Hugh Gretton's Secret.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8467, 18 June 1907, Page 2

Hugh Gretton's Secret.

CHAPTER ll.—Continued. "P3haw! lama fool!" the man said to himself angrily. "After all, why should she remember me? 1 don't believe aha really looked at me once that evening. She simply regarded me as a courteous stranger, who was able to advise her as to the beat train to take to carry her back to New York. Besides, I dare say she ia well used to such attentions. With a face like hers, she must conquer wherever she goes. But still" —and then John Bynge .pulled himself up in his thoughts. "By Jove!" he exclaimed, almost audibly; "Lady Yelvertoun, as I am alive!" His surprise was genuine, and it deepened instantly and became tinged with something liite pleasure when he saw that Sigrid was evidently a travelling companion of the woman he knew so well. He went forward quite eagerly. "Permit me to help you, Lady Yelvertoun," he said, putting out his hands to the tall, grand-looking figure, which was draped about in long, clinging garments, and whose face was completely hidden by a thick veil twisted over the head and round the neck. Lady Yelvertoun, who was leaning heavily on the arm of her man servant, gave a little cry. "Johnßynge!" she said incredulously, and she instantly grasped his hands. "Oh, my dear John, you must have come from Providence! Help me? Yea, indeed, you shall help me. This is altogether the most abominably managed ship I was ever on. Such a rude purser, and such Goths of stewards! lam quite prepared to die before I reach the other side." "That seems to be a premature determination," John Bynge said, with a smile, and as he piloted Lady Yelvertoun safely into a chair which Sigrid had opened and Christine had lined with rugs he suddenly had the pleasure of feeling ' that the girl whom he once had had the chance of slightly befriending, aftd, whose beauty and charms had never wholly faded from his mind now remembered and recognized him. He took off his felt hat eagerly, as Sigrid, colouring again slightly, bent her head in salutation. Lady Yelvertoun saw nothing of this. She was too much occupied in letting herself be comfortably packed in her chair. • "It is the only time I shall use it," she said, pathetically, - to the handsome young man who was attending to her so carefully, "and I should not be here now, only those idiots have made a mistake in my state-room, and I am driven on deck till everything is arranged. Realty, why I allow myself to cross the ocean in the reckless way Ido is something I have never yet explained to myself!" "I feel convinced you are not going to be ill this time," Bynge said very cheerily. "You must try to get out every day. There is nothing so health - sustaining as the air, you know." He did not seat himself,, although Lady Yelvertoun's delicate white hand, glistening with jewels, invited him to a chair. How could he sit while that slender, girlish figure was still standing, waiting for orders, it almost seemed? Lady Yelver toun was bombarding him with questions. Was he travelling alone? Where had he been? Where was he going? What news of his home people? Was it true that his old uncle, General Bynge, had left him a fortune? Was he going to settle down now in England? etc. etc. "And why have you never written ' tome, pray, all this time?" was the last query. "Draw forward that chair, John, and tell me everything about yourself." "There is so little to tell," the man said, with a laugh. He felt himself growing awkward. He could not bring himself to sit as he was commanded while Sigrid still stood, so beautiful, so quiet, so full of dignity. How was it possible to associate so noble a young creature as this with a menial position? And yet—if she were not in such a position, why was she treated by Lady Yelvertoun in such a curious way? The older woman, as if divining his feelings, turned her head. "I do not want you," she said to Sigrid, her voice utterly cold and suddenly hard. "You had better go and assist Christine." The girl moved away instantly, just bending her head almost haughtily once again in response to John Bynge's courteous lifting of his hat, and she was gone before Lady Yelvertoun spoke again. The voice was now, as it had been , before, silvery and sweet-toned; the laughter was the laugh of a young woman, and the eyes and teeth that gleamed through the thick veil might have belonged to a girl. I Yet Lady Althea Yelvertoun was - no girl, as John Bynge well knew; she was only a splendid example of well-preserved womanhood, and though she might have passed and did pass frequently, for a woman of t thirty years, and indeed less, she e wag, as a matter of fact, the possess- f ov of v. -wl fifteen years or more .Ov'ei' th hiy/ Het beauty was by this date a theme which Bynge and other men of his social standing knew well. It had been the fashion of many seasons 1 past now to worship at the shrine of t the Countess of Yelvertoun. wife, t mid how widow, of the well-known old statesman of that name and inheritor of almost all his vast wealth. 8 It had been prophesied, Bynge re- f membered, as he at last drew up a Chair, and sat down, feeling a strange void and vanishing of some pleasux*e as Sigrid disappeared, that Lady Yelvertoun would not long remain a Widow, yet the earl had died some

By EFFIE ADELAIDE ROWLANDS. Author of' t( Selina'v Love Story, ,f {< A Spleudid IJc(ivt f ,f "Brave Barbara"The Temptation of Mart/ Bar," "Ihe Interloperetc., etc.

four years ago, and though she had said nothing on the subject, the young man knew that she was a widow still. f He did his best to chat and amuse her for the next haif-hour, but his attention was not wholly rivetfid on , his companion. He was waiting to see if Sigrid would return. Lady Yelvertoun had elicited from him the fact that he was travelling with some friends. "I don't think you will be likely to have met them," he said. "Their name is Gretton. I became acquainted with them in 'Frisco. Mr Gretton has amassed an enormous fortune in Australian mines, and is now on his way to England to settle there, for his daughter's sake. Miss Gretton is a nice girl, bright, pretty, and unaffected. I should like to introduce you to them, if I may." Lady Yelvertoun was graciousness itself. "Delighted to know any friend of yours," she said cordially; "and equally delighted to do anything for these particular friends, if it is in my power. Have they settled on an English home, I wonder?" "I fancy not." Sir John answered. "Mr Gretton prefers to make personal investigations before investing in property, rather than trusting the matter to agents. In which I cordially agree. I am sure they will be most grateful to you, dear Lady Yelvertoun, for your kindness. Miss Gretton being motherless, and quite new to England, will, I know, be only too glad to have so powerful and valuable a friend as you can be." Lady Yelvertoun smiled. "I must meet this pretty girl," she said. "I mean to settle in town for the next few months. lam tired of wandering about. Of course, I shall run backward and forward to "Storr, but London will be my headquarters. '' Then she laughed. ''l hope you are not in love with this little Australian heiress, John?" she said quizically; "for I am really on the search for just such a delightful person. My nephew, Yelvertoun, must marry money, you know, and no doubt she will not be averse to a title; but if you are in love with " "Oh, be quite at rest on that point," John Bynge said, rising, with a heightened colour. "I am not in love with anybody,, Lady Yelvertoun. May Igo and see if I can find Gretton? I know it is no use looking for his daughter, for she told me she was going to shut herself up in her cabin; but I should like to bring Gretton to you, if I may." "By all means," Lady Yelvertoun said, with a smile. And the next moment he was striding along the wet deck toward the companion way, and the saloon. The man he as looking for was just passing out on the deck as they arrived. He was a worn gray-haired man, with fine eyes. Without being young or handsome, and despite the evidence of unmistakable ill-health, Mr Gretton was an undeniably distinguished and attractive man. "Millie is incorrigible," he said, greeting Bynge with a laugh. "She is determined to be ill, and she will be ill, boxed up in that cabin. Where are you off to?" John Bynge explained his quest. "I have met another friend on board, an Ei%lish lady, whom I am sure you will like, and I want to introduce you to her. Will you come now? She is only a few yards away and " And here Sir John broke off. His eye was caught by Sigrid's figure as she passed, half wearily, up the broad companion stairs toward where they stood. He touched Gretton on the arm. "1 want you to look at this girl's face, and tell roe if you have ever seen anything more beautiful," he hurriedly whispered. Mr Gretton turned obediently, and at that moment Sigrid lifted her face, and her big gray eyes met and held his for an instant. The man seemed to-shiver suddenly throughout his| frame, his right hand was outstretched to the advancing girl, and a sobbing gasp, or sigh, broke from his lips, followed by whispered words which were unintelligible to John Bynge. As Sigrid advanced slowly, conscious, yet unconscious, of the effect she was producing on this middleaged man, Bynge felt his companion reel and fall heavily against him, and before he could recover from his surprise, or Sigrid from her alarm, the figure of Hugh Gretton had sunk out of the younger man's grasp and lay unconscious at their feet. (To be continued.)