A WIFE FOR A DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 45, 22 February 1905, Page 11

A WIFE FOR A DAY.

By EMMA G. WELDON (Author of "Lovo and Diplomacy,'" "Gpnevieve's Triumph."" "A strange Bridal,"' "Triends and Rivals." ""Cupid"? Dilemma."" etc.. i.-tv. CHAPTER XV. SIGNS OF TROUBLE. A week had passed since Bob Annesleisrh had come bade to hi? own. He was standing by the brink of the stream, ankle-deep in a. miniature forest of rf>eds=. with his private pip-? between his teeth, clad in a particularly disreputable and comfortable jacket, and looked extremely happy as he fitted together piece to piece of the split-bam-boo trout rod.

The fragrance of new-mown hay was in the breeze that ?wept from the uplands, and flecked the surface and the deep pools and shining shallows, where the spotted tront darted. Overhead the slcv" was clouded: the distant bills were dim with lingering mist.

Life did not hold a care for Annesleigh that morning as he knotted the gut cast and threw his fly in the stream where. IB years ago, he had hooked his first treut.

Two speckled trout soon lay beside him on the bank, and Anne=leigh was keenly intent on tempting a plump, wily old rascal, lying motionless in one of the deep pools, to include the brown h*rkle and coachman,* that graced the end of the gut in the menu of hi* morning meal, when his man Jerry appeared in" the background with a telegram in his hand.

The old fellow paused when he cams within half a dozen yards. He was too much of a sportsman, himself not to know that no telegram, however imnortant. justified an intrusion upon so sacred a moment. He waited breathlessly. Plop! The big fish rose. Tho. workings of Jerry's face showed that he was even more eager and excited than his master. The next instant the trout was hooked, and. forgetting everything else in the rapture of the moment, Jerry iropped the telegram and ran forward to pick up the net to land the fish for <'be captor.

"'Beauty, isn't he. Jerry?" cried AnnesJpigh. "How much does he weigh?"—appealing to Jerry as an expert.

The old chap screwed his head on one -icle and solemnly regarded the trout 13 he weighed it in his hand, with a judicial cast of countenance, nnd finally and deliberately pronounced his opinion; and only remembered the telegram a3 -.n afterthought His first impulse was to stare accusingly at his empty hand, as though he held it responsible for the loss.

"Well, I know 'twas there, Mast'r Bob, a minute ago!" he explained to Asonlcjgh, wifib. iha «x if qe« vjbv

■was not quite sure whether black magic had not something to do with the disappearance of that envelope; then a j considerate gust of wind blew the dropped telegram down the slope and into the stream, where it was rescued I with difficulty. I Annesleigh opened the dripping mis- I sive. It was from Rushmore. i "Just leaving Grand Central for the. Berkshires. Meet mc at station this afternoon. RCSHMORE.' , Aimesliegh laughed. It was so like his friend to come at a moment's notice in this way. "Any answer. Master Bob. sir?" "Xo." Jerry. But tell Martha to get a room ready; Mr Rushmore's coming. And I shall be driving to the station to meet the haif-past four train." Jerry departed to give his wife the news. A new interest was added to the morning for Annesleigh. lie was glad Rush- i more was coming. What pounds of, tobacco they would smoke as they sat yawning tosether on the oak settle in the hali! "I'll make the old chap stay months!" he told himself., as he made another cast. Four o'clock found him starting for the little country station. As he drove into the station yard he saw a dogftirfc waiting there, and a groom in Mrs. Cartaret's livery, who touched his hat as Annesieigh came up. The train was punctual Rushmore jumped out; the two men shook hands vigorously. "Awfully glad you've com* , , Archie! I Caught so many trout this morning, could never have got through "em if you hadn't turned up. It couldn't have been luckier!" cried Annesleigh, boisterously.' "'Hello! There's a man 1 know come up by the same train. Shall just have to speak to him for a moment.' , "That's all right. I'll be locking after my traps. I'm interested in what you soy about thoso trout; I've brought a Russis.n soldier's appetite with mc. I can tell you!" Rushmore hurried off in the direction of the baggage room. Annesleigh walked up to the carefully groomed, rather supercilious man of thirty whom he had see.n step out of the parlour car. "Hello. Garfield!" said Annesleigh. "Down here for long? I heard you were coming.' . Dr. Garfield was Enid's eou*in. the son of Mrs. Cartarct's sister. He was not a man Annesleigh cared for particularly, and he always had the feeling than secretly Garfield bore him small good will, on account of his engagement to Enid. Clarence Garfield would have liked to marry Enid himseif. "For about a week. I expect. Should find it precious dull to be in these dull pnrt." for longer than that, except during ihe shooting." said the other in a tone lhat inwardly made Annesleigh yearn to kick him. "Thpy toil mc you've come. iicre to stay. Annesleigli. rh * How shall you manage to kill time. Go in for gTowing turnips?"

''Something of tho sort, I dar.- , say.'' answered 800. carelessly. "I shall be seeing you to-morrow night. I expect. I am dining at Erigcmere Tower?."

With ii nod he walked off to rejoin Rushmore.

"Well, I'm awfully glad to see you. old chap!" Annesleigh said, as lhe trap rattled off along thi- road. "Got it all fixed .'.bout the place. I supopse. I thought that you'd be turning up soon to contemplate your new possessions with all a landed proprietor's swelling pride:'" Ho laughed.

"Ye?, it's all fixed up. I ospect I smell of Blar-katont; and ('bitty, for I've 1.-een living in lawyers otlices since I s:-.«- you. Xow I want to live among winds and clean, open air to get whole" some again. Besides. I want to show you that you aren't anybody where froiit-eatihing is concerned. See if you don't simr small in a day or two. Bob."'

Mr>. Deaue had dinner waiting for them. The noble trout that had come to an untimely end at the time "Rushmore's telegram arrived lay on the silver dish with his brethren, cooked as only Mrs. Deane could cook them. Rashmor.-> looked around the soxiarr* hall with a sigh as of envy. "You're a lucky chap. Bob." he said. ""[ v.isli I could exchange that big barrack of a house on the land I've just boug-ht for this phvep of yours. It's jrot sT:ch a home atmosphere about it always—especially to a man like myself, who's been a wanderer over the face of the cartb. By the way. Bob. as we used to say at school. I that settle for to-night, when we're having our smoke and yarn. I shall lie there with my feet up. You see, you've no women folk as yet to object to Bohemian ways."' Annesleigh laughed. "Oh. I think Enid will make an exception in favour of you when we are married." he said. "I told her that if it hadn't be*m for your lucky intervention we couldn't have been married for hunreds of years. So, whoever else is barred from putting his fset on the settle, you shall remain a privileged person."

'That's all right. My mind's at <?ase again. I hope Miss Cartaret is ouite well ?•'

"Oh, yes! You'll see her to-morrow. I promised to .ero over there to dinner to-morrow night. I shall send over in the morning to tell them that I'm bringing you along with mc. After dinner I suppose you'll want to explore your new possessions, eh?" asked Annesleigh. ■'Xo: I'll have a peep at them over your garden fence, just to sec that they're still there. We won't talk business to-night. Leave all that till the morning, when well go over the place aud enter iniio things thoroughly," said Sn?hmore.

U I shall be gla-d to meet this Miss Enid of yours to-morro=w." he said, after a pause. "I fancy I shall like her very mi.eh, and I know I shall envy you tremendously. Bob. A man ought to marry when he's young—always provided, of course, that he has found the light woman. Youth spells so Tiuen ffr happiness; youth can find the -nagtc tinge cf roensnee in love—the romance tha,« we old slaters have perhaps outlived. Give mo another dash of whisky. Bob, or I feel I shall gTow santimentel and prosy-"

After dinner they took their pipes out 'nto the garden. They wandered through the little rustic gate at the bottom of the garden, over the springy turf, smelling of moss and ferns, toward the little foaming creek. Rushmore sat down on a great, granite boulder.

•'By the way, 80b, , ' he said, "a carious tiling occurred a couple of days ago. I don't think I told you when I wrote— in fact, when I come to think of it, I don't believe I did write."

Annesleigh laughed, and shied a pebble at his friend.

i "Well, letters are such a thundering cmsanee '. " Rushtnore explained. "'T>o ■ you remember that day I saw you off at the Grand Central, a woman, who ■ was either drunk or crazy, started makj ing a disturbance on the platform, and ' was requested to retire by an indignant I official?" lie paused while he lit Ms pipe. " "I remember, , - , said Annesleigh. It was hardly likely he should iorgtst, though, of coarse. BflEhmere knew ne-

thing of his tragic adventure on tfie night he ha-d encountered that same I woman at the street coffee stall. "Where is the dead man's ' J was the interrupted sentence that she flung lat himI He had thought about it often since. j Had the woman referred to Ames? ! The fact tha-t he had met her "within half an hour of stumbling over Ames' dead bedy seemed to point to it. At any rate, there was no other "dead man" to whom her words could possible J apply.

He v.-ould have liked to tell the whole story to Archie; it would have been a sort of relief to talk over with another. that curious adventure that had befallen him in that quiet street near Morningside Heights, only his lips ware sealed. It was not his secret. To tell it would be to betray another's secret—that of the woman who was now an inmate of Edgerncre Towers. '"I remember the woman; she seemed to be shouting out something to mc just as tho train started." said Annesleigh. "But what about her?" "Well, it struck mc as a rather curious coincidence.'" said Rushmore. "A couple of days ago I saw that identical woman again—l can swear to it beina: the same —talking outside a not particularly respectable *aloon. in a not particularly respectable locality, to that swindler you once introduced to mc in your rooms —Gregory." Annesleigh was surprised that this piece of news seemed to come to him with something of an unpleasant shock'Fhe fact that this woman knew Gregory was a sort of confirmation of his suspicion that her words had referred to Ames. If she knew Gregory. it was more than possible that she had also known Gregory's accomplice, Ames. Some one had stealthily tried the door; had. as he believed at the time, watched him and the woman who called herself Esther Allan through the keyhole as they passed through the hall of the house where Ames lay dead. Conld it, by any chance, have been this woman? Annesleigh was asking himself if he had heard the last of that affair, after all"? If Gregory got an inkling of the facts—learned that he, Annesleigh. had been in that old house an hour or two before it was destroyed by fire; knew of Ames' tragic death there—the man might, out of revenge, seek to implicate him in a tragic crime. Of course, notiiins could be proved: ! ;he fire had destroyed all traces, l'efc ! exasperating inquiries might be set afoot by the police; might be made unpleasant. And he had Enid to think of, as well as himself. He wished himself well rid of the whole affaTr. Rushmore sat smokinsr placidly, throwin? stones lazily into a creek. He had not. the faintest idea how disqiiietening to his friend was the scrap of nows that he had brought. CHAPTER XVI. RCSHMOR3 RETMEMBETtS. Annesleigh and Rushmore spent most j of the morning and afternoon of the next j day on the tatter's newly-acquired pro- ; perty. About Steven o'clock in the evenI ing they drove over to Edgamere Towers. They found Enid and Dr. Gartield on the lawn in front of the noose as they i drove up the avenue. There was a slight frown un her fa<e. As a child she had disliked her cousin; she disliked him even more now. His perpetual smile, his seeminjr impervionsness to the rebuff iof coldness she always displayed toi wards him. irritated her beyond" endur- ' aniT. But the little frown tJiat wrinkled j her brow cleared as she saw Annesleigh.

Rushmore did not fail to see fhe sudden light that came into her eyes as she gret-te..! him.

■>he ■= in love with Bob—small doubt of that." he told himself; "and I don't believe Bob half realises what a luckyfellow h< , is. I'd give something to see a look like that in a beautiful woman's eves at mv coming, *" ha added.

The next moment he was shaking the haod that Enid outstretched as Aancsleigh introduced them-

Knid ajid Bob walked up to the hoase tog"tiier —a natural arrangement, that did not, however, seem to pjive pleasure to Dr. Oarfield as he followed with Rushmorn.

"Oh. -I'm so jrlad you've come. Bob!" Enid whispered. -You know my powi.'M of enduring people I don't like are strictly limited. For the last ten minutes I've been keeping my lips tightly .-hut lest I should say something positively rude, to Clarence. : '

'"I had hoped there was another reason, why you were glad to see mc, Enid." he told her. gayly. "It won't do to risk making you conceited by telling you if there were/ she whispered, smiling. "Besides, one's eyes say things sometimes, don't they? Only, perhaps, yon don't look to see. , "

Which remark seemed somewhat of a trespass on the superfluous, for he was looking into her eyes as she spoke.

They found Mrs Carteret in the draw-ing-room. Bob shook hands with her, and bheu with Esther Allan, the other oceuoanc of the room.

"This i≤ my friend, Mr Rushmore,"' he said to Mrs Cartarct; "though I believe I hardly need introduce you formally, since my friend remembers meeting you some years ago."

There was nothing in Mrs Cartaret's face to indicate any mental disquietude; in Rashmore's some surprise was manifest as he looked at the woman of forty-eight with the cold, handsome face.

"Yes. over twenty years ago. it must be, in California," he said. "'[ remember it distinctly. This is an unexpected pleasure. I did not understand I was to meet Mrs Webb as well as Mrs Cartaret to-night."

Anncsleigh burst into a laugh

"You're found out, Archie—you and that wonderful memory of yours!" he cried. "'So you have confounded Mrs Cartaret with some other lady!" -i You are joking. Annesleigh?" said Rnshmore, inquiringly, looking puzzled. "But you are ill. Mrs Webb!" he added, with swift concern, for Mrs Cartaret had suddenly turned white as death. Her bloodless lips moved, but no sound came from them. For a moment it seemed, is though she were about to faint. "Mother!" cried Enid, in alarm, going quickly up to her. But almost instantly the strength of the woman reasserted itself. She smiled with an effort, and held out her band to her guest. '"It was merely a passing , faintness. I have not been very strong lately," she said. "How do you do. Mr Rushmore? Do you know. I really am afraid you are confounding mc veith. the lady with whom I was travelling in California when I met you. I am Mrs Cartaret.''

""Extraordinary stupidity on tt.v part," murmured Rnshmore. "Too bad of my memory to play mc such a trick!" But there was a puzzled look in his eyes whieli was not lost on Clarence Garf.eld,

■ c WTiy did my aunt turn so -white at this nristaJring her for Mrs Webb?" he wondered. "And who is this Mrs Webb of twenty years ago?" Tfia eyes were suddenly attracted by a look m Either

Allan's face- Had the oddness of it sfcraek her, too? "I think it is t-wonderful that you should have remembered the meeting at all after so long,"' said Enid.

Soznehow an odd sense of constraint seemed to hare, fallen on the party, and everyone "was relieved -when dinner was announced and a more "was made to the large room furnished in sombre oak.

All through the dinner something was puzzling Dr. Garfield. He noticed that the hostess seemed less at her ease than usual to-night; that her conversation cost an effort; that all through the meal her thoughts apgeared to be wandering.

"More than twenty years. I think you said it is. since you met my aunt," he remarked to Rushmore. purposely leading the conversation back to the channel that so interested him. "I fancy I should have forgotten a person's face as well as name in that time. By the way. aunt, I don't remember hearing your friend's name before — Webb, wasn't it?" looking at Mrs Cartaret across the flowers in the dark-green Venetian glass.

"She was a friend of mine: but I have not seen or heard of her for many years."

Mrs Cartaret's voice was eakn, and in the light of the wax candles burning in the old silver candelabra, no muscle of her face moved. But he read something in her eyes that forebade further questioning.

Dr. Garfield had a good reason just then for not wishing to offend his aunt. As usual, he was extremely hard up, and he was waiting for a favourable opportunity for hinting that a loan would be uncommonly useful to get him out of a difficulty. Not the first difficulty out of which his aunt had helped him.

He looked across at Enid. He felt a sense as of personal Injury that Enid was engaged to Annesleigh. Enid was a beautiful and an attractive woman. If her manner was cold—well, he rather admired a woman who had pride and did not undervalue herself. And she would be an heiress—just the sort of woman he had always told himself that he would marry. If only Annesleigh had not been before him perhaps Enid wouli have married him. ho thought, savagely. He had been a fool to wait so long ani let this man step iv and snatch the prize.

Still, all engagements do not end In marriage. Enid was not married to Annesleigh. What if. in any way, he could so engineer matters—not that the possibility seemed at all likely, he was forced to admit—so that Enid never should? Perhaps

Dr. Garfield looked across at the man in his thoughts. Annesleigh -was talking to Miss Allan, and Garfield noticed the look of interest and animation that his conversation had called into her fac°. Miss Allan was a woman as beautiful in her way as Enid. He found himself wondering idly whether it would be possible to bring that remote, desired consummation to pass by means of this girl—iv> arouse Enid's jealousy as a preliminary to his scheme? His plans were nebulous —vet. he told himself, the idea was worth

considering.

Tie was very far from being in love with Enid—or with anyone but himself, for that matter. But he liked her as well as he iiked any woman, and he admired her beauty, and, what was more important still, Enid would some day be an heiress. "If I could make Enid jealous, get her to throw this fellow over, and accept mc in a fit of piqnn!" he told himself, reflectively. "After all, unlikely things have happened before to-day." Dinner came to an end. The men lin<rered for five minutes over their cigars. Rushmore and Garfield talked in a desultory, perfunctory sort of fashion, but Annesleigh was in a silent, abstracted mood.

He -was thinking of what Rushmore had told him about the woman of the railway station episode and Gregory. As yet he had had no opportunity of mentioning it to Miss Allan.

He must warn her. It might be that he would form a link Tietween her ami the past life that she was so eager to leavo behind. The woman Eushmere had spoken of clearly knew Gregory. If she proved to be the spy at the keyhole, she and Gregory might- try to trade upon their knowledge, come to the Borkshires, aad thns cbance upon Mrs. Ames' retreat.

For himself he did not care particularly. He had dealt with Gregory before, and would know how to deal with the scoundrel again. After all. nothing could be proved —not even Ames' death, thanks to the fortunate occurrence of the fire: but the cisc was different with the girl who called herself Miss Allan. She, at any rtite.. had something to fear. But time would tell. Bob felt intensely sorry for Miss Allan. She had been more than a week at Edgemere Towers now. In her new life she seemed, somehow, the same lonely, pathetic figure she had been in the old. It struck him that he had never seen her laugh. He would have liked to see happiness chase that settled sadness from her eves. There was nothing but happiness for the little, sleeping princess in the fairy story after the prince rescued her from the enchanted castle in the wood. Only, of course, in the fairy story the princess had love to make her happy, and she married the prince.

The three men rose and joined the ladies in the drawing room.

(To be continued daily.)