“UNDYING MUSIC.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17013, 11 April 1923, Page 11

“UNDYING MUSIC.”

NEW SERIAL.

(By L. G. MOBERLY.) j CHAPTER IX.—Continued ' Well you are surely not, unwilling 1 to licit. >oint?body out of a. dilinuft-y ’ I Philip looked at her in some surprise, j other people goon turns.” ° ” Good gracious, no!” Gladys picked j up her daisies one hr one and begat* ! teddy ready to do good turns, but you [ see. Phil. I can’t beij understanding that this good turn was rather manu- j fact tired fur me ” And a smile rippied 1 over the girl’s irregular feature*.. j “Manufactured for vou:’’ ‘ ‘ Hum-m,’’ Gladys nodded. “IPs all right, i don’t mind acting as temporary nurse. I. was asked her on purpose ! to play the part, you see, and L will play it quite properly.” “Stuff and nonsense !” There was a note of irritation in Philip’s umsllv good-humoured voice. “Mrs Chalmers is incapable of doing anything bm j what is absolutely above board. She j asked you here simply because 1 wanted her to be a friend to vou. and she i thought it would be a jolly change for ; you from town - I thought so too. It ( never occurred to me that you vou Id j' imagine yourself put upon when you ; got here.” “ I don’t imagine anything of the j kind ” Gladys laughed a soft mocking | laugh and flashed a mischievous glance ! at Philip’* disturbed face. “ Do ! look j like a put-up.on jierson? lam orslv ex- i plaining to yon that I am amijs>e<) to J n„<l bow convenient my visit , s lor n,y | hostess.” “ It is. not like you to be sarcastic*” • Philip said. ,-i puzzled r.otc again in bis j voice. “ And it seems like—treating j hospitality rather cavalierly.” Not at all.” Glades swung her 1 half-finished daisy chain backwards and I forwards and laughed “ I think Mrs | Chalmers is fascinating, and it is verv i kind of her to want to be my friend—-if j she does want to be—but I have certainly come at a most opportune mo- • merit for her, and 1 am not going to : pretend J don’t .sec it.” “ You are happy here?” Philip looked at the girl curiously, almost as it f lic were a stranger he was now meeting lor the first time. “As happy as I. can be anywhere just now.’’ The smile left Gladys’s face, a shadow crept into her eyes. Nothing feels really happy, and 1 can’t be light-hearted when at the back oi my heart !. never forget--never for a single instant how Francis went down into that hideous, hungry sea.” In spite of the warmt-li and sunshine of the summer afternoon she shivered, and her hands dropping the daisy chain locked themselves together in a little gesture of pain. “ Poor little girl,” Philip said under his breath. “ Sometimes when Dolly and T go down to the beach, or along the cliffs, I. feci as if I couldn’t bear to look at those curling little ripples that just seem to laugh back at me If only J had known all about Francis’s great invention so that J could perhaps have | carried it out for him. or have man- i aged to get it carried out, f think ! I could have borne the pain better, j But it lias died with him, died for the sake of one stupid useless woman I that is what goes on hurting.” She spoke vehemently, and Iter voice carried across the lawn to’ the open drawing-room vi mdmv through which the parlourmaid was at that moment ushering a tall woman dressed in grey. The girl’s vehement tones and words brought a little smile to her lips, and towards the tw > young people. It was her smile that caught and riveted Gladys’s attention her smile and the serenity of her eves. “ Please dont let me disturb vou when yon look so comfortable.” Vise said as Gladys scrambled to her feet, and the girl noticed what a restful quality there wr in her voice, a quality that matched her serene eyes. “ 1 must introduce myself. I am Mr,. Martindale, and the maid thought Mrs Chalmers was in the garden. She so kindly called, but we were away.' and I am afraid inv return visit lias been delayed.” “ Mrs Chalmers was here a few minutes ago,” Gladys said. “Ah! there ; she is now, coming into the garden.” Gladys broke off to add as Mnisie cuinc round a bend of the path and across the lawn to the group under the plane tree. The sunshine flickered down j upon her fair hair, and she looked very | pretty as she came forward with out- ! stretched hand—so pretty indeed, that j Hester’s heart contracted and a queer i I little thought ran involuntarily through !

j her brain: “She is so lovely and" 1 j am plain. What chance should l have 1 against her?” But she did not allow the thought ! more than a fleeting passage through licr mind, and her response to Mnisie’s greetings gave no sign of the tumult which had momentarily stirred within her. “ 1 am so a sharped of mv long delay in returning your visit,” she said when they were all seated. “But we arc only just at home again.” “You have been enjoying a long honeymoon—how delightful!” The words sounded innocent enough, and l bey were accompanied hv « flashing •mile, but Gladys glanced quickly at her hostess with a sudden feeling of disturbance in the atmosphere, a sense of some undefined antagonism between the other two women. •Yes—very ueJightfuk ” Hester’s words were quietly spoken, and she. too. smiled. An onlooker might reasonably have supposed that here was a normal happy wife who had enjoyed a normal happy honeymoon. But again the conviction fixed itself upon Gladys that the position was not altogether normal, that the well-dressed woman in grey, the woman with the serene eyes and. restful face was not just an ordinary newly-married wife who had had “a delightful time.” The girl could not account for this conviction. I- merely came to her as such convictions will, and aroused her lo keener interest in her companions. (To be continued!.