THE COMING OF ISOBEL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10376, 11 February 1910, Page 6

THE COMING OF ISOBEL.

(By Helen "Wallace.)

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. I<=obel. the delicate' and dreamy daughter of Sir David and Lady Stormonth, disappears mysteriously from her home, and after some weeks i* found by her cousin and betrothed. Basil Conyers, lying halfdead in a hut on the moors, She is taken home, and recovers her health, but. strange to say, neither her memory nor her nature. She becomes bri'-ht and spirited, in great contrast to the" dreamv Isobel of former days. Lac'iy Stormonth and Basil Conyers rejoice in this change, and the latter wishes to claim Isobel as his bride. But Sir David, who has been much disturbed by the sight of a Bible found on Isdbel When she' was brought home, will not allow this. He appears.to be weighed down with some terrible secret. Miss Yi Rudgelev, an upstart heiress, maliciously suggests that there is some mystery attached to IsobeFs disappearance, and Evelvn Ashe, an aristocratic adventurer, resolves to fathom the mystery, having in his mind a half-doubt as to whether the Isobel recovered is the Isobel that was lost. Conyers starts to warn Isobel against Ashe, but is interrupted by the arrival of Lady Carruthers.

CHAPTER X. EVELYN ASHE'S OPPORTUNITY.' "Well, my dear," said the old lady, fixing her young companion with her gUttering black eyes, when Conyers perforce had strode wrathfully away, I wonder who you really are?" The girl, a-tingle with smarting pride and. hurt feeling, turned sharply round at this amazing query. "Who I am.' she echoed. . "Y'es, who are you, or what are you reallv? You arc" flesh and blood, lightly pinching the slender arm, "but you are more like your gr'eat-grand-aunt come to life again than your old self. What have you. done with that old self, eh?" peering into the astonished grey eyes. "Am I really so much changed? asked Isobel, in a low, troubled voice. "You're like another . person, my dear," said the old lady, briskly. "However, I am glad to see that other things are unchanged, that you have picked up the dropped stitches again—l mean, of course, that the engagement is going on," she added in answer to the slight arching of the delicate brows. "%isil is a nice boy, though he's changed, too,"" reflectively. "I shouldn't wonder but what this will make a man of him." "I don't know what you moan," exclaimed Isobel, drawing away her arm so suddenly that Lady Carruthers' rings clinked together as her hand slipped down. "I —wc are not engaged!" "Dear, dear," said the old lady, shaking her head, with a smile. "I saw it was a lover's quarrel, but I did not think it was so serious. I would make it up, though; a broken engagement does a girl no good, and there has been quite" talk enough about yon already, my dear. Now, now," laughing, as a steel-like flash came from the grey eyes, "what's the good of being eighty-years old and more if you can't say what you like?"

"Then you will say a little more, please, and explain what you mean." The old woman looked at the pliant figure, strung tense, and at the high young head. "You'll do, my dear," nodding appreciatively, "you've a fine spirit of your own, wherever you've got it, but since I seem to have put my foot in it, I may as well make the plunge. I took leave to doubt whether yon could really have forgotten everything; but if a girl forgets that she is engaged there is no more to be said on that score, at least." "Then I was engaged to my cousin Basil?" coldly. "Yes. Has he not refreshed your memory yet on that point ? I quite supposed he had." "i"ou have saved him any further trouble. He should thank you for it. .Shall we go back to the house now Y You are tired, perhaps? "Would yon like to take my arm again?" The brief sentences were uttered in the same level, sustained voice. This was no "bruised reed," certainly, thought Lady Carruthers as she booked her hand again through the extended arm. She would as soon have expected the fluttering bird to turn upon a watching cat as little Isobel to show fight in this fashion. As they nenrcd the house Lady Carruthers turned to speak to one of her innumerable acquaintances, and Isobel walked slowly on alone. There was a subtle change in her from the girl who a little ago had light-heartedly declared her belief in the kindness of the world. Her clear grey eyes seemed to have darkened, and'the'soft curve of the red mouth had a touch of hardness. Tip and down the avenue vehicles of all sorts were passing, coming round from the stables or driving away from the house. With her eyes looking straight and fixed before her Isobel paid .little heed to this bustle of departure as she crossed the drive. Suddenly there was a rush, a. frantic toot from' a horn, a cry of fright or warning which seemed to break out all around her. Wrenched sharply away from one all-absorbing thought, she hesitated, bewildered. Before she could realise that that panic cry was directed at herself she was seized in a strong grasp and snatched aside, while something huge and dark whizzed by so near tliat the waft of its motion stirred her hair and fluttered her soft, sweeping skirts.

Before another breath could be drawn it was all -over. She found herself supported by Evelyn Ashe's arm, his face a shade or two paler, a glint in the opaque eyes fixed on hers. Everyone was crowding round her, excited, curious, clamorously sympathetic. The Balaehallan motor was drawn up a short distance off, and its occupants were hurrying forward to swell the group. Next moment Ashe gently withdrew his arm. In such < matters his tact never failed.

"I beg youU pardon, Miss Stormonth, but there was no other way. The driver had lost his head apparently. He had no right, of course, to start off at such a" pace when so many people were about, but we needn't be too hard on him now, poor devil. He's had his lesson, I think," as the luckless amateur chauffeur, who had aspired to steer the Isalachallau" motor, came up white with fright and consternation to make what apologies he might. Isobel met them with a quiet, "I think it was I who was most to blame; I should have been more careful," as she let Ashe hurry her away from the stares and comments.

Miss Rudgeley shrugged slier shoulders as the group dispersed. "I told .you you would kill something or somebody', Tommy." she said to. her wouldbe charioteer; "but I hoped the village hen would have satisfied you. Jackson had better take us home, for I don't want to be accessory to murder or manslaughter, as we all might have been if it hadn't been for Evelyn Ashe. I hope you're properly grateful to him, though you've done him an uncommonlv good turn, too, you and that mooning girl between you. I fancy there are a good many who wouldn't have objected to the chance." And foremost among them was Basil Conyers, who secretly gnashed his teeth when a luridly colored version of the story reached'him. Why had he. not been there P He would have given his right hand to save a hair of Isobel's head from danger, and it had been left/ to this fellow to snatch her from a hideous peril, and his vague dislike of the man flamed iuto an unreasoning but most human hatred. He had to admit, though, that Ashe bore his new honors well. Not every man can fill the position of hero of the moment gracefully. And Basil was not the only one who wished that the little drama could have been played with a somewh'at different cast, tip in her dainty room Isobel sat looking out over the now deserted lawn, across which the shadows of the trees were stretching longer and longer in the last of the sunset. If it had not been for Mr Ashe she might never have seen it all again. That was the bare truth. And yet, when the mists of sudden, uncompreliended terror had cleared awav. and she had looked up into Evelyn Ashe's eves, whv was it that another face had 'flashed before her—a face ea"-er. tender, triumphant, with the oreat' old hall' for a background—her frst conscious sight of her cousin Basil's face since that black cloud of forgetfulness had blotted out all else?

So they had been engaged! Was that why the' sight of him awakened that I strange thrill which she could neither ; explain nor forget? But why had it been left to that malicious old woman to tell her of it? Why not Basil.' Why on that first day on the terrace had he not spoken of it? There seemed at least one very obvious answer, whether there were any other reasons or not, and as Lady Carruthers' words came back, . words not fullv comprehended at the time, but which had set every womanly fibre a-tingle, the voting face settled into hard"lines, which brought out -the underlying traits of race in startling distinctness. Then suddenly all was dissolved in a blinding gush of tears. Her head dropped on the cushioned sill. "Why was it Mr Ashe? Why wasn't it he? 'lt should have been he!" 'ihe gasping words seemed torn from her as the climbing sobs fought their way up the slender convulsed throat. _ But there was so sign of Niobe m the young Dian who entered the draw r ing-room a little later, a certain cold brilliance in her young beauty suggesting the comparison. The soft sheen of the. pearl seemed to have been changed for the glitter of the, diamond:. Mer mother glanced at her once or twice uneasily. She had begged her in vam to rest, not to appear at dinner, and Isobel would once have snatched at any excuse for avoiding such a large party. This was a change indeed! ::• - Lady Stormonth was another of .those who grudged Ashe his chance. He had done them an unspeakable service, and yet she was ashamedly conscious of a note of effort in the grateful words which she strove /to make all the warmer, since her husband's .acknowledgment seemed somewhat inadequate for so great a debt. Probably he, too, wished it had been Basil; "but be the man who he might, they owed him more than they could ever, repay.; Ashe was not the man to underestimate what was due to him, but for the present he was satisfied with the first fruits. No need to angle now for an invitation to Stormonth through Lady Carruthers. He could dispense with her aid. He had -secured that coveted. foothold now. Even his place at table witnessed to the .change. He was not relegated to the lot of partnerless men who brought up the rear,, of the long procession, but was seated opposite Isobel, \yhere he could watch the play of her features and even catch snatches of her talk. Now that he was under the same roof it would be strange, indeed, if he could not solve and turn to his own advantage the mystery of that curious likeness and even more curious unlikeness on which all Miss Stormonth's ac-

quaintanccsjH'ere remarking. It seemed to open up a wider field, though it was all vague as yet, than even the causes or happenings of that ..singular disappearance on which he had first built his

hopes. - And how great the prize might he ? Wealth, assured position, ease, after all his tortuous shufflings-and strivings. It was beyond his wildest dreams. What more could he want, he would l once have said; but now even Stormonth itself was not enough. That strange, dull glow kindled in his eyes'as they swept round the lofty panelled room and fixed upon the girl opposite in her simple sumptuous white dress, with a

handful of heavy-petalled white hot house roses, drooping at her youn; bosom, as white as they. Yes, there was something more-

something which lie wanted supremely —something which, cost what it might, lie would have. He knew it now as across the shining table and through the subdued glow of light and color, he looked into Isobel Stormonth's face!

CHAPTER XI. ISOBEL IN A NEW LIGHT

To do two things at once, equally well has long been regarded, proverbially .-it least;, as impossible, but Mr Ashe would have thought very poorly of his social capacity if he had not been able to keep his partner at dinner, sufficiently entertained, and yet have a quick eye and a sharp ear for all that was guing on around. To-night, however, his task might have been more difficult, since he was honored with old Lady Carruther's company, who seemed able by some instinct to detect not only a wandering glance, but a wandering thought. "Fortunately for him, her interest for once apparently coincided with his, as she was for ever darting keen, amused glances through the maze of flowers across the tabic 1 . Presently more .eyes than theirs were drawn in the saino direction, for some slight motion of Isobel's upset a wineglass standing unheeded by her plate.

"Oh, my I'll catch it!" she exclaimed —an ' exclamation distinctly audible in the momentary pause in the talk—while she tried to stem the dark stream flowing over the glistening damask with her lacy wisp of a handkerchief and then with her napkin.

"it is not only in the fairy stories that the princess. drops'toads out of her mouth when she speaks," said Lady Carruthcrs; "though, if I remem her aright, it was always the ugly one who did so. Onr modern instance" is decidedly more piquant," glancing across at Isobel, whose air and appearance, heightened by her faint, exquisite blush, were in such singular contrast to her little gaucheric and her exclamation. * "I shall have to be sent back to the nursery. Isn't it dreadful to be beginning life again at my years," she was saying with an embarrassed laugh to her partner, Lord Dalguise, as, catching her mother's glance, she lot the rivulet of wine meander at its own sweet will among the flower glasses and the rose-shaded candles.

Lady Carruther's caught the look, too.

"Poor Marian! She has always been such a pattern, not only of aJJ, the virtues, but of all the due decencies and proprieties, that this must be very trying to her those ' freaks of memory,' or whatever they are," the withered lips parting in a fieshless smile.

"From such lips as 1 hers. Miss Stormonth's accent has certainly all the merit of the unexpected, though, except at first, one hardly notices it," said Ashe carelessly. "But I thought our friends here were a pattern pair; or docs Lady Stormbnth absorb even more than the usual woman's share of the virtues?" glancing from his hostess' gracious presence to Sir David at the far end of the long table. He had lapsed for the moment into moody abstraction, and the large, smiling lady beside him was evidently inclined to transfer her favors to the man next her. "Bother the man!" said Lady Cariuthers crossly. "This affair seems to have shaken him all to bits. He should, go for a trip somewhere, and not play death's-head at his own table.' I'll speak to Marian about it. It's enough to set people talking. Ah, yes; "they've always been a pattern pair,'" with a smiling stress upon the last word. "Whatever wild-oat solving David did, he did it, like a decent man, before ho married, but you can't arrange for.the reaping of the crop with the same nicety,!' with her queer, inward chuckle. "Not that I ever-heard of much. A man is usually not in an> great hurrj' to marry when his friends have looked out ' the very wife for him,' and he knows she'll wait for him. tie did keep Marian waiting, and it caused some talk —but what are you wanting to find out?" turning suddenly, fiercely almost, upon her neighbor." "Why are you trying to make me turn over these dry bones of old stories now?" . \ •

"Here is feminine justice for you!" said Ashe. "Have I said-a word, and, in any case, what is there to find, out? Nothing save that Sir David was once a young man, and I am quite- willing -to take your word for it, though at times it seems doubtful now." . ' .

"You in the nursery!" Lord DaL guise was saying meantime, with a gieat langh. He was a javial, elderly man, and an old friend. "Now, if it had been the little Miss Isobel I used to know " ' ~-.

'Oh, please, don't talk about her," broke "in Isobel, "or -1 shall soon not know who I am. As it is, lam beginning to wonder. Everyone says, 'You are so changedj so unlike the old Isobel,' or, as that old lady over there said,'' dropping her voice, "-{.What have you done with your old self?' as if I hid murdered someone and taken her place. Fm.-afraid I shall-begin to hate that old Isobel soon if I hear very much more of her. She," nodding towards Lady Carruthers, • "said I was like a different person."

"Look in your glass, Miss Isobel, and then at your picture in the" Tapestry Room "

"But was that ever really like me? Sui'oiv I was never such an awful softy as that—should I not have said that? an>iouslv, as Lord Balguise broke into another'laugh. "Oh, it is dreadful: 1 do love this" beautiful, life. I feel as it I had never lived before, but there are ,„ HMiiv sillv little things I can't remember, like when to use all these different forks and things, or else some word pops out like that just now, from ] don't "know where, and though you laugh von ■ are thinking—' The old I-.:anVl would never have done that. I

feel tlmt 1 am disappointing e\ery one. Inm 1! How can I turn myselr into that old self again?" and the brilliant eyes looked into his with a mock distress which, was- not wholly whimsical. "My dear young lady, why should voii'f'.We don't ask th?. butterflyto turn itself into a chrysallis again,' ; «i-id Lord Dalguise with elderly gallan- ] trv, .while inwardly he was thinking, "Gad! the child's right;-I'd hardly have got more than a yes or ano from ] her once upon a time, but she s found her tongue now, and all her wits too : Then aloud and more earnestly: My dear Miss Isobel, I don't deny it, why should I? You are changed, Lmuif you want to know whether it s tor the ratter or the worse—well, I'm an old fogey,-so I may say it—just you get ■Mr xtasil Conyer's opinion, and he 11 not be slow to give it. I'm tnmking, with a kindly chuckle. i ■ "My cousin!". . with a little hard laugh'. "You forget, it was to 'the old Isobel' that he was engaged; - But at that moment' Lady Storfnonth "■ave the signal, and theuladies rose ; while good-natured Lord Dalguise o-azed m some perplexity from Isabel s retreating figure to Basil's moody face. 'ln the drawing-room Lady Carruthevs fastened at oneo upon her hostess. ... T '"My dear Marian, what s this 1 lvar? Why have you allowed Isobel s engagement to fall through?" she said, with t'tiat line instinct for the raw, as sure and unerring in some natures i s a gadfly's.- ' ■■ - ~ "What do you mean? Who toLl vou s " exclaimed Lady Stormonth:, - "Whv, the child herself." , ~ „ "Then you spoke to her about-it, reproachfully. , . , "Of course I did. Come, Margin, do you think the .world is dumb or the girl deaf? Someone, was bound to speak to her about it. But why did you alknv Basil to draw back unless you had some better substitute up your sleeve. Perhaps you have. If so, the sooner you produc- him in the flesh the better. ' '"Basil did not. draw back!' indignantly. "He is hotter on it than ever. It was my husband's wish. He thought that the engagement ought to- oe suspended for a' it was not lair to allow Basil " . 'Tail-. Fiddle-de-dee —that was .his look-out. David was daft even to think of such a thing, and yoii to give into him. Can't you see that the one thing to do is to marry the girl ?" . "There is plenty of time yet. I think we reallv made rather a mistake at firet in letting the engagement go on —she. is so very young," said Lady Stormonth, with a' coldness which might have checked anyone but Lady Carntthers^ '.'Young! Plenty of girls arc married at her age—what'is it? Not eighteen ve t —well', of course, you should know, ' with her drv chuckle, "but she certainly looks older," gazing through the double eyeglass, of which she had m . reality but little need, at the daughter of the house. " Isobel was standing by a tall standard lamp talking to Ashe, for the men had ', not lingered long in the dinmg-room. '. In the bright shower of light falling upon her, Lady Stormonth war. struck afresh bv the greater air cf maturity and bv tho slight hardening -of the youthful face, which she seemed to have noticed for the first time that evening. Somehow her heart sank. There was no reason for it, but i\ chill breath seemed to dim the radiant surface ot that great, glad content, which till now had overflowed all doubts or questions. . Lady Carruther's presence and talk had frequently that east-windy effect, she thought, "trying to .shake off her vague sense of discomfort. "It's all nonsense about her being too young," pronounced Lady Carruthers, dropping her eyeglass with a clatter. "Marry her as soon as you can, that's my advice, and let David do what he. '. .likes.

'Kilmeny had been she knew not where, And Kilmeny had seen what she could not declare' was all very fine, but though there's no fairvland nowadays, people might have swallowed it, if Kilmeny had come back as she went away, the isame shy, frightened white mouse; but this young lady, if sho had lost her memory, has somehow gained a great deal more, and where you can't explain, don't invite questions is always a. safe rule. You'll find, though, that you haven't a bit of wax in your hands now. I'm much mistaken' if she doesn't give Master Basil, who has been a very misguided young man, a bad quarter of an hour, judging by tho way sho took my information," with a "little malicious titter. "What —music?" crossly, as a chord or two were struck. "Nothing spoils talk like it, unless, perhaps, Isobel is going to favor us. That might be interesting." "Isobel's music has quite gone from her; not that, poor child, she ever had nerve enough to be much of a performer," said Lady Stormonth repressively. "Don't be too sure what that 'poor child' may or may not do. It's pretty certain, at least, to be the unexpected. Why, it's George Dalguise!" as a lusty and" also somewhat rusty baritone voice rose. "Well, we all know what sort of a fool is the foolishest," resignedly. Which was precisely the apology which Lord Dalguise had made, but since it was "all among" friends" he had allowed himself, not very unwillingly, to be persuaded. He had been a famous performer once, although at after-dinner seances rather than in drawing-rooms, and his audience, chiefly county neighbors who had remained after the fete, listened with an- air of kindly, if somewhat amused, indulgence as he trolled out the latest music-hall banality. The ditty was as inoffensive as it was utterly silly, but though it had been whistled and hummed and sung everywhere it was not the kind' of song which was usually heard in the Stormonth drawing-room, the mistress of which was old-fashioned enough to regard "the 'alls" and all pertaining to them with extreme disfavor. To Lord Dalguise, however, some license was always allowed.

Midway in the second verse he suddenly floundered. If ho had substituted a fa-la-la or a rum-tiddy-tum for the missing words, they would have conveyed as much meaning, but as he paused, with a embarrassed, apologetic laugh, a round, fresh young voice suddenly caught up the air and sang out the rest of the verse and the inevitable refrain with a verve and a rollicking swing which left everyone agape.

Little Isobel, who once would hardly have lifted her voice to speak, singing like that! The effect was like the sudden splash,of a stone into a tranquil pool, breaking up tho calm and sending the eddies rocking and hurrying to the banks. There was a murmur of sheer amazement,, and every eyo was turned on Isobel, still standing in the full lamplight. "Bravo, Miss Stormonth, give us the rest. Capital—capital—Tillie Travel's herself couldn't have done it better," cried Lord Dalguise, innocently thinking that he was paying a compliment. "Why, Isobel, I never knew you could sing," came in the same breath .from one and another, while Lady Stormonth, startled out of all her usual self-control, exclaimed: "My dear child, where could you-have heard that song?" The clear, bright color flew to Isobel's face and then ebbed, leaving her whiter than "her roses, drooping in the heat, as she said in a curious, muffled voice, as if between sleeping and. waking:

"I heard it everywhere. We used often to sing it at —' ' Then she stopped dead, a piteous, frightened look leaped to her vacant, dilated eyes as she looked from one wondering face to another. She put her hands to her head in a bewildered way. She was trembling violently. "What is it —oh, what is it?. I. don't understand," she. faltered. /'Something seemed to come to me, and now it is gone again—quite gone —oh, what is it?" putting out groping hands,,as if she would ward off some impending Presence. "It's that beastly shock you got this afternoon," exclaimed Basil Conyers, shouldering his way to the girl's side before even her mother could reach her, and planting himself between her and the ring of curious faces. "It's no

wonder you're upset, you shouldn t hpv C . been down at all." he continued in that wrathful tone in which a man s agitation so often finds vent. ""Have vou many more surprises tor us mv dear?" Ladv Carruthers' high, treble'could be drowned by no masculine- bass. "You've certainly provided us with a unique drawing-room entertainment. Tillio Travers herself a3 George Dalguise says, couldn <, have done better." (To be continued.)