THE DARK-STREET MYSTERY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 5032, 13 June 1889, Page 4

THE DARK-STREET MYSTERY.

(LITERATURE I

A. DOCTOR’S STORY. CHAPTER XI. ‘ You have not seen Mr Fairfax since bis aunt’s death then V I said a little doubtfully. 1 1 did not know he bad an aunt,’ was the quick reply. * Well, I hope it’s a rich aunt, and George her only relation. But, poor boy, he is one of the unfortunates that will never have any good luck.’ There was a ring of pity in her voice, and a new thoughtful expression in her face, as she c asped her hands together involuntarily, and looked steadily at the fire. < You and he are old friends ?’ she asked. ‘ Yes.’

‘ Greatly attached to each other, as men can be sometimes, I have heard. I don’t think 1 quite believe that,’ Delia said. ‘ But George Fairfax confesses os much ; and with his hundred-and-ane faults, he isn’t a gusher, at any rate.’ ' This young lady was more ot a mystery than her elder sister; she spoke of my friend as if he were her . own. * Delia is frank and communicative, Mr Lissamer,’ said the more plaintive voice of the elder sister ; ‘ but lam helpless and, in her power to-day.’ ‘ You are ill, Miss JNash.’ ‘ Yes, very.’ ‘ Well she may be,’ was Delia s comment upon this ; ‘she will try and do more than her strength will allow, and , then it comes to a crisis.’

( She nearly killed herself coming down to Breymouth after you,’ Delia said to.me, almost as indignantly now as if I had sent for her sister. ‘ She Las not been the same woman since. And I could have come, or we might have posted you the money ; but no. There was her duty. A martyr to duty all her life she has been, Mr Lissamer, and this is what it has come She spread out her hands comprehensively, and with a mocking air, that was very significant of her contempt for her home, for the poorlyfurnished room in which we sat, even for the piano, which was the principal ornament, and at which she bad been singing merrily before I had knocked at the door. ‘IfI could be in my professional capacity of any use to you, Miss Nash,’ I said to Hyacintha, ‘ I should ’ ( We are indebted enough to you already —you must not piece us under further obligations, Mr Lissamer,’ she said, quickly. ‘I am welleaough. It is Della’s little way of exaggerating matters. I shall be stronger when the spring is here in earnest.’ Looking at her white, transparent bands, her tall, fragile figure, I was not so sure of that. She was in a critical state of health ; she would have been a patient to interest me marked degree. With all these Nashs there was something out of the common way with them. ‘Y on have been ill, too, Mr Fairfax tells us,’ said Hyacintha.

. ‘ Yes.’ ‘ And are well again. There is the ■warning of over exertion for you to study too,’ put in Delia here. ‘ George Fairfax says you take things too much to heart, Mr Lissamer.’ ‘ He seems to have summed me up pretty correctly,’ I said. ‘Perhaps I do ; but I am not quite certain,’ ‘ Nothing is certain but quarter-day, somebody says. And that a poor somebody who could not pay his rent, lam sure,’ said Delia. ‘ Just like our dear young selves. We ran away to save that piano and all our belongings, Mr Lissamer. At least that was our principal reason. Nobody Stepney way would have believed our statement that we should pull through if they let us alone, and so the comorants would have been down upon us at a time when we were—■well, awfully hard up ! And they were not going to snatch away the only thing that keeps us alive, if I could help it so we made a bolt of it, as Mr Fairfax would say ; in fact, as he did say, pretty plainly, when we first had the honour of making his acquaintance.’

Delia laughed at some reminiscence connected therewith, but her sister said with a sigh : ‘ Ah ! we have had a hard fight after a hard fashion.’ ‘ But the fight is over ; the Stepney pest is settled, and the piano manufacturer, bless his heart ! —is easy in his mind ; and Hyacintha can play all day without fretting herself to death ; and so all is well.’ ‘ You are fond of music !’ I asked of the elder sister.

‘ Passionately.’ < Were you playing a short while since ?’ ‘ No. That was Delia.’ ‘That was my new part for the new opera-bouffe in the land of the West, where I I'are got to go at last,’ explained Delia Nash. ‘I begin business again next Saturday evening, thank Heaven. I shall exist once more. I shall ho quit lor a while of Dark Street.’ ‘ And of me,' added Hyacintha. * Ah ! yes—bother that part of if ;I had forgotten it,’she cried. ‘But ail that will be arranged, settled, and made extra comfortable. You see now.’ ‘ Delia, perhaps you will allow Mr Xiissarner to state his business with us. I think we have talked enough about ourselves, and wearied him sufficiently with unecessary details.’ ‘ I am silent—for all time,’ Delia said, with melo-dramatic solemnity ; you will hear my voice no more, my children.’ ‘NowMr Lissamer.’ I had almost forgot the nature of my errand —why I was there, why I seemed to have settled down there, and to be iu rio hurry to depart. I was brought, back to myself. I produced my papers and entered into the particulars of my

expenses. I made over the balance to Miss iNash, and she took the money with a quiet, ‘ Thank you,’ and passed it to her sister, who dropped the money loose into her pocket, as if the matter were or no consequence, and ready j cash of no consideration.

This being settled, I was thinking whether there was anything left for me to do save to make my best bow and retire, when a brisk rattling rattle at the street door startled the three of us. It struck me that the two sisters looked meaningly at each other. ‘ What can that be ? ’ exclaimed Delia,- springing to her feet, darting out of the room, and taking marked means to shut the parlour door behind her this time, very carefully. Hyacintha sat up as it to listen attentively, and I remained silent out ot politeness. The stillness struck her for she said :

*lt is probably this friend of yours, —George Fairfax.’ The remark was made in a strange tone of voice, and she noticed my surprised look at her iu return. ‘ For he is your friend — I am not mistaken T ‘ Certainly he is.’ ‘ A true friend, in whom you are deeply interested ?’ ‘ Yes.’ ‘ Then,’ she said, lowering her voice almost to a whisper, and looking at the closed door of the room mher than at me, as if she would be on her guard against its opening suddenly and betraying her, ‘ by every means ,in your power keep him away.’ ‘ Keep him away !’ I repeated slowlv, ‘ We don’t want to see him here again. For God’s sake tell him not to come !’ she said. r To he Continued .)