LADY DIANA'S DIAMONDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1943, 14 February 1889, Page 34

LADY DIANA'S DIAMONDS.

Chapter 11. A year or two, more or less, mattered little to West Mallion. A stranger returning after such an interval might see little change in the sleepy market place, in the young ladies from the rectory, or the political outlook according to the county paper. Only the dwellers themselves were conscious of ,a subtle stir and brightening of the atmosphere, of an exhilarating suggestion in the air that the bad times lay behind now and the good times were coming, if not actually come. Prices ranged no higher on a market day than they did before, but Mallionhay was open again and entertaining the whole country side right royally. Mine host of the Mallion Arms had advanced with the times, and entertained the loungers in the bar with an entirely new series of renvnNcriio^, beginning with the description, given with much gusto, of how the great foreign doctors had, so to speak, cut Sir Henry's head right open and set the inside to rights as good as ever ; and concluding with a detailed account of the grand doings at the christening of the splendid young heir that Lady Diana had brought home with her. The family were putting up a big stained window in the church as a thank offering, whether for Sir Henry's head or the baby he couldn't rightly say. It might be for Miss Muriel's coming of age, after all. That young lady had something to be thankful for, to be sure. Nigh upon a million, he was given to understand, all for her own spending. It's a serious thing to think of. Ah, there she was, acoming from the church sure enough, and her mother, too, and a finer pair you'll see ] nowhere— though for choice give him Lady ! Diana. , " Good-day, my lady. Good-day, miss." Lady Diana walked her horse a few steps farther, then turned and beckoned to him. She was looking well and handsome, full of light and brightness, Muriel drooped a little in her saddle, and looked around with wistful, perplexed eyes, as if Care had somehow set her mark on the young beauty and heiress whose coming birthnight ball was the talk and expectation of three counties. " What has become of Mr Serafton ? " asked Lady Diana. " I see the shutters closed. Has he left the town for good 1 " | Now, of all people in West Mallion, Lady Diana was best able to give news of the absent jeweller, but she had her own reasons ! for asking. 1 "Mr Serafton, my lady, left the town— let me see— more than a year ago ; nearly two it must be. His father sent for him, I am given to understand. A great diamond merchant, I think— l don't quite remember the name of the firm ; perhaps your ladyship might have known it. They do say that he has made his son a partner ; but we've all lost sight of him here." They rode silently homewards, side by side, in the green summer twilight of the leafy lanes. «f Shall you go to London to-morrow?" Muriel inquired at last. "To London ? No, child. The diamonds are at Southbeach. They are in Mr Serafton's charge, and he is at the Southbeach place of business. Yes, I must go there tomorrow and make some arrangement about the diamonds for that night at least. You heard what your father said to-day. I did not think he could have been so agitated about anything." " Poor mother," and Muriel leant from her saddle to stroke her hand. "He did not mean to be angry with you. You know the doctors said he might have queer fancies and irritate himself about trifles. He has approved of everything else you have done during his illness." 11 1 must set his mind at rest about those wretched diamonds at all risks." "Of course you can," interrupted Muriel cheerily. " Why, by the evening you want them I shall have been able to draw ypu a cheque for Mr Serafton's whole claim. I mean to do what J choose with my money, unquestioned and independently, I can tell you, mother dear.".- • • > • . «• Oh, darling," sighed Lady' Diana, « if you knew the relief it has been to tell you my troubles, If Sir Henry had but reco«

vered as completely as we hoped he would, there would have been no further need for these odious deceptions." "Perhaps there never was the need," Muriel said in a low voice. " Perhaps if you 'had trusted me with the whole of your secret — the purpose for which you wanted the money." " Muriel I my child, what do you mean ?" The groom here rode forward to open the park gate, and they were perforce silent. Under the portico of the house they could see Sir Henry waiting to receive them with _ jovial, loud-voiced greeting. In the hall a ' footman delivered a request from the nurse that " my lady would come into the nursery before the young gentleman was settled to sleep." It seemed hours before she could j seek the privacy of her own dressing room, where she found Muriel standing by the window in deep thought, si ill in her habit, nervously twisting the lash of her ridingwhip. " Mother ! " she cried, as Lady Diana entered. " Oh, mother, if you had but told mcl" There was reproaoh mingled with sorrow In her voice. " Told you ? What have you heard, child?" 11 Everything ! It has weighed like a i stone here," and she pressed her hands on j her heart impetuously. "To think of ' your stooping to deceit and bribery. Oh, mother " " But, darling, what was I to do ? Think of Sir Henry," cried the mother wildly. I " How was I to deal with the man 1 " 11 Trust him 1 Trust his noble nature, his sense of family feeling, his honour, his affection for the father who renounced him. Yes, he took your money. You left him no other resource. He took but what was rightly his own, what we had been keeping him from all these years. He bore with your disdain in silence ; his hands were tied. But when the time comes that he may safely come forward and claim his own, then you shall see how little your bribe was needed to buy his forbearance towards his father." Lady Diana stood like a stone statue, her dilated eyes fixed on the excited girl, her lips growing whiter and whiter with terror. "Child! Muriel I Am I mad? Who is this that you are speaking of to me 1 Where have you met him ? How has he dared to approach you 1 " " At Florence," the girl said more steadily. ' " While you were absorbed in nursing Sir Henry after the operation. He only came to me for news. He could not bear the suspense longer. What else could he have done? You had forbidden him to address you or his father. I used to meet him every evening; that is"— for Lady Diana started and shuddered—" I used just to speak a few words from the balcony, and he would go away satisfied. He never wrote to me till baby was born. I could not meet him then. I was too much with you. I— l could not blame his wanting to let me know how he felt towards this brother who was to supplant him " "Hush! hush!" Lady Diana screamed. " I cannot bear this. Oh, Muriel ! Muriel ! Promise me to wait before you judge me. Promise you will write to him no more, nor see him, nor let him come near you till Sir Henry knows all. It is a little thing to ask you. Promise, if you love me ! " " I will obey if you order me," answered Muriel in the coldest tone her mother had ever heard pass her lips. "If you insist that he shall be left a while longer outcast and disowned, I cannot prevent it. But I cannot promise to think you are doing right, mother. . I am on his side from henceforth remember, mother." « God help>e ! " sighed Lady Diana. Mark Serafton's establishment on the Southbeach Esplanade is a solid, respectable pile, like a bank or public office. There is no vulgar expanse of plate -glass with a catchpenny show of glittering gewgaws bet hind it. Within was precious store of gems and gold as all the world might see, but only to a favoured few, connoisseurs of name, personal friends of Mr Serafton's own, or visitors bearing a written order from Lady Diana Mallion, would the innermost shrine be opened, and the glory of the whole be revealed. A certain unimportant-looking door at the far end of the shop would be opened by a key that never left Mr Serafton's possession except for a few rare intervals, when it was trusted to the care of his devoted nephew, Kobert. The door opened on a second, and that on a small, windowless chamber, a separate building, burglar and fire proof, in the centre of which, under a case of strong plateglass, lay dazzling in the rays of the electric light a priceless mass of treasure, the crown and centre of which were the Mallion diamonds. It was understood that they had been entrusted to him to be reset, and some missing stones replaced, and that the search for the match had occupied the trade for months. There Lady Diana found them. Mr Serafton conducted her with a slow and sad step to the strong room, explaining the precautions he had taken for their defence in a voice filled with the pain of parting. They had wound themselves very closely round his heart. ' < l I will bring them to you myself on the morning of the 23rd," he said with the calm of a supreme resignation. " I suppose you could not let me have them any sooner ? " she asked. " Sir Henry is possessed by such extraordinary fancies about them. It is a lingering trace of his illness, and we must do our best to quiet his mind. He is angry and suspicious about my trusting them to you." Mr Serafton had hardly spirit left to feel indignant at the suggestion. He explained in a dull, indifferent manner that at present the security of the diamonds was absolute. The room had been designed by. a celebrated engineer. Only a' party of skilled masons with time and appliances could break through from outside or below. The lock of the iron door was a specia.l, patent opened by only one key in the world, and that key ,n£veroutof $lr Serafton's .or Robert's pos'sefision.- Then the case and stand on which it stood were practically impregnable. To cut through the plate-glass or to tamper with the stand would be to set an alarm to work at Mr Serafton's private resideaoe and another at the nearest police

station. He went on to tell of the wellarmed watchman, but Lady Diana interrupted him wearily: " Thank you; I know I am foolish, but I feel as if nothing that you can say will reassure me. I dread the two days to come unspeakably. I am treading blindfold amongst pitfalls. Perhaps the loss of my diamonds may not prove the deepest." She checked herself abruptly with a nervous glance at Muriel, but Muriel turned unresponsively away and walked back through the shop, where Eobert, who had by this time formed himself into a very elegant copy of his uncle, watched her admiringly from behind the counter. Mr Serafton shook his head ominously as he returned from accompanying Lady Diana to the cab that took the two ladies back to the station. " Not the woman she was," he sighed to Robert in a confidential moment later on when the shop was cleared. " Did you notice a gentleman on the opposite side of the road who took eff his hat as the cab drove off ? Do you happen to know who it was?" " A Captain Trevor, staying at the Imperial," Robert responded, colouring slightly, j "Yes, I know him a little, and he knows I them. He spoke to Miss Dasent—he is a relation, I fancy, I know he signs himself 1 Mallion Trevor.'" " You know a good deal about him, Bob. Yes, he did remind me of Sir Henry. The same queer-shaped eyebrows." Mr Serafton gave what would have been a jump in one less dignified, and rubbed his head suddenly. He had met with a pair of similar eyebrows once before, he recollected. " I'm going out, Robert. I shall be in to dinner at 8. If not, don't wait for me." Robert was accustomed to his uncle's I ways, and was not much surprised when he began, pouring out his first glass of afterdinner claret, as if the conversation had never been interrupted. "So Captain Mallion Trevor, late Scinde Light Horse, was here last spring for some time —help yourself, Bob —while I was in Amsterdam. Made a pot of money on the Southbeach Spring meeting, and stayed on here, spending it like a gentleman. Perhaps you can oblige me with some further details, Robert?" Bob's conscience was clear, but he flushed up to the eyes with embarrassment. He was still boy enough to blush, despite his high collar and waxec moustache. i 11 Yes, I met him then ; but he's no friend of mine, as you seem to think. I used to go to the billiard room of the Imperial in i those days—it was before you objected, you know —and we played a good deal at one time. He would go on playing, though I was too strong for him. He came in J and out to see me at my rooms once or twice " " And asked to see the diamonds ?" suggested Mr Serafton. j " The diamonds 1 No, I don't remember j that he ever did. We may have talked about them —that was natural " And here Bob broke off awkwardly enough, but his uncle was waiting for him to continue, and he dared not stop half-way. "We talked about them in connection with the Mallions, you know. You see how it was" —Bob went on more fluently —" when he turned up again last month, and suggested a game, I was obliged to say I wasn't going to play any more. I'd given it up. Then he asked me into his room, just for a quiet cigar, and —l think we both took more than was good for us; for he went on by the hour raving about his beautiful cousin, Muriel —Miss Dasent, that is —and showed me her photograph and her letters in his pocket-book, and said Lady Diana was on his side, but Sir Henry objected to their engagement, and a lot more. I was awfully interested, but rather confused myself, anc i don't recollect much about the rest of the ; conversation; so, when he asked me next morning to say no more about it, and forget j what he had told me as soon as I could — why, so I did." 11 And was that the very last of him ?" j Mr Serafton's face was still anxious. " Has he never been about this place since ?" " Once," Bob admitted. "He came in awfully agitated, and said the Mallions were just behind him, and begged me tol et him wait somewhere where he could see them without being seer, and so I took him into your private office —only for a few minutes," pleaded Bob, in deprecation of the sudden wrath in his uncle's face; " not five at most —just till the ladies came in, and we saw it was not the Mallions. Then he went off at once, and never came near the place again till to-day." " You saw Miss Dasent speak to him ?" I " No, I didn't; he spoke to her —something about a promise and two days more. She is coming of age directly, I know." ' " Two days more —just what Lady Diana said. I wish they were over, with all my heart, Robert," sighed Mr Serafton heavily. Robert looked sympathetic. '< Don't worry about Mallion Trevor, uncle. He went up to town by the next train. I saw him go, You're getting low, uncle. You'll be twice the man once you are rid of those diamonds." {To be continued.)

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