THE LADY IN BLACK.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8440, 14 May 1907, Page 2

THE LADY IN BLACK.

1 CHAPTER Xll.—Continued. ?.I ibin sat very still, looking at the gc i-a. "iijt me put your cup down, dear," said Rudolph, who seemed to be subdued by the consciousness of what was in atore for him. A« he took the cup, he managed»to get h Id «>f her hand. "And now, Mabin, what's the matter?'' "Nothing," said she, with a grand air; "una you are treading on my frock." "I beg your pardon* I don't think I was treading on your frock, by the Way. It is the table that is on it." So he went down on one knee, released her dress, and remained in his humble attitude, which brought him too low for her to avoid meeting his eyes, as she would have liked to do. "And, now, Mabin, tell me why you are unkind again so soon." "You had better get up. Mrs Dale might see you," was the icy answer. "Well, and why shouldn't she see me? Mabin, don't behave like this; it isn't worthy of you. I couldn't have thought it possible you would Silk without any cause, as you are doing.'!, "'Without any cause? When Mrs Dale and you were both unkind, making excuses to send me away, and She stopped, afraid of her self-con-trol. Rudolph, taking a seat beside her, went on very quietly: "She was very unhappy; you had said something, without knowing it, which gave her a great shock. She was hardly mistress of herself; you must have seen that." "But why was I to be sent away, like a child, without any explanation? When I had just been doing a very difficult thing, too, to try to help her!" "What wa9 the difficult thing?" "I had called at 'Stone House,' ! and seen this man who calls himself Mr Bank 3, and got him to promise that he wouldn't get into 'The Towers' at night, as ho has done twice, to frighten her." At this, much to her indignation, Rudolph's mouth curved into an irrepressible smile. Mabin sprang up. But before she had fled very far he caught up with her, and insisted on keeping pace with her as she ran towards the house. "Stop, Mabin, and consider. If you run into the house, you will go straight into Mrs Dale's arms; and if you don't, I will send her to your room after you. You had much better 'have it out' with me." So she turned and confronted him fiercely. "Why did you laugh at me?" "I can hardly tell you. No, don't go off again; I mean that the reason is part of a secret that is not mine." "A secret, of course; I know that. A secret which has been confided to you, but which I am not to know." Rudolph was silent. "Can you expect me to be satisfied, to be laughed at and neglected, while you and Mrs Dale exchange confidences, and for-g-get me?" ''Now, Mabin, you are silly, my darling—silly, childish! You have known just as well as I that there was_a secret Somewhere. Can't you be content to wait till the proper time comes for you to be told, instead of behaving like an inquisitive schoolgirl?" Now, this was the very worst sorl of speech he could have made. If Rudolph had not been himself a good deal excited that afternoon by the story which Mrs Dale had confided to his ears he would have exercised a greater restraint, greater choice in his words, and would have given more consideration to his fiancee's jpoint of view, Mabin be came white. "I can wait, certainly," she said, with a sudden change to an extremely qtiiet manner and tone, "for the great secret which absorbed you so deeply. But there is another, a little mystery, which I want to know now; and that is—how a woman who is in the depths of despair at four o'clock, as Mrs Dale appeared to be, can be in the very highest spirits at five? Or is that also a secret which I have to wait to know?" "It's all part of the same story," replied Rudolph humbly, feeling, perhaps that greater demands were being made upon her patience, than was quite fair. "And L can only repeat that you will know everything presently." "And why not now?" "The whole thing Jwas confided to me, and I don't feel |at liberty to say any more, even to you! Surely you can trust me, can trust us both. Why, Mabin, I thought you were so proud of r your loyalty to your frends?" The teara sprang to the girl's fyes. She was giving way and yet feeling all the time that she had not been, well treated, when unluckily she noticed a little movement on the part of her companion, f and looked up quickly enough to see that Mrs Dale, with a mischievous smile on her face, was standing at the door of the house and waving a strip of paper to him as a signal. "Go! Make haste! Mrs Dale wants you !"cried .Mabin bitterly. And, without leaving him time to protest or explain, t she ran away. a That evening passed uncomfortably for both Mabin and Mrs Dale. When they metjat dinner they both showed traces of recent tears on their pretty faces, and both unwisely tried to behave as if nothing had happened to disturb the usual course of things. Mrs Dale did, indeed, make advances toward a modified half-con-,fidence; but it was so abundantly evident tha&she was afraid to saying too /imuch that she repelled rather than .'''encouraged the shy, proud girl. „ Rudolph did not return. This was

By FLORENCE WARDEN. Author of '*An Infamous Fraud," * t JL Teirible Family, ,l "For Love of Jack," "The House on the Marsh," etc., etc.

another sore point with poor Mabin, who ended by persuading herself that Mrs Dale had succeeded in alienating from her the affections of her lover. So that the hours dragged wearily by until bedtime, and both ladies showed an unusual anxiety to get early to bed. Hut next morning there was a change in Mrs Dale's manner; she had lost her feverish high spirits, and was in such a state of nervous irritability that even the sound of Mabin's voice, coldly asking a question at the breakfast table, made her start and flush painfully. Her eyes were heavy; her cheeks were white; there were under her eyes dark lines which told of a sleepless night. Mabin felt sorry for her, and was quite ready to "kiss and be friends." After all, she said to herself, with resignation not unmingled with bitterness, if Rudolph found the lovely widow with the interesting history more attractive than a girl with no fascinating' mystery attached to her, it was not his fault, and it was not surprising. She felt ashamed now of her jealousy and ill-temper of the previous evening, excusable as they had been. And she deliberately made up her mind that, whatever happened, she would take matters quietly; and even if Rudolph deserted her altogether for Mrs Dale, that she would give him up without a murmur, whatever the effort cost her. After all, what was the use, she said to herself with a deep sigh, of trying to keep a man's love against his will? It had been a very fleeting happiness, that of his love; but the superstitious feeling the girl had had about its suddenness made her inclined to accept the loss of it as inevitable; and no one would have guessad, from her calm manner and measured voice, that Mabin was suffering the kjenest sorrow she had ever known. It was Mrs Dale who was reticent to-day. She told Mabin that she expected a visitor that evening, but she did not say who it was. From the fever which ourned in her eyes, and the restlessness which increased upon her as the day went on, the young j girl guessed that some matter of ! great importance was to be discussed or arranged. Was the visitor to be Mr Banks? she asked herself. But she did not dare to put the question to her hostess. One unprecedented occurrence signalized the occasion. The musty drawing-room was tidied up, aired, and prepared for the reception of the visitor. "Do take your work in there, and leave it about, and try to make the place look a little less like a charnelhouse," cried Mrs Dale to Mabin, that afternoon, when they had gone together to inspect the state apartment. "It does look rather dreary, certainly," admitted Mabin. "But it wcgn't look so bad to any one who hasn't been used, like us, to knowing it is always shut up." "That's true. I hadn't thought of that. However, I still beg you to arrange a few flowers here and there, and get a few books and strew them about. And I'll run out and get some bits of copper-beach and bracken to fill those yawning bowls. Flowers would be quite lost in them." "Not the peonies. They would look splendid!" Mabin called out after her, as the widow went out through the French window on to the gravel path outside. It was already late in the afternoon, and, darkened as it was by the trees and shrubs which grew near the large windows, the room was so dimly lighted that Mabin took her work —it was still the cookingapron —to the window. It had required some self-control to take up a piece of work to which such recent memories were attached, and as she sewed, Mabin had great difficulty in keeping back the tears. Here were the Very stitches Rudolph had put in, the very bag on which their fingers had closed together. She felt the thrill of that contact now. And even as she let the apron fall into her lap, while the longfing to hear his voice speak tender words in her ear stirred in her heart, and made it beat fast, she heard his footstep on the gravel outside; she saw him pass the window. Scarcely repressing the cry: "Rudolph! Rudolph!" which rose to her lips, she saw that he was hurrying across the grass] without having seen her. And looking out of the window, she saw that Mrs Dale was standing under the lime-trees, holding out her hand to him with][a smile of greeting. (To be Continued.)