A CLOAK OF LOVE

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13851, 31 August 1918, Page 7

A CLOAK OF LOVE

BT BERTHA M. CLAY

Author of " The Mysten of Woodcroft," "The Begum* Neckla«," "The Ironmaster's Daughter," " A Woodland Maid," etc. (AU, RIG MIS RK>ERVKD.) CHAPTER XVIII. After an hourli hard walking and an hour's hard thinking, Ronald Jieseltine returned to his roan at the hotel. He looked like a man vho had passed through some terribb ordeal. He wrote two short lettcis, one to Lord Lorington and one to John Foxen. He told Foxen to put an end to every investigation concerning Miss Tyndall. He had himself heard from the young iady. His letter to th* Earl had better be transcribed :

"My dear Lorington,—Now that I know where I am there need be no further philandering. I have had to put up a big light almost single-hnnded, but the battle is almost won. I have now an opportunity to look round and set my house in order, and my marriage "with Eva need iut be unduly delaved. 1 will see y<u in London to-

morrow. —Yours sincerely, KONALD I-ESELTINE." After lunch he went back to his office at the works and made ready for

an absence of two or three days, one in London, and one at least to be devoted to his mother. The interview

with his general manager was entirely satisfactory. One of the elements of success was the systen of dovetailing the small orders with the big ones, and the production of good, sound work. The best advertisement was reliability in every department. " Tho Government order will run into ten thousand tons of stuff," the manager said, " and ve shall have our hands full."

" You think we shtll get it t" " tftire thing, sir.'' The manager smiled slyly. " And no trouble about the goods. The inspector is an old friend of mine. I shall want a twenty-pound note."' " What for f"

" Palm oil. It's always done," ihe manager added, hastily—" when you know how to do it. The columns "will have to stand tie steam test, so many pounds pressure to overy square inch, and the labour ind expense of it means ten times twerty pounds." " But how will tlat affect the result f"

" We shouldn't have to test many," Mr. Tolley answered significantly. " You'mean that the bulk would be passed untested; but is that honest, Tolley 1"

" Honest or no, it is the regular thing, and will be as long as human nature's what it is.'' He glanced obliquely at his empleyer and whispered: " It's got to be donfl, or we shall have a big proportion rejected and no further orders."

" Another example of commercial integrity!" There was a short silence. " Tolley," continued Heseltine, " this is the translation of an honest man."

The manager smiled hopefully. "If you made a failure of the business, sir,yon would only be gibed at and kicied into the poor-house. Those who fawn upon yon would be the first to shout 'Hooray!' I've had some." " That will do, Tolley. Send Mr. Aubrov-Sntith here, if you can find him!" •

The little man soon put in a cheerful appearance, and threw himself into the easiest chair in the room.

"Ha, ha!" he exclaimed. "What maketh the oracle dumb ? Pondering the beginning and the end J" " Paving the way for the result I have mapped out. No further .policy of adventure." Aubrcv - Smith stared. "And I

was just dreaming of a holiday. I thought that you were going to tell

that love-story of yours, Heseltine, and I've been indulging in all sorts of ec-

stacies of the imagination. It was too bad for you to pack me off in that ' To-be-continued-in-our-next ' style, after whetting my appetite." " You can take your holiday when I've done with you. I'm going away myself for a few days. Now, John Aubrev-Smith, I want your attention." «« Kight-ho." " You and I have verbally agreed

to go equal shares in this improved submarine speculation. I have provided the cash and a small proportion of the brains, From the reports I gather that the British Government will take up our invention. Hitherto one of the main defects of the submarine is the inability to see what is going on above when the machine is submerged. We appear to hase solved that difficulty with our optoscope. Now, John Aubrey-Smith, what's it going to be worth in hard cash f" " Ueduce me to plain John. My constitution won't stand the whole string. Look here, I'm as limp as a rag. The very suggestion of wealth to the last of the Smiths! Can you »end me three pounds ¥ I'm going to London to lay my fortune at the feet of Lady Eva Lorington, or perhaps I'd better wait until you can put in a good word for me at court —you promised that. Hallo, what's up, Heseltine ? I 'in so jolly hopeful and happy that I can't | help playing the fool. I'm an ass, I know, and you must forgive me for worrying you while you've got that beastly headache. Well, I am sure we tan get fifty thousand —that'll be twenty-live each, eh J" Ronald pushed two documents over to Aubrey-Smith, both of which he had signed. " Road them," he said. "Attach your name if you approve, and retain one. They are agreements, and may be useful should anything happen to either of us." " Kight-ho ! Nothing like straight business. I'll get mine stamped at Somerset House, to-morrow. Make that three into a five, old man. Much obliged. I'll repay this week. Anything else t" " No," Hosoltine snapped; then he looked Aubrey-Smith full in the eyes. " I don't advise you to get within a mile of Lady Eva just yet." " My goodness !" murmured the little man. " How long must I wait t I have given my fate into your hands." • |Heseltine scowled. " Try to get used to the notion that vour case is

hopeless, and when the shock comes

But Aubrey-Smith laughingly stuffed his hands in his ears. He skipped away, paying no head to his partner's response. Heseltine went to London the next morning by the eight-forty express from Birmington. At eleven o'clock a taxi dropped him at Lord Lorington's house in Park-lane, and the Earl met him in the hall. There was a silent prt-ssure of hands, and understanding beamed in the eyes of both men. " Come into the library," said Lorington, " and have some wine, or anything you fancy ; you look fagged out. Eva won't be in yet; gono shopping with Lady Clackford. I've been watching from the window for you for the past ten minutes. I wanted to be the lirst to see you." Ronald threw himself into a chair, while the Karl rummaged for a particular brand of cigar ho wished to recommend. "Here we Are!" he exclaimed. " Help yourself, Ronald, and light j up. My* lad, you've lifted a burden of care off my mind, and lam pretty well burdened at present, what with I one thing and another." A dark flush crept into Heseltine's cheeks. " I have sinned against Lady Eva without knowing it," he said. "Pooh, pooh! Quite a different matter, an investment, I fully exonerate you from any knowledge of the thing, and my daughter is her own mistress. I admit I was a good deal taken back when I knew the ins and outs of it ; but that's done with." " Nevertheless, 1 shall repay every shilling before wo are married," was the hall-savage reply. There was a sound of carriagewheels, and the Earl stepped to the window. "Ah! here is Eva. Luckily, , she's got rid of Lady Clackford." lie eaiii<' '■*'■* t«> K'Miaii. niMl again gripped Lis right hand. "I'll send her in here to you, and you can fix up your own arrangements. Lad, I wish you all tho joy this world can give." Lorin;;ton glided from the room, and Ronald rose from his seat. He walked over to the window, striving hard to steady his quaking nerves. A vision of Llneth Tyndall blurred his sight, and he wondered how he should acquit himself in the awful part he had to play. " When it's all over the translation of an honest man will be complete," he reflected, bitterly. lie heard a quick step in the hall, the door opened, and Lady Eva was shyly confronting hii'i. lledtfltine was disconcerted by the change in her. It was a different Eva altogether, and he preferred the original one. He missed the charm of the old stimulating toniboyisluiess and liippnncy. •• Konald, you are not looking well." she said, anxiously. '' Hon't tell me that ;I 'm rather tired of it." He spoke kindly and kissed her lightly on the cheek. " But you have been worried, old boy. I never meant yon to know* about that money until —until " S'.ie flushed, and her eyes fell before his.

" It was both kind and unkind of you, Eva." " Funny sort of paradox." She nestled her head against his shoulder. " But you wanted the money, and I knew that you would use it well. I didn't care what became of it as long as it served your purpose, only I never anticipated that you would want so much. Don't let us talk about it any more, please " There was a short silence, and it was an awkward silence for both. Ileseltine had thought of telling her the straight truth from beginning to end. but how could he do it with her fond eyes turned upon him .' "I wrote to your father," he said. " I've got the letter. I was rather disappointed, though ; because you didn't write to me. I was so angry with myself for vexing you, lionald." " I haven't got used to this change in our — our relations, yet," he answered, rather lamely. " I like' to think of you as my loyal, bouyant pal of the old days." " The days when we laughed at love and lovers! Oh, I think they were hateful days in a way. You would soon get tired of a sporting wife." , "We used to have a bc.it with the boxing- gloves. I got them specially for you—as big as pillows—and played cri' kef and lux-key. '•"■• r ■ races." He was warming to his sub jeet a little. " That was years since, before yoi went globe- trotting." " I wish I'd never left England,' he said, fervently, j " You are thinking of the Russiai

prison. Poor b< jI" " Yes." | "It was horrid —shameful. But the future is .brightening." She hid I her face against his shoulder, caressing his hand the while. " And we shall bo happy together. I want to see you look like your own self when we were chums together." " 1 have lived a long time since then, Eva, and life has lost much of its vivid colouring. The illusions of youth are only pleasant? while they last—the after-taste is bitter." " But how serious we are. Life is beautiful with our opportunities. I want to talk to you about ever so many things, and hardly know how to begin. And I want to tell you about my brother Charlio. lie thinks n lot of you, and may listen to reason." " The eternal money question and marriage f" " But he's been seen with some very common girl—works in a factory, I understand. Lady Clackford saw them together." " My own affairs occupy tnc wnMe of my time, Eva. If he won't listen to you and his father, I don't think I ought to put my spoke in."

So they talked of themsolevs ugnin. and the future. The marriage cm.ld take place in the early spring, if Kvn wished it. A house could lie rented in the neighbourhood of Tettenhall, a bit of delightful country well over the Miidlnnd boundary line, and within twenty or thirty minutes of the works. "1 might build a little place to our own fancy," lionald said. AubreySmith has been good enough to share his submarine invention witli me, and there will be money to spare." " You're going to Warden Hall?" Eva asked. " Yes, this afternoon." ' "You will tell your mother?"she said, flushing. " Yes, of course, I know it will please her." " I'll write a long letter to her. I

wish I was going home ; I'm sick of London. One good thing I shall be able to twine my father round my little finger now." * He passed an arm around her waißt, and she clung to him with tightening fingers. He touched her hair with tender lips. " Had I done as much as this in the old days." ho said, jreutly, " you would have given me a box on the ear. The mere mention of the word ' darling ' aroused you to wrath and scorn." "Oh! I hate the old days," she said, passionately. " Never speak of them again to me." Exactly five days later AubreySmith sauntered into Heseltine's private office atained with the dust of a long journey. His manner was constrained, although lie strove to hide it, and care was written in the lines of his face. "Morning, Heseltine. Busy!" " No.' Whore have you sprung from!" " Cornwall. Have you seen to-aay'a newspaper ?" " No." " Herd's a paragraph which you may be able to contradict or explain away." His voice quavered, and he pointed to a pencil-marked item with a trembling finger. It was an announcement of the arranged marriage between Ronald Heseltine and Lady Lorington. Ronald read it through with tightening lips. Ho was afraid to look at Aubrey-Smith until some seconds had passed. "Weil?" he growled, defiantly. " What's the matter with it t" " Funny, after what you said to me the other day, that's all. I hoped there was some mistake."

The little man's jaunty, confident air had dropped from him, and he wan visibly disturbed. "No mistake at all. Lady Eva and I are to be married next spring. We've been engaged since we were children." "Are you indeed!" gasped Aub-rey-Smith. " Uight-o ! Kight-o ! By the way, I'm** lea ring out again for a bit. Don't know where I shall go. Our partnership ends with the submarine, you know, and that's finished. Thanks awfully for your financial and other assistance. When the Government cheque comes along, you can save my share for me. The negotiations are all completed, and our invention is accepted. You'll find all the papers in the safe you gave me the use of." " I'm beastly sorry " Ronald 1 beg;:n. But Aubrev-Smith interposed. '' Shut up ! No more of your blessed jollying. Here's the fiver you lent me. Good-bye !'' " Your mind is quite made up?" " Positively." " Where shall I write to you? Your father's address ?" " No no ! I'll attend to that. Goodbye !" He was moving towards the door, and Ronald held out his hand—sorsorrowfully, remorsefully. " No, thanks, I couldn't old chap." Ho walked out of the office, then made half a turn, and said : "I suppose that was the love story you promised to tell me? Splendid joke, by Jove!"

CHAPTER XIX. Mr. Arthur Lawrence, the Chancerylane solicitor, was more than ordinarily interested in Miss Tyndall's movements. "So the young lady has no further use for us, Mr. Mobberley," he said, pleasantly. "We shall miss her, but on the whole I am very pleased. This offico is rfo place for her; she's miles : r* ve the work we gave her to do. And her personal appearance is quite imsiiited for the environment. . . You'll keep a fatherly eve upon Miss Tyndall, Mr. Mobberley?'" The week before the holidays was a busy one for the Mobberlcys. Mr. Mobberley had to make a flying visit to Brighton to find suitable apartments; long discussions were held regarding the danger of leaving the house entirely shut up, and Mr. Mobberley's ingenuity was taxed pretty considerably in his efforts to foil possible burglars. "Oh, I'll come up every week-end," Mr. Mobberley said. In the meantime Elneth was having a Uyig business interview with Hugh Stanley. He had mapped out her work in skeleton, and when she gathered that his book was to be an exposure of Russian officialdom, she was eager to set about her task. "That's right!" laughed Stanley. "This thing's going to be a huge success, and I've got to pJav second fiddle." "Oh, no, Mr. Statlq*. I didn't mean that." I To be Continued COULDN'T MAKE IT LATHER. A visitor went into a restaurant to have a meal, and he was asked on its conclusion if he would like some cheese. Said the waiter: "We've got Cheshire, Yorkshlio, or Gorgonzola?" "Fancy name, that last," said the diner. "I tlrnk I'll try a bit of that." lie thought it so tasty that he took a pound hone to his wife, and left it on the table in the kitchen. Next morning he came in from his beforebreakfa t round and inquired if she had found the parcel. "Oh, yes," she replied. "I saw it there all right. And very good mottled soap it Is, no doubt, when you know how to use it. But I couldn't make it lather very well when I washed the children, and after I'd done Uioy smelted 10 strong that I've turn ed 'em out for a breath of fresh air, just to sweeten 'em a bit before they go to school."