FORTUNE'S FOOL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19328, 15 May 1926, Page 5 (Supplement)

FORTUNE'S FOOL.

BY EFFIE ALELAIDE ROWLANDS.

CHAPTER XVl.—(Continued.) At that moment other people were announced, and Mrs. Smythe left the two alone. As she went, John Smythe bent forward to Dorina Kenyon. "If you give that back to me, he sakl, and there was passion in his voice, I shall (ling it into the fire! Don t you know everything I've got is at your disposal, though I don't consider anything J can offer you is good enough for you. 1 have tried to make you understand, but you are so English, so proud, so difficult! Sometimes I believe you hate me!" " You arc a foolish boy!" Dorina said. But sho had grown very white. He had never spoken so definitely or so strangely before. But it was not John Smythe of whom she was thinking, it was the other man who was standing just a few yards away staring at Catherine Darley in a way that was only too terrible eloquent to Dorina. As a matter of fact, Catherine Darley was not being at all agreeable to Cyril Neald. She listened to what ho had to say quietly enough and then she put a question to him suddenly: " What do you know about this accident that has happened to Mr. Gresham ?" The question came so unexpectedly that Cyril Neald gavo a great start, and a curious expression went over his face. " Accident!" ho said. "I know nothing about an accident! I haven't seen Gresham since that night I met him here when wo all came in to dance." "Oh!" said Catherine, "then you don't hear from your father very often ? I thought you and he were so devoted!" Cyril Neald laughed his rather raucous laugh, and then he said: "I wonder who gave you that idea? Of course, wo are jolly good pals my father and I, but there is no ridiculous or sickening sentimentality between us. If you want sentiment of the sickly, sugary sort, you can get it from Gresham and his mother!"

" Well, if you don't know from your father what has happened, I may as well jell you," said Catherine, ignoring the sneer at David. " I have had a letter tonight from my Aunt Monica, and she tells me that my father, who is a magistrate, as perhaps you know, is very concerned about what was presumably an accident; and that he, Dr. Wigau, and several other

influential people of the neighbourhood are taking up the matter very thoroughly. It seems that Mr. Greshatn was found lying in the road, was picked up, as a matter of fact, by Dr. Wigan himself, and he was discovered to be very badly wounded. It looks as if someone had been knocking him about." "Oh!" said Cryil Neald, and he laughed again. " Spoilt his beauty for him, has it? Of course, I know, you will be very much upset, Miss Darley. Your interest in my stepmother, I believe she is my stepmother, is so deep! David Gresham is a lucky fellow! I suppose it's that crippled leg of his that gets so much sympathy. I think I shall have to go out and have an accident!"

Catherine had flushed at the disgraceful suggestion in the last sentence, and now she flung an answer back at him.

"Yes, it is a pity that you did not go out as so many otliers did, Mr. Neald; then you, too, might have something to show for your gallantry and your honour apart from wearing a becoming uniform!" With that she turned away from him and crossed the room.

There vvero two or three of John Smythe's latest friends dining; but there were one or two people whom Mrs. Smytho had also invited. One of them was a very well-known singer, whom Catherine had written an article about only a week or so before. So she and this lady sat down and drifted into pleasant conversation, while Cyril Neald stood biting his lip and longing to be able to take Catherine by her shoulders and shake the independence and the scorn out of hor.

Ho was a very vain man, and the knowledge that this girl loathed him and despised him, the knowledge that ho was only in the house on sufferance, stung bin. sharply! As a matter of fact, ho took on a sudden resolution. He walked across to where John Smvthe was standing talking in a semi-listless way to one of his stepmother's friends, and he put his hand on the young man's shoulder. "Sorry, Jack," ho said, "but Im riot stopping to dinner." Young Siaythe stared at him. He saw at onco that something disagreeable had happened, and with an apology to the lady to whom he was talking, ho drew the other man aside. "What's wrong ?" he asked. "What do you mean about your not stopp.i.g .' Cyril Neald shrugged his shoulders. "All' well, I know when I'm wanted, and when I'm not! T don't mind confessing I'm fed up with getting the co'd shoulder! Mrs. Smytho has no use for mo, my dear Jack. And as for that Parlev'girl, sho has just .been as beastly an I riido to me as any girl could be to any Ho saw how quickly young Smytho fell into the trap, and ho went on slowly: "Of course, I came here because you invited me, but as you are apparently not master of this house, the sooner 1 go out of it the bettor!" Every word he bad spoken was like fire to the flame of resentful anger which almost unconsciously had been gathering in the mind of this pampored and foolish youth.

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"Oh!" said John Smythc, "it's lli.it way is it? Well, if you go Neald, 1 go too! You say I'm not here 1 Well, if I can't be master in this house, I can be somewhere else. I'm fed up too! Sick of being treated as if I were a chticl in a perambulator! Go clown and. wait for mo in the hall. I shall come away with you." There was a gleam of malicious satisfaction in Cyril Neald's eyes as he obeyed this command. He walked out of the room in a nonchalant manner, with his hands in his pockets and John Smythe went straight up to his stepmother; he made her a bow. '"ft seems I have made a mistake," he said in a disagreeable voice; "1 have invited people here who are not apparently interesting to you! That being the case, I shall play the host to them outside, and I shall give orders to your butler that most of my things must be packed and sent to the Ritz Hotel tonight." Then lie turned round to his various friends, who were standing about watching this little scene uncomfortably, and he called them by name. "Come along!" he said,'"we are going to enjoy ourselves. Somewhere else, and you must come too, Dorina." Mrs. Smythe stood very quietly, and made no reply to her stepson. She only showed how much she was hurt, and also how much she suffered by the way her hands trembled and the pallor which crept over her face. She was quick to see how Dorina shrank from this public and unseemly action, and once again she pitied the girl. "I burr of you that you will study your own wishes entirely, Miss Kenyon," she said. "1 shall be delighted if you care to stay hero, but I know how much . . ." She was not allowed to finish the sentence, for John Smythe showed an Eastern arrogance which was tinged with cruelty; he pulled Dorina away. "Von are my friend," he said hotly, "and I want you; so does Cyril; so do all of us!" As he went out of the room, followed awkwardly and even reluctantly by one or two of the people whom he had brought there, Mrs. Smythe turned to her other guests and tried to laugh.

"You see," she said, 'John is very little more than a baby! And all the spoiling and pampering that he had when he was so long in the East has not yet been eradicated. Please doa't let this spoil the pleasure of our evening. Wo will wait just a minute or two, then I will ring, and we will have dinner." CHAPTER XVII. Despite David's anxiety that his mother should -rZt be told of the extraordinary episode that had happend to him, it was found impossible to keep her in ignorance. In fact when Dr. Wigan called the next morning as he did, first of all going to Mrs. Neald's room to ascertain how she was, and so to give -.a cheerful account of his patient upstairs, he found David's mother dressed ;and waiting for him, and he at once remarked that there was a difference in her. Sho was not agitated or distressed, she was calm and seemed to have complete grip of herself. Of course, as he had said to Ellen the night before, the spell of relief which Mrs. Neald had experienced during her husband's absence had worked very beneficially on her, and therefore she was stronger and altogether more fit for any trials which might arise. In fact she put the doctor through a vei-y close examination, and when he hesitated to tell her what he knew in connection with the so-called accident which had happened to David, she smiled at him rather sadly.

" f know perfectly well, Dr. Wigan," she said, " you, like my dear boy, are anxious to keep me in ignorance, but you must please forgive me if I say I know exactly what happened to David. I have already been up to see him. That surprises you, doesn't it? I'm noli as a rule so active in the early morning, but there are times when one ceases to think of oneself and when one feels that there are claims upon one's courage which cannot be set aside. Now, please, will you tell me everything ? David is far too ill to talk this morning, and Ellen, knows nothing, and possibly would say nothing if she did so. She is a good soul,'' Mrs. Neald added warmly, " but I can quite understand her attitude."

Dr. Wigan answered Mrs. Neald in his usual matter-of-fact way. He gave her an exact account of what had happened us far as he knew, that is to say, he described how he and Levitt had come upon David lying on the high road practically unconscious, and bearing evidence of having been very brutally ill-treated. "It is a matter which is causing me the greatest anxiety," the doctor said when he came to the end of his story. " I have already approached the squire and the vicar, and there are various other people in Copplethorne who must be informed of this outrage. But I am perfectly convinced of one thing, and that is that your son's assailant must have been a stranger, for I don't think there is a single person in the village or round about- who would have been capable of treating him in this manner even if there should be one who had a grudge against him, which is impossible!" Mrs. Neald looked at the doctor, and he was astonished to see the strength and the hardness that ca.me over her beautiful face. "No!" she answered. "There was no one in the village who would have besn capable of doing this dastardly thing, we must look nearer home. I have not yet spoken to my husband, but I shall do so as soon as you have seen David with me, and given me your verdict as to his condition this morning. Shall wo go up?" The doctor hesitated, and put his hand on her arm gently. " Are you sure you are equal to this, Mrs. Neald ?" he asked. And she answered him calmlv:

" Yes. You aro going to find in me a different woman from what I have been since I came here. There are circumstances which can only be dealt with by me and I shall deal with them without delay." It was only when she. stood once again beside her boy's bedside and looked down on him, on his bruised and battered face, that Mrs. Neald's courage seemed to fail her. But when David opened liis eyes and saw her, and then tried to sit up and speak to her, sho was calmness itself again. " Yes, it is I, darling, and I am going to nurse vou. Now don't worry about me! Dr. Wigan will tell you T am quite equal to doing all a mother should do. And you're not to talk, David ! Nor are you to fret. You are to try to get over this business as quickly as you can." It was evident, however, that her presence did agitate David and fretted him a great deal, and so Dr. Wigan thought it better to give him something that would soothe him and at the same time permit him, the doctor, to make a full examination of the injured leg. Mrs. Neald then showed of what stuff she was made, although it brought almost a cry from her lips as she saw evidence of the kicks which had been directed at David when he had lain unconscious on the ground. But she still kept a firm c;rip on herself, and she made the doctor give her full directions as to the treatment to apply and also how David was to be fed, and she then took full command of the sick room. At the same time, knowing the love and devotion which David gave his mother, Dr. Wigan determined that sho should have help, and when ho left the house (which he did without seeing Ronald Neald) ho made his way first to his own house and telephoned to the nearest town for a good nurse; and then he called at the Home Farm to interview the squire and give latest reports of David Gresham. Ho found the squire had already gone out, but he saw Miss Fellowes, who was terribly distressed and who of courue warmly offered any help in her power to David's mother. It was after the doctor had gone that Miss Fellowes had sat down and writtgn the letter to Catherine which had reached the girl lata

that night when sho was going, to dine with Mrs. Smythe. The squire had" gone direct to the Grange. The door had been opened to him by Mr. Neald himself; who tried to disguise a scowl when he saw who his visitor was. "Oh! it's you, Squire. Come in!" he said. " Come in." Catherine's father walked straight into the hall. " My object, Mr. Neald," he said, " is not to pay you a visit. I am here to express to Mrs. Neald if I can my amazement and my distress at this shocking outrage on her son." Ronald Neald scowled, and thj?n answered quickly-: " I'm afraid it will be impossible to see my wife. As you know, she. is a great invalid and is in her room." " Then I shall ask Mrs. Neald if she will permit me to visit her in her room." Before Neald could make any reply to this, a voice answered the squire from the stairs, and both men turning roundquickly, saw Millicent Neald descending the stairs slowly. " I am very grateful to you, squire," she said, " and I shall be more grirlTri-:. still if you will take this matter up, and have it thoroughly gone into." Mr. Darley went forward and took her hand in his, pressing it warmly. " You may reply on me, Mrs. Neald," he said. " This matter has upset the entire community and I can assure you that there is a feeling of anger, just anger, that Mr. Gresham should have been so treacherously attacked. If you can give me any information, I shall bo very grateful." Mrs. Neald passed her husband and led the way into another room on the ground floor, not the study. " If you will come in here we can talk for a little while," she said. " Then I'm going back to David; he: is in no fit condition as yet to give any explanation." The expression on Ronald Neald's face as lie saw his wife pass him with the squire and shut the door, would baffle description. He seemed like a man who had received a tremendous shock: his face turned livid and he went back into his study and slammed the door, then ho' paced to and fro the length of the room, muttering in ugly fashion to himself. And then again he had recourse to whisky, and after ho had. swallowed a goodly quantity his courage seemgd to come back to him, and he laughed aloud. " Let them make what inquiries they will," he muttered to himself. " I've still got the whip hand." He was pacing to and fro the room, when, about ten minutes later, the door opened and his wife entered. Neald turned on her savagely. " So all this time you have been playacting! Pretending to 'be a half-dving woman calling in doctors and having nurses!" Millicent advanced into the room and otood facing him. She was very pale, but. her eyes were full of fire and she held herself steadily. " You have gone too far this' time, Ronald," she said. "Perhaps you thought to kill me? Instead of that you awakened me . . . you have put cour-' age into me, such courage as gives mo strength to stand upright where I am and defy you !" The man laughed harshly: " Defy me!" he said. '.'You know you can't." * Her answer was another surprise. " We have yet to test that," his wife "said quietly. "In these last few hours, hours of anguish, of rage, of mortification, I have been born anew. Just because I went to pieces when you came into my life and allowed you to overbear me and to frighten me, I suppose you. thought I was done for ever ? You haVe counted too much on my physical and my mental weakness. This last business has struck me through the greatest thing I possess —my love for my son, and now lam going to fight you 1 Fight you to the encl!" As he went forward as if to strike her, Mrs. Neald put up her hand. " Yes, that is the only way you know how to fight! By using brute force on helpless people. Well! you had the game in your hands but you have played your last card. Already the entire place here is against you; one more step toward injury where David is concerned and I'll set the whole village on you, driving you out like the cur that you are! As it is, lam going to undo what has been done as quickly as I can, and so I repeat I defy you! You have taken a long time, Ronald, to bring forward the proofs you threaten me with! It won't take me quite so long to get together the evidence needed to confront you, and destroy the plot you have made against me and my son! " I have to-day put the whole truth before Squire Darlev:" At these words, Ronald Neald started violently and then began to tremble. Ho seemed "to be shaking with the ungovernable rage which took possession of him, . and it was not all rage, there was fear mingled with it. The sight of that slender, delicate woman, so lovely even though her face was pallid to the lips, seemed to him like an apparition arisen in his path to denounce and to destroy. And then he got some control of himself and he broke into a flood of threatening, ugly words: lie might even have carried his threats into action, only that Dr. Wigan,„ who had entered through the kitchen and had overheard this rough voice.raised in a fury of anger, stood in the doorway, and then : moved forward quickly to put himself between Mrs. Neald and the furious man. The doctor speke very quietly arid commandingly: —' I advise vt*u to pull yourself together, Mr. Neald,"" he said. " I have telephoned to the police-station in the town and the inspector has told me he is taking up this matter at once. He is motoring hero, coming to question you as to whether you can throw any light on last night's affair. I thought I would, come and give you this information myself. Then the doctor turned to Mrs. Neald. " I think it will bo better if you have no more of these scenes. After all, you are very wonderful, Mrs. Neald, but you are not the strongest person in. the world, and David now will require all your care and you will require all your courage and your strength nursing him." Mrs. Neald thanked him quietly, and, turning, she went out of the room. When she had gone, Dr. Wigan sat down and took out a notebook and pencil. " As I was one of the two men who found Mr. Gresham lying unconscious on the high road, I shall be asked to give my report, and therefore it is important that I should know, if possible, something of what, lies behind this attack on Mr. . Gresham." (To bo continued daily.).