Our Serial Story

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19504, 4 February 1926, Page 5

Our Serial Story

HER DAY OF ADVERSITY

By

MRS PATRICK MACGILL*

(All Rights Reserved.)

CHAPTER XVIII (continued).

The Earbed Tongue. After an awkward silence,, quiet, with troubled thought, she added. “I wonder why a doctor struck off the rolls should be chosen from amongst all the other doctors in London t,o look after me?” The next moment, she regretted having spoken; he might easily have been arranged for by Jacob Stone, none of whose associates seemed to be ordinary, decent, clean-living people. But the large, dark, vaguely disconcerting eyes had fixed her again. “He was not chosen by your husband, Mrs. Stone. He was already in attendance upon you, with Lottie, when the detective called with Air. Stone and removed you from Air. Murray’s flat. ” It was as if an electric battery had suddenly and unexpectedly been applied, full strength, to Carol's spine. She sat up in bed, wide-eyed, startled, gasping, and so palid that Nadia Halkin got frightened. “But you are not strong enought to hear these things, if you do not already know them. Surely you are aware of what took place after your wedding luncheon at the Savoy Hotel, Mrs Stone?” cheon at the Savoy. Airs. Stone?” Nadia Halkin knew perfectly well that Carol’s mind up to that moment had been blank as to the events which had led up to her installation in her brother’s house. Arthur Wrangel had given strict orders to Lottie that not by so much as a single word was she to remind Carol of what she had forgotten. His hope was that it would lie fallow in her mind until she was stronger and better able to bear the emotion which recollection would inevitably arouse. But, at the mention of a flat in connection with David Murray a hazy, subconscious memory began to stir into life. She seemed to remember a a strange bedroom. David’s beloved voice telling her not to do something—ah, that was it!—she was not to think, to think about anything—except. . . . As she struggled to remember, on-j ■hand, as white and frail as the lilies which had been Nadia’s present, clasped to her brow, the colour began to come back to her cheeks and lips. Nadia took heart from the improvement, and began a mental defence of her own disobedience of medical orders. The girl had got to know some time, she told herself impatiently, and Arthur AV ran gel was no longer a doctor, anyhow. She shrugged her splendid shoulders as if divesting herself of responsibility regarding the effect of her news upon the white-faced girl in the bed, and decided to —as she put it —“wade right in.” Her somewhat too decided voice broken the sequence of Carol’s memories of the time spent in the strange bedroom. “It seems incredible that you should not remember running away from your husband on your wedding day and going to Air. Murray’s flat,” said Nadia, rather tartly. “I did not remember before. But I have a dim recollection of it now.” Carol’s sweet, youthful voice was low, shamed, confused. What must these people, who presumably knew nothing of the events which led up to her marriage with Jacob Stone —what kind of girl must they think her “I can only suppose that I was taken suddenly ill in Air. Al array’s flat, and that he had no choice but to do his best for me until Mr. Stone came to take me away. You see, 1 have so few friends in London. I am not a London girl, Aliss Halkin.” Carol was doing her pitiful best to put a good complexion on things. But Nadia Halkin, like a good many of her sex, was not inclined to be merciful towards another woman. “It is a great pity that Mr. Alurray, who is a great personal friend of mine ” She emphasised this statement, watching Carol narrowly the while, pausing just long enough to allow her first barb to sink securely into the invalid’s sensitive consciousness, and then went on. “ As I say, all his friends say it was an absurdly quixotic thing for him to do ” Again that hateful pause, so fraught with meaning. ‘ * To do what? ’ ’ Carol’s voice came sharply, almost imperiously, from the bed. Emotion had lent her fictitious strength, and her eyes bright and her cheeks flushed, Carol looked splendidly vital. “When anything really moves her, she can be well enough. Perhaps she’s been malingering all along. I shouldn’t be at all surprised. Of course, it would be to the interest of the other precious pair to keep her as an invalid as long as possible.” Uncharitable thoughts such as these, once having been allowed an entry into Nadia Halkin’s mind, continued to multiply like poisonous weeds. Out * came the bare, blatant, unsoftened truth, and it was like a phySxvai blow to the poor defenceless creature who seemed to be so entirely at the mercy of this woman who had so' much—wealth and beauty, and presumably, friends, and a recognised position in the world. “ For some reason that he refused to divulge in court, David hid you from the police, and when your husband very properly called to take his wife out of the charge of another man, he was so savagely assaulted that it had this awful result—he will be a paralysed invalid for the rest of his life.” Nadia Halkin stopped, once again frightened, for never had she seen horror so nakedly revealed on a human face as it was on Carol’s at that moment.

The grey eyes were olack, and the ashy lips, at one with the colour of the young face, were drawn back over the teeth in an unconscious grin. It made the woman who was responsible for Carol’s state shudder. But* to her intense relief* onee more

the invalid rallied apd seemed to regain something of the normality and even asked, in a quiet voice, “What happened, Aliss Halkin? Where is David now?” A twinge of jealousy gripped Nadia at the ready manner in which she made, use of David’s Christian name. “He is in prison—he got two months in the second division. You sec,” she went on, in the same coldly clear tone, “your wedding was reported by the Press, and, of course, it was a great sensation, your disappearance a few hours after the ceremony. Naturally, the police were informed by your husband, and they went first of all to Air. Murray’s flat. You were there all the time, but he denied that he had seen you, and of course put them off the scent. This man, Wrangel, who was once a doctor, and this girl who was dragged away from a performance that she was supposed to have given at one of my brother’s halls —I suppose they were the only people who could be trusted not to inform the police of your whereabouts. Anyhow, it made things extremely difficult when it came to moving you, for, of course, your husband would not allow you to lie under the roof of a man who had sheltered his wife in such a way. You. would not allow anybody but this exdoctor and this Lottie person near you, and no decent nursing home could be expected to take you under such circumstances.’ ’ Two tears welled up slowly in Carol’s eyes and spilled themselves on her cheeks. “Poor, poor David!” she moaned, rather than said. Militant Hostility love teaches cunning, even to innocence. and the term could hardly be applied to the woman of thirty-one who had entered herself as a rival of Carol, who was note quite twenty. The passion which Nadia Halkin miscalled love taught her cruelty as well as cunning. She knew where to direct her darts so that their sting would yield the maximum of pain to her rival. “Oh, I don’t know that you need worry so greatly, Airs Stone. True, prison is not an experience that one would choose, but a man who has been through the horrors of war would laugh at a couple of months’ imprisonment. And a crime committed for a woman out of mistaken chivalry is rather charmingly romantic; certainly it is not a ground for social disgrace.” “No,” murmured Carol faintly. “In fact I am giving a dinner-party in his honour when he comes opt, to help him to forget. When once he is married ’ ’ Carol started ,the tell-tale blood running once again to her white little face. “But David is not engaged to be married. Why, he —he ” Carol’s words came out in little panting gasps. What was Aliss Halkin saying? David loved her—Carol; for his sake she had sacrificed the greatest of all Life’s gifts next to love—her freedom. There was some mistake of course. The over-excited girl became suddenly conscious of a sick headache, but she forced herself to concentrate on what her cool, dark, beautifullydressed hostess was saying. “Why exactly should not David Afurray contemplate marriage, Airs Stone? He is a free man, and 1 assure you he is a great favourite in a circle, which includes a good many eligible girls.” She enjoyed the mental writhings which were portrayed on the mobile young face as clearly as if Carol had given them voice. “Of course he must have many women friends, a man like that, young, handsome and well-to-do,” Carol told herself, striving to smoothe the pangs of miserable jealousy which she could not help feeling. “So I should not worry overmuch, my dear. Any kind of worry must be bad for you just now.” Having undone most, if not. all, of the good that Arthur Wrangel had accomplished, Nadia Halkin touched Carol’s cheek with her lips, and left her in a state bordering on the hysterical. When Lottie came back triumphantly with the. vase for the lilies, she gave vent to her opinion of Nadia Halkin in language as forcible as it was unbecoming to her temporarily adopted profession. “Gawd! I’d like to print the ten commandments on her ugly mug!” Lottie clawed an imaginary face with both extended hands. “Down in Bermondsey, where the people ain’t got two pennies to rub against each other, they wouldn’t think of cornin’ in an’ upsetting a pore, sick girl like you in such a disgraceful way. Blow ’er lilies.” In a fury Lottie took the delicate, inoffensive flowers and pitched them into the fire. “A few violets bought off a basket in the street ’ud be as much as one of them women could run to, but by golly they’d mean friendship when they gave ’em to you. They wouldn’t bring you lilies costing Gawd knows what and upset yer at the same time. What did she say to yer, ducky? Come on, and tell Lottie all about it,” and the rough red hands smoothed Carol’s hair in a most unprofessional, but decidedly healing manner so that presently Carol was able to tell her what had happened. “The blasted old cat ought ter ’ave her neck wrung off of ’er! An’ I’d like to ’ave the doing of it!” was Lottie’s reception of Carol’s news. “Don’t take no notice of ’er. You just got well and wait till ’e comes out and then we’ll see,” soothed and comforted Lottie. Later on in the afternoon, when they were having tea, Carol’s amateur nurse made a suggestion. “What about draftin’ ’im a little cheerio letter, just to cheer ’im up like,” she said brightly, and some of the trouble seemed to lift from Carol’s face. “I think I will, Lottie. Could you run and ask Aliss Halkin for particu-

lars of him—his number ,the address of the prison, and for any formalities that might have to be observed?” said Carol, when writing materials were spread out in front of her. Nadia’s face darkened when Lottie delivered the message ,but she wrote down the particulars that Carol wanted, and even, ten minutes later, offered to post the letter for her as she was going out. But Lottie chimed in a trifle too eagerly. “That's all right Aliss, thank you. I’m going out for my two hours in a few minutes, and I’ll take it to the post.” Nadia Halkin inclined her head without troubling to reply, but for the next half-hour, hatted and befurred, she watched at the window for Lottie’s shabbily dressed figure to leave the house. At length she clanged the side door after her, and set off down the road and Nadia followed her until she was weary of walking. Lottie passed dozens of letter-boxes on her way, but she seemed to have forgotten the letter which was sticking out of her coat pocket. At last she turned into a Tube station and booked a ticket for Hendon. Nadia had often heard Lottie express her admiration for the pretty little north-west suburb, and it was a frequent thing for her to travel there by Tube and walk in the park which was just outside the station. It was annoying to have to follow the girl such a distance, but it would be still more annoying if David Murray ever received the—doubtless—rather long and sentimental letter which Carol was bound to have written. Lottie strolled along the semi-coun-try road which led to the park, sniffing the fresh air with every appearance of enjoyment, and it was the sight of a quaint little letter-box fixed to a tree—the kind often seen in country places —that served to remind Lottie of the letter. Taking it from her pocket she slipped it into the box, and continued her stroll, and Nadia, watching until she was out of sight, breathed a sigh of thankfulness for the lonely situation of the letter-box, for not a soul could be seen anywhere along the road after Lottie had disappeared. Fate, which invariably favours evildoers up to a certain point, was certainly kind to Nadia Halkin’s mean plan to prevent Carol’s letter from reaching its proper destination. Taking a small bottle from her coat pocket ,she swiftly emptied the contents into the little box, and then with fast beating heart in case anybody should appear from one of the houses, she struck a match, shielded it for a second with her cupped hand, and dropped it amongst the now petrol-soak-ed letters. There was a dull, faint, crackling sound as the letters caught fire and within five seconds flames were belching from the mouth of the box. But nobody saw; indeed, it was not discovered until three hours later, when the collecting postman came to do his duty. Then, the following morning, there appeared a notice in every newspaper but as Carol was by that time too ill to think of newspapers, and Lottie was too busy ever to bother about them, neither knew of the fate of the all-im-portant letter.

To Be Continued.

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