LOVE’S DARK JOURNEY

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21035, 10 February 1940, Page 15 (Supplement)

LOVE’S DARK JOURNEY

MARGARET COOKE

CHAPTER XX. “Mark, is it wise ” “It's what will happen,” snapped j Mark Renway. ••Rene, have you any particular desire to be married in a church, with all the trappings and finery of a society wedding?” Her eyes narrowed, and her r.eart missed a beat. “The place doesn’t matter, Mark.” “You mean that?” he demanded eagerly. “Of course I do.” “Then we will do without it,” lie snapped. “We’ll be married at once—say, at the end of the week. And then away from England for a few months, to get the taste of this place out of my mouth!” Her eyes were gleaming, for this was more than she had dreamed possible. Right to the last she had been afraid that something would go wrong with their marriage plans, for she had seen enough to be sure that it was not love that had prompted him to ask for her to hand in marriage. That did not matter, for they had always been good friends, and she believed they would always be the same. Now a quick marriage by special license—an irrevocable step that would hake it impossible for her to lose him!

She had to fight hard to hide her her triumph, but is he crushed her to him he forgot everything but the fact that this woman was his, that with her the worries and annoyances of the past few weeks would be over. And he would have shown Sir John Renway that he would brook no interference with his plans. Less than two hours afterwards Sir John stood in an upstairs room, with his wife at his side.

There were tears in the old man’s eyes, for he had a love for his nephew, who had replaced his only son in his life, after that son’s death. But the step had been taken. “It was my fault,” he said gruffly as the car with the three people in it sped down the drive. “I drove him away, Mary.” “You meant well,” said Lady Mary. “Yes, yes. I told him what I thought was good for him. But—it’s a break that will never be repaired. He’s a Renway if nothing else.” The old lady at his side fought back her tears.

“It cannot be helped, John. The ways of the Lord are strange, but His is the guidance. If the break is meant to be healed, it will be.” “The baronet turned to his wife, and his arm went about her shoulders. Slowly, sadly, they left the room. The house seemed empty, —emptier than it had been when Mark had left for years on end. It seemed impossible to believe that he was gone never to return. Never to return

Two things warred with each other other in Mark Renway’s mind. There were the facts that he had learned of Judy Frensham and, try though he might to force them away, they kept returning. Now the whole thing was explained, and he knew that a few words of kindliness from him, a little patience and understanding, woula have saved him from the break with his Uncle and the Manor, would perhaps have changed the whole course of his life. But it had happened.

He might have misjudged Judy, but that did not excuse the baronet for the way he had talked of the woman who was to be his wife. That had been unforgivable. But the Manor was part of the past, now. The past Tears filled his eyes when he realised it. He alternated with moods of fierce elation at the fact that he had defied the old man, a deep sorrow that this quarrel had come. The Renways had always been the same in their youth—proud, quick to anger. But the blood tie was thick between them. And it was finished —fiinished. The place that had been a sheet anchor to his life was gone. Now there was Rene Again tears blinded him, and he swerved across the road, dangerously and so swiftly that Rene—sitting in the tonneau with her mother gasped in alarm. “Careful, Mark!”

Careful! That devil of fury in him made him press harder on the accelerator. The car flew along the roads, made greasy by a recent shower of rain. The two women behind him were sitting upright in their seats, apprehensive every moment. But still he drove on, madly, blindly. He hardly saw the traflic that passed him, swerved past a lorry in front of him with only a few inches to spare, and then found himself on the edge of a steep hill that dropped sheer from the road. Nine times out of ten he would have been prepared for the shaip bend that led to the drop, but the fierce emotion that tilled him had driven it from his mind. He saw it at last, and applied the brakes suddenly, desperately. Forgotten was everything else in that split-second of danger. In his ears Rene’s scream echoed, and the gasp from the older woman. Forward —forward! Tne car would not stop. Its wheels SKidded on the greasy surface of the road, and then suddenly the front ,of the car was over the edge—there was a thud, a bump, another scream from Rene who was wrenching at the doors of the car.

She opened one and made a single, desperate leap. How she succeeded in landing on her feet and having herself from crushing down the hillisde, she would never know. But she contrived it, and for a moment she stood watching the terrible fall of the car, with her mother and Mark Renwa> in it.

The car crashed from boulder to boulder, now lodged for a moment against a strong tree, but then crashed onwards, tearing the tree from its roots. It was sickening, terrifying. At the wheel Mark Renway sat absolutely still. He could not get out. Nor could the woman behind him. She was moaning piteously now, for she had been badly bruised by the falling car. (To Be Continued.)