FACING THE WORLD

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12423, 17 April 1926, Page 19

FACING THE WORLD

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

DOMESTIC STORY OF ATTRACTIVE INTEREST

BY

FLORENCE HOPE,

Author of “The Trials of Madge Moberley," “Paying the Penalty,” “The Lordship of Love,” “Again*t the Wind,” &c., &c.

[COPYRIGHT]

CHAPTERS VI. AND Vll.-Willough-by and Mab converse together. Mr Havelock congratulates the captain. It dawns upon Mab that the captain and Geraldine Havelock are engaged, full of indignation, she rushes upstairs to write to her sister. She finds a letter from her awaiting her, in which Irene confesses that she lores Captain Willoughby. Gilbert Havelock finds that his secretary is in trouble. Mab tells him some of the story, but not all. He is annoyed to find he has been deceived in hi secietaryb, age. Mab tells the captain .her opinion of him. Captain Willoughby finds lie has made a gbeat mistake, but he does not see his way to break off his engagement with Geraldine. CHAPTER, VIII.—A PROPOSAL REJECTED. “Miss Lawson, I have spoken three times to you; your attention is wandering to-day. This won’t do at allWe cannot have girls in the establishment who dream instead of giving their minds to their duties. There ic ail this music to be stamped. No idling at the piano, please, except when you are requested to play to a customer.”

Mr Hatfield, the proprietor of the music shop, spoke with extreme annoyance, and not without reason, for “the young lady,” as he usually spoke of Irene, was absorbed in her own thoughts that she ought to have left Outside the shop. She looked pale and distrait; she was hot brisk ana bright as he had fpuhd her before, and it would not dp, 'so it Was that he addressed her in this peremptory manner.

It startled Irene, who had never been spoken to in Such a way before in her life. A flash of indignant feeling showed in her . eyes -as she opened them wide with astonishment, her face flushed hotly, and _ her lip curled with contempt for the little man who dared to speak to her as if she were—well, anything but what she knew herself to be. The man rather flinched from, that 4ook; he couldn’t help it. Still, he knew he.was in the right, only somehow he felt that he must be careful if he desired to keep Miss Lawson in his employment.

In that moment she too, recollected her position, and speaking not a word, too-k up the pilo of music to be sta'inped, and carried it to the' desk where she worked assiduously for a couple of hours. Then a customer coming in who wanted <o hear several pieces of music, Irene went to the piano. The was heavy as lead. She could not realise yet that the man had begun to Care for so deeply had been amusing himself with her to pass the time away, as'he might have done with any other shop girl, that his word, and looks meant nothing nothing I At first, when she had read her sister’s letter that had arrived that morning,; she - ha/d laughed angrily Mab was absurd to write like that, W n r ™. ng her against the truest man in all the world, but as she read on her heart had contracted with pain, for what was she to think’ when Mab told her that Willoughby had proposed to Miss Havelock immediately on his arrival, and was now her engaged lover-’ Irene; had walked through the busy street in the morning sunshine in a dream of misery and blankness. The blow had crushed her, and Mab had begged her to think of her pride, to thrust from her all thought of a man •c? c , oult ’ b® 60 despicable as to flirt with her, as he must have done, and yet be virtually an engaged man, for he ■ must have been intending to propose to (the other woman then. “Compel yourself to fprget him, Rene, darling, and should you . meet him again make, him think that you too have beau amusing yourself with him pour passer Ie temps. To think that I have to remain under the same roof, with such a cad. How to answer him civilly I .do not know. He is the most arrant humbug I ever met. for his jnanners, his race, his voice, deceive one into believmg him to be frank and true and ‘honourable. No wonder, dear Sis, that you were deceived. I hope with all my heart that he will soon leave. I keep out of his way as much as I can, I assure you. Cheer up, Rene. Don’t break your heart over a man who is worthless.”

So Mab wrote in that letter that had struck the blow. ■

. But 1 Rene was breaking her heart. She felt as if life were no longer hearable. and yet it had to be borne. Mechanically she did her duties, getting through- them somehow, and the master of the shop watched her, wondering what it was that had upset her. Could it be that she had been “carrying on” with that captain fellow who had suddenly left off coming to the shop? He had been a good customer; it wouldn’t do to lose him. Had she offended him in any way? That wouldn’t do. He must speak to her about it, but he hoped she wouldn’t flare up and look at him as she had done before. Well, he didn’t want to lose the girl. She had brought a lot of custom to the place. PeopTe were attracted by her musical talent. He must keep her at all costs, even if—well, why not? She was a fine young woman, wjtli style, too, and the children would do with a stepmother who 'would combine the shop and the home. So throughout the day master and maid wore absorbed in tlieir own thoughts, Mr Hatfield contemplating the serious step of making a second

marriage, whilst Irene was striving to realise the fact that- life would never be quite the same again. Something had gone out of it; there was a bitterliess, a hardness, that had come all at once upon her; slid seemed like another person. Irene Lorrimer was dead; this was Rene Lawson, the girl, in a shop who was fair game to play with and pass by. She was on her way hack to the boardinghouse in the cool of the evening, when Mr Hatfield overtook her in Sloane street. “A pleasant evening for a walk,” he began, with a smirk of satisfaction as he came up to her side. Irene started at being addressed, and at first thought it was the insulting remark -of a stranger desiring to make her acquaintance ’

! “I am going your way, Miss Lawson, so we might walk together,” continued Hatfield, confidently, for he felt that he was really conferring a favour upon Irene; he had never cared to accompany ony of the other young ladies in their walks. He had the inside of the pavement, but did not attempt to change, did hot think about it, and now and then Irene caught, him staring at her with a sort of ogling look that was most distasteful. What was she to do? the man was intolerable, but he was also her master whom she must not he paid her her ■ wages and kept her from starving. But when they had to cross the road and he put his hand familiarly through her arm and actually squeezed it, whispering softly : “What, no response, my dear?” the girl was alarmed and indignant. Her cheeks flamed, her pulses, throbbed with anger, and when she reached the path again she pulled her arm away with a jerk. " Don’t be so stand-offish, Miss Lawson, I mean no ’arm, and I’ll tell you this. I never walked ’ome with any of the other voung women; never wanted to. Why ishould you go ’ome yet? We must see more of one another, my dear. I shouldn’t minef taking you out somewhere for a treat and have supper at Gatti’s afterj wards. What do you say, eh?” He laid his hand on her arm again as he made’ the proposal, and looked right into her face. (To be continued.)