"THE LOVE SPELL."

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 14741, 22 August 1921, Page 7

"THE LOVE SPELL."

(All Rights Reserved.)

BY LADY TROUBRIDGE. Author of " The Flaw in the Jewel," " Paul's ' Stepmother,". " The Woman Thou Gavest," "A Marriage of Blackmail," " Breach of Promise," etc., etc. "'ublished by Special Arrangement.

CHAPTER Xl.—Continued. For a moment, however, she seemed in no hurry to answer him, but when the silence had tortured nim sufficiently she broke it. Mr. Meredith,” she began, “who lent me the. money that saved my reputation last week?” He stared at her, but she would not meet his eyes. Her own were bent upon the rings she was playing with, tossing them up and down as a child-plays with marbles, and she put the question almost ly“A client of our firm,’ he replied, “who wishes, if you will allow it, to remain unknown.” As he spoke hfs heart seemed to stand still; he was like a man in a dark subterranean tunnel who sees the light, and whose eyes are blinded by it. Lady Sbudholme laughed, without looking up. “You’d really better tell me his name,” she said. “It would save 'trouble in the end, and as a matter of fact, I am entitled to know it,, and I merely ask you for form’s sake.”

Meredith hesitated; a great fear was clutching at his heart. "I think you are entitled to know it," he said, "and I will make an early occasion to ask the permission without which I hardly like to tell you. You recollect that you were satisfied to leave the matter in my . hands, and that you particularly desired, in fact, to hear nothing more about it."

Lady Studholme gave a kind of weary sigh. "Never mind," she said. "It makes very little difference now whether or no you elect to tell me, for I shall know to-night, and I have guessed already." He was about to speak, when she put up her hand, and for the first time an eager, imperious manner came over her..

"Wait," she said. "I hear someone coming, and you and I both know who it is.' Now, remember, that on your following my lead implicitly depends your only chance of ever coming nearer to the heart of my child—a poor chance at best, an infinitesimal one, but still just a chance." CHAPTER XII. An instant, later Monckton stood before them. His eyes were still blazing, his face worked, and his clenched hands trembled. "So he has been here before me!" he cried. "Well, never mind; here to his face and before you, I call him the lying scoundrel that he is." Meredith started to his feet, but Lady Studholme's look kept him silent as Monckton turned to her. "And now may I ask whose part you take ? When I understand whether you connive at such an insult being offered to a man under your roo'f, I shall know how to act. It will not be difficult, and you will find that I can hold my own very well indeed."

Vera gave him a quick look. "There is no need for any exhibition of power," she said, quietly; but Meredith . noticed that she was breathing hard like one panting from a long run, otherwise she was unmoved. "There is no part to take, for nothing has happened. Do you hear, Leopold, nothing whatever. Mr. Meredith was short sighted ;he made a mistake. He does not apologise, because he has completely forgotten the whole incident, and what is more he will only remember it sufficiently to tell everyone in the room he has left of that mistake. After that he will never give it another thought," . "That doesn't satisfy me," , said Monckton. "Yes, my friend, it does, for you and I have heard of a little proverb 'Who excuses himself, accuses himself.' Short sight is a terrible misfortune, buit it can hardly be considered a crime." Monckton stood uncertain, frowning heavily, and biting his lips. He was about to burst out again, but she was too quick for him. "Give me your hand, Mr. Meredith." Silently he laid his big palm in hers. "Yours, Leopold. Yes, I insist. Come, silly boy, be wise." Reluctantly Monckton yielded his hand to her, and she joined the two she held in an unwilling clasp. "Now," she went on, "the incident is closed; absolutely finished. You have shaken hands before a lady, and that lady your hostess. Go to bed, Mr. Meredith, and pleasant dreams. .By the way, don't forget to tell the others of that little infirmity of yours. As for you, Leopold, you shall sit here with me a moment and teach me astronomy." Without a word he subsided into the chair at her side, and as Meredith's footsteps receded, he turned to her. "By jove! you're a clever wopan," he said. '_

Yefc in spite of these words his black eyes were still dark with anger, and his broad chest rose and fell, with his hurried breathing. "I wish I could return the compliment, friend Leopold," she said, "but to put it mildly you have not been clever at all." His reply was short. "Meredith must go," he said, "to-morrow." "You must both go," replied Vera, sweetly. "My party is at an end." "After what has happened, I must stay on," he returned. "Indeed," she said, softly, "and without an invitation ? A little wanting in taste, Mr. Monckton, that last remark of yours. Don't you think so?" ]"l've no thoughts about the matter. All I know is that he must go and I must stay." Lady Studholme stiffened. "I'm a woman of the world," she said, quietly, "and you have just called me a clever one. Therefore, listen to me now. Believe me, Leopold, you will be well advised to go. Meredith will, not talk, but the others may. I cannot muzzle Cissie Caselet, for instance, but she soon forgets. Why hot take a short trip, and let everything simmer down." Monckton bent forward to her in the moonlight, and his expression was not pleasant. "If one single word is said by anyone," he said, between his teeth, "then I will tell the world the story of a certain transaction between you and your precious friend, the saintly Meredith—a transaction in which I also had the privilege of a modest share in condoning a felony. That little story would undoubtedly interest Lord Studholme quite a lot. If I am ruined, as you.'hint, it shall be in good company." Vera gave a pale, wicked smile. "I wanted to hear you say that," she said. "Now I know where we stand." "Yes, you do," he returned, vindictively. "Well, that is a great comfort," said Lady Studholme, pensively, but her heart beat like a sledge-ham-mer, for she was about to enter on a transaction far more wicked than the one which had placed her in the power of the man before her. "There is nothing like thoroughly understanding a situation," she went- o Q - -'We will take it that I am now enlightened, but you are sure that you are? Your cards are on the table, but mine are in my hand. Shall I play them V He bit his. lip. ' "Go ahead," he answered. "Well, suppose you do ruin me—and I don't deny that you can, for I am perfectly aware that by a mean underhand trick, by the lowest form of eavesdropping, you found out my secret, and worked upon an honest man so that unwittingly he put me in your power. I know who lent me the money that saved my reputa-" tion, and who now holds it in his hands; but let us look ahead for a moment. You ruin me, society turns turns its back upon me, and I retire from the world. There is one man whom my social ostracism will not affect; that one man is Meredith. He will,be all the more eager to be my son-in-law, and to give Veronica the shelter of his eminently respectable name, and I shall permit him to do so. You will then have lost the girl you love, ruined a powerful woman who can be a good friend to you, and incurred the odium that attends the accuser. Now where do you score? For the life'of me I can't see it." "I shall be revenged," he said sullenly. "You will be like a man who falls over a cliff, and, falling, drags his enemy with him; but there is little satisfaction in that when the brains of both are dashed out. Why not stand free of the precipice, and marry the girl you love?" "Are you trying to drive a bargain with me?" he asked. "Why classify my words; you know very well their meaning, that is enough. I may just tell you one thing—Meredith proposed to me for Veronica this evening, quite in the early Victorian manner. lam to give him his answer to-morrow.' "I wish I could trust a word you say," he said. "If I hold my hand, what guarantee have I got that you will fulfil your part?" Lady Studholme opened surprised eyes. "My word of honour," she replied. "Even if you wished to do it, how do I know that you can? The girl hates me; I have seen it in her face a thousand times."

"Veronica is an excellent daughter," said Lady Studholme. Then suddenly her eyes blazed. "You fool!" she cried. "Take or leave it; it is the only chance you'll ever have of winning her, and you know it as well as I do. You must give me your answer at once!" Monckton's lips parted, He was shaken by a violent desire to use the power he had over this imperious woman, but at the same time the prospect her words opened out was so dazzling that he hardly knew how to resist it, although his wiser instincts warned him that by agreeing he was delivering 'himself into her hands.

At that precise moment, when the fortunes of her life hung in the balance, Veronica's real star brought her on to the balcony. It was Monckton who first saw her shadow darkening the lights of the inner room, and he stared as if fascinated at the slim silhouette

Then she came out, her eyes wid« and dreamy looking, and it flashed into Monckton's mind that, like Juliet, sho had come out here seeking solitude so as to tell her lovestory to the quiet stars. Ho had all along suspected that the man he now knew for his bitterest enemy had come between him and Veronica, and her face seemed to tell him that Meredith had spoken to her. It stung his jealousy, like a whip, and his resolution was taken. He would not give her up, would not yield his chance because this interloper, who was using her mother's gratitude to further his own interests, had stepped in. He would fight, if necessary, to the finish, and he, too, would use ignoble weapons. Veronica drew back on seeing them together, and she frowned ; but Lady Studholme, knowing full well the havoc that the sight of the girlish beauty was working in the excitable brain of the man opposite her, detained Veronica by hei\side. With unwonted sweetness she drew her down to a low seat near her, and passed her hand caressingly over her hair; then as Monckton, fighting with his conflicting feelings, went to the furthest end of the balcony, and leaning over the wooden railings stared into the water, Vera whispered in. her daughter's ear: "There has been a scene," she said, "and a quarrel. I will tell you about it afterawards, but poor Mr. Monckton is terribly upset. Talk to him just a little, and see if you can turn his mind away; then you may slip off to your room, and I will see you afterwards." A moment later Veronica found herself alone with that silent figure a few paces off. Her mother's words had puzzled her, but they had also stirred her warm-hearted feelings of pity,, and acting on a sudden impulse she rose and took a few steps to Monckton's side. "Mother has gone for the moment, but she will be back £oon," she said. "And you?" ho asked, suspiciously. "Why are you not following her? It isn't often you give me your company unasked." "I will go if you wish it," said Veronica, surprised, yet detecting under the surliness the hurt tones of trouble. "But it is so delicious out here." She smiled at him in the moonlight as she spoke, and the man's heart leaped. "Veronica," he began, hoarsely, "if you only knew the difference that a few kind words from you can make you would not say them so seldom- Why do you hate me so? I'm not a bad fellow on the whole, and when my heart is touched there is nothing earthly I should not be of doing to please the woman I cared for." Veronica drummed with her fingers upon the we'oden paling near which she stood; she felt puzzled and uncertain what to aay or how to act. If she snubbed him 4 then she was disregarding Lady Studholme's appeal; but the least word of kindness seemed to her now a disloyalty to Paul. ■ "What nonsense," Mr.-Monck-ton," she said at last. "You really will make me too conceited. I am only a child, or at all events not much more. What can my opinion matter, one way or the other?" "You're not a child," burst out Monckton, his fancy lending him the passionate phrases natural to his flamboyant temperament. "On your brow is the divine calmness of childhood, but your eyes, little Veronica, are wise with all the wisdom of womanhood; in them a man could read his future as in a look-:.ng-glass, and ib would be fair and calm and sweet, as you are. I have persecuted you and tormented you with my love—l know that well enough—but am I to be blamed for that? A man must love the highest when he sees it." He bent his head on his hands, and for a moment Veronica was moved with a genuine impulse of pity. However distasteful the man might be to her personally, however out of the question it was to consider his appeal, yet it was impossible that it should not move her, for the love and the longing in it pierced through it like a sword.

The next moment he had taken her hand in a tight grip with one of his own, while he still shaded his eyes with the other,' dashing away the sudden moisture in them. "I'm behaving like a woman," he said; *T>ut the sight of you has been too much for me, after the turmoil of a hateful evening." Veronica stood for a mitting the half-despairing clutch upon her hand; then she gently drew it away and stepped backward, passing her mother, who, appearing at the window behind, permitted her, by a gesture, to go. To be Continued. —L.S. 9.