CHAPTER X.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12856, 11 May 1912, Page 10 (Supplement)

CHAPTER X.

THE TWO WOMEN

IT was the sound of his own jarring . laugh that gudd^nlj recalled Anthony (Jarleret to himself to a sense of his surroundingH

For a moment the other man s amazing news, confirmed by the advertisement in the paper, the overwhelming realisation of all that it meant for him, had swept his senses reeling into a dizzy vortex. It needed <a supreme effort to get himself in .hand again. He drew a sharp breath. "Do you "know," Carte ret said, -leaning over to where' Violot Graham eat facing him, "for a moment I bad a wild, insane impulse to make a fool ni myself, to do something mad to reliovo my feelings—your father's news waa so staggering! Half a million —to a man who's had my sort of luck for two yoa.r3l Even yet I'm half doubtful if I'm .not'dreaming." Carteret's" voice was not quite under his control even yet. There were only two or three other passengers in the long corridor carriage; their curious glancas, directed at him over their newspapers, helped to steady him, though his Land still shook a little as it rested on the scat, and his faoo was white. It had been easier to take .his bad luck than this sudden amazing;turn of Fortune's wheel. The girl nodded and smiled back at him. "Oh, I understand how you must feel," she said,' sympathetically. "I, should have felt just the same. I think I should have wanted to laugh and cry in one ■breath.-*' She paused; then: " How strange we should run up against you Anthony, when not five minutes ago I was talking of you, wondering what had become of you! And almost as your name is on one's tongue you walk into the carriage! Where, have you been all this time, hiding -away from all your old friends —and what-have you been clomp: with yourself?" she asked, with the old frank directness that had always characterised her. Her eyes had been quick to take stock <vf the evidently' ready-made clothe^ he wore, that wore so different from those of the well-groomed Anthony Carteret she had known. Her woman's intuition had read in them, in tho face gaunt and changed, with lines etched- about' the mouth that looked harder than it had dona two years ago, that at tho moment when his good news was broken to him the world had been going anything but well for this man.

Carteret gave a little laugh and shru-cged his shoulders. "Oh, the catalogue of my doings would bo too lonfr, and much too eommonnlaro -to be interesting." he said.. Gvnpivelv. "I've been roughing it generally for two years past, turning my hand to nnyth ing .and everything-in more than one corner of the world. You seo. I've boon abroad since 1. saw

you r " "And you've only just come back to England? That explains it, then, why you ciro-the last person to hear "of your own good fortune!"

C'arteret did not answer, leaving the conclusion she had jumped to uneorrected. Ho was gl«yi that she should think he had only just returned from abroad ; it would be us well that everyono should think so. It would save many explanations—explanations that he could not gire.

" Better late than never, eh, Carteret?" broke in Mr. Graham, with his boisterous laugh. "You bad a knockdown blow a couple of years ago, but, Gad! you can afford to look back on that now with equanimity. I suppose we shall have you for a neighbour at tho Bed Court?"

The lied Court was an old manor house sleeping among Surrey trees, where Colonel Warrander had lived, adjoining the Graham's place. • It had been tho dttid man's property, and had passed with his fortune to Anthony ijarterefc— u big, rambling house, dating back v couple of hundred years or more, standing in wide wooded grounds. (Jarttrtt laughed.

" 1 have known for less than five minutes tnat I am Colonel Warrender's •heir, and you ask me if 1 have made any plans yet I" he cried.

Jiiven yet his mind could hardly grasp the tremendous fact that had sec his senses swimming. .Last night he had slept in ii doss-housej yesterday he had thought himself mcii with the unexpected, possession of fifty pounds, less than an hour ago he had been Hying desperately from the outstretched clutcn of the law, a hunted fugitive with, the chargo of murder hanging over him—• and now to learn .that half a million wat» his, only waiting to be claimed! A magic summons calling him back from his bitter exile, back from an alien world to his otvn place and his own people. Anthony Carteret almost wondered that ho could sit there so outwardly calm, talking quietly to this girl whom he had met again on the 'threshold of this new opening life. Onco apMin tho ball was at his feet! Those two years of bitterness behind' him had slipped away like an evil dream when or.c awakens. Heir to five hundred thousand pounds! The very wheels seemed to catch up .the words of < Ins thought into their roar and grind them out rhythmically as the train rushed on. Five hundred thousand pounds!

1 How glad I am we met you to-day Anthony, and that we were the first to congratulate you!" Violet was saying, in her low, clear, charming voice. Only I have a bone to pick with you too. Why did you desert all your old mends so shamefully two years ago going away, disappearing without a' word or hint?"

" What el.se was thoro for me to do?" Carteret raid. "I'd been a fool and'a sopmrfciirift, and I had to pay for my tolly. I ivas a ruined m.an. There waV noting for ih but to clear out. T had my pride-. I couldn't stay to be a hanger-on of men better off than my- ! I .

And you let none of your friend; 1 "'1"" h' •• v-"-'l vnu v.-oro -hit. I nevediwv.iied of it on that day at Ascot n-l-en „.-. watch«vl Cru-fax -loan his race • J never dreamed how much his winni™ or l-osinpr meant to you/ the girl said? thoughtfully. That was the 1-ast time sho had cccvi Anthony Garteret —that day who.v. though sho hsul not known if till afl tcrwords, Carfia.x was earrvTnp; his owner's fnte at his heels; when tho favonrito's vieto-i-v was the la/=;t tiling, the only thin X , th.ot con Id have saved him from mm. And Carfax had lost. Violet r»mp.Tn'^--d ho-v ho had taken h'\s del fan.t—wi^h a ca y smile to the last: at l->asf. An^honx- Cnrt^ret had >»is pru'e. And 5-Ti<> .h a d liked him for his ■nrirT"

To O"-»*t<>rr»t.'<? fn"o the me^tio^ r>f Oa-rfax Vnd brought a sudden li+,t},-> fi->n-n. Tt reminded him of GHmmdo— j f.i.-'iv,.. 0 .7.. v Vn Krul rr>!>c on to ''•n-w- | " .Wl "f-f. "t" +.!.„ Jo^pv AT]( \ Wl ■f-rpor-Tio-m-iT- K~V, C rrtPd to fIiSUVG the fnvour'tp h'-inr* !)'■•»*■ on mi t-l"> TK 1 ""o tKat. must «vpi- lm-k in a,rnhn«h in tho background of his life, -until the

guilty -man should, if ever, ba found. The d-ay the girl spoke of, that day of Carfax's.race had been the last atage of that reckless road to ruin which he had pursued. Had there ever baon such -a fool? He asked himself that question now. Such a fool as he had been, letting the fortune that had been his, slip through his fingers like water ? And now—now that Fate had given him unexpectedly a second chance, had dragged him in a moment from the lowest Tung to the top of the ladder again.

"Well, I think I've learnt wisdom by this time. Heaven knows, I've had cause!" he said to himself, with a little wry smile. •

The train was slowing down

"Halloa, here's Sloan Square —our station," said Mr. Graham, rising. "Anthony, we can't part like this. Where are you bound for ? Have you any particular business? Come tome with us. We've been staying in town for a week or two at my son-in-law's flat—• you remember Verral, who married Kate? Or was .it just after your smash? Kate was Violet's elder sister. Kate and he are out-of town, and have left us in charge of their flat at Chester Gardens. If you've only^ just got back to England you can't have made any a.rrangemont-s that you can't break, eh? Be our guest at Chester Gardens for a few days. Telephone to the solicitors from the flat, and sco 'em to-morrow. You try and persuade hinij Violet."

Her emiling eyes were doing that already. But "Oarteret did nob need any persuading. A hunted fugitive only half an hour ago, with no home, no friends and the genuine warmth of the welcome of this girl, and her father, old friends new-found, had touched him not a little.

"It's awfully good of you. I'm only too glad to accept. I had made no arrangements—none that I can't quite easily break," he said. They drove from the station to Chester Gardens in a taxi-cab; Jio sat opposite to Violet during the short drive. The flying lights of the street revealed glimpses of the piquant, charming face, nestling among the soft white furs about her throat; the faint, elusive perfume clinging about her, that he remembered of old, stole subtly to his senses as he bent forward in speaking. That he should bo sitting by her, in that close intimacy, this girl who typified the delicate refinements and soft luxury and ease of another world than that lie had known more than two years, seemed to bring home to this man almost more than anything else the realisation of his bewildering chiange of fortune. Two nights .ago, a man starving and penniless, crouching over the coke fire of & common lodg-ing-house kitchen, forced into surroundings and associates ivtterly distasteful to d, man of Eis upbringing—crooks like Koyce. Now he sat by this girl's side, this figure from the old careless life or wealth and pleasure, laughing and talking easily and gaily; and the past two years had slipped away as .though tiiey had never been, except for a lingering sense oi' unreality that even vet• ho could not jjuite shako off. Once, as ue was speaking, his thoughts seemed to wander arid his words suddenly trailed off i n t o an abrupt silence leaving .his sentence unSSJ l? c ha? p L ut his band in^> *»•■■ ooat pocket, and there, his !h>;o; s ha,' touched something crisp and mstling--bank-notes; his fumbling fingers felt £» \ n f ter, noo°n to enable Dick to go to Canada; he understoui i,,sr.uaslf« ifo i .H refused .to. take them aiid K 9. B]-""",8^,1 and then Eve must have slipped them. quietly into his Graham glancing across at him in surprise at his abrupt silence, saw an odd look come into nis face. taketC "7 E7f had refused *o Sint Jet he understood the reeling, the fierce pride that had prompted her to refus?. That wL S V ?^** ea stared out of the window at the lighted street, , an d fo a moment the girl opposite to him was forgotten and the vision of anot£ woman had risen up before him and u°irW OnlyAhe lm"tiful f«sTStaSed herbSS'tft^ and fall 3 1" m th° ****** "I feel as though my heart would break for very shame! You, the man you ever forgive me?" Rir Iwidfone in her passionate anw and omjudemenfc of him, ho hid m\ SMJrBBBSB

lirsfc or. all, better let the solicitor chaps know that they needn't adj£\ use any Jonger f Or the prodigal ?' Mr" Graham ciiod wi*h hiq 7m, i • ; ins the non-s.totj.em that CoJonol to see tjiein , n the morning. Then Jie was shown to his room. An elderi? lJI" ,° r oth*s nd linon ready for him' • ivlr. Grahnm hopes that you will fincUhose satisfactory , aa a anakeshift,

inV^V' ihV nnd, W/- G'-'^m'a soness* Sirs^^s^ thootw CSPaSS" aS he BtrugSled into tno other man's Rnrmonts. How lon<r w^ it since he had worn evening clothes, or even nos«-oss3<] them Ho looked round the room/ furnishA fii-o had becm li.srht.xl in the tho ,I™-,, Mn7 * prii-ttoro^ on the «q: rer-baclwl brushes on the dressingtable. Garteret drew n, dee- t > bivat> He was- back in the old life aeain ; snd- />-,!- f^ f . r+ l. rtr i;f< ,_ flnr , h^ London crouching grim and Rrey behind Mio very shadow of the great lighted fßsMnj-ants a.n-i the->+^^ Si +,hn —t^^^ »* 1«t."-v for the rich, that Qoortre Uarr had known, seemed very far affar.

He Tn-<^ -» move—nf. ~jth his shoulders as if flinging off a burden.

"But the past is over and done with, a chapter closed," he aaid to himself.

No one in his. life of the Last two years, not even the girl he loved, had known that George Carr's "real name was- George Anthony Carteret. Surely he oould slip away from the past into this new life awaiting him, leaving behind him for ever the shadow of that menace that had threatened him.

"Over aDd done with, thank heaven!

In one corner of the room stood & writing bureau. Before Garteret went bo join his host and hostess at dinner he took from it an envelope. On it he wrote Eve Rommany's name and address and slipped into it the four bank notes. ' .

There was no performance that night at tho Corona. In consequence of the funeral of Ernest Grimrode, so largely interested financially in this music hall.. Ib had been decided to close it for one evening.

A sense of intolerable .'restlessness, had driven Eve out of doors that night. Sho was filled with suspense about George Carr's fate, filled with ,an unutterable remorse and shame.'1 Though she bad no engagement to fulfil, tho work that would have been a r relief in her present mood, she felt ib impossible to stay indoors. Here in this room, that 'had witnessed'that, interview "with tho man she had oared for, who she knew had gono out of her life, separated irrevocably from her by her own mad act, were only thoughts and memories too poignant to be endurable.

Sho walked swiftly, as if to outdistance those brooding 'thoughts. Almost insensibly her aimless footsteps took her westward. .In ■'Piccadilly'and the great lighted Circus the stream, of life was in full spate, that caught her up and swept her along with it. ~ It was the. hour when the theatre doors wera opening. Outside the restaurants and great lighted palaces of pleasure carriages and motor-oars were drawing up, bringing men and women to the glittering threshold of the evening's amusement. Evs walked <m dully., unsooin.qlv, until her eyes were swiftly arrested by a placard a newsboy was carrying:— "LENDAL MANSIONS -MYSTERY. WHERE IS GEORGE CARR?" It was in the newspapers aiready that the police had a clue as to the identity of the man seen trying to escape from tho scene of the crime. • Feverishly the girl felt her purse and bought) a paper. A brief paragraph, stated that tho Scotland Yard authorities had reason to believe that tho man suspected- of Grimrode's murder was a man known as George Carr, living in Westminster, where he had been seen that day. An arrest was confidently expected. Eve lifted hor .eyes "from the.paragraph she was reading in the light of one of tho hissing arc lamps to give a little stifled cry. There before hex eyes was tho man of her thoughts—George Carr himself! She stopped dead, staring with n-'vetod, almost incredulous eyes.

And yet how could this man in evening clothes, who had just alighted from a taxi-cab that Lad drawn up in front of a, theatre entrance, and was assisting _a smiling, beautiful girl ta alight, a girl in. her dainty dinner frock" of shimmering chiffon and la<;e that repreeentHd the very height of fashion," be tho man d\o l<ad seen flying from th© police that afWnoon? It was imnossible that it cuild be George Onrr—"and yet how-could the woman who loved him bo. mistaken ?

He had _ not seen Eve or glanced an her direction, as he and an older man and the girl he was escorting crossed th© pavement to the doors of th© theatre, laughing and talking gaily. How could it be George Carr, though the likeness was so striking that he might have been George Carr's twin brother? A newsboy with an armful of papers was pushing his way unceremonious!? through the crowd; in front of him he was carrying the placard that bad arrested Eve's eyes an instant ago. The younger man in the well-cut evening clothes gjanced carelessly in the boy's direction. Eve saw the startled look that for a moment flashed into his fao3 in the midst of something he was saying to the girl by his side, as his eyes rested on the placard and iU reference to the wanted 'man, striking the smile from his lips. His faco was a little whiter as he passed into the theatre without a glance towards the girl who stood watching him half a dozen yards away with an incredibly startled look. c "I knew I couldn't be mistaken," Eve was whispering to herself; "it was George Ctarr! What can it mean? And —who was that girl with him?" George Carr hail already passed insido with his two companions tand out of her sight, leaving Eve with that perplexing unanswered question. (To bo Continued ) <