“Judy Says No!”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 149, 26 June 1931, Page 10

“Judy Says No!”

SERIAL STORY

(BY

WINIFRED CARTER.)

CHAPTER Xll.—Continued. “My dear, I’ll not urge you against your will. Judy, you have taught mo a great deal. You have n !e me bow my proud head. I love ? ou, child. ou have become the whole wide world to me. You are going to bo my heiress. Judy; you shall follow In my footsteps, and have everything that Is mine.’’ She shook her head, smiling a little tearfully at him. “J am sorry, grandfather, but I can’t accept!” “Cant accept? What on earth do you mean?” “I mean that I must say no.” “No? Do you mean that you are going to refuse to be my heiress? 1 never heard of such a thing.” He looked fiercely from Clive to Mrs Crawford. ‘‘This is some of your doings! You have been getting at her. trying to make her think that It is ail honestly yours. Well, you will not gain anything by your treachery.” “But we have done nothing,” said i Mrs Crawford. Enid had entered, and she stood transfixed at what she heard. Judy going to refuse—saying no! Her puzzled eyes swept the girl’s face. What could It mean? “There- is something I must tell you, grandfather,” said Judy. “1 have learned the truth. I know all! I can’t tell you all, but this much I will tell you. Nicholas is Innocent. A man whose name I know, but whom I won’t give away—at least not yet—has been Impersonating Nick.” “I never heard such a story,” said Henry Harmer indignantly. “But it is a true story, and you must believe me. Listen while 1 explain what I know. When I met Nichalos Harmer, my cousin, 1 was convinced that ho was a much-wronged man. But I realised, that I should have to bring you proofs, and so I started getting them. You know that girl Marlon Jackson? She does not even know Nick I I realised that one day when J had left the singing lesson and saw them meet in the High Street, and neither of them knew the other. That started me puzzling things out. I took a whole batch of photographs from the photographer. I wanted a photograph of Nicholas from Enid.” She turned to the spellbound Enid. “Do you remember, Enid?”

Enid nodded. She had pressed closer. Her heart was beating wildly. What if this was true that Judy said 1 What if this girl whom she had so despised was going to clear Nick, make everything plain sailing for her? Oh, please God she would! Please God it was all ended with Roger! The misery of being engaged to a man she did not care for, when she loved Nick so achingly 1 Judy went on solemnly: “Enid did not give me one, but I got one all the same. 1 took, them to that girl. I showed her a whole batch of photographs. She could not pick one up. If you get that girl here she will confess everything, except perhaps the name of the man who Impersonated Nicholas.' '“But there’s Ventris and the cheque,” said her grandfather, quite staggered at this information that Judy gave him. “Yes, I am coming to that. When I realised that a man had been impersonating Nicholas I got Lord Kenway to invite Mr Ventris to the Carnival last night. Grandfather, this man met the real culprit. With my own ears I heard him say: ‘Hullo, Harmer. When are you going to take your revenge on me for winning that fifteen hundred?’ But It wasn’t Nicholas Harmer. It was ” She paused, her eyes on the carpet. “Some day perhaps the man who did this thing will confess of his own free will. I am not going to give him away; only, grandfather, you must believe me when I tell you that Nicholas Is Innocent. Those bills that came In, those tales of gambling debts, and of wrong living, it was the other man, not Nicholas. Look into it all; discover the truth for yourself. Remember that those accounts came from people who lived at a distance. That girl, Marion Jackson, would have herself known that the man who was making love to her was not Nicholas had they not been new people to the district. Even then I am not sure that she was not in the conspiracy. If you still doubt me, bring Mr Ventris, of Ventris Keep, and Nicholas together Don’t say a word to them; you'll find they don’t recognise each other.” There was dead silence in the room. She could hear the clock ticking. She dared not look at Clive. She just sat there wondering if Clive would confess now that he knew she knew the truth. Would he be able to keep up the deception any longer? She had to give him his chance —but he did not speak, and suddenly her grandfather struck one hand against the other. “If this is true, then I have cruelly wronged Nicholas.” "It is true that you have wronged Nicholas,” said Judy. “I must send for the boy. I must do what I can to make amends,” said Henry Harmer. She could see that he was shaken. “I doubt if he will come, grandfather. Remember”—she gave a □leak little smile—“he said you would have to apologise first. Why not go to him and tell him that you are sorry that you judged him so? Oh, you nave been imposed upon cruelly. I’ll idmit that; but you were wrong because you would not take Nick’s word. He had never lied to you, had he?” “No,” whispered the old man. “Yet you disbelieved him! I. who nad never known him intimately, felt it first sight that he was honest and straight. You should have given him a chance.” “I’m sorry. Judy.” His hand fell on the will and he looked at her gravely. “All the same, I have made rny last will. I don’t intend to change It.” “You mean that even though you know that Nick is innocent you are still going to leave everything Io me?’’ “I’ll do what I can for the boy, but this is done.” With a swift gesture Judy bad snatched up the will. The next noinent It lay on top of the fire; a lame caught It, curled round it; tt dazed merrily. Something in Henry Harmer's old heart whispered: “Well done Judy!” Outwardly he scowled at such insubordination I "Come h-erq, my girV* h*

She moved slowly to him and knelt beside him. Neither of them noticed the others creep out. “You have given me back something, Judy—faith in mankind! You have given me hack my boy Nicholas! Best of all. you have given me what I have never had for years and years -—real love, in which money has no part 1” She did not speak; she leaned her head against him. A moment later he straightened himself. “Come, Judy; we’ll go to Nicholas.” Reconciliation. They went down together to Harmer's Rest, those two. They found Nicholas busily milking. In the stall beside the fawn, smooth-skinned Alderney was a black and white Friesian and another, a new' purchase, a beautiful white cow, with a little snowy, weak-kneed calf beside it. Nick looked up as the shadow fell over the cow's flank, and he nearly upset the pail of milk when he saw who was there. He frowned, Instantly on the defensive. “Well, my boy,” said Henry Harmer. “I have come, to apologise. I have round out. I made a mistake. Will you forgive the old man?” “With all my heart, sir,” said Nick boyishly, and he took both his grandfather’s hands. So easily done, so bitter the quarrel, so quick the making up that it gave Judy a lump in her throat. “How did you find out, sir, that I was innocent?” said Nick eagerly. “Judy did it all. That girl’s a marvel. She never believed that you would do any of the things I charged you with. It did not matter that I had got absolute proof. Proof does not affect Judy If it goes against her instincts. She a better judge ol human nature than I was, my boy. She knew you would never do the things I believed you did. Well, I’ll eat humble pie.” “I’ll eat humble pie,- too, sir. I ought not to have been so proud. I ought to have asked for chapter and verse and proved you right or wrong, as I could have done, but I wouldn’t.” “It’s the Harmer pride. That girl Judy has made me see pride is a very poor staff to lean on. She’s a great child, Nicholas. We owe a lot to her.” He put out a hand and drew Judy to his side. “I made a will leaving her everything. I swore It was my last. When I knew about you I decided that I’d do what I could for you, but still I wouldn’t change my mind. The minx burned it.” “And why not?” said Judy with a toss of her head. “Once again, grandfather, you made a decision that was wrong. It was foolish to stick to it; It was your pride again.” “We shall never hear the last of our pride, Nick, my boy. When will you come back? We want you. There at the old house I have missed you. In the old days we were not . friends as we ought to have been. Judy has shown me a great deal, taught me much.” “We’ll be friends, sir,” said Nick i boyishly.

They wanted to draw her in—Judy saw that—but she could not stand it. Nick and Enid together, happy in their love, everything straight. She knew from watching Enid’s face in the library how softened she was, ready to become engaged, ready for things to go forward for a swift wedding. Why, they might even ask her to be bridesmaid! She could not stand it! Love was too devastating, too racking! As the two talked she slipped away. At the bottom of the lane the carrier’s cart was Jogging along—a lumbering old motor bus that would stop at the station. She would go back home! They wanted her there! Oh, to be home egain under daddy’s roof, to see Patricia smiling there, and the children, and dear old Peter, aye, and even with Gilbert, all of them! She wanted them all, to hear their riotous cries of welcoirte. What would they care that she came back emptyhanded, even as she had gone I And afterwards, to go and sit in daddy's study while he worked at a sermon or read. The ineffable peace of it! To be away from all the torturing ache that seemed to lie like a dead welgr.t at her breast. Was she never going to know relief from that storm of emotion that flooded her when she saw Nick? Perhaps when she was right out of the neighbourhood she would be able to forget, forget that he had ever come along and changed her whole life story. She had enough money with her to get a ticket down iq Blayborough. The express from London to the North came puffing in. It would stop at Blayborough. With one last look back at the place she was leaving behind she got into the train. “Good heavens, Judy, you? What are you doing here?” It was Clive, cringing back against the cushions. For a moment the two sat staring at each other; then Judy flashed Clive a look of scorn. “So you're running away!” the said. Those words of Judy’s hit the mark. Clive’s face was sallow, and his eyes were furtive. “What do you mean?” he blustered. “Don’t pretend to me, Clive,” said Judy sternly. ‘T know everything, you see. I gave you your chance to make a clean breast of everything »o your grandfather; you failed to take It.” “You* didn’t think I was going to face the music, did you?” said the; wretched mah. “Do you know whal Henry Harmer is? Did you think that I was going to confess and stand there while he dressed me down? In the end he’d have given me in charge, or twenty-four hours to clear the country, or something like that.” “Granted,” said Judy. “Still, you’d have done what you could to make amends. Clive Crawford, look at me.” Oddly enough, he found himself lifting his furtive eyes to her clear, frank blue ones. “Do you think you will ever be happy?" she demanded. “Do you think you will ever know real peace of mind?” “I don’t see why I shouldn? " he said. (To be oAulinued.)