LOVE'S VICTORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19156, 23 October 1925, Page 7

LOVE'S VICTORY.

BY : EFFIE ADELAIDE ROWLANDS.

(Copyright.) CHAPTER XL—(Continued).' Perhaps because site felt she wanted to get rid of this foreign youth, or perhaps because she was sorry for him, Rachel Blyth spoke about the Emersons. " There were some people of that name here/' she said, " but they left two days ago, I think they went to London." " London," said tho boy, and then he gave a sigh that came as it were from the bottom of his heart* Then • he plied Rachel with questions. Was she certain? Would mademoiselle bo so land as to say how had they gone, when had they gone, ana why 1 Lady Blyth's younger daughter was beginning to get a little troubled, and she got up quickly. •" I have told you all I know," she said. " You must go to the hotel if yon want to know more." The youth made no effort to stop her going; he merely poured out grateful thanks. And as Rachel stooped to pick up her book, which had fallen to tho ground, the boy turned and hurried away from her, going toward tho gate that led out on to the high road beyond. " What a tunny boy!" she said to herself. " I wonder why on earth he wouldn't go to the hotel V She sat down again, and this time, opening her book, began to read. And she was still there when the magnificent motor-car containing her mother and the lady with her rolled in through tho gatoS and slid past her in the distance. Rachel shut up her book and got up with a sigh. She would have to go in now. To bo absent from her mother at tea timo would bo to bring upon her devoted head a very avalanche of anger. But as sho was making her way across tho grass toward the drive, _ sho pulled up suddenly, for an open taxi came rolling through the gates, and with a great leap in her heart she recognised that it was no less a person than Gerald Craven himself. Like Lorna, young Craven-s sympathy had gone out to Rachel. He scarcely could ha,vo said why, but ho felt sorry for this younger Blyth girl. He feltthat she was snubbed and rather put upon by her family. There was a little plaintive expression in her eyes which appealed to him, and seeing her standing with the colour coming and going m her face and an evident look of welcome about her, ho leaned forward and told the chauffeur to draw up. " You can wait for mo outside tho gates," he ordered. " I shall not be very long." , i , Then he came forward and spoke to her. " What are you doing out hero ail by yourself ?" he said. " I have been sitting under tho trees reading," the girl answered. And then sho said impulsively! "I'm so glad you have come back." But as she spoke, she was looking at him and she noticed how changed he was; ho looked worn as if he had been ill; his eyes were very tired and there was an indescribable note about him which Rachel Blyth could not define, but which sho reaLised very clearly. M " Oh, I haven't come back to stay, Craven said hurriedly. " I ran down because I believe thero are some letters for me—important letters —and as I am going north to-morrow I thought I would just snatch a few hours and. come down to-day to fetch these letters." The girl's face -fell, and the quicls happv beat of her heart died down. " Not going to stay ? Oh, lam sorry. We have missed you so much, and the place does not seem tho same without you and Miss Mallingato. I-have you seen her? Have you heard how Mr. Emerson is ?" Gerald Craven prevaricated. " Oh, I believe he is going on all ngtit. I don't sea much of them; you seo they have been so dreadfully upset.' " I quito understand," said Rachel Blvth. "It was so sudden, wasn't it ? " Yery sudden!" Gerald Craven said, with a catch in his voice. - . They had turned and were walking toward the hotel entrance. Tho young man exerted himself to speak to his companion. Ho wanted to be easy and natural; tho while his whole being was consumed with enormous excitement, rle could scarcely have said why he had rushed down to the sea coast, except that the silence was beginning to wear on his nerves. And ho suddenly buoyed himself with the hope that if ho were to go back to the hotel thero might be some news from Lorna or her mother. To have left in such'a hurry they must at least have promised to send their address. As they walked through the hot sunshine, Rachel Blyth put a question to him have not been very well, have you? You look so pale, Mr. Craven." "I havo not been at all well tho last few days," Gerald Craven answered truthfully. "A touch of the sun, perhaps —it was so hot down here." _ "Yes, and you would play without anything on your head." At this he laughed faintly. "Well, one- cannot wear a hat or cap really—it is a great bother. As they passed in through the wide entrance, Craven found himself being greeted by various people, all of whom expressed pleasure at sight of him. The office was iust a little way msiae the entrance and Rachel Blyth found herself walking beside him toward the office. She heard him inquire for letters. The clerk gave him two, and as she did so she said: . "I suppose you cannot give us Mrs. Emerson's address, can you, Mr. Craven? We have got their luggage waiting to be sent on, and thero are one or two letters here." ~ , It was on the tip of Gerald Craven s tongue to say that ho was ignorant, and then he checked himself. _ "I shall probably bo seeing Mrs. Emerson to-night or to-morrow. You might sivo mo the letters, and"—he paused just an instant, and then gave the address o. the hotel where Bertha Northwood was staying—"and you had better send on the luggage to the hotel," he said. I lease put 'Care of Mrs. Northwood because I understand that Miss Maliipgate and her mother are, in all probability, go..ng to stay with Mrs. Northwood. He told himself quickly that he could explain everything to Bertha Northwood, and his one desire was to protect Lorna and her mother from undue curiosity. The letters that were given to him were three —two were addressed to Lorna ana one to her mother. _On inquiry he found that there was nothing for Mr. Emerson. "Won't you come and have some tea with mother?" Rachel asked eagerly, as tkev went away from the office, ife thanked her, but declined. "I have some errands to do in the town, and I want to get batk by the five train." I-Ia was very kind to the girl. He felt that she wanted to be sympathetic, but he had no desire to linger in this hotel; it recalled Lorna too vividly and tho fact that ho had been asked for information proved only too surely that he had taken his journey in vain. Rachel walked back with him through tho sunshine right up to the gate where his taxi was waiting, "Everything is so changed since you went away. We all miss you—and Miss Mallingate's quick departure really threw a gloom over everything. Won t yon please give her my lovo and tell her I miss her very much ?" As ho took off his hat and held, out his hand in farewell, Rachel said involuntarily : "It is funny 1 Tho office at tho hotel is not tho only place where information is required about Mrs. Emerson. There was the funniest boy here just this afternoon, who woke mo up when I was dosing. Ho was foreign and rather difficult to "understand, but he was carrying an envelope, on which was written tho name of this hotel and also tho name of 'Emerson.' And as far as I can gather this boy wanted to know ii tho Emersons were .still staying here ?/'

Gerald Craven's heart gave a great leap. "A boy 1' A foreigner! That is funfty, But where is he ? Dicl you notice which wav ho went?"

| "I am afraid I didn't,"" Rachel Blyth I answered, "but well, to be quite frank with you, Mr. Craven, I got a little nervous, this boy seemed so funny; so odd, so excitable., and then I didn't feel justified in talking about other people. Even if I had known where the Emersons aro now, I don't think I should have toid this boy." "Of course, I quito understand," said Gerald, " but look here, can you give me a description of this foreign lad? I'll tell you why I ask. "You know Mrs. Emerson's eldfr daughter has been living in Paris for some time, and possibly this boy may be someono from her." "A sister of Miss Mallingate's! lived in Paris! Oh, how stupid of me! I never thought of it, of course. But ho did not mention Miss Mallingate's name; ho only asked for Emerson. It seemed to bo very important to him that ho should know something about Mr. or Mrs. Emerson. I really cannot tell you which —he was so difficult to understand. I see which way he went," Rachel Blyth added," but he disappeared very quickly." Gerald Craven hardly knew how he got away from the girl. He was all oo fire. A 'foreign boy inquiring for. Emerson ! It must, ho argued, be somebody from Pauline or connected with Pauline Mallingato; it could have no other explanation. Oh, if ho had only arrived a little earlier! Before he got into tlie taxi, he instructed tho driver. "I want you to take me ail along tho front. I am looking to find a boy—a foreigner. If you drive very slowly we shall probably overtake him." "Right you are, sir," said the chauffeur, and ho got in and they moved along very slowly. But though they went up and down tho front several times and Gerald Craven got out of the cab and walked about the lawns and stood and looked down on the beach, he could discover no one who in the least resembled the foreign lad about whom Rachel Blyth had spoken. It was disappointing, but as ho was eager to gat j back to London, Gerald Craven had to get into tho taxi again and drive as quickly as. possible to the station. CHAPTER XII. Gerald Craven was going to Yorkshire: on the urgent entreaty of his friend; the truth being that Mrs. Northwood was beginning to worry about the young man, and although sho had no intention of keeping him longer than a day or two, she decided that oven just a break from the strain would be beneficial. Sho drove to meet him, and was grieved to see, as Rachel Blyth had seen, how worn and changed the young man was. He looked almost as ill as he had done when ho came back from the front. "I thought I had plenty _of pluck," ho told her, " but the fact is that this anxiety is too much for me! If one could only get in touch with them; if one could only know if all is well with them!" Bertha Northwood could give him really no comfort, but she tried to speak hopefully and cheerfully. The point sho argued was what she had already ad- ■ vanced, that people could not disappear as Lorna and her mother had done with; out there being some clue or other cropping up before very long to end the mystery. " It will come in the most unexpected wav!" sho declared. And then sho told him about the strange part that she was convinced Paulino was playing. " I have not seen her again, she said, " since tho evening I spoke to her outside the station, but I know I made no mistake, and I have been debating with myself, Jerry, "whether I should not take tho bull by tho horns and go straight to The Moat and face Pauline," . " But do you associate her with this strange disappearance of her mother and Lorna and all that has happened?" queried Gerald. Mrs. Northwood paused before answering, and then she flicked her ponies, for she had driven herself to meet the .young man, and when she had got them past a traction engine, which was inclined to frighten them, she said: '< it may be ridiculous on my part, but I do' You must not ask me for my reasons; I haven't-any! Only there was a look on Pauline's face at the restaurant which I can't forget. And there certainly was something very strange about her manner when I spoke to hor here. And while' eveijything that is happening now in connection with her people is so upsetting, it is almost a natural conclusion to put two and two together and connect her in some way with what is taking place." " Do you think she would see me, if I were to call?'* Craven asked eagerly. Mrs. Northwood gave him a quick-look. " Well, that's an idea. We must discuss it fully." , " If you are sure that this is Lorna s sister, well I think I have some right ..in approaching her, since I am gomg to marry Lorna," the young man urged. " We will talk it all out," Mrs. Northwood said, " but now what you have to do, my boy, is to get some of this beautiful air into your lungs, and just to tako a good strong pull at yourself! Wo shall put an end to this mystery before v ery ° Then she made him talk about himself. She was very interested in his work and all that he had been doing. And when he told her that he had been down to tho seaside and had brought away some letters for Lorna and her mother, she suggested that these letters snould be given to herself. " I don't make it a habit of opening other people's letters," she said, ' burn these particular and peculiar conditions, I think I am justified in using everv means to get in touch with something or someone who may be of help. About the foreign boy who had spo'tom to Rachel Blyth and Geralds fruitless search for this same boy, Sirs. Northwood was a little dubious. , "Of course it may be that there is something in it," she said, btit I dori^ u see the connection just at the moment. "Only," Gerald pleaded, thai he was carrying an envelope on which, was written the word Emerson. now I wish I had been there when he spoke to Miss Blvth! How on earth he managed to disappear so quickly I can t imagine. She said it was only a few minutes since ho had spoken to her. But then ot course we wasted time m going into the hotel. It was not until I was just leaving her that she told me about this boyso I suppose that he had full time to get iost hi the crowds on the beach." Ihen he looked at Mrs. Northwood, and he smiled faintly. "I'm not a good detective and I iind I am not at all a patient 10 "' dead tired," said Bertha Northwood, in her motherly way. "What vou want is a good night s rest,, and a am hoping that this change ot air will do vou good. Now, don't get fidgety and fret because you have left London, have given 'your housekeeper full, instructions, and may be quite sure that she will obey those instructions and communicate with you without delay.

(To be continued daily.)