For Her Sister's Sake; OR, THE LAVENDEN SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8339, 23 January 1907, Page 2

For Her Sister's Sake; OR, THE LAVENDEN SECRET.

CHAPTER XlV.—Continued. Heavy, florid, and fashionable, he might have been a crack cavalry-man in khaki, and to those who glanced at them from the pavements, and the club windows he seemed a not unfitting cavalier for the pale, proud girl at his side. . At length he turned the automobile westward again, and brought it across Mayfair into Audley Street. Stopping at the door of Lavenden ' House, he helped Winnie to descend. "That's enough for a first trip," he said, "but you soon got used to it, and we must have -some longer trips." He took her hand and held it m "I must run the car round to the garage," he added. "Au revoir, Cousin Winnie. I think I shall call you Winnie without the 'cousin'-Mt sounds more friendly, and you and I have got to be good friends, haven t we?" "I-I suppose so," faltered Win"Very good friends," repeated Merivale, pressing the small gloved hand with a certain freedom. Winnie shrank, then met his glance It was curiously bold and overawing, at oiac.? amused and cruel. A thrill crept through her. „ "Y-yes," she stammered. He relinquished her hand slowly, as a lover might have done and went to ring at the doors of Lavenden House. Winnie entered them, quivering With the chill alarm that had rolled over her again, for she knew not that George Merivale, looking upon her with the eyes of a selfish and sensual man, had found her fair. But in the glance that now met her own she had seen more than admiration—she had seen a threat. "He—he does suspect! she told herself, and yet dare scarcely listen to the harrowing thought. CHAPTER XV. S MOTHER AND CHILD. "Oh! I'm so sorry, my lady, but Mr Ingram is out again." Matilda Crimple spoke with a certain abstraction. She was staring at the magnificent turn-out that had , stopped before the stucco-fronted house in Clerkenwell. Instead of the modest single brougham ,in which Julia Lavenden had paid her first visit to the curate of St. Barnabas',. a' splendid victoria, with a pair of spanking black-browns, made the sleepy old by-way seem depressingly vulgar. Tilda herself had come running through the house at an imperious double knock, to find a tall man ser,vant in livery awaiting her answer, and Julia Lavenden just stepping out of the victoria. Julia was not alone this time, for Winnie sat in the vehicle, and Tilda, • looking at her, thought that she had never seen so pale and beautiful a "That is a pity," Julia Lavenden was saying nervously; "but Twill leave my card, and you must tell him that I only drove round on my way from some business in the city, and that he must not mind having missed ' me." "~ A vague hesitation betrayed itself in her manner. \ "That—that dear little boy I saw " 'when I called the other day," she added. "I took such a fancy to him, and ,1 have been telling my sister what a darling he is. He had broken his toy horse, poor little fellow; we —we have brought him another one. May we come in and give it to him? I.do want my sister to see him." * The speaker's voice trembled, in spite of all that she could do to , steady it. Never did a lover yearn more 1 passionately for the sight of his mistress than she did to behold again the child that she dared not own. But' Matilda Crimple was too flattered and delighted to notice the suspicious quiver in the visitor's voice. "Oh! my lady," she exclaimed enthusiastically, "I do believe you're as good as you're good-looking. Boysie will be pleased; he's been trying to talk about you ever sincee., He.wants ] the pretty lady to come back and, mend his horse again. He is that sharp, my lady, you can't lift, a finger without him noticing it. Do come in, my lady." • . . Excited end loquacious, Tilda hastened to open the door wide, arid stood back for the other to pass in. Julia made a sign to the footman, and he carried her a package from the victoria. His mistress turned; Wini- ' fred Lavenden! had not moved from . her melancholy, brooding position., Julia sighed. "Winnie!" she said. Winnie star- •' ted, and glanced up. There was a faint flush in Julia's cheeks as she paused on the threshold of the old house, clasping the gift she had brought for her child. A great pity took possession of Winifred Lavenden. and she roused herself to alight from the victoria. Julia laid a hand upon her ?rm as they gained the dusky lobby., "Winnie, dear," she whispered, in her sister's ear, "I—l do so want you to love him. Don't think of—of his father, only that he is my own, my very own." Winnie did not speak; there was no time. They were already entering the large kitchen. Tilda darted by "them to catch up a tiny roving figure, and hurry with it across the robm. "Boysie!" she cried. "Boysie, here's the pretty lady come back, and brought something for Boysie. Hasn't he got a kiss for her?" She bore the child to them. Julia took it in her arms and laid its cheek against her own; the contact of the little head seemed / to fill her with a sudden peace and contentment. She

By R. Merman Silver, ll(r of "A Double Mask," "A Daughter of Mystery," "Held Apart," "The Golden Dwarf," etc.

"For Her Sister's Sake " was commenced on December 20th.]

sat down with the child on her knee, and tore open the wrappings of the toy she had brought—a life-like model, skin-covered, and with a removable saddle and bridle. Boysie touched the smooth and glossy hide, and laughed out with a quick, shrill pleasure. Julia clasped both child and toy. "You darling!" she exclaimed, between laughter and tears herself. Winnie bent over them; the unwept tears were stinging her own eyelids. Despite a certain strange and pitiful-episode of the past, she had not hitherto thought of her sister as a mother. Now she saw her and her child—a child more bright and winsome than she had imagined a convict's child could be—united momentarily, soon to be sundered once more by the abyss of danger and secrecy. The sight made Winifred Lavenden forget her own sorrows. "You were right, Julia," she murmured; "he is a little angel." She touched the golden curls; they twined round her fingers like shining silk. "Won't you come to me, Boysie?" she asked. "See, I will make the little horse run." - She took the toy, and sent it rolling along the floor, then held out her arms invitingly. Boysie slipped down, and went to her unsteadily. Winnie caught him to her, and folded Jam tightly. The sisters' eyes met—and fell; ' neither .could bear the gaze of the othei\ Something—she could not have told what it was—made Winnie look up again. Her glance travelled past Julia. The kitchen had a second entrance, and in the second there had appeared a couple of persons—a man and a woman. The man wore a derby and a heavy overcoat, on the side of which,was a cab-driver's badge. The woman was attired in the outdoor uniform of a nurse —a caped cloak of blue, with gray facings and a blue bonnet with gray streamers. She stood with her back to the light, and her features were practically invisible. Bs^--! Winifred Lavenden turned cold. In height, in garb, and in general ap pearance) the figure was that which she had seen through the spy-hole of the flat at Grammont Mansion upon ' the night- of James Garth's death. A stifled ejaculation broke from her; and Julia, looking up also, saw the alarm in her sisters eyes, and thrilled with the same horror. The figure she saw before her might have been that of her husband, as he had bidden her farewell, and gone out into the London streets with the garb of the escaped felon under those disguising garments. But Matilda Crimple had turned too. -■-/ -'■ . "Why it's father," she, cried; "father and Sister May. Father, this is Boysie's pretty lady come back again. And see what she's brought him. Ain't he lucky?" Peter Crimple stepped forward, taking off his hat. His head was bent, as if in respect, so that his expression was hidden. "Your servant, my lady," he said, "and thank you kindly for taking notice of the youngster. We're very fond of him, my lady, and" he's a good little chap, and healthy, which we must be thankful for." He passed into the light of the .window, and raised his head swiftly. His eyes had a gleam of quiet intelligence in them,' but his ruddy visage was almost blank. Julia was gazing at the nurse—he/ ' perceived •it, and his brows contracted. "One of Mr Ingram's parish nurses, my lady," he observed; "I met her outside and she came in with me through the stables to save knocking at the front door. The nurse moved farther into' the kitchen, and they saw May Anderson's pleasant, girlish i face, instead of the stern, masculine countenance that Julia and Winifred Lavenden v had involuntarily pictured. "Mr" Ingram was telling me about j you, Lady Lavenden," she said; 1 "it is So kind of .you to think of ' helping him. You wish to see him now, no doubt. Does he know you are here?" She spoke with a cheerful authority, and her clear, bright tones de-> clared her both a cultured and wellbred'woman. "They did want to see him, sister," put' in Tilda, "but he's out. And they came in because they wanted to give Boysie anew horse for his old one. My lady saw it was broke' when she was here before. Show sister what you've got, Boysie." Nothing loath, Boysie brought his treasure. May Anderson picked him up in her strong young arms, and the child chattered to her in his imperfect speech as to a familiar friend. A pang of jealousy stabbed Julia Lavenden. (To be Continued).