“Hie PAINTED LILY”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 257, 29 October 1937, Page 3

“Hie PAINTED LILY”

Romantic Serial Story - - by

Olive Wadsley

“Are you happy?” She said, smiling a very little: “it was sweet to-night.” And then, in some queer way, Holly knew Vai loved Ronald. He didn’t quite know what lie felt about it; he felt so many different things, pity, interest, wonder, but he said, at once: “It did Ron heaps of good. He looked a different chap from last night when ho was playing cards.” Vai longed to ask him about Iris, but could not. Instead she said: “Tell me about Ronnie’s people, as he always “Oh, they’re all right,” Holly assured her, “his mother’s a lamb, all gardening and sweetness, and thinks Ronnie God’s best gift to the wide earth. 1 don’t mean to be profane, but she just does. And his sister Sonia, you’ll like. She’s a sport, one of the best; she’s been in love with Bill Westchester for years, and now Ronnie’s got money she’ll be able to marry him. He got pipped in the war, and is no earthly use at anything much in consequence. Sonia’s like Ronnie, fair, y'know, and tall—but 100 tall, !■ think. I like girls, well, about your height ’’ he looked at her and smiled, wagging his head boyishly. “And then there’s Gyp, young Geoffrey, the only brother, he was Just going into an office. 1 s’pose now he won’t have it. I say, Vai you’ve done a lot for the family, seems to me 1” “Say, Holly, do you think they’ll like me?” Vai asked him. “Like you? I should jolly well say they will,” Holly answered enthusiastically, and to himself he qualified that enthusiasm by dwelling on the very obvious advantage Ronnie’s people were gaining through this marriage: the place done up like new. Sonia able to marry, Gyp to go into the Army, any blessed job he liked really—besides the kid was sweet, and she’d soon get rid of the accent. “I bet they cotton to you right away,” Holly added cheerily. They danced after that, and did not talk much. Iris Warden came in with a small crowd and bowed to Vai. She looked lovely, as usual, in a frock of almost tangerine colour, which had a big bunch of silken nasturtiums in all colours fastened on one shoulder. “Is Mrs Warden rich?” Vai asked Holly. “Not as far as I know,” he said briefly, and his mind went, back to those early days when Ronnie had been insanely in love with Tris Warden, and would have ruined himself for her, nearly had. A good many men, Holly reflected grimly, had ruined themselves. He had never been able to understand what people saw in Iris Warden, thin as a rail and all eyes and

He told Ronald about Vai at once, “and I’ve worked like a nigger to unravel this business,” he went on Importantly. “I traced the car, and got the chauffeur, who seemed aware of the value of a fiver (despite the depreciation of the English pound), and gave mo the goods, as free as you please. He’d been employed by our old college friend, Chick, to wait at one certain place all day (he’d been five days on the job, and never a bite) with orders to nip up to Vai at any opportunity that offered—and it offered last night, if you take my moaning. All ho was told to do was to make for the park, get a puncture, in a dark part, and notice nothing. So that’s that. There was a dark bloke in Buchanan’s flat, too. Vai doesn't know his name.” “Ask Vai to come here,” Ronald said, slowly. “Specially. I mean, tell her I’d be very grateful If she’d come, will you?” As Vai entered 'Ronald said quietly: “I want to ask your forgiveness. I wronged you yesterday. I apologise.” Vai stood at the foot of the bed. Behind her the set,ting sun making an aureole of light, gleamed through the thin stuff of her sleeve as she lifted one hand t<x smoothe her hair, and her arm showed very white, very like a little girl’s. "Oh, that’s all right, I guess,” she said shyly, “it did sound a pretty punk story, but, you see, it was the only one I had to tell 1” They all laughed then, and Holly suggested he should make his cocktail, and they should celebrate Vai’s safe return. Vai sat down on Ronald’s bed, and Richard, after many attempts, reached Ronalds hand and nestled down against it. “I wish I could,” Vai found herself thinking, and blushed at the thought. Ronnie saw the blush, thought it lovely, and “wondered why.” He began to talk ot their voyage to England. He was frightfully keen to start. “What you say goes,” Vai told him, with amazing duciliiy for ner. It was a happy evening, and finally Holly and Vai tucked Ronald up, and left him to the night nurse, who, after his collapse, had been re-engaged. “And now I’ll show you the little old village,” Holly assured Vai. Tt had been settled they were to have an evening out, “and don’t let anyone kidnap her, Holly,” Ronald had said smilingly at parting. He missed Vai when she .had gone. Then his thoughts drifted away to England. Vai and Holly, in very gala attire (Holly had the latest tie, and latest cut-away, high-up waistcoat, and a clove carnation in his button-hole) dined at the Ritz in state. Holly thought Vai perfectly lovely, and said to himself: “When she gets a bit less accent—not that I mind it, 1 think it cule —and a bit more sureness about herself, she’ll be utterly perfect He was surprised by Vai asking him, her hyacinth blue eyes very serious: “Holly, are you happy?” He looked hack at her equally gravely, then he. said quaintly: “I don’t believe J am—not happy, you know, as everyone knows happiness can be. I’m rotten poor, you see, Vai, and I’m over here really to try and make some girl care about me. If I can, who’s got money. I know it sounds beastly, but there it is, and it’s the cold truth ” then, scarlet, hot all over, he realised what he had said. He did not try to cover it up, nor did he apologise; instead, he asked Vai. his nice, distressed boyish eyes ffxed quite steadily on her

eyelashes, and scent, and lived in a house with the blinds always half down and the place reeking with perfume—not his sort at all. Now Vai—she was a kid, and simply lovely, skin like—like white roses, hair like yellow ones, and all that—she was something to look at —young, too. ‘You haven’t got a pal exactly like you, Vai?” he asked her absurdly. “Because, if so, let me meet herl” His happy, gay compliments, his friendliness, cheered Vay up enormously, she lost her sense of forlornness, she even rested a little from her thoughts of Ronnie. And Holly was so comforting, he “felt sure” Ronnie’s folks would like her, and Vai had passed some pretty bad hours thinking about them. But Holly said they’d all love her: Vai had thought a good deal about England, and always with nervousness. The English seemed to be such sure people, and they didn’t care a row of beans about what others thought. Vai hoped she would learn to feel the same. “Getting sleepy?” Holly asked her. “Like to cut off?” Vai said she thought she’d go home, and they decided to walk together to the hotel. She held Holly’s arm as they walked down Broadway, which glittered like a firework display, but was far mora effective and beautifully arranged than any firework display ever staged. As Holly stood waiting beside Vai for the lift a man touched his arm. “Cable, name of Sands, sir,” he Raid. “Righto,” Holly said, and he handed it to Vai. “For Ronnie, I s'pose. Well, night-night, Vai, see you tomorrow some time. Hullo ” They both turned as a boy in uniform with a pile of newspapers came in, carrying a placard. Holly and Vai stared at It. The boy moved, and the words became unreadable. ■Holly stopped him. “Give me a paper.” Over his shoulder Vai read the headline in deep black letters. “Title for Millionaire Girl’s HusDand. New Romance for Sands.” She clutched at the paper, and read aloud, in a shaking voice: “Death of the Earl of Sands, distant cousin of Mr Ronald Sands, who lately married the San Racos millionairess, Valerie Dixon. “Mr Ronald Sands now becomes Earl of Sands, is now lying ill at the Ritz Carlton, but we are glad to report is on the high road to recovery.” CHAPTER XIII. “I'll come up with you, too, 1 simply must,” Holly said excitedly to Vai. “I say this is great, it’s like a miracle; Ronnie never even dreamt he’d inherit; old Rlversdale Sands hated him. Why, I dunno, but he did. He was in love with Ronnie’s mother, I believe, and never forgave her for marrying the poor member of the family, for love. And now, after all, he’s left Ronnie his fortune; I’ll bet that cable from England is to give him the news. My hat! Vai, I haven't felt so excited since the old war stopped. Come on—” Ho had hold of her hand as the lift stopped, and pulling her along the corridor, he hammered on Ronnie’s door. “What the devil—what on earth?” Ronnie began. •Holly was dancing in front of him like a dervish, and since Vai's hand was still held in his, as he lept and twirled, she, too, was forced to keep time with him. Ronald gazed at them, first with a sort of chill amazement,, then with growing obvious distrust. “Look here,” he said brusquely, “stop talking like an idiot, Holly, and tell me what’s up? Is that a cable in your hand, and who is it for?” Holly stopped, “It is for you,” he said, handing Ronald the cable, “and as far as I can make out, nearly everything under the sun is for you, too.” Ronald had torn the cablegram open. As he read it, his face went, first white, then scarlet, then white again. •He looked up and said in a voice which he controlled by an obvious effort: “How did you two hear?” “It’s in all the papers,” Holly cried. “Ron, for God's sake, what does the cable say?" In answer Ronald handed it to him, and Holly read aloud: “Beg to inform you your cousin the Earl of Sands died yesterday. His lordship left entire fortune unreservedly to you. Respectfully suggest earliest possible return.—Hedges and Darwin, solicitors to the estate of late Earl of Sands.” Holly drew a deep breath, looked up and asked point-blank: “What was the old boy worth?” “I don’t know,” Ronald told him, “but he held a great quantity of the Pacific shares, and since he bought them they have soared. He himself told me, when I saw him by chance, on the way across America last year, and he had netted a hundred and twenty thousand on them. He told me to make me sore, I suppose, because he disliked me so. T can’t Imagine why he’s made me his heir, unless it was simply because he wouldn’t let the title down; that’s possible, of course ” “Never mind why he did it,” the irresponsible Holly exclaimed. “What else had he got you know about?” “He owns the Sands collieries, everyone knows that,” Ronald said briefly, “and he kept up three places in tremendous style, and his racing stable must have cost a small fortune Io run.” “Well, Vai, what about, it?” Holly laughed. “A title and a fortune ” Vai had been looking at Ronald, and she saw a quick expression of something which was neither bitterness nor regret, but which held a suspicion of both, flit across his face. Her own face hardened as she said languidly:

!(To be continued.)