"The Runaway Wife,”

Wairarapa Daily Times, 21 June 1930, Page 7

"The Runaway Wife,”

(Copyright).

CHAPTER XVll.—Continued,

1 ‘ Oh ; Mother knows all about it. Don’t you worry over her. Nilda, tell me again that you love me.” “I do—you know it.” “But I want to hear you say it.” “Would I be doing this awful thing if I didn’t love you? Poor Derek! It makes me positively ill to be such a traitor. I say, ‘van this be I?’ There’s a bad streak in me, Paul.” “Jolly good thing, too. Say you love me. Look, put your lips close to my ear and whisper it, my own sweet angel. ’ ’ Nilda did as bidden and lie held her close, straining her to his heart. “Oh, I wish I wasn’t so wicked,” she said. “I wish it was straight and honest for me to love you, and really Paul I don’t see how I can go on pretending. At least we needn’t do that.” “It’s the only way, believe me,” Paul said solemnly. “I never want to look old Derek in the face again, once he knows what a low hound I am.” “Perhaps we’d better give each other up,” she said, her eyes wide and fearful.

“Perhaps- -your hat! Take a bet on it at a thousand to one, and lose your money.” “I never bet,” Nilda said primly.

A spirit of carelessness came over them, that sense of oblivion to the rest of the world which accompanies wooing. They forgot that this room might be invaded at any moment, and were blissfully ignorant that once the parlourmaid had poked in her head with a view to drawing the curtains, and retreated shocked and scandalized.

“And you say you never did care for Derek in—in that way?” Paul asked jealously. “No, really not. He was so kind to me and I had the greatest respect for him, and you’ve no idea how frightened I was when we got to London and poor Uncle James wasn’t there to meet me. Derek w T as wonderful.” •

“By jove, and we won’t forget it,” Paul said heartily. “We’ll write and tell him so, what a wonderful chap he is and how grateful we are and how much w r e resp.ect him. Derek’s one in a million; no doubt of it.” “Oh, he is—and perhaps he’ll forgive us. He’s got such a noble nature,” Nilda seconded. Their heads came together again and their arms were like entwined vines, but a gentle cough behind suddenly moved them asunder. There’s often a catch in the best laid plans, and now Paul and Nilda discovered it. They were caught fairly and squarely by the deluded man they had schemed to betray. , Yet curiously enough he was smiling at them—grinning, in fact —standing with his feet rather wide apart and his hands in his pockets. They sprang up, Paul crimson, and Nilda the sense of whose iniquities rushed upon her in full force, ghastly white. “Bless you, my children,” fjaid Derek. “Congratulations and all the rest of it.” Paul began stammering half belligerent explanations, but his friend waved him to silence. “Did you think I was blind?” Derek asked, finding Mrs Ellison useful for purposes of ready repartee, not to say literal quotation. “Don’t you think I could see what was going on under my nose all the time?”

And now It was Paul who blinked, while Nilda burst gently into tears. “We —we love each other,” she wailed.

“My darling infant, so you are human after all! I wondered how long you’d hold out, Loth of you.” “Then, if you wondered, why didn’t you say something?” Paul demanded. It certainly seemed as though he had a right fo feel aggrieved. “Did you expect me to jilt Nilda?” asked the hypocrite. “You might have given her a hint, you old scoundrel. Why, she might have married you and wrecked lier whole life.”

“Oh, I don’t think I’d have let it run 'to that,” Derek said with a grim chuckle. “A joke can be carried too far, you know.” In a frenzy of self-reproach Nilda would have hurled herself into Derek’s arms or at his feet, but her young lover jealously caught and held her back. He could not, however, stem the flow of speech. She knew, she said, that she had behaved shockingly, she had been the worst kind of a traitor, and although it was now her duty to marry Paul, she didn’t suppose slic’d ever have another absolutely happy or care-free moment in her life if she lived to be a hundred. She had broken the heart of the best man in the world, and there would be no forgiveness for her in heaven or on earth. Derek took her soft young chin in his hand and lifted her face to his. “Don’t talk such nonsense,” he said gently. “You realised from the beginning that I couldn’t give you the: sort of love that you’ve found with Paul. I knew it, too, and it hurt me, because you deserved more than I had left to give you. You haven’t broken my heart. To tell the truth, you’ve helped considerably to mend it. Give me your hand, Paul. Be good to her. She’s a little saint, but I’m glad to see that she does not carry it to excess.” They were in a state of beautific trance when he left them. Miracles, apparently, do happen. “Do you think he meant it,” quavered Nilda, “or was he just being brave and noble for our sakes?” “I don’t know,” Paul replied. “But it was dashed fine nf him. Derek was always like that—nothing ever bowled him over.”

BY ELIZABETH YORK MILLER, Author of “The Road That Led Home,” “A Cinderella of Mayfair,” “The House of the Secret,” etc).

Downstairs in the drawing-room Derek looked in upon a very worried lady. “I didn’t jilt Nilda,” he said. Mrs Ellison’s eyes questioned him sadly. “1 didn’t get the chance,” lie added. “She jilted me.” His friend sighed and smiled. “That’s altogether as it should be. You’re rather clever, Derek.” “I wish I could agree with you.” Ho bent and kissed her cheek. “Goodnight, dear little mother. Our young people are very happy, I think.” . She caught his hand and gave it a swift caress. “I wish there was a chance of your being happy,” she said. “Beggars can’t ride, but some of them may have unsuspected wings, and what may seem a crust to more fortunate mortals might easily be a banquet to a starving man.” He felt gay and almost free as he strode out into the night. Janetta !—J anetta!

Last night—oh, dear heavens! — when he had held her in his arms and she had babbled about Elura and the mountains. He remembered so that day on the lake when the sun had ■sickened her a little and slie jha<J'lail| £gwp when they came home and not felt we'll ehoiign to' have any dinner. Janetta —his love and his life. Last night she had gone back in time for a brief hour, but he would carry her further back still, until all sense of time was obliterated —even if he had to submit to blackmail.

Even if—but short of murder, it seemed unlikely that lie could dispose altogether of Geoffrey Hr an. “And the ungodly shall perish from the earth.” Ultimately, no doubt. It was fairly early still —only a little after nine—and hailing a taxi in Vietoria-st., Derek gave the address of Mr Moses’s hotel. Unless he had erred greatly in the matter of the three-sided controversy which had taken place that afternoon in the Jew’s office, Ben Moses had something to offer him in th© way of assistance. Derek wasn’t quite sure, but enough so to warrant investigation. Besides, it would be interesting to see how Lolette was shaping, established in a Kensington board-ing-house as the bride of a London solicitor. The idea was rather fantastic. CHAPTER XVIII. As Ben Moses was struggling into his dinner-jacket some hours earlier that evening, he reposed a semi-confid-ence in his wife. , Lolette had discarded her gold hoop ear-rings in favour of glittering green pendants which passed for emeralds. She was attired in apricot yellow, a creation purchased in the purlieus of Leicester-sq. for the sum of £o 19s fid, but none the less distinguished for that, and also adiiiirably simple. At the moment of Ben’s astonishing disclosure, Lolette was experimenting upon her liner-nails with the contents of a neat little box which held all the accessories of manucuring. She had rather nice finger-nails, and she was getting excited at the prospect of bestowing upon them a high lustre guaranteed to be as permanent as it was excessively pink. “What say-ay?” she drawled. “I’m tollin’ you,” Ben repeated testily. “He took a revolver, a pistol, a gun —whatever name you call it — out o’ his pocket, and said he’d shoot me; and that he’d shoot you, too, if you came meddling about. Makes me go all goosey when I think of it.” Lolette laid aside her manicuring implements and gave her husband her whole attention. Cautiously, as though the walls had ears —and who could tell they hadn’t? —Mr Moses went on with his story and retailed it in detail. “An’ you bring him here?” Lolette demanded incredulously. “Well, I ask you! What else could I do? Yes, he’s ’ere, and lie’s going to ’ave his meals along of us at the same table.”

Loletto said something in French which was not very pretty, although she had caught it from her father. “An’ the master is going to gif’ him all that money?” she inquired !y----“I shouldn’t be surprised. But ’ow often ’ave I got to tell you that Humphreys ain’t your master any more? I am, if anybody is.” Lolette giggled and threw him a coy glance. “Jallous, ” she commented, throwing a little blight on Derek’s reputation which was stainless as far as she was concerned.

“Look ’ere, Lolette, listen to me, my girl. I’ve got to break Kran’s game somehow. I’ve just got to do it. I’v# got to sec Humphreys alone somewhere before Friday, would be long enough. And ’ere I’m no better than a prisoner! And neither do I know where to lay ’aiuls on Humphreys, although if I’d my freedom I’d ’ave a good try. Might get at him through those Ellisons. But it’s no good speculatin’. Kran’s out for that twenty thou’; he’d murder me sooner than risk rosin’ it.”

“Ya —as, I theenk so,” drawled Lol ette. “So much money!” (To be Continued).