Lady Marjorie's Love

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 8 February 1913, Page 2

Lady Marjorie's Love

; (OUR SERIAL

By Car! Swerdna ' Author of "To tlie Uttermost Farthing," "A More Ceremony,'' "A Fight j for Honour," Etc.

CUAPTKii V. (Continued.) What cm id Jut lather -want to say t., !:■>.■;. tu vumdeied, uitli au uneasy tii: ill : i.iu, in; whispered it jokingly sji have la-ughed, understandj »ilit:.! it \\n» a little trivial •sou:e-MK-ii iuiL.it bo told to Kenella ; liui i;o Had locked so excited, .so ag!taic.l. ;i;•'I lie was always so very compared and calm, which only made it ••( ranger. Ihe girl's nice -vas auxious jiikl ci.sealed as she put on her hat aiul .sauntered out into the sunshine. :-.!e iv.-i, t-.-o aUara-cted even to notice .Jack or to sympathise .villi his- indus--1 riot"s sniHing and grubbing at tho lent (> 1 this tree and that. But ior his .suddenly abandoning this occupation to run to and prance and bark about an approaching figure, she might not have been aware of its approach. As it was, isho did .see it, and stopped short to say, with a frown and d.'cidedly vicious emphasis: ".Mother the man!" Tho man was so close to her that possibly iu> heard the ejaculation, if so. it is only due to 'him to say that it did net affect his greeting. .He raised his lifit —a movement which she responded to —and he held out his hand, which she did not see a.L all.

that Ma-rjorie so utterly e-.cnewed eom,mon sense. Tom .Jocelyn would, at any rate, make a far beUer match for her than Loftus Bligh, about whon the foolitii iittje creature was ceitailily getting sentimental lately.

Tlios, irom a 'common-sense point of view—the only point of view which ever represented to her ladyship's, mental vision, by the way—was unquestionably true. The Holt, which, had been the home of the Joeolyns almost as long as tho Wynnes had held sway at Castle Marling, was a hue place, and there was no lack of lconey tliere. And that it and its revenues must one day fall to Tom Jocelyn was certain lor there was no fear of its present owner, Stephen, ever marrying now. He had lost his betrothed wife within a week of what would have been their wedding day, and had never held up his head '.since. Always delicate in body and retiring in character — a complete contrast in all ways to 'his much younger brother-—he would certainly never live to make old bones, especially if Doctor Barlow's cautious whispers of the existence of a deep-seated malady were true. So, all things considered, Tom Jocelvn would not have made a bad match even for Lady Marjorie Wynne, had she only clianced to like instead of detesting that stout, large-limbed, ruddy-faced, arid somewhat coarse and vulgar young man. He had taken his- rejection very, coolly, had laughed indeed, and had further augmented the girl's wrath by telling her that she would "come round," one of these days—he could wait. As for her engagement to her cousin, ho ignored it altoge;,hor—such a per-sou as Loftus Bligh might have existed within his knowledge. Altogether Lady Marjorio bated her admirer most viciously, and took particularly good care that lie should knowit. '

'•-Good morning. Lady Marinrie! Why, I'm in luck this morning! It's a full week since I last had the pleasure of catching -sight -of you." •Judging from Marjo'rie's face, it might have been a year, and she might have wished it two. She did not condescend to reply, but looked past him at nothing with an interested air. Plainly -he was either marvellously good-temperod or immensely hard to abash. He went 011 as though she had given him the most gracious of an-

} swer-s. "I'm sorry to hear tliat Marlingford isn't tho thing,'' he said. "Old Barlow was in our place yesterday. Steve's gout—we shall never hear the last of -St eve's gout, it seems .to me — was giving him some deucedly stiff twinges. It'll be my turn next, I suppose, ha, ba! What was I saving ! J Oh, Barlow was saying that Mrrlirgford didn't seem exactly chippy! That's tho fact, it it?" Obliged to break her frigid silence, Marjorie did so as ungraciously as it was passible to do it. She gave him a glauco under her eyelids, which was less complimentary than none at all, and answered in a tone that was an imitation of the countess, and a very' excellent imitation of her at her politest and frostiest: . "It is perfectly correct, I am sorry to say, Mr Jocelyn. The earl is very far from well." "A fact, is it? Sorry for That! ?\"ot that I'm much surprised, of course, for j Marlingford has looked a bit run down lately, as 1 said to Bar',: v, yesterday. But doctors hash things up »,o K>metimes that- J thought I'd step over and inquire and .get the rights of it." "You are very good, Mr Joeely-i. 1 am pleased to'havo saved you (be 1 r. t:bie of a walk to the house. I will tell Lady Marlingford of your inquiries. Good morning!" She made him a little bow and turned away. He was a-s impenetrably good-humored and unsnubbable as ever He turned with her. "Oh, no trouble —not the least in the world! Xow I'm so near I'll pay my respects to her ladyship. It ien't j often that I do the polite ng, so I j lvont spoil it halfway. Besides, I c.cn't often liave the pleasure of a walk with you, you know." "Quito often eneu'gh'! said Marjorie haughtily. "What's that? Oh, come, don't be unkind! I'm sure I've been extra good lately. You might bo a little gracious, just as a reward for good conduct, you cross little puss!" iMarjorie vouchsafed no answer. She walked on with her bead up and her eyelids down, clenching a little fist with which she would have lined i.ething so much as to box her companion's large ears. It was only because, she know that 'he both could and would keep pace with her that sho refrained from openly running a.wav and ca.sting dignity to the winds. She hated Tom Jocelyn intensely, had hated Ijim since she was a child. She bad been a slip of a. girl of fourteen of therowhen be bad caught her up in his arms one day, boisterously kissed her, and told her that she should be his littlo wife one of these days. Child a.s she was, «he bad been old enough te resent it furiously as an insult, and had slapped his large, florid face with all her little force, struggling in such a tempest of passion a.s had half amazed and half amused the earl, who bad somewhat gruffly bidden him to put the diild down and not tease he.]-. Marjorie had never forgotten or forgiven ; she had snubbed, cut, slighted him whenever the slightest chance of doing so bad fallen her way, and, when, little more than a year ago, be had formally made her an- offer of marriage sho had simply hated him more than ever. The earl had been amused at her wrath. Neither Tom Jocelyn nor any one else should have his little girl against her will, he had said, and the countess had observed with her cold smile that it was a pity

'She walked on now, taking the -hortest way to the house, without a glance at hiin or a word to him. .Judging by the glance that he cast at hj."!- and the smile that crossed bi,s .broad, liorid face now and then, the haughtiness and angry scorn expressed in the delicate girlish face only amused h'tn. Many persons called Tom Jocelyn a handsome man, and, of mere inches, muscles, and flesh can mak:; up masculine beauty, handsome ho w :is. Marjorie, either because she v.-as fastidious or because she possessed .':n altogether different ideal of her nrvn, stigmatized him contemptuously as "horrid." If there was no Loftus in the world, she had said once, in answer te her father's half-jesting remonstrance, she would iunro out of 'hp wondow, jump into the river, do anything, ro matter haw desperate and dreadful, sooner than nrirrv that lean and be mistress c-f the Holt.