THE LADY IN BLACK.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13433, 26 March 1907, Page 6

THE LADY IN BLACK.

A NEW SERIAL STORY by

FLORENCE WARDEN.

Florence Warden is author of "An Infamous Fraud," "A Terrible Family," "For Love of Jack," etc.

CHAPTER ll.— Continued.

As she came to the end of her speech, Mabin found that her words insensibly began to run the one into the other, and that her voice died away. And, greatly to her own astonishment, she found her head falling heavily upon that of her new friend. "Ah, child, it is selfish for me to make you talk!" cried Mrs. Dale. l You are faint, and must rest now. Come and talk to me some other time." Mabin overcame tho faintness which had seized her, and quite suddenly raised her head again. The little excitement of the hope held out to her brought all her senses back. "Come and see you? Oh, may I? I should like to so much !" The girl almost nestled, as, she spoke, against her new friend. ' But over Mrs. Dale's fair, childlike face there came at once a sort oi shadow, as if a terrible remembrance had suddenly taken the p^ower for all pleasurable emotion from* her. It almost seemed to Mabin that the little hands made a movement as if to push her away. And then there burst forth from the infantile red lips some words which struck terror into her young hearer, so bitter, so full of sadness, of biting remorse, were they : " T^o, child, no. 'You must not come. I am too wicked!" The girl was struck dumb. She wanted to comfort pretty Mrs. Dale ; she wanted to laugh at her self-accusa-tion, to express incredulity, amusement. But hi the face of that look of anguish, of that inexpressibly mournful cry straight from the heart, she could not even open her lips. ' She knew that there was some grief here which no words of comfort could touch. So deeply absorbed was she in the silent compassion which kept her with lowered eyelids and mute lips, that she was quite startled when Mrs. Dale's voice, speaking in her ordinary tones, struck again upon her ear\ " That young fellow who picked you up is one of the vicar's sons, isn't he?" " Yes," answered Mabin, in a rather 'colder voice^ ~" He 'seems a very nice lad, and very much interested in — somebody?" suggested Mrs. Dale, archly. Mabin laughed. " Yes, so he is. But it is not the * somebody ' you mean," answered she. " Mrs. Bonnington, that's his mother, says he can think about nothing but — Mrs. Dale!" Again the sweet , face changed ; and it was in a low voice of sadness that tho lady in black said, slowlj* and deliberately :" '•' I hope, with all my heart, that sho has made a mistake." . Then, with a j rapid gesture, as if brushing uwny some thought which was lull of untold terror, she added with a shudder: "Don't let. u$ talk about it. It is too —horrible!"

CHAPTER 111. AN INVITATION AND A WARNING. Mabin's sprained ankle was a more serious affair than she had supposed. For a month she never left the house, and for another she wen,t out in a wheelchair, or hopped about on a p*air of crutch.es. And during all that time she caught no glimpse of the pretty neighbour who had done her such eminent service at the time of the accident. In vain she had hung about the road outside " The Towers " looking up at the west side of the house, which was close to the wall alongside the road, trying to distinguish the fair, blue-eyed face at one of the windows which peeped sombrely out of the ivy. Dreary the place looked, Mabin thought, as she pondered over the mystery of the lady in black. The lowest window visible from the road was about three feet above the girl's head, and all. she could see was a pair of crimson moreen .curtains, which she thought harmonised ill with what she had seen of the tenant of the gloomy house. The house had long been ' ' To Let, Furnished." Bu^ why had not dainty Mrs. Dale removed those curtains? Mabin did not usually trouble her head about such trifles as furniture; but she had enshrouded the figure* oi the pretty widow in romance; and she it it that her fairy queen was not living up to her proper standard in contenting herself with 'crimson moreen. i " What are you looking at so intently?" Mabin, who, leaning on her crutches, was gazing up at that mysteriously interesting window, started violently as hhe saw a white hand, glistening with diamonds, thrust suddenly out through the ivy in the midst of a space which she had taken for blank wall. And, parting the close-growing branches, Mrs. Dale peeped out, pink and fair and smiling, from a window at the same level as the one Mabin had been watching, but so thickly covered with ivy that the girl had not suspected its existence. " I—lI — I was looking for your I was hoping to see you," stammered Mabin. " And now you have seen me, won't you please condescend to see a }ittl& moro of m«P" asked Mrs. Dale. ' J< I won't e»t you iv» if you ot>m*» Into my

'lon. T.o(/k, ltoiv ir. anoilior inhabitant whom I h:\vo <»ntrftj>j>c<l. But tlioro nro str.-'.whorrios onpii^h ior three." ]\labin hesitated ; not from any scruples about the propriety of visiting the lady about whom so much gossip was talked, certainly, but because she was shy, and because the thought of a meeting and a talk with hpr ideal horoine and a stranger seemed rather formidable. But Mrs. Dale would not allow her time to, refuse. " I will send the 6ther inhabitant down to let you in," said she. And the ivy closed again, and Mabin could hear the lady's voice giving directions to some person within. She moved mechanically, on her crutches, I toward the high, closed gates. And by the time she reached them they were opening, and Rudolph was Rolding them )ack for her. The girl could: not repress a slight exclamation of astonishment. Rudolph reddened. " Yo\j are surprised to see me," said he, rather bashfully. Xl I hope you won't refuse to come in because I am here ? I will go Way rather than that." Mabin hesitated. She was not very worldly-wise, but it seemed to her that there was something* strange abo\it his presence in the house where the rest of the vicar's family were not allowed to enter. And at the same moment she remembered Mrs. Dale's apparent horror at the idea of the young fellow's admiration of her. Rudolph's colour deepened still more. " Why are you always so rude to me, Mabin, or I suppose I ought to say — Miss Rose?" asked he quickly. " Does it not seem rather unfair, When you come to, think of it? We were great chums once, you know? Weren't we?" " When\ we wore yes," replied Mabin, stiffly. ' ' And why not, .now P 1 ' , ; . The blood rushed to th.c girl's forehead. "How can you ask?" she ( said, indignantly. "When I owe my lameness to you?" Rudolph stared at her, as if uncertain whether he heard aright. "To me?" Vt "Why, yes. Surely you don't pretend it was not you who. threw the stone which knocked my bicycle, over?" The stiff haughtiness- with which she said this melted suddenly into apologetic alarm when she saw by the change to fierce indignation in Rudolph that she had made another and most absurd blunder. At first he could only stare at her in speechless anger and amazement. ," Do you take me for a street urchin?" he asked at last. Mabin recovered herself' a little, and refused to be withered up. " Your brothers do it," i slie said, below her breath. - ' mI "Then I'll give !• the little scamps a good hiding the first time I catch them at it," said Rudolph sharply. " But 1 should have thought you could distinguish between a man anil a schoolboy, and not have visited their sins upon, me." (To be continued.)