THREE MEN AND A MAID.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13637, 16 April 1908, Page 6

THREE MEN AND A MAID.

BY ROBERT FRASER.

[COPYBIOHT.] Published by Special Arrangement.

CHAPTER XV.— Continued.

The detective, passing at the right moment, caught Courthope's direction to tho cabman. Ho, too, watched Couvthope's cab until its twinkling iod lights were dimmed by the gloom ot London. "Queer business!" ho growled. To reassure himself, he took a slip of paper from his pocket, and stooped in front of the motor's lamps. "Philip Warren surrendered last night," he read. "I thought advisable prefer minor charge. Warren remanded on bail this morning has gone London, with my approval, to induce .Marjorie Neyland, lurner Studios, Finchley Road, return with him to Hudston. James Courtland (see confidential report) probably gone there also. » Meet trains King's Cross for Courtland. Watch, report daily by wire, but do not interfere. That was a decoded message trom Winter, received at 2.30 p.m. The fast train which brought Philip and James to town arrived at 6.10. It was now seven o'clock. "Do not interfere," mused the dotective. "That means just what it says of I don't know Winter." And he weighed events fully ere he gave an order to the chauffeur, ior he was vexed by the knowledge that I X 100 was pluming himself. _ Courthope, meanwhile, obtained a new coat and hat. Neither article was quite up to his ordinary standard, but they would suffice until next day, when the more important shops of the West End would be open. He found a telegram from his valet awaiting him at the hotel. The man had succeeded in. obtaining Marjories address, and Jamos now counted himself thrice fortunate in having seen Philip. There were many things he did not understand, and it was essential that they should bo inquired into, but it needed no supreme intelligence to perceive that half an hour's talk between Philip and Marjorie might build a fortress of trust which James could not sap in half a lifetime. . Though hungry, he did not dine. He changed into evening dress, ordered one of the hotel's eloctric broughams, and was at the door of Marjories flat a few minutes hefore eight o'clock. He tried to repress the sense of triumph which thrilled his heart, when an elderly charwoman said she would "see" if Miss Neyland was at home. In a tiny place consisting of a decentsized /room split into five and a corridor .by partitions, that statement has but one meaning, so James murmured that "a friend from Hudston" would be glad to have a word with Miss Neyland. The woman, made confident by his manner and attire, was about to show him into a small studio when Marjorie herself appeared. "You?" she gasped, and James's triumph was lessened a good deal by the sight of her > wan cheeks and sorrow laden eyes. He prided himself on rapidity "and coolness of judgment, and it was borne in on lam now, even more forcibly than during that exciting episode in Fennell's Tower, that Marjorie was grievously wounded by tho seeming loss of Philip Warren's lovo. A spice of -malignant spite at once fermented the passion which pulsed in Courthope's breast. It nerved him to play his role rightly. Wild desire urged him to throw aside pretence, but cold reason whispered : } 'Be wary! Little more than twentyfour hours have passed since this coy maid was luring you to madness. Why, if she so lovefl Warren, was she ready to listen to you then?" So James bowed in his well-bred ivav, and said softly : "Yes, it is I, Marjorie. Being in London, ort whom should I pay my first call but on you?" A whole world of distrust, almost of terror, held/ tho girl spellbound. In Hudston, the simple environment of the village, the honest capaciousness of the Greyhound, the mere existence of father, mother and aunt, constituted safeguards, but in London and in this man*B presence, she was "in a qity that is broken down and without walls." So they gassed at each other, each the prey or hidden tumult, and th<; serving-woman marvelled what had come to her high-spirited young mistress, whose return to the little colony of artist; in the Finchley Road sho had hailed with delight. 3ut Marjorie- had done with tears. The agony of a night and a day had wrung her soul to exhaustion. There remained the one fierce longing, the wish to prove to Philip that he had wronged her, and here, (?ent apparently by Providence, was the means of her justification.* If she lot Courthope -see too plainly that she feared him, her frail bridge of hojjo would crumble at its very key-stone. Though the words tasted bitter in her mouth she stiove to utter a conventional welcome

"It is very good of you to seek out my den, Mr. Courthope," she said, 'but, of course, you have taken me by surprise. Ay I arrived in London only this morning, I scarce expected a visitor from Hudston so soon.", "That is just why I am here. If Horace lived to-day he might tell us in yvoll-turned Latin verse that six hours in a fast train may change' the sky but tot the mind."

It was a /wholly commendable thing about James that he had tho art of pouring oil on troubled waters. His agreeable smile and smooth flow of nonsense helped to restore Marjorio's wits. Even Mrs. Johnson, the charwoman, thought ho was an uncommonly nice gentleman.

"Well, won't you go into tho studio? You will Hnd a tiro there, and I will join you in a moment," said Marjorie. ".No," ho answered. "I shall either call at a morp reasonable hour tomorrow, or you shall agree to fall in with my present notion. lam starving tor want of a moal. and I imagine that you have not dined yet. So what do you say to a comfortable dinner in a restaurant, whore wo can discuss at leisure? I have a motor [Wiiiting, and I promise to bring you back about ten o'clock, as you must be tired alter that journey." "1 am not dressed for eeremonv."

"I am hungry enough to scoff at such a pretext." "Then will you wait ten minutes?" "Ah! Show mo to the studio (juiHdy, lost you lose a second." 'Or change my mind?" "I should never mako tho mistake* ol 1 kinking you had acted on impulse, Marjorio."

"Well— my feminine ticklenebs may survive this test. Mrs. Johnson, please take Mr. Courthope into the studio, and stir the fire." Marjorie vanished. Well pleased with himself, James followed the charwoman, to whom he gave a handsome tip. Then, while he eyed the sketches in the place, studies made at an art school in Marylebone, he mentally surveyed the situation. How account for Marjories change of attitude? How tor Philip's presence in London? It ho were discreet and sympathetic, he might be told. As Cuvier once, reconstituted a new genus ot animal out ot a single fossil bone, so did Courthope trust to his intuition to deduce many tacts from a slight l>at>i;>. A glance.' a sigh, an avoidance of topics fraught with pain — each or all ot these might supply unwritten folios. And ho had actually won so much ground that she did not resent the use of her Christian name. Ho kindled at that. Though sleek and wary, James was ready to befool himself for her sake. As Agar, the son of Jakeh, said to Ithiel and Ucal, many and many a century ago: "There aro three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, lour which 1 know not : the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a seipent upon a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of tho sea, and the way of a man with a, maid." Yet the way of this man was seemingly plain to be seen, when Marjorie. gloved, hatted and cloaked, altogether charming in face and figure, tripped into the studio with tho words sweet in his ears :

"I hope I have not exceeded my time limit. And, now that you have made mo think ot it, I believe 1 really do want something to eat."

(To be continued.)