MAN FROM THE AIRPORT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23002, 1 April 1938, Page 16

MAN FROM THE AIRPORT

(Copyright)

> By LESLIE BERESFORD VI , Author of "Mr. Appleton Awakes,' "The Other Mr. North, etc.

A ROMANCE OF THE AIR, ADVENTURE, UNWANTED WEALTH AND " THE SWEETEST STORY EVER TOLD." •

CHAPTER XVll.—(Continued) " Really P Well, perhaps you'd he r,o good as to tell Mr. Peters for me that I'm terribly obliged. Tell him also—will you, please ?—that I'm going to Sunnysido and—well, he'll hear from me through Mr. Wallingford." And so, driving even more desperately than usual, she eame to Sunnyside, where she felt terribly like crying her eyes out, only that she was too sonsible. That was as much ns John Peters thought of her? The sort of woman who should bo given enough rope to hang herself. ' For a week, everything seemed to stand still, so far as slip was concerned. At Sunnyside, her Aunt Louio was her only company, apart from Geoffrey And curiously her aunt Louie —who had been told exactly what had happened at The One-eyed Moon, and knew now the whole story about the stolen marriage entry and the claim of John Peters on the Accrington millions—regarded the situation as quite good. " Of course, my dear, it's perfectly easy to see what is going to happen." she remarked. " You'll give up the money, and you'll marry that nice Terry Carlton*, as you should have done before this."

As a matter of fact, not half-an-honr after Aunt Louio ventured on this prophecy, Terry Carlton himself appeared at Sunnyside.' He had been discussing the position with Aunt Louie over the telephone, as ho explained right away. " Listen, Paula," 110 said. " You and I simply have to get together for good and all. Your aunt Louie has been telling me " " And what has Connie Willard to say about it, Terry P" She stayed the emotional flow of his words in her cool, aloof voice, then laughed. " It won't do, Terry, my dear," she said. "My aunt Louie is quite a sweet thing, but she can't marry me off to you as easily as all that. For one thing, Terry, I don't love yon quite enough. For another, I'm quite sure that it isn't from sheer, desperate love of me that you're offering to make me your wife. It's just—isn't it —that you're sorry because I'm not going to be a poor little rich girl any longer, and next week, or so, I've to see about earning some sort of living " " Nothing of the sort, Paula. I do love you," Terry became moro emotional than before, but she laughed again.

" No, Terry," she said. " I've told you before that you belong to Constance.

At this moment there appeared on the terrace the portly figure of Mr. Wallingford, coming toward them. At sight of him, Terry Carlton mado quick excuses, returning to his car and disappearing. Paula, who by now had been joined by the solicitor, watched Terry disappear in the distance. "There goes my last chance of happiness!" she said, moro to herself than to Wallingford, who however challenged her.

"Are you so sure, my dear." He drew her toward the house. "Come," he said, "I want to talk to you."

: "I've just come from John Peters," he continued as they passed indoors, "I knew there was something about you that I didn't quite like, Mr. Wallingford," she laughed. "That utterly detestable man —" "Come, come, my dear I" The other interrupted her. with a sudden sharp severity. "You've no right to talk about Peters in that way. Actually, he's behaving in an incredibly gqnerous fashion toward you. And —of course—your brother. He insisted that it was on your brother's account that he had come to the decision concerning which I came here to tell you." "You're not going to suggest to me, surely, that this John Peters wants to make me a nice, comfortahle allowance?" Paula asked.

"Peters has declined absolutely to take even a solitary penny from the Accrington estate, my dear," the other answered. "He has to-day signed a formal document to that effect. He insisted on doing so —" "Well, that doesn't surprise me," she shrugged. "Geoffrey told me that this John Peters didn't want the money. He said it was best left with me, because I was the kind of woman who ought to be given enough rope to hang herself —" "But" —she "turned to her solicitor, her eyes blazing, her red mouth tremulous with anger—"you can go to him from me, Mr. Wallingford. You can toll him that, whether he wants it or not, the Accrington monev is definitely going to belong to him. can sign formal documents just as easily as he can. And my instructions to you are that Geoffrov and I wish ono drawn up renouncing.nl! claim to what we thought to be ours. And, Mr. Wallingford, I want that dono at once!" "Mv dear—"

Wallingford found himself left with Aunt Louie, who had meanwhile been a silent observer in the background. "If vou want to know what I think,

Mr. Wallingford," Aunt Louie intervened at this juncture, "I am of the opinion that Paula is coming to her senses at last. You know what will happen, don't you? She'll marry this Mr. Peters, and they'll both share the money." "I should like to bo sure that, would

happen," the solicitor murmured. At which moment, with some idea of going to town, getting away from solitude and the passionate agony of her own thoughts, plunging herself into tho human whirlpool of her social set for one last, desperate fling. Paula had stepped into her car. She drove it down toward the aerodrome, to roach the main road for London.

On the Why, she drove past Lea House. In the grounds of this she noticed Pamela Baring lingered with a man.. For one brief, startling moment, Paula believed the man to be John Peters. And because the man was kissing Pamela Baring, Paula felt the salt sting of tears in her eyes. Then, as she was driving on. she suddenly realised her mistake. The man was the French-Canadian, who was Peter's friend. Paula called herself all the fools in the world, because immediately she felt a sense of intense relief. What, after all, did it matter to her whether Peters was kissing another woman or not?

She was asking herself that when her car reached the entrance to the aerodrome. She slowed down, swung the car in at the gates. Now that she had renounced, or was renouncing, the Accrington estate, she could no longer afford an aeroplane. That hurt. Tint she imagined that, she would hav<! to suffer more hurt still in these davs of poverty ahead. She had to face that knowledge: So. before going on to town for her last mad fling, she decided to take tho first step to renounce her prosperous past. She drove to the aerodrome offices, left her car, went inside. A few minutes later, she had informed tho official there that she was selling her aeroplane, and that if anyone came to examine it. they were to he given every access and facility to do so.

She had returned to her ear, and was about to step into this, when a voice called her hv name from behind, and she flung round in some surprise. "Why, Geof—?" she exclaimed, "what are you doing here? J. quite thought you'd gone to town." "That's what T'd intended to do." her

brother answered. "Only—T met Peters, and I've been having a talk with him." until then was she aware that John Peters was present. He was standing in the background, in that annoy-

inprly unobtrusive way of his, which yet made Mm,important. Site refused, however to look at him. "I should h'ftvo imagined you coukl fill in your time more profitably, Qeof," she said curtly. "Anyhow, I'm off to town myself. If you want a lift, I'll take you with me." "Half-a-minute. You really mustn't take that sort of attitude about Peters," her brother said. "He's made a perfectly good oiler to me. Everything's fixed for me to join him in the company that's going to run his invention." "Really? Paula studiously avoided looking in the direction where Peters stood.

"Why, yes," Geoffrey went on. "And another thing. We've got to thing about Peters. You know, I suppose. that lie's absolutely refusing to touch the Accrington money—" "If ho doesn't it will lie idle. You and I are having no more to «.lo with it. I've instructed .Mr. Wallingford to that effect. Come, Goof. Get into my car, and we'll talk things over 011 our way to town —" "Not while your sister's in that mood, Geoffrey," intervened here tlio voice of John Peters. "She'll land you in a smash, and the Peters Penetrator syndicate will lose 0110 of its most promising directors —V "How dare you talk like that? Paula flung round on him, her bluo eyes ablaze. "You think that, because my brother is going to bo poor, you can persuade him to accept charity from you—"

"Oh. no—no—no," Peters silenced her sharply,. So sharply, in fact, that she was stunned into silence. "Your brother is not going to be poor, nor arc you unless you're too foolish for words," ho wcilt on. "Your brother's a sensible fellow, and joining my syndicate on strictly business terms. He isn't going to town with you in that car of yours. I wouldn't allow him to risk his neck —" "Oh, you detestable man I" # Paula was almost voiceless in anger. "Anyhow," she said. "I am going to town mvsolf, so —if Geoffrey prefers your company to mine—he can please himself. ]sut I'm definitely off " "Quite. And—if you've ho serious objection—l'm coming with you," John Peters said in his quiet way, opening the driver's door of the car and settling his leggy length at the wheel. "If I don't feel like risking your brother's neCic," ho added with a grin, "I consider vours far too pretty" to bo risked also. "Are you still standing on your dignity?" For a moment, Paula hesitated. The hot blood had rushed to lier cheeks, and then drained from them again. She wanted to refuse, but the words simply would not come to her lips. Almost before she knew what was happening, GeoU'rey had pushed her into the seat beside Peters, saying to her: ."John wants to reason with you, Sis. Better get it all over quickly. Onlylet me have a wire, won't you., if things are iixed up, nice and OK?' The car, with Paula seated mutely beside John Peters, began to eat up the miles to London in a steady, noiseless i way. "Nice little car," John Peters remarked, after so long an interval of silence that Paula had begun to wonder how it was going to bo broken, and by whom. "That's more than I can say for you," she retorted tersely. He laughed. "I wouldn't worry. You'll come to a •very different opinion of me in the end, you know." "It would be quite interesting to discover what you don't appear to know," she shrugged. "Quite. So long as I have your interest at'last, that's something gained. One thing, at any rate, 1 know, and it's time you knew it, too. I'm perfectly dreadfully in love with you. How are things on your part?" For a moment she stared at him in a stupefied silence. She had really only one answer to his question but out of sheer perversity she refused to give it. She felt a strange, maddening thrill run through her, and the reason for it made her go hot with shame. A thrill of joy that he loved her. Loved her. She averted her eyes, swayed by fear that he should read the surrender in her own.

"You certainly are not risking your neck or mine." she said, aDil then suddenly realised something which, till then, she had not .noticed "Why, what's happening?" she asked. "Your sense of direction isn't very good. This isn't the road to London, you know " "Wrong again, Paula," he laughed. "I do know it. We're not going to London. We're taking a nice circuitous way back to Beaconsfield and —if you don't miud —to Lea House, where I propose to. introduce you to Sir Oscar and Pamela, and possibly Mr. Wallingford as well as my two friends, O'Corrigan and do Brissac, as my future wife." "".Really?" Paula, at this moment, did not know whether she wanted to laugh or to cry. "You're taking a great deal for § ranted, aren't you?" she asked under er breath. "The question is—what am I being granted, Paula? I want so very, very much from you " Slib sab vory still. The car had come to a standstill also, sho noticed, as much as the welling tears in her eyes allowed, her to notice anything. They had stopped in the middle of a leafy lane, which wound through a copse, and this was carpeted with flowers. The air was laden with perfume. Excepting for the twitter of an occasional bird, a, tense silence hung over them. Paula broke it, almost in a whisper. "You're quite sure it's really me that you want?" she asked. "It isn't just—oh, 1 mean this, John —we are definitely not going to keep tho Accrington money "

"Give it to charity, if you liko. It doesn't matter to mo. I want you, and only you. I suppose I wanted you the very lirst minuto you and I began that hreeze-up on the Bouconsfield aerodrome " "Oh. thank heaven, wo had that breeze!" she muttered, yielding to his arms, which wero no longer to be resisted. "I think that must have begun it for me, too, John." Her lips were given to his for so long a time that a rabhit, which had begun to scuttle across the road, stopped in sheer amazement at this strange sight of a motionless car, and two perfectly oblivious humans, discovering real happiness for the first time in their lives. TIIE END

NEW SERIAL STORY. " ADVENTURE MYSTERIOUS." A Modern Novel by FRANCIS MARLOWE, World-famed Author, Traveller and Dramatist. A stransre dancer surrounds a beautiful ffirl who carries a secrot doenment and a chance acquaintanceship with a young man proves that romance may still be mixed with adventurq. This splendid serial commences In the SATURDAY SUPPLEMENT of the NEW ZEALAND HERALD, , aa<s continneß dally.