A Runge in to the Unknown

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 282, 18 February 1928, Page 20

A Runge in to the Unknown

ML

Author ot “ A Wild Wager," “ Loved tor Herself* “The Erringtcn t'earls Mystery.” “The Power of the Purse,” &c.. &c.

Charles. D. • Leslie.

SYNOPSIS OP PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. CHAPTERS I. and ll.—Mrs. Tourmaline finds herself at the Ritz. She Is in great perplexity. She is anxious to secure a victory against her rival, Mrs. Bickson-Bickson, but cannot see how it is to be accomplished. She sees a very pretty girl, with golden hair and blue eyes, sitting at some distance from her. She goes over to her and begins to talk. She tells this girl that she is the duplicate of Lady Eva Doulton. The girl is Eva Wantage, an ex-governess. Mrs. Tourmaline informs her that the baroness Lady Boulton, quarrelled with her husband more than a week ago, and has run away. Mrs. Tourmaline mightily desires the presence of Lady Boulton at some voting which is to take place that night. She offers £SO to the ex-goveiness to impersonate Lady Boulton for the next 24 hours, and explains the objects of the Society to which she and a few others belong. Lord Swayne is the president, and has the casting vote. Mrs. Tourmaline tells Eva Wantage all about the case as it presents itself to her, and persuades her by giving £lO on account. Eva tells Mrs. Tourmaline about her last situation, and consents to play the part of Lady Boulton. The good lady leaves, promising to send her maid, Bennett, to Eva. While waiting Eva sees a man, of whom she seems to be in deadly fear, approaching her. Fortunately she had left her seat and taken refuge behind some sheltering palms. CHAPTERS 111. and IV.—The superintendent comes forward and engages the attention of the man who had frightened Eva Wantage, and the latter returns to her table. Bennett turns up with Lady Boulton's hat and cloak. She addresses Eva as “milady.” They drive to Mrs. Tourmaline’s house in Berkley Square. Eva Wantage is dressed" and coached for the part. As there was a certain friendship between Lord Swayne and Lady Boulton, Mrs. Tourmaline decides that the present Eva must be kept away from him. Just as she is about to mention this to Eva a telephone ring comes. Mrs. Tourmaline answers this, and informs Eva that Lord Boulton has returned and is asking for news of his wife’s whereabouts. All goes well during the meeting at Mrs. Bickson-Bickson’s. Eva is not recognised, and votes with the rest. Mrs. Tourmaline’s side wins. Lord Swayne begins to talk to Eva, thinking her Lady Boulton. He asks her whether Jane Norman is the real woman or an impostor. CHAPTER V. (Continued). “To Eden? I’m leaving town tomorrow for a few days’ change. Mayn’t I have the address of Paradise?” “No.”

“I won’t come to the same hotel or even the same village, if it is a village,” he said. “I’ll keep outside the four-mile radius—only let me come just once to tea?”

Eva was silent, she wanted, and wanted ardently to say “no,” but the word wouldn’t come. His black eyes had a hypnotic influence over her. She had never disliked anyone as much as she disliked Mr. Mailing, but the power to send him away appeared to be denied her. It was only by a painful effort that she avoided his baleful glance, and it was in a voice of distress that she called softly, “Madge.” Mrs. Tourmaline came up immediately, and Mr. Mailing, recognising he could get no further speech with Lady Boulton, drew off. He strolled downstairs, sought out the temporary buffet of the hall, and had a drink. And he mused.

He was accustomed to be snubbed by Lady Boulton. It left him unperturbed. But to-night there had been an unmistakable difference in her manner. She seemed afraid of him. There was a brief but unmistakable look of relief on her face when Mrs. Tourmaline joined them.

For some time past Mr. Mailing had been pursuing Lady Boulton. Hope of conquest there was none, nevertheless he haunted her doggedly, ignoring her i contemptuous attitude toward him. It i gratified his aesthetic senses to see her and talk to her, even though she rebuffed him. There was, too, a touch of maliciousness in his attitude. He wanted to see what would turn up. A pretty woman, young, newly married, unaccustomed to luxury (Lady Boulton it was known was an orphan, and had been brought up very simply by an aunt), might possibly do something very foolish. She might have a secret, possibly quite an innocent secret, she wished to hide from her husband. Such a secret, could he light on it, would be his opportunity. Now to-night from her changed manner he could not help thinking she had something to hide. He took another drink to stimulate him.

Gues s were arriving, pouring into the two big reception rooms on the ground floor. An opera diva would sing presently, and a Scotch comedian would follow her. The supper, it was well known, would be excellent. Mrs. Bickson-Bickson, in short, at her musical parties, catered for all tastes; her invitation cards were eagerly sought.

Mr. Mailing was still thinking. What had Lady Boulton been up to? Why was she so changed? She’d rouged; she was afraid of him instead of treating him with scornful indifference.

For quite five minutes he hovered on the verge of the truth; and then suddenly the idea came, the only plausible explanation for the difference. He set down his glass and laughed softly. It was going to be a very enjoyable evening. Upstairs most ofLfhe members of the society still lingered, in desultory conversation. Two or three addressed Lady Boulton, who answered them briefly, evidently she was not in a talkative mood. Presently it was suggested they should descend, and they did in little parties, the very last consisting of Lady Harden, Mrs. Tourmaline and Lady Boulton. By chance, as the three ladies reached the groupd-floor, Eva, struck by one of the pictures on the wall, paused to examine it. When she resumed her progress he.r friends were disappearing into the concert-room. But she was not destined to join them immediately.

From the corridor on the left of the stairs a young man strolled, a distinctively-attractive young man. though he looked in a bad temper, which he was.

He had in his own phrase “been let in” for this “beastly concert,” a form of entertainment he particularly loathed. Bining with his married sister in Hampstead, a dinner which ended a little family quarrel between them, he had been inveigled into escorting two ladies, his plea that he hadn’t been asked being over-ruled. And, indeed, it was, he knew, not a serious objection. He was a young man, a bachelor, and very well off, and to such, when born of the elect, the doors of ail social functions fly open as though to royalty itself. Mrs. Bickson-Bickson had accepted Mrs. Cowrie’s explanation, that she had brought Mr. Arnold Berlyn instead of her husband, very graciously. She was charmed, she said, to welcome Mr. Berlyn, of whom she had frequently heard, to her house.

But Mr. Berlyn, when h© declared how charmed he was to be under her roof, lied grossly, though of such lies Society is compact. He found chairs for Mrs. Cowrie, Laura, and himself in the concert-room, and then discovered he had left his handkerchief in his overcoat pocket, though the truth was Laura bored him to distraction, and he only wanted to get away from her.

This explains how it was Mr. Arnold Berlyn came to be at th© foot of the stairs Eva was descending. His attention was suddenly caught by a pretty woman in white. An amazing likeness to—no, it couldn’t be—but then their eyes met and all doubt vanished. He went to her smiling, with outstretched hands.

“Why, Miss Wantage, this is a pleasant surprise meeting you!”

Eva had often wondered if she would ever meet Mr. Berlyn again. He was in a sense the reason why she had been earlier that day an out-of-work .governess with only a little over a pound in her purse. He was the brother of Mrs. Aspland, who employed her as governess for her two little girls. And she would still have been an inmat© of the house in Belsize Park Road, where she was comfortable and tolerably happy, if Mr. Berlyn hadn’t had the good taste to admire his sister’s governess. Whereupon Mrs. Aspland had summarily dismissed her—in such a manner that, no girl of spirit could have done other than Eva did—depart without informing him or letting him know her address.

But to meet him at this moment was a calamity, and she lost her head completely. She shrank back, turning scarlet under her rouge. Unaware how plainly her eyes betrayed her, she endeavoured to deny her identity. “I’m not Miss Wantage. I’m Lady Boulton,” she said, trying to act as though she had never seen him before. He misunderstood her. “Lady Boulton! You’re married then?” “No—yes. I mean no,” she hardly knew what she was saying. “What do you mean?” he asked.

laughingly. “Have you become a peeress in your own right?” She answered nothing, her confusion and fright plain to see, and the laughter died out of his eyes. Truth to tell till the minute before he had almost' forgotten his sister’s pretty governess, concerning whom he haa grown foolishly sentimental some months earlier. He had been very angry with Annie for packing her oft', had said as much with brotherly frankness; but his heart not being seriously affected, he had made no effort to trace he.r. (To be continued)