PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.
By IZA DUFFUS HARDY.
MACGILLEROY'S MILLIONS
luthor of " In the Springtime of Love," "Lova in Idleness," " The Girl Hs Did Not '• Marry," " A Womau'i Loyalty,'.' " A New Othello," "Only a Love Story," etc.
[Copyright.]
CHAPTER XXIII.
Meanwhile, Stephen Royce was proceedng to further his acquaintance with Nathaniel Perry by the.approved short and straight cut to intimacy. He "dined him and wined him," and having wined and warmed him into what seemed a favourable and promising mood, he casually approached the subject of Philip Hazard, alluding to his first sight of Mr .Perry in Hazard's company at " Giugli's."
" Now there's one of the luckiest men of the season!7' he observed with a pleasant and conversational air. " Known him long?'" "Phil Hazard? Why, yes, I've known him' some time," replied Perry, in his easy leisurely drawl. ■
"I met him down at Mayfield this sum- J mer," continued Rorce, in the hope of " drawing out" Mr Perry by his example of frank and genial confidence—" the place where the beautiful heiress lives," he added. ".You've heard now of his good luck, of course? Carrying off the golden apple, the girl to whom her South African uncle left a fortune of millions?" Por'ry nodded. " A pretty girl and a pot of moneys good enough luck for any man," he observed. "Well, we less lucky fellows may at least wish him joy! Good sort of fellow he seems." . " Yes. Hazard's all right." .. "A fine fellow, and a fortunate one! He owes you thanks for that!" " How? I. didn't introduce him to the lady." "No, but you did a good turn for him as 'well as for her, when you saw the last of that unlucky chap, Fleming, or Freeman, or whatever he called himself." "I didn't exactly see the last of him. I wasn't there when he died."
"Yon saw enough in seeing him alive to bear witness to hu identity with the man whose death leaves Miss Percival the heiress. ■.. Poor beggar! His ' life couldn't have been much go.od to him! Curious story, the whole thing—quite a romance in real life." "Yes, 'twas curious/ Perry assented. "I guess there are many queer stories in real life as ever we find in books." "One of the most curious complications in the business," continued Royce, "is the man's having married, and never told his ■wife a word about his.real name and history." "Why should he .tell her?" rejoined Mr Perry. "No use making trouble." " Well, the circumstances were certainly aot pleasant ones to tell a wife. Yet he confided, if I remember right, his real name to you?" . " I wasn't his wife," drily. Royce could not help smiling, although he was secretly annoyed at Perry's unrespdnsiveness. " Well, that's true; and a man shows his sense in trusting a man sooner than a woman. He never told you of his marriage, I suppose?"
■ "No; 'twas 'none of my business!" Nathaniel Perry spoke without any apparent significance in his lazy level drawl, but Royce was quick enough to interpret the hint, though he gave no sign of understanding it, but went on, with unruffled Equanimity, and a well-preserved air of just" the right degree of sympathy and interest, lukewarm yet kindly.
"It's sometimes, a relief; to a man in trouble to. make a clean breast of it to an intimate.chain. He was approaching a confidental m«od/. poor ■•devil, when h& told you about his being in a scrape, though he kept to himself what desperate plight it really was. A man could hardly be in a worse hole." ,
" No, 'twas a pretty bad business," Perry agreed.
" Seem's a madly reckless thing, his returning to England at all; it must have struck you so?"
"Well, you see it's our way out West to consider that "a man can 'tend to his own funeral."
Royce disguised his irritation at the rebuff under a. genial air of reminiscent amusement.
' '"How that takes me back to California! When first I heard that characteristic expression, I interpreted it literally, and I looked round for the hearse! .Though it did appear to me that the melancholy occasion was alluded to in terms of unseemly levity." '
Nathaniel Perry vouchsafed a smile at his host's humour; but he was as difficult to "draw" as a badger safely esconced in his hole. Even Mr Royce could not but accept his failure. His dinner and his good wine were wasted; he got nothing out of his new acquaintance; yet the very failure of his attempts left a vague impression in his mind that it was the will and not the power to enlighten him that was lacking in this mutual friend of Philip Hazard's and of the departed sinner whose demise had been so opportune for Hazard.
Nathaniel Perry was about to return to h's native land, but even if he had not been on the eve of departure there was little hope of extracting any useful information from him. If he knew anything, he would not tell it, while as to Hazard, ' Stephen Royce knew that any endeavour to ingratiate himself into confidence in that quarter-would be useless; for one thing, the ingratiating process would-be difficult even to impossibility; besides, if Hazard were " in it," he would certainly be on his guard, and not likely to give himself away. However, Mr Eoyce disliked being foiled; he was bent on finding out something more Df the life and death of Anthony Fleming, .and to this end he made a point of frequenting the "Globe-trotters," and every other place where it was likely he might meet Americans; he kept the hand of goodfellowship ever ready to greet pur Transitlanlic cousins, especially those who hailed from the West, and of these he never failed ;o inquire, casually, in course of conversa;ion, whether they were acquainted with a man named " Starbottle!"
Meanwhile, the wedding-day was fixed; the bridal arrangements were going forward briskly at Mayfield; and now yet once more Lilian came up to London, this time on a last visit before her marriage, to settle two or three final matters, finish up and tie up a few loose ends of business.
Hazard was not particularly delighted at her coming to town. He preferred running, down to see her at Mayfield. He had certainly little reason to be troubled by ap.prehensions of frequent meetings or intimate relations between her and Oleo; first, because his keen perceptions had made him well aware of the element of doubt that had crept into and chilled Lilian's first outgush of friendly interest in that lady; then because he knew that during Lilian's few days: in London her every hour would be fuilv occupied; she would have little time ro-spare for-Mrs Freeman. But the very ihought of their meeting at all, even for a brief visit, the mere idea of tiieir breathing the same air, rankled in his mind and ailed him with unrest.
Lilian's visit to London was not pleasing to Oleo either. In her secret thoughts the bride-elect of Philip Hazard was fast assuming the aspect of an interloper and trespasser, although she fully intended to keep on smooth terms with Lilian and to accept whatever Lilian might offer her. Still it was no disappointment to anyone concerned—perhaps, on the contrary, rather a relief—that Mrs Freeman was out. when Lilian conscientiously called upon her. and that on the occasion of Cleo's dutifully prompt return of the visit the presence of the other visitors prevented a tete-a-tete. Amongst these other visitors was Allan Thurlowe, to whom Lilian had sent a few lines asking him to call, as there was some thing about which she wished to consult him. On the receipt of her note the young man had been sorely exercised in his mind. He wished to go; he must go; could he stay away when she called him to her? Yet he half shrank from seeing her, still more from thinking what it could be that she had to ask of him.
He had not again met Philip Hazard face to face at Mrs Freeman's, but lie had, when on his rounds in the neighbourhood, caught a glimpse of him in that street, going in the direction of that house, and the sight had deepened the painful impression of resentful doubt that weighed upon his mind. What had Lilian's affianced husband to do that he spent so much of his time on visits to Mrs Freeman? Was it on business on Lilian's behalf? Did she know of the intimacy? It was likely enough, as Allan had always seen, that Hazard merely called there' as on a family connection of his future wife; and yet no reiteration of this possibility to himself banished his uneasy feeling of doubt and misgiving. And Lilian's summons to him now—what did it mean ? It was surely impossible that it could have any bearing on that subject. She could not wish to speak. to.him—to ask him anything—about his meeting with Hazard ? No, that was impossible; as impossible as that he could turn tale-bearer and drag the subject in! Yet the doubt, the bare possibility of her alluding to it disturbed his mind, and leavened the eagerness with which he obeyed her summons.
He had debated with himself whether ha would not be doing more wisely to .keep, away from her. She was another man's betrothed, soon to 1)9 his wife. Because he loved her, loved her more madly than ever, was it not best and wisest to avoid her? What had he to do with Philip Hazard's bride? But after arguing the question he had decided that as it was plain he was incurably in love, and his complaint, being at its "worst, could not be aggravated, he would at least grasp at such poor bitter-sweet of satisfaction as the sight of his lost love's face could give him. Besides, she asked him to come to her. Could he disobey his liege lady's request? So he went, and he hardly knew whether it was with relief or with irritation of renewed perplexity that he found his late patient, the charming Mrs Freeman, there, now fully restored to health and bloom, uo trace of lameless left in her foot, no sign of the cut on her head betraying itself beneath her bright luxuriant hair and picturesque hat. Her visiting Lilian certainly made it more probable that Hazard's visits to her were with Lilian's knowledge and approval. Yet when Hazard presently came in, Allan detected a trace of annoyance in his look as he glanced round and recognised the visitors—a trace, however, so slight that none but Allan noted it, and he would never have observed it if his perceptions had not been sharpened by his keen interest in all that could concern Lilian, his suspicion and distrust of Hazard already aroused. .It was perhaps rather intuition than observation; he rather felt than saw, that Hazard ■ was annoyed—was it at the meeting with him, or with Mrs Freeman, there? Or was it merely a lover's natural vexation and disappointment at finding any visitors at all to prevent his enjoying a tete-a-tete with his beloved? Mrs Westlake and two .other ladies were also present, so in the general round of greetings no one in particular especially attracted any notice—except indeed that the three elder ladies watched with secret sympathetic interest tlis _handclasp and smile exchanged between Hazard.". and Lilian. He recognised Mrs Freeman with, formal courtesy (a trifle more formal, Allan fancied, than, that with which he had met her in her own house), and his greeting to Dr Thurlowe, although scrupulously polite, was yet just a shade mere off-hand than on the occasions of those previous meetings'; its very brevity conveyed a hint that was plain enough to Allan's quickened perceptions. Although Mrs Freeman had welcomed him in friendly wise, and assured him, in tones that everyone might hear, that she was quite recovered, neither she nor Hazard made any allusion to their meetings during his professional attendance on her, and it was. not for him to drag in any allusion to them. "The tongue is a fire, and there was no character more distasteful to Allan Thurlowe than that of a tale-bearer. If both Hazard and Mrs Freeman, whether accidentally or intentionally, ignored those meetings, it was no.part of his to "force the subject upon them, especially in the new light of the. lady's intercourse with Lilian, for he had no means of judging how intimate that intercourse might be.
Under the circumstances, it was not to b? expected that he should greatly enjoy his visit, especially as the other visitors showed no signs of'departure, and he hardly had a word with Lilian. But presently, when he rose as if to take his leave, she put out a detaining hand. "Wait a little, Dr Thurlqwe," she said smiling, "don't run away just yet—l want a few words with you." She beckoned him to a seat by her side, while Hazard was entertaining Mrs. Westlake, and Mrs Freeman held the 'other visitors in polite discourse. The few words turned out to be on a simple matter enough: on no subject more secret or delicate than the health of .Anthony Fleming's old nurse, Mrs .Riley.' .Lilian felt anxious about symptoms that indicated the faithful soul's failing strength, if not indeed some more serious insidious disease, and wished Allan Thurlowe to go and see her. Lilian had endeavoured iri vain to persuade the old woman to consult a doctor, but thought that if Dr Thurlowe would call,' on her behalf, as a friend of the family, Rebecca Riley would probably allow him to advise her on the state of her health, which Lilian was sure required attention. Allan was only too glad, of course, to gratify any desire of hers, and promised to go next day and see Mrs Riley' and report upon her condition of health. He would have been ready to promise anything and everything; ho only wished that Lilian had < something more to ask of him I
His heart beat quick with unreasoning joy during the time she was talking to him in" lowered voice, her lovely eyes turned to him in appeal . and confidence. What though the tete-a-tete was only brought about by her charitable compassion for a poor old woman? What mattered the subject so long as it drew her into confidence with him? What even though she was. Hazard's promised. wife? He basked in the joy of her presence, and forgot the gulf between? For the moment it was not Hazard's face on which her eyes were turfed—those soft sea-grey eyes that were deep and clear as "waters stilled at even!" It was not Hazard towards whom she bent in their murmured talk aside —till he was aware of the fragrance of the winter violets she wore! As a rule he never knew what a woman had on; he had only a vague impression that Lilian wore something dai'k, with light lace about it, and violets at her breast. All he knew was that she was looking her
loveliest, that the face on which his eyes for these few moments were free toi feast their fill, seemed to him pure and perfect as a pearl. v "Unto the hour, the hour!" This golden moment was his, and he lived in it alone for its brief space—free from all thought of the near future when she would be Philip Hazard's wife. He had loved her from the first, but never so passionately, so madiy, as now that she was lost to him. It seemi-'d that the very hopelessness of the case, (a« from cooling or curing his love, only poured oil upon the flame. The brief tete-a-tete passed too soon — broken up by other visitors rising to take leave. The fairy gold of the moment's happiness turned to dead shrivelled leaves in his hand. It had been but a delusive " cup of foam" that had set for an instant to his lips; and he went away a-thirst —leaving his successful rival behind him, alone with l ler —Cleo having been discreet • enough to take her departure with the other visitors. The leave takings, like the earlier greetings, had passed without any allusion to the meetings at Mrs Freeman's, and the remembrance of this omission, the wonder whether it was intentional, rankled in Al-
lan's mind when once he had passed outside the sphere of the spell of Lilian's presence. '
True, he could not have dragged in the subject; yet the thought of his silence made him feel guilty; his discretion seemed to him in the light of complicity in a wrong towards Lilian. He wished he had never attended Mrs Freeman—that he had never taken up the post of Dr Longridge's deputy; but little yet he dreamt of the far-reaching chain of consequences resulting from his acceptance of that temporary post.
CHAPTER XXIV.
The days slipped away until there was bub little more than a week to pass before the appointed day which was to crown Philip Hazard's schemes with success, to put him in possession both of his ambition and his heart's desire. And now at last it came about that Stephen Royce,'s diligent cultivation of the American element amongst his acquaintances, his unflagging interest in the Transatlantic flotsam and jetsam " passing through " from East' or West met with its reward.
At the "Globe-Trotters" one evening his attention was attracted by a tall, darkbearded man, with a certain rough picturesqueness about him. with the unsmiling gravity of the Far West in his look, and a soft nasal drawl in this voice which was not altogether unpleasant to the accustomed ear. Evidently a first appearance at the G.T., probably a new arrival, thought Mr Koyce. He lost no time in seeking an introduction, and was duly presented to " Mr Starbottle," who turned out to be no other than the identical " Gideon Washington " of that clan, towards the discovery of whom Mr Royce's inquiries had been directed—who had just arrived from Madeira, and was staying a few days in London before returning to his native land. Here was Stephen Royce's chance! And it was not likely that he would fail to seize and make the best of it. This was a far better opportunity than his meeting with Nathaniel Perry, inasmuch as Mr Stavbottle showed himself a more genial spirit, and more amenable to the tactics which Royce had pursued with so little success in Perry's case. Under the warming influence of Mr Royce's hospitality, Mr Starbottle, when "judiciously led on to the subject of his acquaintance with Albert Freeman, waxed conversational and communicative. It appeared that '. he knew nothing of Philip Hazard, nor of Anthony Fleming, except by name; but he knew a good deal of Freeman," and his host had little difficulty in extracting from him all the information he could give. If not quite all that Royce could have desired, it was far more than he could have ventured to hope for!. It placed a trump-card in his hand; and another very satisfactory thing was, that Mr Starbottle, having left England soon after Albert Freeman's death, and having heard nothing of the Freeman-Fleming mystery, did not appear to duly estimate the importance of the game or the magnitude of the stakes. Moreover, he- seemed1 imbued with the traditional Western habit of " leaving other folks to attend to their own businass."' It was "not1 his funeral," as he observed^ He had enough to do to paddle his own canoe; he was not likely to put his oar into any other boat, unless he perceived that such interposition would be clearly to his advantage—which in this case was just what Mr Royce did not intend him to perceive, if he could help it! ' The game was inhis. own hands—unless Starbottle took it out of them! Meditating over the new disclosure, he made up his mind that his first move was to go and call on Albert Freeman's far from inconsolable widow. As he entered the house on. this visit he was surprised to meet Philip Hazard coming out; .for he had not been aware that Lilian Percival's lover was on visiting terms with Mrs Freeman. The two men exchanged' brief and formal greetings, Hazard especially showing no disposition to linger over them. He passed promptly on his way out as Royce went in. " So the bridegroom has been paying yon a visit?" the latter observed, when Cleo had welcomed him with her accustomed ease and nonchalance.
"Why not?" she rejoined. "Why not, indeed?" he echoed, smiling, "if the bridfi approves!" " She ought to approve," ■ lightly, but with a little toss of her head, "of his calling on a connection of the family.'' " A connection of the family!" He was smiling still very pleasantly, but something in his smile setCleo on her guard. "Miss Percival has quite received you in the family bosom then? And the happy bridegroom is happier still to find so charming a— cousin!"
" I trust lie is satisfied," replied the charming lady, calmly. "He has certainly more reason to be satisfied now than if it were to turn out that there was no cousinship, no family connection at all."
"I don't understand you," she replied. " How can Anthony Fleming's widow" (with a curious mocking gleam in her eyes) "be anything but' a connection—a cousin by marriage—of Lilian Percival and her husband to be?" She was unconscious of the expression with which she shut her teeth upon the last words. " True, quite true," Royce assented suavely. " Anthony Fleming's widow would certainly be a kinswoman. But—er—" he smoothed his fair moustache musingly, " the proofs of your late husband's identity with Anthony Fleming are after all not incontrovertible."
"They are good enough to convince us all," she retorted.
■" Quite so. I know," he agreed. " One side is always good until the other is heard. But I Lave been having a friendly chat with Starbottle—you remember, he was a friend of your husband, although I don't think you knew him personally. In course of conversation your husband's name naturally came up." Her lip curled as she shot a contemptuous, scathing glance at him. Cleo was not in as good a temper as usual; lie observed it, and wondered why. " And it's a curious thing," he continued, ruffled, " that this Starbottle. who knew him for many years, knew him always as Albert Freeman—long before the Fleming affair —and he does not believe he ever had any other name." "What does it matter what he believes?" she replied, more sharply and quickly than usual. " Who is he, anyway, that he should know anything more than other people?"
. " H'm," Royce demurred, reflectively. " He and Freeman were great chums, and it does seem curious that not even to you, his wife, nor to his old friend Starbottle, did he ever breathe a word of his real name or his —er—unfortunate career in England." " Not so curious in a man of his character and disposition. He was a man likely enougli to have an alias, perhaps more than one. He-may well have passed as Freeman in America long before that unlucky visit to England; why not? There was nothing very remarkable in a man of his career keeping an alias for one country, anil his own name for another."
Royce repeated his reflective " H'm," and regarded her curiously, speculutively. There was something more that he had heard from Gideon Starbottle; but he was not prepared to impart this full information to her—not at least till after further cogitation. He judged it better to hold something in hand than to lay his cards out on the table, before her eyes.
His fair friend did not seem to him to ia a promising humour; her manner offered him no great encourauemen.t to dwell oa
tha interesting subject, or even to prolong his visit; and after discreetly directing the conversation into a more general line, and chatting the usual chit-chat of the day for a little while, he took his leave, and as he went his way to the " Globe-Trotters," debated in his own mind the nature of his next move. He might very likely meet Starbottle there; if he did so, there would be the opportunity of another friendly chat, and perhaps a social glass—and then, what should his next step be? Should he approach Lilian Percival or Philip Hazard? Cleo, of course, had also an interest in •the matter. It would be greatly to her disadvantage if her claim on Lilian's g-enerosity, as the widow of the man through whose death Lilian succeeded to hei' fortune, should be annulled by the untoward discovery that her husband was not Anthony Fleming after all! Still, her interest was very slight indeed compared to that of Lilian and Lilian's future husband. The question now was, which of these two i was the more likely to be eager, or willing, j to enter into some " arrangement" to hush j up inquiries at any cost? He wi'is inclined to go to the man rather than tin) woman. Women were such uureasonabj'e, fanciful creatures, made up of impulses and emotions; one never know when they'- would not set up some twaddling '• sentimental scruple about right and wrong, and he rather fancied Lilian was one of the sentimental ..ones. Then, too, if he addressed himself to her, she would no doubt consult Hazard, and probably place the matter in his hands. Now Hazard, he thought, was not likely to be hampered by conscientious scruples where his plain interest was concerned. Royce had always his secret suspicions of Lilian's fiance. He looked doubtfully "ton the apparent intimacy between him and" Nathaniel Perry; and now he wondered if theTe was any kind of understanding existing between him and Cleo? Cleo's, interests; in maintaining the identity of Fleming and Freeman were the same as Hazard's; ancj Perry's statement was the main evidence of that identification. Royce felt he was on the track of something—he hardly guessed what —and ths instincts of the chase stirred exhilaratingly in .him, ,as in the sleuth-hound on the scent. ' ' ' ' ' ''-, Meanwhile the fair Cleo was not in the most amiable .of moods. Several things had happened lately to ruffle her. She had considered, during Lilian's last visit to London, that she had just': ground of complaint. Hazard had devoted', his entire attention to his' bride-elect, and could spare m time—or what she considered 'no time at all—for her. Since then he hn,d been morose and fitful in temper. Then he had ruthlessly tnnnpled on a suggestion of hers; and his' thrusting the very idea aside as something worse1 than impossible put,her in the mood to insist on its practicability! Lastly, he had refused point-blank to escort her to the theatre that evening, although she had a private box on the upper tier, where, as she had suggested cuttingly, he could keep well behind the curtains if he was afraid to be seen with her. .
Reduced by his refusal to the companionship of a female friend, she went to the theatre in an aggrieved mood; but her temper was not so much roused as to impel her to injure, or even to neglect, Hazard's interest and safety. She thought he ought to be warned of Stephen Royce's course of investigation, and sho sent him a note requesting him to call early next clay as she had something to say to him. He came —not because lie wished to come, but because he thought it would be more prudent not to refuse. What she had to say might turn out to be something that lie ought to hear. And so it proved when she" told him of her conversation with Stephen Royce. and had indeed something more still to communicate', although she did not arrive at that till later.
" His picking up Perry was one thing," she observed, " but this" Starbottle's quite another. Perry was all right. But this man seems to have blurted out everything he knows." "It's well he doesn't know more then." said Hazard. "It would need more than
what he's blurted out to upset our case." A faint smile played over Cleo's lips; she liked to hear him'say "our" case. Neither of them knew that Royce had not told Cleo all that he had heard from Starbottle.
" A man may live under an alias for years," Hazard continued. "There's nothing in this that wo can't meet."
"Yes, but be on your guard. There's something more. Sadie Kavanagh is over here. You remember Sadie?" "Perfectly. I remember her better than she loved me!" with a rather grim smile. " She and I always got on together, but she never liked you," said Cleo, smiling, with charming candour. " Well, she writes me that she is coming to see mo; she's got my address from Delphine. 'Now she must not see you!" , „ .... "She need not. Im going to Mayneld to-morrow afternoon. And I shall be far away and out of this in a few days." Cleo's face clouded. "The place is getting warm for you," she observed. "It may be. All the better that Im going to clear out of it.' She was silent for a moment, her brow lowering, her eyes downcast. "You're bent on carrying it through then?" she said at last. " Yes," he answered curtly. Only " Yes," but no asseveration could have been more emphatic. "At any.-risk?" ■ " At -any risk," he repeated, doggedly. "I, tell "you I think it's a mad game," she said more impulsively. "Dangers are thickening round you." "Here!" he assented, with significant emphasis. . "And elsewhere too, if you persist m carrying thei business out. Think it over. There's time'yet." "Time for what?" "Time to give it up—to clear out of this, but in another direction. The world is wide; there's room for you, and time for you, elsewhere. The present plan means nothing less than life-long danger. You'll never know an hour's safety. Mr and Mrs Hazard- MacGilleroy "—he frowned at her sardonic emphasis on the name he was, in accordance with the terms of Anthony MacGilleroy's will, to bear—" can't hide their light under a . bushel. You'll be known, marked, stared at, and gossiped over wherever you go; there will never be one moment's freedom from danger for you anywhere." " I have known that all along, and faced it. But after all, you take an exaggerated view of the.'risk, Cleo. You say truly enough the wold is wide. I've counted my chances. There's less danger for me in the East than in the West; and even there I've taken the odds. I've run the risk and come through all right. Do you think I'm going to back out now?" ' _ " You're running your head into the lion's jaws every moment," she replied moodily, .with a sullen look about her red lips.
" It's a game that's played in every circus," he rejoined. "It will be no, circus for you," she replied, "if Stephen"'Royce ferrets out "—a significant pause before she added with discreet vagueness, " anything! And he's like a bloodhound on the trail."
j "I've dodged bloodhounds before now. ' Let him look after himself and his own : business! I don't suppose he'll follow me ,to Egypt—and how often must I remind i you that I'm not going to stay here?" i* "You are like the ostrich, hiding its ' head in the sands," she retorted with scornful impatience. " Letters may follow you—and her! Men may follow you; i your track will be open enough! And I there are such things as extradition laws!" " And countries beyond them too!" he rejoined impatiently. " What is the use lof prating and preaching? I've cast the die." I "Yes, and it's a high stake you're playing for," she said slowly, with something keen ancl sinister in her tone, and the gleam of her red-brown eyes. "It is. I thought you saw that plainly enough. You seemed to see it at first, and !to be willing enough to help me to take a I hand in the game."
" When I thought it was a bid for fortune
only! But know, do you think I'm so blind that I don't see it's not only fortune you are staking your all for? You're risking life itself to win—a woman!" with a ring of passion in her voice. "Who spoke of a woman?" he demanded, in a tone that cut like steel, with a dangerous flash in his eyes. She gave a halflaugh that had almost a hysterical note in it.
"Another woman dared to speak of her!" she answered defiantly.
" Then it will be wiser not to drag that subject in again," he said, with a desperate effort commanding his temper. " Leavethat—out of. the question. Don't be foolish, Cleo!" he added, compelling himself to a calrri and reasonable air. " What is the use of any endeavour to disturb existing arrangements?" "Existing arrangements!" she echoed. "That means—you'll cut me adrift!" "No such thing; you ought to know that very well. I have no such idea. Keep your head level., Don't make a fool of yourself with these whims and fancies; you'll see when you come round to a reasonable mood, that you've no cause to be discontented with—things as they are. We're in the same boat in this —we. must pnll together. I run the risk, such risk as there is, and you'll have no reason to regret your hand in the business." A sort of half-reconciliation was patched up between them; perhaps neither of them desired to push matters to an open breach. He knew too well it was his vital interest to conciliate her, and she endeavoured to ignore that it was his interest which prompted his more or less successful attempt at a propitiatory tone. Yet she felt that it was but a reluctant and compulsory advance he made, and although she accepted the preferred olive-branch, it was not with too good a grace. Resentful and warlike feeling was smouldering on both sides, and Cleo knew in her heart that she was imprudent when she took advantage of what was rather a truce than a peace, to revert to a delicate and dangerous subject; but she was in a reckless and rather bitter humour, and ventured it all the same!
" About what I was suggesting the other day," she began. " Have you thought over it?" . . .
" No. It needs no thinking over," trenchantly. " Could it not be managed? " " You are absolutely mad to dream of such a thing, Cleo! " with an angry frown. " No. There is no possible way in which it could be , managed, or should be ■ managed even if-it could ! " "If I were to turn up at Cairo?" she suggested, obstinately adhering to the subject. "I can take my own ticket there." " You can take your ticket to Cairo or to " He curbed himself on the verge of naming a warmer place than it is customary to suggest as the destination of a lady's journey, and substituted the tamer phrase, "or where else you like! Where you go is your own affair. It will be no matter of mine—ours "
"Then if 1 join you on the Nile it will bu my business," she retorted. " And I should think she'd be glad to see me. I can be a pleasant travelling companion— and she'll want one! She'll soon get tired of your grim, morose moods." '• Stop that! " said Hazard, pale with rage. Lilian would hardly have known her lover. He had not raised his voice, or his hand, or made a step forward, had hardly moved «. muscle; but it was a different man —a man of coarser fibre and rougher life, a man with the savage nearer the thin veneer of the surface—than. Lilian's affianced lover, • who faced this other woman now. " One day you'll push me too far," he added, setting his teeth.
"And one day," she retorted, "you'll put it too plainly to me that I'm not good enough to speak of your prim wax-do!l saint. Do you think I'll bear too much?" " Nor I, Cleo! " he said, in a hoarse, deepened voice. ." Take care how you drive me!"
" Will you dictate to me how far I shall go?" she demanded,-her passion breaking out of its hardheld bounds. " It's my part to dictate terms —it's I who hold you in the hollow of my hand!." He caught his breath, and his changeful hazel eyes darkened till they looked quite black. He stood silent and motionless, as ,if her words had turned him to stone ; but it seemed to liim that the floor was unsteady and rocking beneath his feet; he ■was absolutely dizzy with the fury that gripped him by the throat, and held him dumb. There was something more dangerous in his silence than-in any outburst of passion. The look in his eyes would have terrified a timid woman to the verge of hysteria. Even Cleo felt an uneasy and unusual tremor of the nerves. Like the countryman who raised the devil in person by his magic spells, and immediately took to his heels in terror at sight of his Satanic Majesty, she dreaded the evil spirit she had raised—though she did not turn to flee. Flight was not in 'Cleo's^line ; she did not even shrink from the' scathing flash of his fierce eyes; but nevertheless it was with relief that she heard the sound of cab wheels drawing up at the house, and, looking out as she stood near the window, saw a hansom stopping at the door, and recognised the figure of the alighting visitor. Any. interruption to the interview at this stage was welcome; things were really going too far—further than she intended, although her temper had carried her away.
"It is Delphine," she said quickly, with an air of dropping her weapons, as she.saw him follow her glance. " She had better not see you. Go out by the back room," indicating the folding doors, " and come again this evening. You must! No matter if it's late; come. We must thresh this out. Quick! the girl's going to open the door. I shall expect you this evening. Go now! " The hall door opened as she closed the folding doors behind him. (To be continued.)
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 11512, 26 August 1899, Page 3
Word Count
6,370PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGE-MENT. Otago Daily Times, Issue 11512, 26 August 1899, Page 3
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