A Runge into the Unknown

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 283, 20 February 1928, Page 5

A Runge into the Unknown

by

Charles D. Leslie

Author or - A Wild Wager,** •• Loved iw Herself" “The Erringtcn Pearls Mystery.** “The Power of tho Purse.” 4c.. 4c

SYNOPSIS OP PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. -.,,0tT0S 1 and II. —Mrs. Tourma- , C . H flndJ herself at the Ritz. She Is in line , exjly S i,e is anxious to seaftainst her rival, Mrs. n>vson-Dickson, but cannot see how it D ,S he accomplished. She sees a very „« r i with golden hair and blue at some distance from her. over to her and begins to talk. S? fells this girl that she is the dupli\te o Lady Eva Iloulton. The girl Is ha Wantage, an ex-governess. Mrs. Tourmaline Informs her that the baroness lady Doulton. quarrelled witl ' band more than a week ago,.andi has run ,wav Mrs. Tourmaline mightily fleshes presence of Lady DouKon at some voting which is to take place that night, she offers £SO to the ex-governess to impersonate Lady Doulton for the next *4 hours, and explains the objects of the Society to which she and a few others bSg 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 gituation, and consents to play the part of Lady Doulton. 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 Doulton’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 Doulton, 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 Doulton has returned and Is asking for news of his wife’s whereabouts. All goes well during the meeting at Mrs. Dickson-Dlckson’s. Eva is not recognised, and vot63 with the rest. Mrs. Tourmaline’s side wins. Lord Swayne begins to talk to Eva, thinking her Lady Doulton. He asks her whether Jane Norman is the real woman or an impostor.

CHAPTER VI.—IN PORTLAND PLACE. And now here was the discharged governess, exquisitely dressed, and prettier than ever, saying she was Doulton! Which couldn’t be He now remembered that Lord Doulton, the famous polo player, was carried rather less than a year ago. A man doesn’t marry twice in one •[ear, and he’d never heard that Lady Doulton was dead. “Look-here, that’s nonsense,” he told her, “you wer© Miss Wantage a month a ?o, and you can’t be Lady Doulton -And you’re shaking like a leaf, that’s the game?” He towered over her, big, masculine. Masterful. He was not much taller than the girl but he was big limbed a mi squarely built, and Eva quaked 1 w? Sirl before him. She had nothing to say, she was caught out imposter she was. Now see here, Miss Wantage, in the anguage of a melodrama, I’v© got to Know all.” He laid his fingers on her and drew her unresisting into a J-cesw off the hall near which they **re standing. A very unpleasant suspicion had tome to him. Earlier in the season a tas© had occurred of a member of the uninai classes gaining admission to °me exclusive function under another ih’^ le, - and robbing several ladies of elr jewels. Had Miss Wantage got Ued up with a similar gang? The kn* see med fantastic from what he Jr ew the girl, but what other explanation of her masquerading could there be?

Eva, she could not eep her secret under his questioning h' e * voice; haltingly, helped out queries, she told of her pact tth Mrs. Tourmaline. 1 ne^ er heard anything so mad in y life,” he exclaimed, when the posi°n was clear. But though he spoke he was conscious of a great ief. The girl was not a thief or in a * UG with thieves. But the morality, sh n t ther . un-morality of her deed, ocked him, and he said as much. Tiy, Wasn 1 my idea. It was Mrs. urmaline’s. She employs me, and ys me. Fifty pounds means a lot 10 me, Mr Berlyn. ’ stood frowning. He avoided hart u as mucll as possible, but he Mr. h^. ard of "Tbe Society,” and knew by i K° Urmaline re P utation » not diw £ht * Her unsportsmanlike conscandalised him. It was un[«PUlous. wasn’t cricket. Poii rt rather Lave paid you fifty s rt 3 than have you mixed up in so ay a transaction,” he told her. th« Va Was quick to take advantage of opening the speech gave her. 1 don’t see that it concerns you Personally, Mr. Berlyn. Of course At Ive told you is in confidence.” gave no such promise.”

She threw up her head scornfully. “Are you going to give me away then ?” “I’ve half a mind to,” he said. “I’m sure you’re not going to do anything so mean! And the affair is just over, too. We’re going home directly, and to-morrow I become Eva Wantage again.” “It’s not the sort of affair you ought to be mixed up in,” he repeated. “I’m my own mistress now, not Mrs. Aspland’s governess.” “A nice girl like you masquerading as another woman! You want looking after, young lady. Yes. I’m going to look after you whether you like it or not. We’ve always been friends.” “Yes, friends,” she said, rather harshly, “so I’m quit© sure you won’t betray me.” He thought guiltily of a little episode in the past in which he and she were concerned. Nothing much for the conscience to carry; once, while sixty immortal seconds raced by; he hadn’t behaved altogether well. Silently, he made innumerable good resolutions. “No. I won’t betray you, but I want your confidence; this affair ends tomorrow?”

“Yes,” she told him, and feeling by this time quite sure of him, confided with a delicious, half-humorous embarrassment, how Lord Doulton, believed to be out of town, had unexpectedly rung up Mrs. Tourmaline earlier in the evening asking news of his wife. “And now, please, let me join Mrs. Tourmaline,” she concluded. “In a minute. I must see you tomorrow.” “I’m living in Highgate.” “The address?” “Three, Copperfield Road. I shall be back there some time in the afternoon.” “I’m at Aramis Mansions, Berkeley Street.” “I remember,” she said. She had once been there with her charges. “Yes, but do you know my telephone number? It’s 0375 Gerrard. Remember that. If there’s any trouble tomorrow morning, for instance, if this Tourmaline woman won’t pay up, just call me. I shall be in all the morning.” Eva nodded, and left him, her heart singing songs of thanksgiving. How ridiculous of her a few minutes earlier to be frightened of Arnold Berlyn. Of course he was a friend to be trusted, not a foe to be feared. At the door of the concert room she met Mrs./Tourmaline, coming to look for her. ’Wherever hav© you been?” demanded her patroness. Eva took refuge in silence. Hardly had they entered when the hum of conversation stopped. The diva was about to sing. She was paid a hundred pounds a night at Covent Garden, and the luxury of hearing so high-priced a song-bird for nothing was worth the appreciation of silence. Of course, in the case of an unknown singer it did not matter if one talked or not. Mrs. Tourmaline, who knew the house, had secured a small sofa s%t against the wall for herself and her friend, and from this point of vantage Eva gazed upon the scene. But she could not, after all, in spite of Lady Doulton’s frock and name, feel one of the party. She rather had the sense of being in the pit of a fashionable theatre, and gazing at the stalls; there was a barrier, though invisible, between herself and this glittering, opulent throng. She wondered, as she often did when in the pit of a theatre, why the oldest and ugliest women wore the finest jewels, and why all the mid-dle-aged men, to say nothing of the elder ones, were more or less bald. (To be continued)