THEN CAME LOVE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20011, 30 July 1928, Page 16

THEN CAME LOVE.

BY FRANK PRICE.

CHAPTER XVI. (Continued.) " Then do you intend to let them go free ? " Lilian asked. "lam asking you to let them go free," he answered. "Me ? " she cried. " But what have I to do with it ? " " You have everything to do with their last offence, and that is really all that matters, since it is the only one of which any outsider knows. The other has been kept secret; you know why. Ihe same reasons apply to this later affair for, aftei all, Geoiirey is a member of the family and publicity would only bring disgrace upon us all. If they arc arrested and brought to trial everything must conic out—the truth about both cheques, the reasons for my father's quarrel with me, the fact that he suspected me of being a forger, and a thief and that lie died in that belief." " And the fact that he disinherited you under a misapprehension ! " she cried in a tone which made him look at her quickly. " What of that? " he asked. "Everything!" she answered. "It is the onlv thing that matters Don't you see, Marston, that this discovery ol the real forger of the cheque which caused your father to make that unjust will makes the position between you and rat more impossible than ever ? I have always known that I had no shadow of right to what your father left me, that if I took it I should be robbing you ol what was yours; 'now we have the means of proving it to all the world by bringing these two wretches to justice. It can be shown in open court that your father's will was based on a misunderstanding and that the only right and proper thing is for you to take back all he would have left you if he had known the truth! " Marston was silent for a moment, taken aback by her words and the glowing energy with which they were spoken. Intent "as he had been upon considerations ©f which she was ignorant, it had not struck him how she might view the revelation of Geoffrey's plot and the conclusions to be drawn from its exposure. But finally he made the only answer which seemed possible for him. " I can take nothing from you under any circumstances." " But you must! " she cried " Surely you see how impossible it is i'or me to look on myself as the owner of Wroxley after what you have told me ? I have never done so, but now, if I allowed such a thought to find a place in my mind for an instant, I should feel like a criminal. And that is what I should be! I should be profiting by a crime! I should be a- receiver of stolen goods! " " That is absurd, Lilian! " he exclaimed. "It is the simple truth! Geoffrey's •whole plan was designed to rob you in order tnat he might benefit by your loss. He succeeded in robbing you but, because the proceeds of his .crime .came to me instead of going to him, they are not a bit the less stolen ' goods ! I can't accept .them, Marston I will not! You must take them back! " Again he stood silent, • looking at her ■with an expression she could not understand.; The moment was indescribably bitter for him. With her flushed cheeks, her ardent eyes and her whole face alight with the loyal amf generous impulse which had stirred her, she looked very beautiful and desirable. And behind and beneath the mere material offer she was once more making him, he knew her love was waiting to be taken if he would but stretch out his hand for it. But that he could not do, though everv fibre of his being was yearning for her. He could not accept anything of what she was so anxious to give him ! He clenched his hands and exerted a supreme effort to control himself sufficiently to speakquietly. But he dare not answer her directly. "All this is beside the point, Lilian. Inspector Forrester is waiting for you and you must decide what you are going to Bay to him. What is "it to be ? " Your name must be cleared from every slightest shadow of suspicion," she exclaimed. " That is already done," he said pointing to the confession she held. '•'Jut publicly!" she answered. "Why I have never been publicly accused. And that, at least, is a matter whioh concerns me nearest. My father could not deprive me of my position as head of the family and—" " That is enough, Marston," she said quietly. "I see I have been rushing.in where I had no right. Of course, you »re the person to decide what shall be done. lam only an interloper! " He looked at her sharply to see if she Were offended, but there was no sign of that. Sh9 was simply accepting the situation as it appeared to her and acknowledging an authority residing in him which he haa not intended to claim. But he was too well satisfied to see a way of gaining ends to enter upon further argument. " Then you will call the inspector off ?" he asked. Would it not be better for vou to do that ?" " How could I ? He is working for you. I have no standing with him—and I have no wish to meet him." As you like," she said. She went to ;the door where she paused to say, " but I am only acting for you,- Marston!" She w'ent out a,nd he breathed a sigh of relief. With Inspector Forrester out of this affair he would not be called on to meet the police. He could deal with Lilian himself. CHAPTER XVII. VALERIE FACES INMAN. Hodgson came to tell Marston that food Lad been laid for him in his room, and he went out of the library just as Valerie and Lady Margot came from the dining room. Valerie called out to him and, as he paused at the stairs, Hodgson went to answer a knock at the front door. " Surely you're not running away from two lonely women after deserting them all day!" Valerie said, approaching him. " I have not dined," he answered frigidly, " and food is waiting in my room." , " Shall I come and talk to you while you eat?" She took hold of his coat, looking up with an assumption of coquetry. " You know pleasant conversation is an aid to digestion." " I shall be glad of a talk with you eoon," he answered meaningly, " but what I have to say would not act as a digestive for either of us. In the meantime, here is someone who will no doubt bo able to amuse you." He pointed to Inman .whom Hodgson had shown in. He saw her become suddenly rigia as 6he recognised the visitor and then, as Inrnan advanced with a smile, Marston went up the stairs with Lady Margot. iValerie waited until they disappeared. '"What do you want here?" she whispered then. " Not to get my head bitten off," was the retort. "If that's how you receive callers, I'm glad you're not hostess here." " You will never visit hero when I am hostess. " What's that ? Are you proposing to become hostess here 1" " Never mind what J propose. What brings yon to Wroxley?" Simply to calt on the hostess who, m I understand, is Miss Grantham—and, incidentally, to call on you." .. s,louid y°" want to see me 7" There are quite a few good reasons—certain jewels " I have told you already you must give up all thought of them." Quite easy to tell me, of course, but • yon see 1 have the sort of mind that won t let an idea go when once it has got hold of it. And those jewels have got hold of it hard. There are reasons why if we want to have them we'must be quick about it, so I just thought 1 'WOnld call rou-d to see if maybe you had <jn»nged yonr mind again."-

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"1 have not and 1 shall not. I toll you to leave those jewels alone. J liat is a warning. If you don't take it you \vi be asking for trouble, and 1 promise you will get it." lie looked at her silently for a moment. Then lie moved nearer to her and spoke almost in a whisper. " Look hero," lie said, " 1 don't know what you have in your head, but 1 do know that I'm not going to let you or any other woman, or man either, for that matter, doublecross me. We arranged to do a definite thing down here and now you are backing out of it Why ? " Because," she answered slowly, " I'm not such a fool as to rob myself. I can get those diamonds and a heap more tilings that are better still,^ and 1 can get them without risk, simply by sitting tight and waiting for them to fall into my hands. And that's the way 1 am going to get them." "Do yon expect Miss Grantham to bring the Wroxley jewels on a salver and ask you to accept them as a favour ?"^ " Slie won't bring them to me," she said. Ho noticed the significant emphasis on the last word and again his glance was keen as it rested on her face. " Not to you ? What were you saying to Sir Marston Wroxley just new when 1 came in 1 You were standing mighty close to him, and there was something in the wav vou hung' on to his arm that looked as if you thought you owned him. Miss Grantham doesn't "make any secret of her readiness to give him back all she got under his father's will. Are you calculating that when she has dona so you will be able to persuade him to hand the jewels and all the rest of it ever to you ?" " They are all coming to me with the best title to their ownership," she answered. " When ho has them and I have his name." "His name!" he exlcaimed. "You don't mean—you can't mean that you would have the nerve to marry him 1" "Why shouldn't I?" "Why? Well I should say there areabout forty thousand reasons why you shouldn't! The name of one of them is Hickory Jackson." She started violently and caught him by the arm, drawing him toward her so that their faces were close together. " What do you know of him ?" she asked in a whisper. " A good deal. Haven't I told you from our first meeting on the boat that I knew a lot about yourself ? Hickory and 1 worked together in several scoops in the States years ago, and he often talked of you. Often thought of you, also, and that was what got him where I suppose he is now—in the penitentiary, for it was because his mind was more on you than on his work that he let himself be taken." " You say he is in the penitentiary now?" she asked with quick, breathless eagerness. " As far as I know. Hie time he got isn't worked out yet. Why ? Where did you think he was ?" He was looking her full in the face. She released his arm and drew back, lowering her eyes so that he could not see their expression. " I didn't know," she said. " I hadn't heard of him for a long time." " A good thing for you—anyway it's as well you shouldn't hear of "him from himself! He isn't friendly toward you, and ; .f I was in your place I guess I'd be feeling as you are—very glad to know he was safely locked-up where he can't get at you ! But he isn't there for ever, remember." "What of it?" " Well, a marriage is for ever—at least | that's the idea that has bitten into ! Hickory Jackson,, good and hard. And I suppose if you got Sir Marston Wroxley to go through a ceremony with you it would be in the hope that you would be settling down for life. But Hickory wasn't sent up for life." "He was sent for five years," she said. " and there are still nearly two of thern to run." " Are you making out to be satisfied with two clear years as Lady Wroxley ?" (To be continued daily.)