THE LADY IN BLACK.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8408, 24 April 1907, Page 2

THE LADY IN BLACK.

CHAPTER lll.—Continued. "Kut I shall toll Mrs Dale." Rudolph stopped and looked at her. "I think you had 'better not do that," he said. "But why should a person watch her, except with the intention of trying to do her some harm?" "Well, I don't know. But I think if you do tell her, knowing how highly nervous she is, you will do her more harm than ever th-i mysterious watcher would. Perhaps you would even drive her out of the place, in which case most assuredly tho watcher woulcl her, while if we keep her here, perhaps we may manage to draw hid fangs. " Mabin fjlt frigh;e,ied. Then, being a matter-of-ifact girl, she got the better of this feeling quickly, and looked up keenly at her companion. "What do you exactly mean by that?" she asked. "Only that I will get hold of the mart quietly and find out whal his little game is. -Though I can guess." "Well;* you can tell me what your guesa'is." "Why, debt, of course. One can see she is inclined to be extravagant, and very likely she has run up bills somewhere. Don't you think that seems likely?" His tone was rather anxious, Mabin thought. But she answered indignantly: "No, I don't. It would be very dishonourable to run away without paying one's debts, and I don't think .you much of a friend to poor Mrs Dale to suggest such a thing!" Rudolph looked not guilty, but grave. "Well," said he, "people don't hang about a place, at the risk of getting taken up'on suspicion of loitering, for the purpose of committing a felony/ without some reason." "Why," cried Mahin triumphantly, "that is the reason! Mrs Dale has some lovely diamond rings, and the loitering gentleman wants to steal them!" "Well, perhaps you are right," said Rudolph doubtfully. "I am sure of it!" retorted Mabin resolutely. And she held out her hand. "Go6d-by, and thank you for your help." , "And you will remember my parable about the roses?" said he, as he took her hand, and thought he liked gray eyes, af all, better than blue ones. "Perhaps," said Mabin cautiously, as she hopped away on her crutches.

CHAPTER IV. WAS IT A RECOGNITION? , While Mabin was still talking to 1 Rudolph in the road, between "The Towers'' and '' Stone House," a tall parlour-maid, in snow-white French cap and ends, passed them, on her way from the former to the latter house bearing a letter in her hand. And when Mabin reached home she. found that the Powers had already received Mrs Dale's invitation to Mabin. In truth, it had put both husband and wife into a position of some diffi- ! culty. For while, on the one hand, they were delighted at this oppor- > tunity of getting "the one too many" off their hands for a time, yet there were the opinions of their neighbours to be considered; and the tide of public feeling had set in strongly against the lady in black. * If her hair had been dark instead of fair, it would have made [all the difference. The beauty which goes with brown hair and a more or less dark complexion is not so startling, not so sensational, as the loveliness of pink and white and gold which made Mrs Dale so conspicuous. If, again, she had not been in mourning—and such pretty mourning—they would have been readier to make allowance for her eccentricities. But the knowing ones had begun" to discover that there were discrepancies in her attire, that her mourning was either too deep for diamond rings to be permissible, or not deep enough for the heavy black veil she wore. So that, in short, it was now almost universally admitted that this person with the too showy carriage and horses, and the dangerously pretty face, was. an individual to be avoided, and it was decided that her reluctance to enter the best society of the place, when that society hnd held out its uninviting arms to hei, arose from a wholesome fear that the wise women of the place would "find her out.'' Mr Rose read Mrs Dale's note twice through very slowly/as if trying to - discover hidden meanings in its simple words. Then he looked at his wife, who was watching him rather anxidusly. "Well, my dear, and what do you think?" asked he. It pleased him to ask her opinion thus on most things, not that he ever had any intention of heeding her wishes in preference to his own, but in the hope that she would express some modest inclination one way or the other, to give him an impetus in . the opposite direction. "I think, dear, that it would ljardly do," murmured'the lady, hoping that for once her husband would fall in with her views. "You must have !heard the way in which people talk about this Mrs Dale, so that it would be thought very strange if we let Mabin stay with her. Don't you think it was rather underhand 'of her to get hold of the child this afternoon?" "Underhand! Certainly not," replied Mr Rose, with decision. '/The most natural thing in the world, considering how kind she was to the girl at the time of her accident. jAnd so for the talk of the place, why, if you listened to all the old

By FIaQPJSNCK WARDEN. Author of u in fiifunions Fraud," "A Terrible FawUy,' "For tore of Jael,\" "The House, on ' > the Mursli.-' <■?>■.,, >■;<■,

■.•■'"men .-■;.!y you would never go out-■i.U-h'. you door for fear your neighbours, should think you were going to sLoiil their hens!" There was a pause. She; would no:: h'riiute him by another remark. So he presently went on: "[suppose you think the vicar's wife .v.iuVl scold you?" "Nbifc scold, of course: but I am sure slu; would disapprove," said j Mrs Rosy meekly. • "Ah! 1 thought so. Well I will give the old lady something to talk about. Mabin shall stay with Mrs Dale if she wishes." Mrs Rose sighed heavily. "She wjll wish it, of course. Girls always wish to do the very things which are not proper for them.'" "You may be quite satisfied, Emily, that what I allow my daughter to do is quite proper," said Mr Rose severely, as he left the room. Mrs Rose sighed. She had not told him, because it would have been useless, that she had to be more particular than he about Mabin, because, being the girl's stepmother only, she was the more exposed to the gossip of the. neighbourhood—a force she dreaded—than her husband was. But she vented her ill humour on Mabin herself, whom she informed very acidly that if she chose to go to "this Mrs Daie," and was not comfortable with her, the fault was hers and her father's. Mabin received these remarks meekly, rejoicing in the approaching holiday. She had nothing very serious to complain of in her treatment under her father's roof, but the snubs of her father, the. tacit dislike of her stepmother and the fact that the difference in age between her half sisters and herself left her much alone, all combined to make her welcome the change. Emily and Ethel, who were fourteen and twelve years of age, insipid and spiritless young persons, with little bmwn eyes and little brown pigtails, teased her with questions about her visit of the afternoon. "Is it true that her hair's dyed?" asked Emily, getting Mabin into a corner after tea. "No, of course it's not," was the indignant answer. "Oh, well you needn't be so angry. Miss Bradley said she was sure it was, and that she knew the stuff she used." "Miss Bradley had better try the stuff on her own wisp then," retorted Mabin angrily. "What is the house like inside, Mabin?" asked Ethel, who, though only twelve, was quite as greatjja gossip as there was in the parish. "Why, there were chairs. a~d tables in it, just as there are in every other hu.use. What do you suppose i,t was like?" , "Mabin, don't snub the children. Their interest is very natural," said Mr Rose peevishly, from the other end of the room. "Horsehair and mahogany, red moreen curtains, and a black marble clock on the mantel," said Mabin laconically. "Why, that doesn't sound very nice, that you should be in such a hurry to go there!" objected Ethel. "But perhaps the other rooms are better." "Very likely," said Mabin. But Mabin was really just a little bit alarmed at her own good fortune in getting her father's consent so easily. She had a superstitious feeling, in spite of her reputed strength of mind, that anything worth having ought to.be rather difficult to get. In spite of all her loyalty to her heroine, too, she thought more often than she wished about Rudolph's ridiculous fancy that Mrs Dale was watched. And although she always dismissed the thought by saying to herself that Rudolph was in love with the lovely Widow, and therefore "fancied things," she was anxious to meet him and to learn whether he still thought that the fair tenant of " The Towers," was being watched. In the meantime great confusion reigned at "Stone House." Everybody was immersed in the horrors of "packing up," and it was impossible to go upstairs without encountering people staggering under the burden of a heap of things which would have been better left behind. Even the authority of Mr Rose, who disliked the daily routine to be disturbed, failed to get any meal eaten at the proper time, or without unnecessary hurry. Even the fact that Mr Rose's old friend, Mrs Haybi'ow, was expected on a short visit before the migration failed to check the fury of the packers. It was certainly unfortunte that she should come at such a time. But Mrs Rose reckoned on inflaming her. friend's mind with her own zeal, and inwardly proposed orgies of competitive trunk-filling to while away the visitor's time. ■ (To be Continued.)