THE GREY CAR MYSTERY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144667, 29 April 1915, Page 5

THE GREY CAR MYSTERY.

(■COPYRIGHT.!

)Jy A. WILSON BARRETT.

Author of '‘The House Over the Way.” ■ .‘‘The Silver Pin.” “A Soldier’s Love,” etc.

CHAPTER VIII. Whether Miss Linton’s mysterious protegee was an angel—and that did not seem likely, beautiful as she was—or merely a lost and friendless girl, at all events, she certainly remained unclaimed. The police, whom Laurence consulted, knew nothing about her, nor bad they had any notification of the‘disappearance of anyone answering to her description. And the advertisement columns of the press, and the various other methods by which missing persons arc traces:!, remained obstinately- silent concerning her. And she herself, recovered now from the cold and exposure of that foggy night, when she had come so strangely into their existence, continued as innocent of her own identity and as oblivious of her past as-when she bad first been introduced to Laurence by his aunt.

‘dt!s her identity she’s lost,” said Dr. Lnpton, who took a considerable interest in her strange case. "As IVter Schlimmel lost his shadow ; and, Ivegad, 1 sometimes wish I were her. It’s not her memory. That’s all right, fn some ways she remembers more than I. ever knew. Italian? She can talk it like a native. And a physique and constitution like—like Venus when she rose from the sea. Did you ever see such eves and such a figure! It will como hack suddenly, if it comes hack at all—her memory. She must have had a shock, and something connected with that shock, or with her pa.st in some way. will bring it all back one of these'days. Meanwhile, she's well and healthy; she’s a charming young lady, and her brain is picking up knowledge as a chicken picks up grain, and you’re glad to have her. My advice to von is to take what the gods send yon and don’t look gift horses in the mouth.” Miss Unton smiled, the more especially 'as the doctor’s advice chimed in perfectly with her own ideas on the subject,* and she followed his advice. And Laurence, who. to his mints secret joy, was now a daily visitor, did nothing to dissuade the old lady from a course of, action which was turning life into an earthly paradise for a young man who, up to that time, had never taken a 'serious interest in any Eve. - “Who ever loved that loved nob at first sight? 0 And La-urcneo know now that he hud Jove<* this Eve- l>om the first moment he had looked into her eyes.- That love, the mystery which surrounded this beautiful girl, her helpless situation, her strange mixture of proud young beauty and innocent child, had increased rather than diminished; and he now knew, as he sat and talked to her, listened to her low, sad, gentle voice, and looked into her dark, lovely eves, in which lay‘enshrined so many mysteries, that he had given his heart, hopelessly and irretrievably, into her keeping. - and that, for good or ill, it was hers to do with what she chose. And her choice ? As time went on. and she grew more familiar with him in that solitude a trois in which she, his aunt, and he now existed, and her eyes met his with that half-wondering, halfshv look be was growing to know so well, hope! began to dawn m his breast that she, too, was coming to realise what love meant, and to reciprocate his feelings. And one day that hope, faint at first, then growing stronger, became a cerUiintv. Ho had comb to his aunt s one afternoon at tea-time, his usual hour, and found her, to his surprise, alone. He came upon her seated by the fire, her rounded chin resting on her hand, her dork eves fixed thoughtfully on the flames. ’ She looked up as he entered the room, rather slowly, as all her gestures were slow, and for a moment their eyes met, without cither of them saying a word.

And Laurence saw, with his heart beating rather quickly, that as she loqkat him a rosy flush tinged her white check and mounted slowiy up to the shelter of the dark waves of hair. “You are alone?” he asked, taking a seat on the other side of the fire. She nodded, turning her face away slightly towards the fire again, so that the dancing shadows—there was no lamp yet in the room—hid tho flush on her check. “Yes,” she said. “What a shame!” said Laurence. “[ am surprised at my amu. Why did she not take you to the bazaar?”

Tho young girl looked at him quickly. “Oh, no, it is not a shame.” she said. “She is ’nothing that is not good and kind. 1 told her I would rather stay here. I —l was thinking.” “They were cheerful thoughts, 1 hope?” asked Laurence. “It is of no use offering you a penny to hear them I suppose?” She did not answer for a moment. Then she shook her head. “1 do not think you would care to know- them,” she said, slowly. Then Laurence saw that her dark eyes had clouded and that there were tears in their depths. And in a .second, almost without thinking what he did, ho had crossed over to her, and dropping on to one knee, had caught her bands. “You are crying.” he said quickly. “Don’t cry. ;Vhat is the matter? Are you not happy here?” " She tried to draw her bands away, but ho held them tightly, and to force him to release them she would have been obliged to turn her head, and this she would not do.

“Oh. I am very happy hero, very, very happy,” she said. “Yon are so kind to me. both of you, and —”

“Who would not be, kind to you?” said Laurence. “But will you slay, or will you fly away some cruel day as mysteriously as you came into our lives, and leave ns broken-hearted ?” “Would it. leave you—broken-heart-ed? Ob. I was wondering just now why you wore so good to me, both of you—you who don’t know who I am or where I came from, who do not even know my name.”

“You’re name is Eve,” said Laurence, his heart beating fast. “We have called you Eve. What else, should your name be? Eve was tho first woman, and—oh! Eve, you are the first and only woman for me. What does it matter what other name you have or whore you come from to make me the happiest nr most miserable man who over lived? You are here now, the lovcii-

est woman in tho world, and you must stay, and not wonder or grow sad about the past. Wo are both young, and it is the present and the future. Eve, darling—that is all ours to think about if —if you will. Eve,i 1 have loved you from the first momc|t I saw you. Doivt turn your face away, or I shall think you hate me, and then ” “And then yon would be very unhappy

‘I should die. But you won’t kill .-U? will you, Eve? You will say, just a. little, in a whisper, if you like, that some day you could like me just a little, very little. Ah I, now you are crying again, and I am a brute. . I have made you unhappy." But the small hand pressed his foft ly

No.” came Eve’s low voice. ‘‘You have made roe - very happy.” Laurence's heart beat fast as he turned the flushed face round to his and looked into the lovely eyes that would have avoided hut could not. “My darling!” ho cried. “Oh. is it iy true, and do you care for me, after all?” The young girl laughed, her tears ail gone, a low, happy laugh. “I have loved you all my life,” she said: “my now life. Such a. short life,but I have loved you all of it.”

Love would not be love if it considered possibilities and risks, if it doubted about the past, and wondered hesitatingly about the future, ami Laurence, confident of Eve’s beauty and purity, in the possession of a handsome income, and the hearty approval of his aunt, left that lady’s house ‘after her return from the bazaar and her joyful reception of his news with a heart full of high hopes and not a single care. Laurence, who had been walking home wards on .air, deep in happy dreams, and oblivious of slaughtering motor ’buses and, torturing taxis, pulled up suddenly as he neared Victoriastreet. startled* by the grinding of a motorfe brakes and the hoarse shouts of a nriver who had only just missed by a hair’s breadth killing him, as his car swung round the corner. As Laurence staggered bark he caught a glimpse of an angry face staring at his from the interior of the car. He had seen it somewhere before. Where on earth could it have Imon? It had come to him suddenly as he asked the question. The dark scowling face was that of a man who. with the slim young girl, had boon dining with Eve at the Imperial restaurant the first evening he had seen her! (To bo continued.)