FETTERED LOVE

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17132, 20 June 1927, Page 3

FETTERED LOVE

All Rights Reserved

The National Press Agency, Ltd

By MADGE BARLOW. , Author of “Love Finds a Way,” “Flynn ’o the Hill,” “A Fight With Fate," “His Dear Irish Girl,” “Love’s Tangle,” etc.

■* PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS. Glen Farguahar, a dork in the Universal Providers Stores, has used the firm's money to the extent of fTvo hundred pounds, and is given in charge of the police. Mr Carrick, the senior -partner in the firm, to whom Moira offers the five hundred pounds if he will forgive Farquahar. Moira Talbot, a pretty typist In the same firm, and engaged to Farquahar, unexpectedly hears that an old friend of her father's has died and left money and property to his nephew on condition that he either marries Moira after she has spent six months at his home or is refused by her, in which case Moira is to receive five hundred pounds. Oh arriving at Sunrise, the uncle's estate in Ireland, Moira is warmly welcomed by Miss Gilfillan, she quickly discovers that in Sybil she has a dangerous enemy. For on leaning over a high verandah one afternoon Sybil cannot resist the opportunity and temptation of injuring her rival, so stealthily and unseen she creeps behind, and Moira disappears. Belinda Gilfillan, who keeps house for her nephew. She expresses a hope that Moira will make Kenneth love her, so that he might give up Sybil Marsh, the daughter of the local doctor, who, infuriated at the terms of the will, admits she will kill Moira if she should attempt to steal her lover. Kenneth Gilfillan, who looks upon Moira as a scheeming petticoat, and refuses to he introduced to her. CHAPTER IX.—(Continued.) She met Sybil's apprehensive eyes through the glass of the French window, and hers were devoid of knowledge. Sybil's tense expression relaxed. Moira had no suspicion, cither. Fortified by this belief, the guilty listener joined them, giding between the pair like a grey spectre. Her ashen hue affected Kenneth. "No harm is done," he assured her. "Miss Talbot's dress caught a projecting spike and saved her." "It is marvellous," said Sybil, huskily. "Her guardian angel must have been on duty. Have you any faith In guardian angels, Miss Talbot? And you are aware that you've scared me out of my wits? I saw you tumble. Ugh! After to-night I shall detest that beast of a dog." "Miss Talbot blames the gust which shook the house, and not Roris," said Kenneth, stroking the mastiff's nose. "Does she? I am very glad." Roris and I aren't pally, but I wouldn't mis- ; judge him for the world. Perhaps he , jumped lo snatch her from danger, and got excited when he didn't* sue- , coed, and in his excitement turned on me. I forgive him. I know what ■ nerves are." j

of impudence at Kenneth's hands. Gilflllan tucked Diana Lalor into tho trailer, and chatted to her for five minutes, ignoring Gerry. When tho motor cycle whizzed down the avenue, he espied Moira on the house steps, and strolled to. her. "Have you rcceovered from tho effects of your misadventure?" he inquired, his concerned tone bringing a faint pink to her face. She lifted shy eyes of gratitude. "Not quite. I feel wobbly. I shall sleep it off." "Do you realise your narrow escape from death, you cool creature?" She shivered. "I realise that you saved my life." In the darkness, the curve of a milky cheek and chin, the contact with i blown wisp of her hair troubled hfm oddly, it was darkness in which one sees as through a grey gossamer veil. An unintentional harshness tinged his reply. ".Miss Marsh did her share. Hut for her I shouldn't have gone upstairs." CHAPTER X. The inhabitants of Sunrise were storm-bound, and Belinda slyly spent a week in her bedroom nursing fictitious rheumatic joints. Sybil was imprisoned in the doctor's brick villa, and no jarring note marred the harmony. Kenneth and Moira got onfcsmoothly together. His prejudice faded gradually beneath her brighl. natural handling of an embarrassing position, embarrassing to her because Belinda's motive for shamming illness was transparent to him. Each forenoon Kenneth dedicated to study in his den, despite a letter from his mother's relative, Nat Fletcher, of Loncoln's Inn, adjuring him to marry Miss Talbot though the lady were ugly as sin, and informing him that his expert training in bookkeeping, shorthand, and the higher mathematical branches wouldn't gain him a respectable livelihood in London, where experienced men were bartering these assets for twenty-five and thirty shillings a week. If Cornelia Gilfiillan's eldest journeyed to England seeking phantom fortune, he must rough it unaided, and serve him right. "I will," said Kenneth, the rebuff stiffening him. He scaned the advertisement o;' the best London dailies, saw that the clerical market was glutted, and did not wilt. He thought of American names—names to conjure with—whose owners had commenced their careers penniless and had amassed millions; and his blood lusted to emulate them, that energetic, ambitious blood Cornelia Gilfillan had gifted to her first-born. Then the rain ceased, a glorious sun shone, and Belinda came down stairs and detected with elation a hint of lukewarmness in her nephew's congratulations on her recovery. Her keen old eyes saw more than Moira's —a change in him, a look of awakening, of perplexity, a tendency to tits of abstraction in which he smiled and, frowned by turns. lie was irritable, too. and restless, inclined to flee the house yet eager to get back to it. "A blessin'on the rain," she murmured. Scarcely waiting for the grass of her midget lawn to dry, Mrs Lalor gave a garden parly, which proved eventful. "How she docs it is a mystery," said Belinda, conning a note of invitation. "About your clothes, now. What'll you wear?" "I'm not particular." "But I am. I took a glimpse of your wardrobe while the rheumatics penned me upstairs, and you haven't a rag the Brady's Town belles won't curl their a,t."

Sybil's brazen effrontery struck Moira speechless.

"I haven't the heart to lecture her," Kenneth replied. "I'll only entreat her lo be more careful for the sake of my peaTc and Aunt Bee's. We'd be a haunted couple if evil happened to her at Sunrise. Will you try, Miss Talbot, to shun danger-spots?" "I always do," answered Moira. "I don't covet a sudden and violent death. I want to live my full term. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go to my room and get a change of clothes. These arc torn and dirty. And please do not worry Miss Gilfillan by mentioning the incident. II would upset."

"I was going to' suggest the same," Sybil srfl'd eagerly. "I won't tell iier, since Miss Talbot asks me not to," he promised. "Thank you," said Moira, inclining her head frigidly. "Might I fetch Boris wilii me? lie's feeling injured, poor fellow." "By all means. He seems to prefer you to me." To comfort his fiancee Kenneth lavished lokens of affection upon her, persuading himself that they were not forced, and that Sybil's aureole of flaming hair was really the sun of bis existence. And still, when his demonstraliveness roused her to the passionate ecstasy which swayed her betimes, the vague distaste he had left before stirred in him.

"Moira hates mo," she complained, poutingly. "Miss Talbot Is smaller-minded than I think her if she isn't your frienrt for what you have done," he said, knitting his 'brows. "-You were the guiding Providence that brought me to her aid. Suppose you hadn't come to search for her, would I have gone to the trouble of searching the stairs? Not I. She owes you a debt of gratitude. Another second and she would have been a corpse or a mutilated cripple." In twenty minutes Moira descended. A quick-dropping dusk hid her wan. shaken appearance, and the visitors had gathered in the unlit hall, preparing to leave. Miss Gilfillan invited them to remain to dinner, but Packenham predicted heavier squalls, and advised a spurt for hime. Pen was the first lo go. She took the McQuarry's and drove off, deigning Hugh neither word nor look. Mrs Lalor asked him to stay the night at Ivy Lodge. II) buttoned Ids waterproof, wincing under the sling of her implied pity, .for his delicate health and slavish endurance of snubs were weaknesses concerning which he was hyper-sensitive. "Thanks, awfully. The tramp will be jolly," he faltered. "I—l wouldn't miss it for anything. Gilfillan. has placed vehicles and beds galore at midisposal, and I've rejected them. Haven't I, Ker.ncth? I'm not sugar, ladies. I shan't melt in a mizzle of rain."

"I'll be with you down the road," said Sybil.

"In that case I'm luckier than I deserve," he replied.

The Lalors went next. Gerry told Moira in the back dimness of the hall that she had been cruelly distant to him, but lie would pardon her, and see her in the early morning. Kenneth, an unnoticed eavesdropper, asked him blandly to become a member of the family at once, and Gerry tackled him outside in a white rage. "Gilflllan, you're a confounded dog-in-the-manger. Moira doesn't want you, nor you her. What is it to you whether she prefers me or not?" ' "Naughty boy, to lose its little temper," said Kenneth, his lazy smile and provoking reply peculiarly aggravating.

Gerry grew livid. The crackle of his mother's oilskins warned idm of her approach, or he would have -struck the smiling mouth and received the reward

Moira's face of angry protest left her serene.

" 'Twas no harm to inspect your clothes, I'm sure. Don't scowl, or you'll shape wrinkles. I sent the measurements of that white frock you spoilt to JJublin, and I ordered a cream-coloured one and a shady hat to match, and a lace parasol." "I cannot afford to buy them," the girl said, hotly. "Who wants you to buy? They're a present." "Presents from you to me arc bribes, Miss Belinda." (To be Continued To-morrow.)