TWO FAIR DAUGHTERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19780, 29 October 1927, Page 16 (Supplement)

TWO FAIR DAUGHTERS.

CHAPTER XVL—(Continued.)

BY STELLA M. DURING. '.'-t ■" ' : 'k ' ?L* ■

"Eldon will believe you now," returned .Violet steadily.

He did, since to do anything else wa3 unthinkable. Her penitence was so pretty, her grief so sincere, that hi 3 onlv desire was to soothe her.

"My dearest, it doesn't matter. It's an accident that might happen to anyone. I always knew it was a little large for you," he told her. "I'll get you another, of course."

" And chain it .on, won't you, old thing, with a little chain down the back of my hand and a bangle ro and my wrist," returned Vivi, suddenly blithe. "It really is the only way!" and eomehow that sudden blithesomeness rankled in Brent's memory.

Bat not to the extent of destroying his happiness. All that evening he was very happy. It was the next day when once pgain the shadow fell*

For Mrs. Brent was returning to London by motor. * " And why should wa not go with her, sweetheart," he asked. "Then I couldbuy: your new ring and see that this time it fitted properly. And there is really no reason that I can see that you should hurry back.. Spend a week or two with us in London. You know how much I should love it! " But Vivi's start of dismay was plain. " Eldon. I—l can't," she told him. f* There was reasons why—why I can't go to London just now. I'd like to, of course, but —" " Tell mo one of them," Eldon's voice ;was a little cold. Vivi hesitated. For once her ready invention failed her. There was only one reason and that she could not even hint at. Brent turned away, deeply hurt. " Of course, if you would rather not, he began with all the stiffness of a much disappointed man. "It isn't that I'd rather not/' there was a hint of tears in Vivi's voice. " Then what is it-! he demanded—- * and Vivi had no answer. So that after all his short and stormy visit ended in a cloud. Ihe only reason that suggested itself for Vi-n s refusal was that Samson Wortz was still in Hayleigh. With a force and fury he had not known he possessed Brent hated Samson Wortz, and all the more that Vivi's relief at the early starting of the car refused to be hidden. January days are short, the thaw had come, and the roads were heavy, both of which factors rendered an early departure advisable. It was half-past two when Vivi waved a white and valedictory hand in outrageously gay farewell from the top of the Manbr steps—and at halfpast three she had promised to meet Roger, . The purr of the receding motor nad hardly died away when Violet came upon her in the corrfdor dressed for walking. She laid a hand that shook upon her sister's arm and drew her into her own . bedroom. " Vivi," she said, faintly, I—l1 —1 wish you. wouldn't go. I—l'm frightened. Vivi's eyes opened wide. She had all the courage of hex* caste. " Good gracious, why ? " she demanded. Violet hesitated, still holding her. " One hears—such dreadful things, she said at last. " Men, jealous men, who Jove girls as Roger loves you —" " But you don't think Roger would hurt me, do you ? Roger' " —there was almost a laugh in Vivi's voice, " I don't know what he might do. 1 daren't think! '* with sudden passion. " I saw him the other afternoon—and you didn't. You don't know what he'is like—now. You don't know what, he might do." - . ■ "He wouldn't do that! " VivTs certainty was sublime. It calmed Violet's fears a little but it could not quite banish them.

" I—l fchmk someone ought to be with vou. I think I ought," she said more Emily "Vivi, it isn't safe tc go alone.'* " But if anyone were with me I couldn't possiblv manage Roger as—as he must be managed if lam to.get my letters! Nonsense, Violet, there is nothing to be afraid of. it can do anything with Roger—if have him to myself. I shall bo quite all light.' I wouldn't go if I didn't think so' If only you wouldn't worry so." " I can't help worrying You ought to have protection of some sort. Vivi,' in sudden desperate* appeal, " will you take your revolver with you, the little revolver Samson Wortz gave you at Christmas?" The amazed amusement in Vivi's face silenced her. " Shoot! " she said with a little gurgle of laughter. "Shoot Roger! You bloodthirsty little beast. Poor Roger! But—" with a quick look at Violet's strained, white face—" I will take it —if it will be any sort of a comfort to you." I—should be happier." " Goose! " said Vivi gaily and went back to her own room. Some few minutes later, Violet followed her. With a kind of terror, as though it held something alive that mig! spring out and bite her, she drew open the' drawer of Vivi's writing-table, the drawer that as.a rule held her revolver. It was empty. , 'v She has taken it,' Violet told herself with a breath half relief, half fear. Meanwhile Vivi walked, lightly and carefully, along the muddy country roads. Violet's" nervous fears had in no way influenced her. Her poise was confident, her, eyes unafraid. That she should fail in ner errand was unthinkable. . Had she not always found Roger almost too easily bent to her will. A kiss or two, a tear or two. So Vivr told herself, walking through the shadowy larch wood, light and purposeful and unafraid. No one was at the white gate when she reached it, the gats where she had met Eoger so ofted in the golden autumn jR-eather. She glanced at her wrist watch. " He's late." she said. For some minutes more she stood ngainst the gate, definitely uneasy now, for still hfe did not come. The gold faded out of the sky and the water in the ruts turned leaden. A little chili wind sang through the larch boughs. She turned sharply and entered a little clearing on the.edge of the path, a clearing where lay a fallen tree on which, often and often, she and Roger had sat side by side in the golden autumn weather It was growing dark now, under the larches, and at first she could see nothing clearly except that Iloger was not there. But was he not? What was the long dark shadow, or what looked like a shadow, lying in the middle of the clearing ? Slowly she realised an outflung hand, pale m the gloom, against the carpet of brown larch needles, a rippled brown head not two feet from ■where 6he stood.- " Roger," she said, faintly, " Roger! " and stopped and touched that outflung hand. It was ice-cold Vivi Hung herself down, and with the strength of terror half lifted Roger's body, by his lifeless arm. A dark stain lay under him, plainly to be seen even in the dusk arid spreading slowly over the brown earth. He had been shot or stabbed . He was dead. Vivi got slowly to her feet, stood a moment, wild-eyed and wan, and then ran—and ran—and ran. CHAPTER XYIL Never in all her life could Violet forget the long, long hour she waited, cold with terror, for Vivi's return. Danger seemed to chill the very air about her, every tragedy of revenge and jealousy she had ever read about rose vividly before her eyes. " It i£n"t possible," she told herself, in a vain effort to re-assure. " Thinge like that don't happen to people like us!"— and remembered, with a shudder, that Nemesis takes no account of social position. *' Ho won't hurt her, he won't, Be loves her," shs kept repeating, and shuddered again at the thought of Vivi alone with the drink-rnaddened lunatic she had managed to soothe into something like sanity on the night of the fee carnival. If only she had not persuaded her pot to taka that aorribio pistol I If only A '

(COPTRIGBT.) Trr"

she had prevented her from going at all! Sho might have done so many things to prevent,it, sho might even have appealed to her father. A horrified realisation of the consequences that would assuredly have followed that desperate course was stilling her heart-beats and checking her breathing, when sho heard a voice, hoarse and low, call "Violet!"

She rose slowly. It could not be Vivi. Vivi would come at once to her as they had arranged. If she were able. Suddenly her hand went to her fluttering throat. It was her sister's—and yet it was not .her sister's voice. Where did it come from T Through infinite realms of space—or from the homely familiarity of the next room ? Moving stiffly, like a woman in dream, she walked across the,corridor and opened sister's door. And there was Vivi, lying in a big chair, her hat on the floor, her face hidden in her crossed arms.

" Oh, I have been so sick," she said, like a child

Violet stood one horrified moment. Vivi was on the edge of collapse. Her breath ing was hoarse and quick, she trembled so that the big chair shook and quivered under her. " Brandy said Violet, half aloud, for the practical and every-day takes amazing command in moments of tragedy, »and flew down to the dining room.

i'lie tantalus was locked and Filson had the key. She hurried to his pantry, but only Morris, his uew subordinate, was there.

" 1 want some brandy," she gasped. " Miss Vivi is ill. Find Filson and get me his keys, quick !" " There's some brandy here, Miss Voilei," he returned. Violet seized the bottle he gave her and ran. It was an old liqueur of the very best. She poured out a generous dose, took her sister's head on her arm and held the glass to her lips. Vivi drank it, her teeth chattering against the glass edge. " Lock the door," she said, as soon as she could speak. " I musn't be seen —like this."

Violet obeyed and waited, waited in a sort of trance or terror. Vivi struggled up in her chair, the strong spirit had steadied her. " He's dead," she said dully. Violent gasped. " Who is?" she demanded. " Roger is!" —and she Di/d her face in her arms again. " But—how do you know! Vivi, for heaven's sake—" and Violet dropped on her knees beside her and gave her a little shake. Vivi was silent a moment, fighting hard for control. " Of course 1 know," she said, at last " 1 saw him and touched him. 1 tried to lift him, but he was too heavy—and it was all blood underneath!" —and once again shuddering seized her. •' Oh, my dear," said Violet, on a little moan of anguished sympathy And then, "Try and teh me, Vivi. Get it over. 1 must know. What is it—that has happened tp him 1" "I can't tell you," returned vivi, faintly " 1 don't know myself. Someone has shot him—or stabbed ( him or something He was —quite dead "Shot!" echoed Violet faintly. It seemed to be the one word she had really heard. And then the question, seeming to leap out of her almost against hei will. " Vivi, where is your revolver?" Vivi was silent for a long, maddening moment. " I don't know,"sshe said at last.

"You don't know! You must know You took it with you." " No, 1 didn't. I couldn't find it. It wasn't there." " Wasn't where?" " In the writing table drawer, where 1 always keep it." " But—who could .have moved it?

" I don't know. 1 may have moved it myself. I'm very absent-ininded I often move things—and then forget. But I don't think I should do that, because Samson told me not to." " Samson!" echoed Violet, under her breath Vivi writhed.

" Oh. I wish yon wouldn't keep repeating things—like that," she said, with the intense irritation trifles can cause in moments of stress. But her impatience passed over Violet nnfelt Her mind had only room for one fact—one puzzling fact. "Samson," she said again. "What docs he know about it 1"

"He knows everything it. He found me^—with Roger—when you made me speak to him on the ice the other might. He brought me home and helped me to get in, aud took care no one saw me. He is a dear, a real friend." " Then —does he know what has happened this afternoon ?'' - " No. How can he, when 1 came straight to you. But I shall tell him." "You will tell him! Oh, Vivi, is it Samson you ought to tell ?" Vivi sat up in her chair, pushing the disordered ripples of he? hair away from her white face. " You are surely not suggesting that i should tell Eldon! That would bo the end, indeed," she said. " But you ought to tell Eldon. Surely you should ■ turn to the man you are going to marry in any trouble, however much it is of your own making, rather than to an outsider like Samson Wortz. Eldon loves you He would understand. ' " That's exactly the trouble—he wouldn't. He never has understood Now, Samson does He knows just how silly 1 can be, all the outrageous things I can do—and it makes no difleienco. " No difference to what ?" But Vivi answered nothing, and her eyes widened once again into tragedy Here they were, discussing things that mattered nothing—while Roger lay dead. Something in her face brought Violet sharply back to actualities. " Vivi, what are you going to do.' she asked. " 1 don't, know," said Vivi dully. Violet's breath caught. It was always Vivi who decided in an emergency what should be done If Vivi did not know what to do, then they were lost indeed. " But —we can't leave him lying—where did you say he was ? "I never said anywhere. But he—it—is in the larch wood out beyond the gravel plt '* But—that is two miles away—nearly three. And right off Roger's land. It mav be weeks before they hnd him. ••It won't. Mrs. HaJliford will move heaven and earth to find him. You know Sh Mrs' l Halliford■< Violet could not suppress a little, moan of pain I oor Mrs. Halliford! Yes, they would find him, and the search for some clue as to the meaning of the dreadful thing that had happened to him would be thorough With a start of terror Violet realised what it was possible they might find. "Vivi, your letters!" she breathed. " Did you get them ?" " No. I forgot all about them. Anil 1 couldn't have got them if I hadn't. He was—too heavy " But—they will search him. lhey will find them ' " Yes," agreed Vivi, dully, "I suppose they will. Violet stared at her. Vivi had always been something of a fatalist Was that dreary and hopeless creed supporting her now' Or did she not see what the inference would be —if they found her letters' Vivi read the n» "tinns in her anguished eyes and shrugged "It doesn't matter," she said, "or at least not much I have been careful what I put on paper They are all of them short, just a word or two arranging where I will meet him." " And isn't that enough ? Won't they argue that if your letters prove vou have met him before you might perhaps be meeting him again ? It would account for his being—so far from his ordinary work Was he in his working clothes?" " Yes—no. I don't remember. No, I don't think he was." " Have yon ever met him before?" " Yes, often." "Do your letters show that?" " It's not impossible. Yes, two of | them." (To be continued daily.)