For Old Love's Sake.

Taranaki Herald, Volume L, Issue 12465, 25 January 1904, Page 6

For Old Love's Sake.

By BERTHA M. CLAY,

Auth«'i «f "The Lost Lady oi* Hatl'lon," **Thr«»wn on th« World," '-(Msidys Ureye," " Dom TltoVr-ts" ** U^ WiJVs Jufl^iueiit," ItettviM'H 'I w» 1.0>v," &<*.

% CHAPTGK. Vlll.— Continued. "The lady is much better, I see," he says, aloud, in a somewhat sarcastic tone of cheerful decision. "That is a.U right, then, as the train will return in a lew minutes, and we must be ready for it. They won't run another from St. Cray's on the down line for hours." The strange lady is lying on the seat, with her hca.d on Lady Christabel's lap. "Oh, if I had not met you what should 1 have done !" the strange lady is moaning, with closed eyes. "I should gave died or gone mad of misery and terror only for } r our sweet kindness ! You angel, you angel !" She lifts Lady Christabel's hand to her lips, and keeps it pressed there, with an extravagant fervor of gratitude which rather distresses and annoys her ladyship, Rydall fancies. "Nonsense ! don't say that," she says, laughing uncomfortably, and drawing her hand away with some difficulty from the other's clasp as she sees the doctor looking at them both. "Come, ladies," he says, rather sharply, "there is no time to be lost. How I hate to sec a woman posing for effect in speeches and attitudes," he mutters, scornfully, to himself. "Oh, what is it, what is it? Don't leave me, don't forsake me!" the strange woman exclaims, in a shrill, piteous outcry, us Laciy Christabel arises. "Let lie staj with }'ou ! Let me stay with you even for a few hours ! Don't forsake me ; lam all alone ! A j stranger in a strange land ! Ah, don't forsake me, dearest, kindest girl ! Let me stay with you !" She winds her arms around Lady | Christa-bcl, kneeling in passion of .supplication ; and, in the uncertain light, the long, slim, supple ligure, clad in a close-fitting mantle of silver .gray, with gleams of silk J shimmering here and there, lesembles the sinuous grace of a serpent form. i "j\ly dear, I have told you al-j ready," La,dy Christabel says, ] earnestly, "that I am going to I take yoti straight home to the | Abbey, where I live. V'ou shall stay there until you are well enough to resume your journey. Cairn yourself now, and come with me." Dr. Rydall says nothing ; he compresses his lips tightly under the gray moustache, mid glances keenly from one face to the other. Lady Christabel has obeyed the doctor's summons at once, but the .stranger hesitates, and stands like one half dazed, clutching her diess-ing-bag, a large, handsome one of morocco, with gilded monogram and lock. "Must I go through chat door ?" she asks, in a half-whispering voice, staring, with gleaming eyes, at the threshold j and Rydall notices, for the first time, that there is, on the step where the ' ill-fated woman's head had lain, a small, dark, wet plaoe. "That— 'that's Wood — isn't it ?" she says, in the :>ame suppressed, hysteric manner. ' "I — I — can't ! I'm afraid !" "What are you afraid of ?"' Rydall asks, his piercing e}-cs fixed on her with •& cold smile. For a.nsvvcr the woman lifts her eyes, but not her head, as she stands rigidly in -the corner of the car, and a baleful light seems to flash from those sma.ll, glittering orbs and fairly makes him wince. Without a word more, lirmly clutching the bag, she dashes through the door in such fierce haste that the splintered wood seizes the fluttering skirts ol the long, gray mantle, and holds it for 'a moment, until — with :>n actual shriek, and a frenzied exclamation jj — she rends the cloth l,way, and i rushes, panting and gasping, to JLady Christabel and seizes her arm. And what Rydall has heard her say distinctly, in that terrified eja- | culation, is this : "Begone ! Let me go !" "Give me your bag,, it seems ,very heavy," Rydall "jays, as he ; overtakes them toiling up the steep 1 embankment. j Once again he sees that baleful , light flash out of the woman's halfshut, glittering eyes, as she turns ;her head, and her .small, white face, her compressed, small, white teeth gleam in the moonlight. "2vo!" she hisses, sharply. "J mean, it is not heavy," she adds, in a sort of curt apology, and she clutches it more tenaciously, as if she fears he may try to take from her custody the possession she so values. "I have lost all the rest ol my luggage, I suppose /" she remarks presently, when rhey are in the train which carries them on to fciL. Cra-y'ii. "My tlroi;«injr-bajr is all 1 have left. If I lose that I fshali be quite destitute. I mean," answering, as it compelled by the silent power of Rydail's steadfast penetrating eyes, ""until I can write ■j my bankers in London, to scud me rsoiiie money." "That reference to my bankers' was, brought in rather lamely,' 1 RydaH decides, with swift, unerring instinct. "Does «he think that -is sufficient as a warranty of respectability, 1 wonder ?" "If you will give your .iame and ;iddrcss and describe your luggage to the station inspector, you can have it to-morrow morning, f lm.ve no doubt," he says .iloud, as the train "slows" into {St. Cray's station. "If you will tell me.' 1 shall be happy to see 11 ie inspector my:,clt and have it lor warded to jcrn."

"Thank 3 - oti," the stranger says, "but I am too ill this evening to be able even to recollect or describe her own trunks, and not seeming very anxious to recover them even ! ' * I As if the woman's small, gray, 'glittering eyes, which are turned restlessly on him continually, read his thoughts, she says, hurriedly : "There are two large dress baskets and a large leather trunk, with my initials painted on them, and a waite star at each ynd." "And what are those initials, ii I may ask ?" Rydall says, ver> dryly. * She is getting out of the car at she speaks,, and she turns on him at the question with a curious spasmodic defiance in her manner. '"The same as these," she says, holding up the dressing-bag /L.S., 'for I/ydia Surtees." "Then you are Miss Lydia Surtees ?" Rydall says, deliberately. A spark of light seems to flash up at him from the woman's eye: ere the thin, white lids and pait lashes half hide them once moic, and her reply is hissed out through the closed lips. "Yes, I am Lydia Surtees !" she answers. CHAPTER IX. A STRANGICR TAKEN IN. "You drove to his hotel thai gentleman whom Dr. Gerry was attending, I suppose, Sparrow ?' Lady Christabel says to the groom who is standing at the horse's head when his mistress appears, but who has been enjoying himsel. immensely for the last ten minutes in watching all the injured people being carried away to the hospita" or to their homes. Lady Christabel's voice is culm!) indifferent and Sparrow answers, brisk Ly : "JSTo, m'lady. Gentleman said ht preferred to walk, so he and Dr. Gerry went away together, m'lady." "Oh,'" Lady Christabel says, with coldness now in the indifferent tones ; "very well." But tht pulses beating high in her warn young breast- sink down, chilled and quieted at the reply she receives. "'lt is — is it because he hat heard who I am that lie would not accept anything more at 1113 hands ?" she whispers to herseli with trembling lips. ' Well, I an. sorry. You might have been friendly with me, Cousin Ro cleric Lindsay ; I never injured you •" "Where to, my lady " Sparrow asks, touching his hat", as Dr. Rydall and his companion reach the brougham, Miss Surtees carrying the heavy dressing-bag licrseli, mSparrow" notices, with \vide-oper eyes, and putting it carefully into the brougham before .she gets in herself. "Home to the Abbey," Jiis mistress says, briefly, and is -.bout tc follow her strange guest, when Dr. Rynall touches her arm. "One word, Lady Christabel," ht urges, in an undertone, aud they move away a lew feet .'istant : and. from "the dark aperture of -the carriage window, a small, white triangular face appears, stealthily peering after them with eyes that glitter in the moonlight with a greenish luster, like a cat's eye. "She was watching and Jistenin' her best ! Reg Tar vulgar nryin", 1 call it !" vSparrow says .-uvercly in retailing the anecdote to hi? mother afterward. "Will yon pardon r.ie if I take the liberty of offering you one brief bit of advico, Lady Christabel ?" the doctor is saying. "1 am an elderly man, knowing tht world very well, and you are a very young girl, knowing the world very little." (To be continued).