THE STUDENT'S SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8446, 23 May 1907, Page 2

THE STUDENT'S SECRET.

CHAPTER I. A VAIN APPEAL. Upon a certain corner' of an aristocratic street, in a wealthy district of New York, stands a mansion whoss appointments indicate the fastidious tastes and the great wealth of the occupants. It i 3 the home of a gentleman named Julian Grey. Houses, like people, often wear expressions peculiar to themselves. In this residence the lace curtains belted with pale, broad ribbons, the costly bronzes, the vases, the moist, gi'een ' ferns or masses of blooming plants which are seen from the street, are similar to the decorations of other houses in the same neighbourhood. But the general expression is different. Mr Grey is a handsome, courtly man of about forty. His haughty reticence admits rather than denies the romantic gossip and scandalous suspicions that attach to his past. He is said to be a woman hater. His family consists of an only daughter-r-a spirited and stylish girl, whose nume is Sybil. With the exception of Miss Grey's French maid, the servants^of the household are all men. Miss Grey herself has been educated by tutors, and has never been at school. No ladies are ever seen to call at the house. Mr Grey entertains sumptuously. But he entertains only those of his own sex. His life is, for the most, one of seclusion—it may be said of expiation . and regret. His devotion to his daughter is, however, unbounded. It seems as though he forgot his sufferings, and atoned for his sins, in his efforts to render her fate cloudless.

If Sybil Grey is deprived of some 1 common privileges, she is compensated by extraordinary indulgences. Her toilets, her equipages, her saddle horse, are each a little better than most others have. Her father, with his polished manners and cultivated tastes, devotes his life to her amusement and improvement. Like an Indian princess, she has been brought up ignorant that there are sorrow and sin in the world. And Julian Grey insanely believes that he can prevent her from ever discovering their existence. Sybil, at the opening of our story, is just eighteen. Her budding beauty is of the most dazzling and patrician sort. Her mind corresponds with her charming physical attractions. Brown-eyed, With pale gold hair and warm, red lips, moulded like those of Greek goddess; frank, gay, resolute and courageous—she seems dowered for love and for all of life's Jceenejt delights.

Her father's constant study has been to prepare her for perpetual enjoyment, for absolute happiness. If she was wronged by her birth, she shall at least find atonement in a cloudless life. ,

Toward the end of January Mr Grey and his daughter have returned from three months of travel in the South. They have been in Havana, to Flordia, to Washington! Mr Grey cele orates their return with a small dinner party. Only three guests are invited; yet, strange to say, the occasion is one to which the host has looked for(ward for years. The gentlemen invited are Dr. Doremus, an old friend; Mr Charteris a friend still older; and the ■ son of the latter, a young man who has spent ten years abroad, and who returned to his native city at about the time that Mr and Miss Grey sailed for Cuba. Max Charteris and Sybil Grey have never met. Their fathers, who have i long speculated upon uniting them in marriage, have been wise enough to keep them apart up to this time. Mr Grey, who has provided for Sybil's every whim and want, believes that the time has come to give her a young man worthy of her love. He has chosen the son of a friend to whom all his painf dlj past is known, and who, in a European capital, will be able to give the young girl a social position from which she is debarred here.

The father of Max Charteris is equally anxious for the match. With tastes, he is far from wealthy. Besides admiring Sybil's superb beauty and charming character, he is attracted by the immense wpalth which Julian Grey possesses by inheritance. The time has, 'therefore, come for wringing the young pair together, ;md Mr Grey has determined to surround their first meeting with all the glamour and' fascination which will predispose their mutual attraction.

At his request, Sybil is to appear \t dinner in full dress, and, as the clock is on the stroke of seven—the ippointed hour—she is standing before her mirror, while, on the carpet beside her, a French maid is trieeling, making some slight alterition in the drapery of the young ady's skirta. The room is paneled with fluted

atin, the narrow bed, hung rounds vith azure lace, suggests the couch ■I: a goddess draped with clouds. A /bite ground carpet, strewn with cattered daisies, covers the floor. Vax candles set in silver-frosted lundelabras light the scene. On the antel a small bronze clock points to .he hour.

The young girl withdraws her eyes rom the mirror to glance at the lock. '

"Make haste, iSerpolette; make laste!" she exclaims to her maid. I shall not be ready to receive apa's friends; and that would be 'ery annoying. He would be much lii'ipleased—to-night .of all other imes, when be has been so very par.cular that eveyrthing should be immendable." "Monsieur will be still more diseased if you are not gracefully obed, mademoiselle. He said to me,

By MRS W. H. PALMER.

'Serpolette, see that iVLsh Sybil looks her best —my credit is at stake.' " "It seema to me i mi n dressed too mucn for the occasion," .said the young girl. "Only see!—this rich white silk, this garniture of yellow roses, and this sleevel-.-™ corsage, which leaves my arms and bosom so bare." "When one has >i ptrfeet form, mademoiselle, it is proper to display it to the best advantage. Your dress becomes you. Monsieur will be pleased." The woman spoke in a confident tone, while a strange smile played around her thin lips. At this moment the clock struck seven. At the same time the sound of the hall door closing reached their ears. "They have come," .said Sybil, anxiously. "Papa will be vexed with me." "You are ready, mademoiselle," replied the maid, coolly. "You may descend." For a single second Sybil paused. She arched her white throat and cast a final glance at the picture in the glass, at the artistic folds of creamwhite silk, at the clusters of yellow roses, the dazzling shoulders, the swelling bust, the starry eyes, the pale gold-hair, and then went flying down the broad stairs decorated for the occasion with blossoming plants. With her hands on the balustrade she paused at the foot of the stairs, and sent a swift glance into the spacious drawing-room. In a little group stood the three: black-coated guests—Mr Charteris, fat and bald; Dr. Doremus, spare and tall. But Sybil's eyes fastened upon the third member of the group, and a slight j flush stole over her face.

She thought she had never seen so handsome a man as Max Charteris. He was in faultless evening dress. In his button-hole he were a small yellow rose! He was pals, and his large, brilliant, dark eyes wore a rather melancholy expression. A delicate, silky moustache adorned his lip. He stood gazing, with a look of pensive indifference, at a picture on the wall. It was a portrait of Sybil. The young girl recovered from her momentary agitation. She perceived with surprise that her father was not in the drawing room—that there had been no one present to receive the guests.

What could have detained Mr Grey in the library, whither he had retired, with orders not to be disturbed, an hour ago? '

Surely, thought Sbyil, it is at any rate necessary to disturb him now. And she went quietly along the hall, her hand pressed to her heart. "It is very strange," she repeated to herself, "very strange that papa should have forgotten the hour !" The library door was closed. Sybil turned the knob, and it swung back noiselessly on its silver hinges. She entered the room. A drop light was burning on a table covered by a crimson cloth. The fire glowed steadily in the grate. A delicate scent of costly leather, an air of luxurious quiet, pervaded the room. But it was empty. The young girl closed the door be- : hind her and paused. I At that moment she heard a voice. It came muffled, but audible, through | a curtain that .screened a small room I adjoining the library. This was a I room where Mr Grey kept his safe, i and sometimes transacted business, J but where he seldom permitted visitors. Evidently, though, he had one there to-night. The voice which Sybil heard was that of a man. "There comes a time in life when thing 3 get square," he was saying bluntly. "Be wise enough and merciful enough, Julian Grey, to square them of your own free will. I've come to you about my daughter——" He paused a second, laughed a coarse chuckling laugh, and added, "My girl hasn't had many advantages over yourn, but she's got one. Her mother was an honest woman, and my wife —while your dainty Sybil's " "Hush!" exclaimed Mr Grey sternly. "This visit of ours is intolerable. My guests and my dinner are waiting. If I have consented to listen to you on a subject that you say involves more than life and death, I shall not allow you to take up the time with allusions to the past and to the secrets of which accident put you in possession." "Accidents! You talk as if I was a stranger. You forget that I am your blood relation—your second cousin on your father's side " (To be Continued.)

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