Taken Unawares

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 883, 8 December 1916, Page 3

Taken Unawares

[All Rights Reserved]

CHAPTER XiV—(Continued.) A gambler! The fever burning in her veins like fire, the passion mounting to her brain like wine, her lianas trembling, the cards, her eyes glittering, waiting, watching—a gambler! It was as bad as a drunkard—the thirst for play as had as the thirst for drink. And Humphrey! Suppose lie knew? Suppose lie ever found out? But when one won!- The gambler's hope rose sharply in her heart, as it always does. "I wish to goodness I had Stopped •When 1 got the fifteen hundred pounds last month. Oh, Vi, if [ only had! " Vi shrugged her shoulders and looked at the clock again. She was getting tired of the conversation. "If I only had! Oh, T wish I iiad the chance again. An,l I might—l might, Vi." She rose suddenly. "Vi, it's only the last fortnight that my luck lias been so outrageous. It wasn't so bad before that, and, remember all that money I got that afternoon —fifteen hundred pounds and more—all at once! Suppose the chance came again? It might! " A bright Mush ran up into her cheek, n light sprang to her eyes, and her trembling hands seized the paper upon the table. "Fifteen hundred pounds! It would more than pay Agnes C'aley," she said breathlessly, "and after that I'd never touch cards again—never—never! If I could only get it back---only part of it back. Oh, Vi, what shall V do?" Hopelessness, despair, rushed back upon her. But suddenly she looked at yi 's clothes, at the room with its wealth and luxury; and back at Vi. She held her breath, and then spoke with a gasp.

"Oh, Vi, couldn't you—wouldn't you help met I—l know I haven't paid back what, you lent me before that, but I will. Do give me another chance, Vi? Lend me a little more, just to start again?''

. Mrs Stcvenish turned slowly—slowly because for a moment she had to steady her face and drive out of it the ugly smile of triumph that curled her lips. Terry was fairly in her hands, hopelessly in debt to Mrs Caley and herself, in the clutches of a money-lender, and the associate of the card-sharpers, swindlers, and undesirables of other descriptions to whom she had introduced her. What more could she do?

Terry, swayed blindly and helplessly by her one passion, knew nothing, and cared less about the people she met. She was in the clutches of a vice that dominated her; and if, in between, at the end of an afternoon or in the evenings when some man or other took tier home, she tested her power in another direction, her flirtations were innocentenough and ignorant enough, as Mrs Stevenish knew quite well. But, she thought, with her cruel smile, those flirtations would not look so innoeent to other people—especially people who knew what the men were and what reputations they had. Terry knew nothing of it. She was utterly ignorant—a bold, audacious, reckless, adventurous girl, playing with lire which she knew was fire, but ignorant for all that. And Mrs Calev had warned the men.

"Let her have her head. Vi's got Some game on. You 're to fool her, but with care. And her husband's good for any amount of money. She likes men to sit at her feet. So sit."

Terry was no fool, but her weaknesses carried her away, and vanity was one of them. Fresh from the country, where Bhc had no rival, and where almost all the men she knew were in love with her, she realised no difference, except that the men she met in London were smart men about town, so very different, to the plain, honest fellows she had met before, and that their admiration was the greatest flattery she could have. It never occurred to her that any of it was assumed. Childlike, she believed it all. Every man who tried to deceive her succeeded, and it became a "game" in Mrs Caley's set, ami a game, too, of which they did not tire, for Terry was vivacious and bright and remarkably lovely; and flirting with her was good fun.

It became the habit on tlio part, of the women to assume a sort of jealousy. Tacitly they gave her to understand that they tried to keep their husbands and the men who came to their parties away from her. She was dangerous; and of all things Terry thought that was ah enviable tiling to be. If only she had not been so unlucky—if only she had won instead of lost, what fun she ■would be having. "Couldn't you lend me a little more, Vi ?'' she repeated now. Vi shook her head. "I really can't," she said. "Algy is quite mean this week, and he could only give me this. " She picked up casually from a bureau an open cheque, and as she turned, touched an electric bell —touched it two or three times, as if signalling to somebody unseen. "Forty pounds, that's all," she said, "a moan little bit! But, he expects to have to plank down a very big sum for the theatre next week, and that's why he can't do more. And that's why 1 can't lend you any. It's too bad. I'm so sorry. Look look for yourself—only forty pounds." She heiil out the cheque. Terry stared at it miserably. Then suddenly, as if something arrested her attention, Vi lifted it. closer to her eyes. "Algy is so careless," she said. "Look, Terry—look how easily that forty might be turned into four hundred. Oh, Terry, doesn't it tempt you? If it was only four hundred [ could lend you a big lump of it. What a nuisance things are. The door opened. Vi turned sharply, and then made a little .licking sound Tvilh her tongue. "Oh, Ferdi! You're a regular cat creeping about. You made me feel quite guilty. We were just talking about this cheque. Look, isn't Algy careless.' He hasn't filled it in properly, and anybody could turn that forty into four hundred. Terry here is aching to try. Arcn's you Terry?" "Oh, I don't know. I don't enre. Arc you sure, Vi, you couldn't; lend me even part, of that, forty? It might quiet Mrs Caley for a bit." She was so miserable and so absorbed

By ANNIE 0. TIBBITS B—« Author of jj^aßii " The Thread* of De»tiny," " Life's Revenge," etc

in her difficulties that she even ignored Ferdinand. Indeed, he had ceased to count for a long time past, and was so familiar with her troubles, as she might have guessed, as Vi herself. "Couldn't you, Vi?" Vi stared down at the cheque. "It's such a little," she began. "Now, if it was only that four hundred I'd let you have it like a shot —four hundred minus forty.'' Terry sat miserably still. What was the good of wishing? She wished a thousand and fifty pounds would rain from Heaven, but it did not. She wished she had kept the fifteen hundred when she had won it a fortnight ago, but it was no good. She wished —she wished she was dead; and she remained in the most aggravating good health. "I don't know really what 1 shall do,'' she said. Vi gave her a curious look, then exchanged another glance with Ferdinand. "You poor, miserable, little thing," ,she said, "J 'II tell you what I'll do. I can't see you so downcast, really. I'll fernl von ten pounds till Monday. Can you let me have it back then?" Terry's face changed and brightened. She gave a little breathless sob, and, born little gambler that she was, knowing nothing of the blood in her veins, or of the story behind her life, felt as other lost creatures have felt before her, the stirring hope and the rising confidence that always go before a fall. "Oh, yes —yes," she gasped. "Oh, thank you, Vi. I'm sure to win to-mor-row. I know 1 shall, and I'll bring it back at once.'' Vi shook her head. "But look here, you know, you will have to play very cautiously if I do lend it to you." "I will, I will," gasped Terry in the fulness of hope. "Oh, and I know it will be all right.'' Vi looked at her doubtfully. "Well, I don't know, but I'll do it just this once," she said. "Only," she glanced at the clock, "I've got no change to-day. There's only this cheque"' "I could go to the bank," put in Terry breathlessly, "there's heaps of time, and if you'd endorse it I'd go now —at once.'' Vi laughed sharply. "What a flurry you are in! Well,' give me a pen.'' Terry picked up one from the bureau and handed it to her. Afterwards everybody knew how Terry rushed Mrs Stcvenish into giving her the cheque. "You shouldn't borrow, Terry," put in Ferdinand at this moment; "it will bring you no luck. Don't do it." "Oh, but I must," said Terry. "Well, it's a mistake. I shouldn't if I were you," Ferdinand added; and afterwards everybody knew how he had remonstrated and tried to turn her from her purpose. "Well, so long," said Vi, signing her name with a tlourish and throwing down the pen, "and there you are. Arc you going to the bank straight?" "Yes," sail! Terrv.

"Well, then, come straight back, for I don't, feel inclined to trust you with the change. Thirty pounds! I don't know really how I shall manage on it. But you promise me the ten pounds on Monday —honour?" '' Yes —really—yes.'' Terry turned hastily. ''And I'll be back now in less than half an hour. Oh, thank you, Vi." She rushed away", eager now and confident, with her father's ready assurance rising in her blood, with a gambler's ready hope burning in her heart. Like drink, gambling is worse in a woman than in a man, and old Sir Anthony's steady love of speculation and chance was exaggerated in his daughter —child of her mother and heir perhaps to a similar fate. She ran out of the doom leaving the door wide open; and for a moment Vi and Ferdinand stood in silence until there came the dull bang of the front door.

"There!" said Vi, "that's all right, ring the bell."

In silence Ferdinand obeyed. Perhaps he was remembering Terry's mother. Perhaps out of the past some old emotion rose and touched him, for his face was grave and troubled. "Perhaps it's scarcely fair," he began and stopped, checke 1 by Vi.

"Bosh! Do you forget all you lost so easily- Don't be stupid, Ferdi, but play up. Hush! Here's Carter." She turned as the maid entered and took out from a pigeon-hole in her bureau another cheque, and handed it to the girl. "You know what I said I wanted you fo do?" she askec. "Are you ready?" The girl came,and with her eyes bright ami alert, "Yes, I'm quite ready," she said. "I am to change this cheque, am I not?"

" Yes. And bring as much as you can in gold, and the rest in notes" Four hundred pounds altogether, and take a cab and get back as quickly as you can. Hut don't come in here until I ring, and then wait and see before you give me the money.''

As the girl disappeared, Vi turned sharply to Ferdinand.

"That's all right," she cried, "that's done! Terry is settled, eh?" "Yes,",he answered ,slowly. A little later two hansoms drew upone five minutes behind the other, before Kensington College Flats, 'one held Terry with her £4O, and the other Mrs Stevenish's maid with her £4OO. One behind the other, they went up to Mrs Stevenish's flat; ami presently Terry came down, with her face bright and flushed and eager. "Oh, it will bo all right now'" s',e cried. And as she did so, Vi handed some gold and notes to Ferdinand, looking carefully into his face the while. "I'm trusting you, Ferdi," she said; '•'out—well, we're thick in, and after all you daren't give me away." (To bo continued.)