Lady Marjorie's Love

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 4 February 1913, Page 2

Lady Marjorie's Love

(OUR St R'AL

By Carl Swerdna Author of -'To the Uttermost Farthing," "A Mere Coicmonj, A for Honoui'," Ktc.

CiIAPTKIt 111. (Continued.) "That \on art' on no account whatever to talk to the earl too much or to let him talk too much to you." Tier .light tone dropped with tho anx-iou-;s eiiange in Iter face. "He isn t at all well to-day—not at all, Kenel'.a SiP s. Air IVthrick was a lawyer and could keep 11 K ;, ocl guard of his face, hut ii over a swift change of expression involuntarily said "No wonder!' his did. Marjcrio did not see; sin- was looking pensively before her. "Mo is much worried, I think,' she resumed, in a troubled vo:ct-\ I fancy somehow that it must both rough his speculations, Mr Pelhriek. I don't know any other reason why he should ho as troubled and out of)spirits as ho has been lately. I .suppose he doesn't feel well enough to attend to his investments properly. 1 wish he would leave them alone altogether; it isn't as if we weren't more than rich enough. Perhaps he is investing in something ,neiv that he doesn't feel sure about. You don'tknow of anything new, do your" "Xo, my dear, nothing is new that T know of—nothing whatever." "Oh, you w on-hi Know it there was anything!" said the- girl promptly, and glancing up with a- relieved air.

■ tl vwsed I think—tired, no doubt ! Jn liK . t . |,e complained that ho telo so. ; |-|er lace wa-s so very anxious tuat li.s habitual eai'eless .inadlerence r.nud „ ot be blind u> it, and he -pal Led u . hands as though they wore a CulcU he aul kindly <«, ~ni>L say that J tlnnk you au alarmed without gond oau.se. to. m>self. 1 don't sec any dillereiH-.. m h.inv, and ho doesn't complain ot i„„ worse. You are such a timid I It]ir n-oose that you frighten yoi.rse!l. You"liiid letter So i" »»«.. von- The countess sav s it. is getting U Good night-! J shall he running down to have at you btFoiv louu", 1 <lan> He- did as he find done in the wood . -bent his head, lightly touched he> ,heek wit h his lips, and went down the terrace step,. He crossed the gravel sweep below, passed through, a thick Ml of >hrubhery, and emerged upon a path which would bring lnm to a-o-ate m the park wall without having o„ce. looked behind him lor a las, ~[ance of her. The gate was within a pjiee or two when. he stopped to hgh. -cio-ar. The match was still a-glim-iner"in his fingers wlion lie started with a loud exclamation and let both match and cigar fall. Not without reason! Ho had seen nothing and heard nothing, hut in an nistant a figure was at his .side and had laic a hand tipon his -shouler.

"He tells you everything, hut ho never talks to us about business —f mean to the counters and me. Perhaps it is because the weather is hot so suddenly that makes him seem so languid and out of -sorts. But you won't talk to him more- than is actually .necessary, will you?" "Not a word ni'iro than I can help, my dear—l promi.se you that."

CHAPTER IV, In the swift movement back that ho made the match dropped from Loftus Bligh's hand and lay shining like a o-low worm in the gra&s. His ejaculation was as swift as lvo faced the woman whose hand had touched lnm. "\orah!" he cried. "You?" ''Yes—l! Norah!" she answered. A beautiful woman —a woman who would have been beautiful in the glare of the brightest, most merciless sunshine, and who in the soft light of the moon was almost dazzlingly lovely. It of her chestnut hair, the depth and lucidity of her grand gray eye,, the bold and almost perfect contour of her features; the grace cf her rather tall and splendidly molded figure. A certain passionate intensity in the expression of her face and the maturity and fullness of the lines of lier figure gave her, at a first glance, a look of being older than she really •was, for in years >she was scarcely past girlhood. The vivid tints which usually made part of her luxuriant beauty were absent from her face now; it was hard and set and white as sue fronted Loftus »Bligh, whose own was pale and decomposed and had wonder and anger in it as sho-looked back at her. Biting his lip, he spoke again, ■seeing that- she stubbornly waited -for it.

"Thanks! I'm sure h,e if.i not fit for it. f was quite vexed in one way when T heard that you were coming, because I knew that- lie. must- have overexerted himself this morning. There was some horrid man came to see him this morning—a broker, T suppose—a Mr Chadburn." "Oh, Mr Chndburn !" said Mr Petheriek'stolidly. Ho- was on his guard now. and. though Marjcrie was looking at. him, she saw no eliange in hi y face as she mentioned the name of the ruddy-faced individual of whose ! audacious -pity she had been so su.bI limelv unaware.

"Yes, I saw him in tlie park as he was »"oinp;' away. He must have como about something of importance." They had readied one of the lower entrance doors, and she stopped and drew away her hand. "You will like to go .straight to him, won't you?" she said.. "And please whisper to Loftus from me that I think he had better not stay any longer."

"Loftus?" repeated the lawyer. If a man could look at once alarmed, relieved, troubled, \sucli a contrauicio s awl complex change came over the face of Mr T'etluiek noiv. "So. Mr Bligh is here?" he said. "I had not expected to hear that, but I am very glad to know it—extremely glad. Lord Marlingford .sent for liiin, • c course?"

[ "Sent for him? Oh, dear, no!" I Marjorie raised her eyebrows. "Why should you suppose that, Mr Petherick? Ho came down to Upton Wafers quite unexpectedly with a friend of his —Frank Pemberton —you've met him, I think, haven't, yon? I was quite surprised when he came upon me in the wood this morning. He goes hack to town to-morrow by the first through'train. Toll him, please, that I'm "waiting out 'here to say good night to him. I «iball .see you again iso I won't say it- to you."

.She gave Jiim a bright little friendly nod and turned! away, calling; to Jack, who was excitedly sniffing here and there, absorbed by his one constant and deathless suspicion that there must bo a. rat in ambush somewhere. Marjorie boyly and, peremptorily called to binr to follow hoi", and ho came prancing and barking about her white skirts as' utterly unconscious ,a«s shethat Mr Pethiyick. )insfcead of. .aepking the earl, stood as she had left him aud looked after Jior with, a .fa,c.e. as uneasy, troubled, and compassionate as Mr Chadbum's had. been earlier in the day. "Marh'ngford ought to tell her!", he said aloud, with an impatient gesture and an impatient frown. "He. has no right to he silent ; it is cow and - ly—it is cruel! I felt lfke a confounded old hypocritio when she was talking to me, but I've no right to speak. Poor little creature! Poor little girl!" And so it fell out that twice in one ] day Marjorie Wynne had been pitied by two different men, and 1 was neither the wiser nor sadder. Indeer, her spirits had revived under the influence of the moonlight, and she had quite got" over and. almost forgotten her momentary fit of spleen with her lover when by and by he came out again and ioined her. She had, mounted the terrace steps again, and. -stood so near the open window of the dra wingroom that she could liear the full, 'dear voice of -the-countess bidding him good-night. ''How-.does the, earl seem, Loftus-" Marjorie asked. "Worse than .when you isAw hirci. last,'<lo"yx?tt think P" , "Oh, be seems a little weak and dis-