BLINDFOLD LOVE

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16759, 8 June 1920, Page 5

BLINDFOLD LOVE

POWERFUL STORY OF LOVE AND mystery.

By CHRISTOPHER WILSON, Author of “Tho Heart of Delilah,” “For a Woman’s Honour,” “The Missing Millionaire,” “The Wings of Destiny,” etc., etc.

CHAPTER VIII. AT THE HOUSE WITH THE GREEN BLINDS.

It was late on the following morning when Evelyn Altimont awoke. Tho excitement and strain through which she had passed had exhausted her so that, when at last sleep came to her weary eyes, it had been the deep, dreamless, merciful sleep of oblivion. For a few moments after wakening she lay there in tho strange room. Then she rose, flung a dressing gown round her shoulders and went across to tho window.

For a few moments she peered desolately out of tho window that commanded a view of the deserted brickfield and the straggling trees beyond. Someone tapped lightly at the door, and as the girl swung round with a quick, startled movement, a woman entered tho room aud set down upon the small table a tray with tea and appetising slices -of bread and butter.

“Good morning, Miss. I hope you have slept well. Your hath is ready, and you can have breakfast at any time you wish.” “Thanks!” said Evelyn, mechanically, as she stared at the elderly woman, who still hovered near the door. Silently the girl swallowed some tea and ate a slice of bread and butter, and then followed the woman to tho bathroom at tho end of the corridor. There the fittings were not only elegant but .sumptuous, a dream in silver aud marble, a bathroom fit for a princess. When she had dressed she wont into the sitting room which communicated with her bedroom, where the breakfast table was laid, and there again her eyes wore greeted b - evidences of the finest taste. And, worried as she was, she could not resist the temtpatioii to dip her face into tho bowl of glorious roses that stood upon tho side table. “Breakfast, if you please, Miss!”

Again Evelyn Altimont was startled. For' tlio woman had stolen into the room, noisless as a creeping shadow, and was standing right at her elbow. As she seated herself at the breakfast table the woman turned to go, hut tho girl said:

“Wait a moment! I want to speak to you. I want to know if Mr. Rogan is at homo, and if he will see me after b rcakfast.” For one brief instant the woman raised her eyes and loked at the. girl with an expression in which fear and admiration seemed strangely to mingle. Then, dropping her eyes again, she said slowly: “Mr. Rogan will be pleased to see you, Miss. Fie asked mo, to toll you that ho is only waiting till it is convenient to you.”

Th.cn she disappeared, and Evelyn began to wrestle with a now problem. For tile woman Ijad pronounced Hogan’s name in a kind of awed tone, aa if she wore 'referring to a god. Evidently she lived in fear of Hogan. Why? She had jnst finished breakfast when tiio American appeared on the threshold

of the sitting room. Ho bowed, not ungracefully, as ho entered, with the words;—■

“Good morning, Miss Altimont, I hope Ido not intrude. I hate butting in where 1 am not wanted.”

“Good morning. Mr. Ragan,” she replied stiffly, “it is no intrusion. I wanted to speak to you, if you have the time.”

“Sure!” he replied, as he seated himself in a chair near tho window. Then his hard features seemed to soften, nn'd ho leaned forward towards her, with a now light in his keen eyes.—“ Say, you arp looking pretty tills morning. Those roses ain’t got nothing on yon.” She flushed slightly, but ft was a flush of annoyance, not of embarrassment, ns she said: “I want to know tho truth, and I will know it. Yon brought me here to meet my father. Ynn told me that the police were upon his track, that ho was here in hiding,' that he was about to fly from the .country, and wanted to see me at once. Ho was not here when I arrived with yon. Then, you told me a story of a hitch that had ocenrred. Yon assured me that ho would come. When I asked von yesterday to let me to to Pegram .Street, ynn told me that the police would follow me, and that I would get him into trouble. You induced me to creep away from my friend’s horse, like a thief. Is it time that my father is in trouble? Answer me! Is it true? I insist upon knowing the truth !”

She had risen to her feet, aUd faced him with flashing eyes. Rut he seemed to bo unmoved. Slowly he. rose from his chair, and said, in quiet level tones;

“There was not one word of truth in anything that I told yon. I lied to yon. Hut lam ready to tell you the truth, now.”

“Yon—lied to me—about my father! Why?”

For on© moment Hogan hesitated Then came tire amazing reply:

“X Faro 'promised to toll you the truth. .Well, tho truth is that I lied to you, to save you from your father.” Bogan paused, as if to give the girl time to grasp tho meaning of his statement. But she merely gazed at him in a dazed uncomprehending fashion. Then ho went on, with a note of earnest pleading in his voico, that Evelyn Altiinont had never heard before; “Can’t you understand? Sooner or later your father would hare discovered where you wore. Onco you appeared before the public ou the stage of Baldwin’s theatre, concealment.would have been impossible. You would have had to go hack to your father, aud that would have meant nothing but misery for you. I think you know that Ido not want you to suffer. I only want you to be happy.” <‘Happy!” the girl repeated, with bitterness in her voice. “Do you imagine that I could ever bo happy after I had discovered the real nature of the relations between you and my father? Happy, while knowing that my father was an associate of thieves!” As she Hung the words at him Regan winced as if she had struck .him.

“If you knew all, if you knew tho circumstances that drove mo to become a ‘crook, 1 ’ perhaps you would not be so hard ou me.”

Again he paused. Then his seifcontrol seemed to give way, aud lie turned to her, with outflung hands, his voico shaken by emotion. “It is not your pity that I want. It is something more. You would not listen to mo when I spoke to you that evening down in Cornwall. But if you hpd listened I would have told you what I was willing to do for your sake. If you will give mo something to live for, it will bo tho end of the old life. 1 swear that solemnly. And this is nothing new, no sudden impulse. Ever since I mot you I have never wanted anything else'in this world.” His hand went out, as if to touch her, but she shrank back from him, pale and trembling in every limb. “Oh, it is cowardly!” she gasped, “cowardly to insult, me in such a fashion. Wheu you said what you did at Oratloe Cove I did not think you were in earnest, I thought it was only a rude, unpleasant kind of jest. But now, after what yt i have dared to say to me, I must ,go, at once. I will not remain in your house one .moment longer.” With one swift stride he was beside tho girl, and his arm wont round her waist, as ho said; “I want you! I wmt you! And I will win you if all tho world stand in my way!” With a shudder that shook her from head to foot, she ivrenched herself away from him, and dashed through the communicating doorway', in to her bedroom, And, as ho stood there, swearing beneath his breath, he caught the sound of tho key being turned in the lock, and then, a sudden tempest of sobbing. On the staircase ho mot his housekeeper, and with a backward jerk of his head said laconically. “Better see if Miss Altimont wants anything. l She is upset.” Then, ns the woman turned towards the girl’s room, he added, in a low tone;

“If she asks yon again abous me, toll her the truth. Toll her what happened to your husband when he tried to piny the double game with me. and tell her how I have provided for you since then.”

But when the woman tapped at thb door of the bedroom Evelyn Altimont did not reply. _ Sho was packing her. belongings with feverish haste. For the moment her one and only thought was escape from the hideous trap into which sho had been so cunningly lured Then, when she had finished her e-'. parations, sho seemed to master the feelings of panic, and she sat for a w’bile in the chair by the window, thinking tilings out. (To bo continued.)