THE LADY IN BLACK.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8412, 30 April 1907, Page 2

THE LADY IN BLACK.

By PLOREKTCS WARDS3M'.. Author of (( An Infamous Front." ■ ,1 Teirihlc Ftnuih; "For Love of Jar,', • Un- House on the Mfn-r> efr,, ew..

CHAPTER Vl.—Continued. And then, when she had crawled out of the rrom, with smarting eyes and achintr head, and found the way up to her osvn shabby, gloomy room with staggering feet, there came to her ear from the garden the sound of a fresh, girlish voice uttering words which were balm to the wounded soul. "I don't care," Mabin was saying to some unseen person among the yew-trees on the lawn, "I don't care what she's done. She's a sweet woman, and I love her all the mor:-: for having to be preached to by that old cat!" No eloquence, no smoothly rounded periods of the most brilliant speaker in the universe could have conveyeJ to poor, unhappy, Dorothy half .the solace of these inelegant words ! She began to smile, all red-eyed as she was, and to feel that there was something worth living for in the world, ; after all. i When she had bathed her face, and j lain down for a little ease to her I aching head, she was able presently to look out with an impulse of pleasure at the bright green of the lawn, where the shadows of the tall elms were growing long, and to listen to the sound of young voices talking and laughing, and to feel that there was something bffc in life, after all. The voices, as she knew, were j those of Mabin and Rudolph. The ! vicar's son had called, with a huge bunch of flowering rushes, for Mrs Dale, while the mysterious visitor was with her. The parlor-maid, therefore, had informed him that Mrs Dale was engaged; but that Miss Rose was in the garden; and he had lost no time in going in search of the latter. He was surprised her in a ! state of great distress, shedding fur- ' tive tears, and trying to hide a face j eloquent of grief. ; "May I ask what's the matter?" he j asked, when she had begun to talk | about the flowers and the trees in a I rather broken and unmanageable \ voice. : "Oh, I don't know whether I ought> to tell you!" j "Well, look here. I'll go as far as j the wall that shuts in the kitchen garden; that's on the other side of the > house, you know. I'll walk very slowly, and if I find any caterpillars on the gooseberries, I'll pick them off. That will give you a long time. | And when I come Back I shall expect j you to have made up your mind i whether you can tell me or not. I Only," added he wistfully, "I do hope you will make up your mind that you can, for 'l'm dying of curiosity,' as the ladies say." "No, they don't say that," said j Mabin cantankerously, "Women are | much less curious than the men, really. I wouldn't have heard what I did for worlds if I could have avoided it. And you are 'dying' to know it!" "Well, I won't argue with you," replied Rudolph .philosophically, as he walked slowly, according to his promise, •in the direction of the kitchen garden. Mabin watched him, drying her eyes, and asked herself whether ( there would be any harm in confid- ( ing in him. She felt the want of , someone of whom she could take counsel in this extremely embarrassing situation for a young girl to find herself in. If Mrs Haybrow had only been at hand! She was a motherly woman, whose sympathy could be as much relied upon as her advice. Not once did it occur to the girl to write to her stepmother, who would have consulted Mr Rose, with results disastrous to the reputation of poor little Mrs Dale. For it was not to be supposed that a father could allow his daughter to remain in the house of a lady about whom there was certainly than a suspicion ' s>f irregularity of some sort. She was pondering these things, in a helpless and bewildered fashion, anxious to do right, and not quite certain where the right lay, when she heard a firm step on the gravel path, and looking round, saw that the austere-looking lady who had descended so abruptly upon Mrs Dale was coming toward her. Mabin would have liked to run away, and did, indeed, give one glance and make one step in the direction of the little path between the yews which led round to the kitchen garden. But the person she had to deal with was not to be put oft" in that manner. "Stop!" she cried, in such an imperious voice that Mabin obeyed at once, "I want to speak to you." Mabin glanced up at the hard, cold face, and her heart rose in rebellion at the thought that the severe expression was for poor Mrs Dale. She drew up her head with a flash of spirit, and waited quietly for what the elder lady had to say. "What is your name? And where do you live?" asked the lady. At first, guessing that this vixenish woman wanted to communicate with her friends about the desirability of removing her from The Towers, Mabin felt inclined to refuse to 'answer. But a moment's reflection showed her that it would be as easy for the lady to get the in* formation she wanted from the servants, so she said: "My name is Mabin Rose, and my father is on his way to Geneva." "And how did he become acquainted with"—she paused, and added in a peculiar tone, as if the name stuck in her throat—"with Mrs Dale?" "They were neighbours," answered Mabin shortly. "You had better write to him and ask him to take you away," said the lady. '' There are circumstances '' But Mabin put her hands up to her ears. "Not a word!" cried she. "I won't

hear a w ud. I beg y>>i;r punioi■ :V,r having to be so rutin, bat I won't listen to you; I won't hear a \vor>:l against my friend," 1 She was prepared in her excitemu); for some tort of j?("i u^.s : .-;lt.>. l.lut timitidy merely glared at her U)ro:u>!i her eye-glasses in disgust, and v, Lh :\ pinched smile and a i-oiuemptiunis movement of the shoulder: 1 ., walked majestically back toward the h0n;...-. The parlor-maid, trying to Indiscreetly incurious, was standing i ;• the gate, to open it for the vk'ij. to go out. But the lady paused >.o enter into conversation with her: •'..-id Mabin was filled with indigr-.i-r.ion, believing, as she did, that. 'J"j stranger's motives were not above .'■ui.rpicion. And she caught the words which the maid uttered just before the cab drove away with the stranger. "Very, well, my lady." And then she heard Rudolph's voi<v behind hor. I "Well, have you had time to make up your mind?" She started and turned quickly, lie was surprised to see that all traces of teats . had disappeared, and that her face was burning with excitement. "Oh, yes, yes. I- must tell you now! If I didn't I should have to go and confide in Mrs Dale's little dog!" "Well, I'll promise to be quite as discreet." "That cab that you saw drive away had in it a woman who came here to see Mrs Dale, and who told me that I ought to go away and not stay in the same house with her!" "Well?" "Well! Is that all you have to say? Aren't you disgusted? You who pratend to like and admire Mrs Dale so much?" "There is no pretence in it. I do like and admire her very much. But how can you be astonished after the warning you have had?" Mabin looked re him' with wideopen eyes. "I thought," ;jhe said rather coldly, "that you would take her part." "Yes, so I will; so I do. But I don't feel quite sure whether you ought to." "And why not? Why, since I like and pity her, too, shouldn't I take her part, too?" For a few 'minutes Rudolph was silent. "You're a girl," said he at last. "But that's no reason why I should act meanly!" "Ah, well, if it's not a reason, it's an excuse." "I don't think so. I like to stand by my friends. I haven't many; I haven't any I like better than Mrs Dale. So, whatever it is that she has done, I shall stay with her as long as she wants me, and do all I can to prevent these stories getting to papa's and mama's ears." Rudolph looked at her fair face, which was aglow with generous enthusiasm, and smiled in hearty approval. "That's right," said he warmly. "And if people are too much shocked by your daring, why, you can snap your fingers at them all." But at this suggestion Mabin had suddenly turned pale. In truth, she liked Rudolph well enough not to be able to bear a jest on the idea of marriage with him. Naturally, he was surprised and even a little hurt by the abrupt change in her sensitive facs. "Oh, you need not look so frightened," said he, laughing. "I only suggested it as a last resource in case of extremity." "Oh, I know. But—that extremity." "If people think the worse of you for standing by your friend." Mabin drew her tall, slim figure to its full height. "I shouldn't care," said she. "I should snap my fingers at them in any case." Rudolph considered her for a few minutes. It was then that she uttered the words which reached Mrs Dale's ears, and startled while they comforted the unhappy woman: "I don't rare—l don't care what she's done. She ( is a sweet woman, and I love her all the more for having to be preached to by that old cat!" Then she noticed that she and her companion were standing rather near an open window, and she walked quickly back to the lawn and the elm trees. "What old cat?" "Didn't you see her? A tall woman with a face carved in marble. She was driving away as you came back." "I didn't see much of her. Do you know who she is?" ; "No. She's a 'ladyship,' from what the maid said. And she looks like one, which ladyships hardly ever do. That's all I know." (To be Continued.)