SENTENCED FOR LIFE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2856, 9 December 1908, Page 90

SENTENCED FOR LIFE.

By Mabel H. Robixs.

"Whom have you coir ing to Wvnchmore on Jthe- 19th?" asked Hester' Luttiell lazily. She had been luncliuxg -with Lady Brent in Grosvenor stiect, . ~d "tt'as now leaning gracefully back in her chair and smoking ;i cigarette. "Oh, there are the Melville-s and their daughter, the Fanes, Captain Butler, and Hugh Deriick " Lady Brent stopped abruptly, for Hester sat up with a sudden ■-tart. 'Oh, you haven't asked him?"' she cried. "Hugh Derrick?" an-.wered her friend, somewnat perplexed. "Yes, he will be there." "Then" — decidedly — "I shan't come." And she leaned back in her chair again and resumed her cigarette. "What nonsense you talk !" cried Lady Brent. "What L> the matter with Hugh? He it, charming and clever, and one of tho most rising men of the day." "I don't like him," said the spoilt beaut}', with a littls pout. "I don't ! care to meet him." ! "But what has he done? I thought 3-ou scarcely knew him." "I have only met him once, and he insulted me tlien.''

A slow smile curved Lady Brent's lips. "Did he prove an exception to the general Tule?" she asked slil} . "Did he refuse to fall down and worship you?"

Hester shrugged her shoulders. "I really don't know whether he did or not," she said with well-affected indifference. "I only know that I overheard him talking about me, and he said I had — a snub nose !"

"Mj dear Hester" — laughing — "your ears must have deceived you. Hugh would never have 6aid such a thing. "

"But he did," persisted the girl. "It was when I was staying with the Westfields, and he had motored over to luncheon I happened to be walking along the terrace, and he was in the drawing room with Dora. The windows were open, so I could hear plainly. He said, 'What a snub nose 1 '" Hester'? voice was very waim, and indignation shone out of her changing green eyes. Lady Brent laughed again amusedly. "Well, my dear child." she said, "your

nose is a very pretty one, but with the great*!£i stretch of imagination you could not say it had a Grecian or a Roman tendene v. "

"I don't want to," said Hester hirrriedly. "But for a man like that to talk — a man who hasn't a decent feature in his face ! Besides, it was his way of putting it. He might have said a iiez T-etrousse, or described it as 'tip-tilted.' The very word 'snub nose' reveals a vulgar mind." "But he didn't know you heard "

"That makes it all the worse. I am i sure he is a horrible man, and I don't care to meet him." j "But you will come?" cried her friend in alarm. The presence of Miss Luttrell always meant the makinig of a country ' house party.

But Hester was obstinate. "I don't think I will," she sajd. "You don't know what it is to stay in the same house with a person you dislike. You feel all the time like a cat when its fur is stroken the wrong way." "But you needn't speak to him," said Lady Brent in despair. "Oh, if you can manage so that he never comes near me, I don't mind ! If you promise to make him promise not to talk to me the whole time I am with you I will come." Lady Brent heaved a sigh of l'elief. "Of course, I can easily do that," she said, "and I am sure" — with a little malice — "that Hugh will be quite willing to enter into the agreement. As a matter of fact, he doesn't care for girls — he has told me so hrnself; he says they are so insipid." A little colour crept up in Hester's pretty cheeks, but she knocked the ash of! her cigarette nonchalantly. "In that case," she said, "we shall both be satisfied, for if there is one thing I hate more than another in this world it is a conceited bore."

" But you don't know Hugh. You said yourself you had only met him once." Hester shrugged her shoulders once more. "1 judge by appearances," she said, "and, to look at him. I should imagine that. Mr Derrick could talk of nothing else but his uninteresting self. But please don't tell him the reason he is not to talk to me — I would not let him. know for the world that I cared about his silly opinion, and I don't really ; — it is only because it is so tiring to have to speak to these dull people."

Lady Brent smiled, but said no more. She had got her way, and would have Hester with_her on the 19th, and that was the vital thing. If i>he spoke any more in Hugh's favour, the chances were that the wayward beauty might veer round again and refuse to come. She deftly turned the conversation into other channels.

• • * • * Hester had been at Wynchrnore three days, and she was very bored. There was no one staying in the house who interested her, for though Captain Butler was her devoted, slave, he was by nc means exciting, and she was tired of the very Gound of his voice. Derrick left her severely alone, and behaved as if she were non-existent, and this "wounded her selfesteem. It was quite right that he should obey her request and <ot speak to her, bur he ought to look unhappy, and not appear so supremely indifferent as to whether she talked to him or not. Hester was actually feeling a little piqued. It was a cold day for the time of year, and- was raining heavily. She was sitting in the library reading, having with difficulty escaped from Captain Butler's company, when Derrick opened the door, looked round the room, and, after choosing a book from one of the shelves, came and sat down by the fire opposite her. He took not the least notice of Hester. Be settled himself comfortably in his chair, and acted as if .he room were empty. The knowledge was not complimentary. Hester gave a little cough, but he went on. with his reading as if he had not heard. She took up the poker and began turning •the burning logs over in the gxate. But he did not stir, and allowed her to do it ail by hereelf. She let the poker fall with a groat clatter as she leaned back aa;ain in her chair, but he did not even give a ftart. He simply seemed engios^ed in his book, and totally unaware of her clo«e proximity. She kept still for a little time after that, but h<:r le'-el brows met in a frown and her pretty lips were pouting. Arid then the continual turning of the leaves of his book got on her nerves to mh h an. extent that she could stand it no longer. ' Do <-peak or Bay something," she &a:d impatiently ; "one would imagine that you were deaf and dumb." Ho put down hi.« book at once and looked up at hei . " 1 thought it was your wish that I shouldn't talk to you at all," he replied sicvrlv. She gave a littlo f-ij^h of relief now that thi 6ilenre was broken, and threw him a dazzling smile. " I release you fiom your promise," she said.

Ho shrugged: his shoulders very slightly. " And supposing I don't want to be released ?"

She leaned forward in her chair. '"Ah. don't be di.-aorreeable !'' she pleaded. " I know I hove been horrid, but — you didn't say nice tilings about me. did you?" "I don't remember making any remark about you at all." he answered coolly. "Indeed, I have beon wondeiing for the last few days what possible ciime I can have committed."

"You — you said I had a snub nose," she said wrathfully.

"IT — surprised. "I said you had a snub nose? Why, I don't believe I ever saw you before you came down to Wynchmore."

"You motored over to luncheon when I I was staying with the WestfieOds," she said | coldly. The fact of being in the same j house with her and being unaware of the j fact was even a worse mi -demeanour than calling her snub-nosed. ' "Of course I did," lie answered. "And i were you there ; too 2" '

"I was," her voice growing still more icy. "I happened to be walking along the terrace, and you were in the drawing room with Dora, Westfield. And I heard you say plainly, 'What a snub nose ! as I passed. I suppose you did not notice the windows were open."

"Good heavens!" he cried. "And you have borne me malice for tliat remark ever since? Mi<^ Westfield was showing me her Pekinese pug, and I was talking about the animal — not you. It seems impossible to imagine such a thing, but I did rot even see — Miss Luttrell."

There was silence for a few minutes. The patter of the rain beating against the window panes was the only thing to be heard. Hestei was not often at a loss for speech, but now she seemed to have nothins; to s-ay. "I — I am sorry I misjudged you,'' she said at last. Tbo man's eyes flashed. At least it was something to get an apology from the haughty beauty. "It seems to me that I have suffered punishment wrongfully," he said frlowly. "I desire some compensation at least."

"What can I do?' she asked in a low voice. She 'was feeling very small. "Well," be said, "you condemned me to tiler.ee. Xow your turn has come. I think you ought to suffer in my place. You must hold no intercourse with the rest of the world. But — you must always have a waider with you. You have been labelled 'Dangerous,' you know." "Have I?" Her lips twitched. "Then may I choose my -warder?" He shook hLs head. "I am afraid not," Iw said. "But — I should like to know first whom yon would choc«e."

"How would Captain Butler do?" "Not at all" — decidedly. "One would not t-mploy an imbecile to guard a prifconer. "Don't you like him?" she asked sweetly. He shrugged his shoulders. "I can't say I have evei thought much about him," he answered. "I spoke to him for three minutes once, and then was so bored I had to take refuge in flight." She laughed softly. ''How^ glad hemust have been when you went !" she said. He looked up rather resentfully. "You mean you would like to get rid of me now?" hs said. "But I am afraid that is impossible. I constitute myself your warder, and you will have to put up with my company for as long as you remain at Wynchmore."' "But I don't mind," she answered, with an enchanting smile. "You haven't bored me in the least, and I am enjoying myself. Talking to you, you see* has all the charm of novelty." He looked at her undecidedly, scarcely knowing what way to take- her words. She threw him a dazzling glance from under her long, dark lashes. "You don't regret it?" she asked in her seductive voice. "Do say you are glad that you have been forgiven." "Forgiven?" he :ried indignantly. "Forgiven for a crime I did not commit?" "Well, we won't talk about that any more," she said' generously. "But at least confess that you are glad that tiresome silence is broken."

He had intended to be adamant, to resist till death the reputed fascination of Hester Luttrell. But he was only a man after all. The witchery of the green eyes was upon him ; he was falling under the spell of that low, sweet voice. He settled himself again in his shair with a little sigh. "Yes," \e answered slowly, "I am glad that tiresome silence is broken at laet."

It was three days later, and old Lady Melville was holding forth to Lady Brent in her shrill, quavery voice as they sat together on the terrace. "I see that Luttrell girl has a new victim," she said. "I should hive thought Hugh Derrick would have been too sensible to follow in a crowd. He generally prefers to be original and strike out a different line from the" rest, and now he has sunk into insignificance- and become a mere stupid liy walking with open eyes into the 6pider'e web." . "He held out for some tune, at any rate," answexvd Lady Brent, "and I must cay I am not surprised that he has succumbed at last. Hester is the most charming girl I know." "H'm !" — sceptically. "I think you are rather unjust to Hester," 6-aid her hostess; but the old woman did not hear — she wa«a pursuing her own train of thought. "It strikes me,' she said with sudden brillunce, "that Hugh Derrick is playing a little gune of his own. He is too stron.g a man to follow the common held, and he disapproved of Miss Luttiell from the first. Didn't you notice that he never «-ent near her or spoke to her?" Lady Brent did not think it necessary to explain matters. "What is his game?" she a«-ked.

"Well, 1 think he means to punish her for the wav she goe-5 on — to hoist her with her own 'petard and leave her in the lurch. He — won't — piopose!" She rubbed h«r hands together maliciously. "Oh, but it will be grand!" .«he cried, her old eyes glittering. ''Everybody ehall hear the etory — it shall go all round London!"' "It has cot to happen yet/ said her hostess coldly. Lady Bient was genumely fond of Hester, and knew that the root of all Lady Melville's spite was the fact that she had intend ed Derrick for her own daughter. "Let us go in — I expect tea will be ready directly." The sound of the retreating steps could be heard below, where two people were .sitting just out of sight of the terrace. Hester's cheeks were naming, for the wind was in that direction, and every one of Lady Melville's thrill tones had reached them.

"Oh," she cried, when the last footstep had died away, "why don't they erect a lethal chamber in which, to put old women after they have reached a certain age?"

Derrick stole a look at her. He was secretly rather grateful to Lady Melville. She had broken the ice. '"She i 3 jealous of you," he said soothingly. "If report speaks truly, etfe used to have it

all her own way when she was young, ami it is painful to see her place usurped." Hester clasped 'her hands together tightly, but did not answer. He leant a little nearer. "At least," he said slowly, his eyes on her face, "we can frustrate her plans and 6p^il her story. Miss Luttrell, I am going to propose to you." Again the wayward colour flowed up through the clear skin, and Hester made a restless movement. "I don't care what she says," she answered in a low voice. ■ "Ah", but I do!- Hester, will you marry me?" _ ' ;

She smiled dreamily. ''Do you want me to say 'Yes' — or 'No'?" she asked. "If you say 'Yes' I might take you at your 'word." And his voice shook a little.

"What?"— trying to peak lightly. "Compel me to marry you or sue me for breach of promise?" And then she gave a short, ' nervous laugh. "To-morrow we leave here," she said, "and my punishment will be over. There will no longer be any need of a warder. You will be out of a place." She talked quickly to cover her momentary confusion.

Th-J sun was getting low, and the shadows on the lawn were lengthening. One little fleck of sunlight broke through the trees and fell on her hair, turning it into molten gold. Derrick drew a deep Lreath.

"Have you found your punishment very — very tedio.us?" he asked. She shook her head. "I lon't think I nave ever been so happy before,*' she answered.

A flash of gladness crossed his face. "Then — then you won't mind," he said, "if your isolation continues — if the sentence is extended for — Life?"

She turned her head and looked at him. Her iglorious eyes were shining, and a new loveliness was dawning on her face. "Not," she f=aid shyly, "if — I still have the same — warder." — M.A.P.