded. "My dear man, it would shatter my last remnant of self-respect to have you proved wholly ridiculous."

"That's very considerate of you; but [ the man or woman who sets out to make a fool of Jamie Glegg, or expects to find ' him 0110, is looking for trouble." I " That is a most consoling reflection—from Jamie Glegg's point of view. My i good friend, 1 am a woman of tho world, and I hope wise enough to recognise tho inevitability of change. Of course, it's a shock when it comes, though wc know the coming to bo sure and certain. You are no worse than others of your kind, though perhaps at times a little more ■ brutal. You see, I balance impartially dsEochmzcom-f.roa luqa your good points with your bad ones, the sum of which proclaims the type v in unmistakable figures." " I'm glad to find you so reasonable." Her coolness annoyed him immeasurably; that the loss of him should fail to provoke tears or hysterics was not flattering. Moreover, he felt that she was quietly taunting him with the failure of an enteri prise oil which he had set his heart. " Naturally 1 would be frank and above hoard with you, old girl," he forced himself to say. And of necessity I accept without demur. Hcigho, what a life it is!" She rose, stretched her long arms, and lit a fresh cigarette. Glegg watched her as she swayed across the room and out through the door. Then he too took out a cigarette, which he tapped viciously on his gold case before lighting. What a worry these women were, more trouble than the controlling of twenty companies. A man could deal with men, bring them up with a word, order, command, and see that his commands were obeyed; but one woman, wilful, obstinate, unreasonable, deranged tho whole machinery of life. Why did ho bother himself with them, and why was he determined to go on bothering '! Now should there bo truth in what Madge had said there might be 110 time to lose. Of course, he. could not believe it, would not; yet it annoyed him. Women after all were queer creatures. Hitherto lie had not believed this commonplace; 1 had jeered at the absurdity of it. a. tlis- ' proved, idiotic aphorism. To his thinking '• there was nothing queer or mysterious about the sex; they were frankly greedy, 1 ferociously avaricious, pitiless in their div ; dain of character or merit, repulsive in their treatment of poverty. He remembered the time when his friendliest smile brought no reciprocal response, when ho 1 was not even considered worthy of a frown. He looked from afar at beautiful women, but was not seen by them. He was but an insignificant little red headed | bounder in those days, one of ten million insignificant bounders. But they looked 1 at him now. were all smiles when lie spoke, seemed anxious to pleas*. The world was a queer place if you like; but women, no! (To bo continued daily..)