THREE MEN AND A MAID.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13663, 30 March 1908, Page 6

THREE MEN AND A MAID.

BY ROBERT FRASER.

[copyright.]

Published by Special Arrangement.

CHAPTER IX.— Continued.

Marjorie was on her \uay to her room to hide her teara, when she was met by her mother, who, { hurrying along with hat and cloak still on, said to lifer:

"Marjorie, your sister is very bad, we've put her to bed." Pulling herself together at once,- the girl turned to go to Hannah, whonr she had not seen since the tussle for the envelope.

Either from the mauling through "-Inch she had passed that day at the hands of the lawyers, or from some reaction after her high-strung state of the last few days, the verdict being now pronounced, Hannah was really ill, and lay> flushed and turgid, with her face turned away to the wall, and a resentful tightening of her lips. "Hannah," s*aid Marjorie, bending over her\ "I am sorry to see you unwell. I have come to help to nurse you." Hannah glared fixedly at the wall, and made no answer.

"You must see for yourself that I had %o do what I did," whispered Marjorie, "with regard to showing what I found in you^ dress. So there's no reason why • you should keep up the quarrel." "Oh, my head!" wailed Hannah, clapping her hand to her eyes and forehead ; and at the same moment Dr. Lawrence camo in.

Marjorie remained in the room until she was no longer ablo to sustain her own hoad,ache. She passed most of the next day, too, by the sick bod. But Hannah, though now better > absolutely rejected her, would not speak a word. Marjorie, however, was stubborn, too, and kept up the siege of kindness till near five o'clock, when she set off afresh upon her self-imposed task of - seeking the ring* It was then growing dusk, and again the ghostly qualms which had beset her the previous evening disturbed her nerves, and Bhe had, too, a new feeling of the hopelessness of the whole undertaking, for projects, warm in their first blush, tend to lose their rose colour in the actuality of ' being carried out. However, there was no question of failing to be true to herself, and she went on j but in passing over the bridge, for the first time the thought of, having some, help in her search occurred to her at the sight of Felix at the foot of the hill on [the other side of the river. Falix was in trouble. At the farther end iof the bridge was a heap of stones for road mending, and from this arsenal jfchree small boys were pelting, him where he stood twenty yards, away, up the hill. As Marjorie came near* one was shouting: ; ."It's as much' oitrs as thine!"' Another sent a stone with the cry: "That's for not playm' fair!" Felix stood "without fight, without protest, but with his elbow before bis crying eyes. Marjprie, however, rescued him, putting herself between him and his foes, and at the Same time had the thought- of taking Felix /to Lancault. This poor simpleton at least would give her human company. "You come with me," she said, "I have a job for you, don't cry;" and the two went on 'up the hill together, Marjorie asking: "Why were the boys pelting you?"

[ "Because they be naughty boys," whined Felix mournfully. "They be 1 always peltin' me wi' stones, an' they wean't play me-" "Girls are nicer," said Marjdrie: ["why don't, you play with girls?" i!l! GG \ ri 8 veapX*»ev me at any price „ sobbed Felix, with his arm over his eyies. « x "Poor Felix I despised and rejected jof men. You are not the only one, [Never mind, I'll have .you, for, look [yoU, j»feoj>t %lf,an hour earlier than [this i eaeh'd£y.i?am going to Lancault to ,hunt over the enclosure for something-^ ring— which has been lost there, and I mean to take you with ime, and pay you so much a week. Is that nice? Are you glad?" | But Felix, tfho had a distinctive dislike for anything in the natm c of work and wages, exhibited no delight. He was kept alive by some tiny fund iof money somewhere, and /Was the freest soul in the world, blessed with the life of a bird.. . ■^i." 1 , 18 , 8611 * go te Lancault, I doan't think," he answered at last. 'But why not?" asked Marjorie. > r T boys say folk munnot <*an there any more"— these being the only lords wboni the free heart of Felix owned— 'the boys." W Bo i y , 8 > Meed!" cried Marjorio. Would you rather do what the boys tell you, or what I tell you?" Id sooner doa what t' boys tclt me, confessed Felix with the perfection of frankness. "You unexpected person !" she said with a little laugh. "I won't hear of such nqnsenso. I. shall give you nve shillings a week, and . you will .oon begin- to like that when you get it. So you must come." , 'I'd rayther not," faltered Felix ; ; l doan't mind yance in a way, when they aren't lookin' " "Nonsense, you must," and I shall make it quite right with the boys for you."

Felix pondered it, and said again: "I'd rayther not. What be it you'll be lookin' for yonder?" ''A ring/ "Won't my ring dea as well? Ye can hey it, an' welcome, on'y don't leat t' boys be any the wiser." Marjorio looked at him in astonishment, saying: "How did you come by a ring?"

"Those three boys down there say that JL got it at Laneault, and that's whj, " . Mai>;j<Sri£ ttqjnd still, star Jug dt him, bnathiriff in little gasps, and BUcidenJ.v Pmlo, unable to speak for the whirlwind of surmise that reeled through her tniml. while Felix saidtogain : "Yo can hae't. nir welcome, on'y I wouldn't give it to t' boys, 'cause they didn't ask mo civil for it." As he spoke, a rinjj; had come slowly out of the depths of his trouwM* pocket and lay on his palm, while Marjorio stood spellbound, half laughing, J, a |f crying, alternately pale and flushing, gazing with fascuiated eyes at the ring which the hud promised to spend a year in seeking. There it lay in an idiot's Jiand, looking quite whole and I'jomul, though, in fact, the gold was erackod across under the stone; and tit last, the spell breaking which held Marjorie a statue, she was gone with.

the ring running down tho hill, calling back at Felix, "I'll see you ■ again .soon!"

Her first impulse led her -to flaunt with triumph her treasure-trove before the eyes of Inspector Winter. - For the ring found seemed to mean the certainty of a duel, and, tliat established, many things might begin to I take different proportions, assume different colours! Tho lusjioctor had |n'a her be Rono to London, trusting in his own self-sufficiency,* looking tipou her as only a danger there, yet, already, she had done something. . What all his care and \vrt had failed in her luck hud accomplished ; so, in her high spirits and friendly rivalry with him, slio hastened eagerly to the inn, meaning to ask him as a first question if ho still thought that it would be well for her to make herself small in Hudston. But all tbis crowiag in adva-iso wasextinguished at the inn door by tl.e nows that' Ins»pet;tiSr Winter was not there. He had left 1 Hndston an hoi.r before for Nutworth" . Ho would l«e returning, he had said ; but pr<#ba'»>Jy not- for a week or so. This was a dash k>s disappoiM.ment in the height of -Marjorle's jayousness, bufc she went on home- exulting, carrying with her, beyond all hope, all marvelling, tliat ring. . People in trouble are prono to> superstition, so within tho last days her fooling that, the ring ouco found' and got t*o Warren, atf the clouds ■ would clear, had grown into a sort- of certainty .- And here was tho ring! All that remained was to get 1 those two objects, the ring arA Warren, together, and Uioii — hey, -presto ! Tliis, in her exultation, s,eomod to her an easy matter. One difficulty over, tho others | would go down like- ninepins. .It. was ! merely a question of somehow, iinding Philip quickly, before tho police laid , their hands on ,'hyn. . j Going in to tbe greyhound in this buoyant mood, s}ie *|«et her mother oji the stairs, and -. flung backward over her shoulder at her the cry: VI have found '3Vfr. * Warren's ring, mother!" - - 1 - And a little* farther j in a passage, passing Aunt Margorot, she said : "Found Sir. Wan-en's ring I" Then, in lier .own room, . she began to wonder why she had been hi such a hurry to rush hoole^- asking, horsctf what next, r.ndi feG.lin<; wretched because there was nofh,hji; a.(i tl'f* mor.:ont to do, save "to bit ituutiVo r.nd sta.-t: at tho ring, ami let/tl.'O wiid throbbing of her heart subside! Presently tOj,e, th^u^lit" of H^r sick sister, and, locking ike ring in her work-box, went to '.eco how Hannah fared. llalhe;* to 6or surprise, Hannah, who had not to her all that day, received' her now with soinething more or leas ljko a smile. "I hear you'vo found Air. Warren's ring?" \t&u the greeting. "JfesP' said Alarjo(rte. "Can I hart) a look at it?" asked Hannah. \ \ And Marjorie' went and fetched it, and' showed it to her. (To be continued.) •