Hugh Gretton's Secret.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8468, 19 June 1907, Page 2

Hugh Gretton's Secret.

By EFFIE ADELAIDE ROWLANDS. Author of "SeUnas Lore Story," "A Splendid Heart" "Brave Barbara," "The Temptation of Mttri/ Bar," "Ihe Interloper," etc., etc:

CHAPTER 111. SIGRID QUESTIONS HER MISPRESS. The quick flush of colour brought to Sigrid's doiicate cheeks at the harJ, keen scrutiny of Mr Gretton's eye i faded away instantly, as she saw the deathly pallor of unconsciousness steal over his face, and then realized that some sudden illness had stricken him down at her very feet. She clasped her hands together in an involuntary way, a low, shocked, and pained exclamation leaving her lips almost like a sigh. John Bynge was no less startled than she. He had instantly knelt down beside his friend, and had lifted the pale.set face, and rested the head on his knee before any one else could offer any assistance. That there were many other -such offers goes without saying, when it is remembered at what a public corner this strange fainting-fit had come upon Mr Gretton. The doctor and several of the stewards were on the spot in a moment, and the unconscious man was carried instantly into into his capacious deck stateroom, only a few yards away, John Bynge being in close attendance. He found time to murmur a few words to Sigrid as he moved away. "I am afraid you have been much frightened," he "said hurriedly, but with great tenderness in his voice, for the girl's bewildered look and startled gray eyes hurt him vaguely; "but it is really nothing, a mere fainting-fit. My frfend is not a strong man; he has been out of health for some time. I am so sorry you should have come just at that moment. He took me by surprise too, I must confess," Sir John added frankly, "for he gave no indication of feeling ill till just at the time you were coming up the steps." Sigrid thanked him in a soft, gracious way. "I was a little frightened," she said, and from the tremor in her voice he saw her agitation was not passed; "but he—looked—so grayso dreadfully ill—l was afraid—it—it was death. But please do not let me keep yuu; you may be wanted." John Bynge moved away obediently. He was still troubled about this illness of Gretton's, for, though their friendship was of no great length, he already knew enough of the older man to like and esteem him exceedingly. Yet, troubled as he was, he could not be insensible to a touch "f pleasure in that the ice had been broken between himself and the girl who interested him so keenly. "She is really a most beautiful creature!" he said to hmself, as he paused involuntarily and watched Sigrid pass down the deck to where Lady Yelvertoun was sitting. He remembered quickly then what had completely passed from his mind, that Lady Yelverton would be waiting for him to return and effect the introduction of Mr Gretton. "As soon as I have seen him better, I must go and explain," he said to himself, as he turned into Mr Gretton's cabin. Sigrid meanwhile had wended her way to where that long, regal-look-ing figure lay so grandly on her deckchair. Lady Yelvertoun turned her head as the girl came up to her; hei eyes looked the question she did not ask. "Everything has been arranged as you wished," Sigrid said, her voice, manner, and whole bearing every whit as cold as the other woman's. "Shall you require me to be with you in the saloon, or will you have your luncheon Served in your own cabin?" "I have not made up my mind!" Lady Yelvertoun said sharply, and yet with an accent of indescribable indifference, amounting almost to contempt; "but," she added, an instant later, "you will not take your meals with me. You will eat with Christine on this voyage." Sigrid's face flushed a little. She said nothing, only bent her head as if in assent. ,Lady Yelvertoun's big gleaming eyes were fixed on the girl's loveliness with a fixedness which had something strange in it. "I think too, you had better arrange to sit as much as possible in your cabin, and walk on the second-class dcek," she said, when she spoke next. "The list of passengers is very full, I find, and there will hardly be a convenient place for you up here." Sigrid was now no longer flushed; a grim look had settled on her face. She stood perfectly still for a few moment? as Lady Yelvertoun's last words ceased; indeed, so long did she stand that the older woman looked round impatiently. "You need not wait; I do not require you for the moment," she said sharply. Still Sigrid did not move. She stood very erect, a tall, graceful figure in her thick brown ulster. "I wish to ask you a question, Lady Yelvertoun," she said, with a coldness in her voice that robbed it of its natural music. The elder woman looked round haughtily, and their eyes met. A sort of challenge was given and exchanged in that one glance. "I wish to know," Sigrid said, her heart beginning to beat so quickly that the iron despair and coldness in ner voice was broken a little, "I wish to know if it will be convenient to you to pay me the salary due to me these past two years, and permit me to leave your service as soon as the boat reaches England." There was ajchoked sound—a touch as of an aching pain—in the ghi's voice. Lady Yelvertoun's hands, lying ungloved" just within the shelter of the rug, were uplifted at this moment, and theirfrewelled whiteness went toward the thick veil that shrouded her

face. Sigrkl watched those slender, heavily ringed fingers as in a dream. She had grwown to hate those two slender and most lovely hands; they were to her synonymous with everything that was hard, tryannical, unwomanly; they were so eloquent in their every gesture, and they spoke now as clearly as any words the extent of their owner's anger and annoyance. "Again!" exclaimed Lady Yelvertoun, as the veil was flung back, and her handsome, regular features, with her marvellous and widely famed blue eyes shining as clear and hard as sapphires from under her straight brows, were revealed. "Again! Must I be perpetually annoyed in this way?" She paused a moment. "I have no answer to give to your two questions," she said, curtly, when she spoke again, "for the very good reason that I. do not recognise your right to question me at all. You speak as tho"gh you were an independent person, whereas you are nothing of the kind! You belong to your aunt, Hannah Carleton! It is she who draws your salary; and she has placed you with me; therefore, .it is to your aunt you must take your grievances. Please be so good as to understand, once for all, I cannot, and will not, permit you to address me on this matter again." Sigrid's big gray eyes were full of fire and beauty at this moment. "What pretence is this you perpetually play with me, Lady Yelvertoun?"'she asked, not hotly, but in a 1 strained, forced way. "You forget I am no longer the child I was when Hannah Carleton took me away from the convent. You seem to ignore the fact that I have a brain, a mind, a heart!—and you dictate to me as though I were something lower than a slave. I beg you now to clearly understand that I neither recognise Hannah Carleton's claim upon my services nor your insistence to keep me bound to you by laws which are as mysterious as they are objectionable. You have some reason —of what nature I cannot even guess—for keeping me in my present position. You have no need of me! You do not attempt to hide your dislike of me," Sigrid said, her voice becoming more hurried here; "and. taking every circumstance into consideration, I feel I am justified in demanding my release from my life of dependence on you and on Hannah Carleton." There was a faint smile on Lady Yelvertoun's face as Sigrid's long, hurried speech came to an end. "How impressively one is taught the folly of doing good in thi world," she said, after a moment's silence, and she spoke musingly, as if the speech were made to herself, not to another. Then she turned languidly to Sigrid. "All the wrongs you are suffering will no doubt be requited you by the proper person to do this—your aunt. When we have arrived at Storr, you shall speak to Hannah as you have spoken to me; the matter will rest in her hands. Now I desire you to leave me, and I further desire that you will not come near me for the remainder of the voyage. I shall suffer quite enough without being annoyed by your ingratitude and insolence!" Sigrid paused a moment; the beauty of her face at this juncture was so great that Lady Yelvertoun's eyes seemed riveted on the girl as though magnetized by the picture of such wonderful loveliness. The next instant Sigrid had turned on her heel and had passed away, and Lady Yelvertoun lay and looked after her with an expression which was unfathomable, and which gave an old, hard look to her handsome face. She was smiling graciously enough, however,ja little later, as John Bynge threaded his way back to her. The day had become less gloomy, and though the wind was cold and strong there was no rain, and there were even fitful attempts at golden gleams from the December sun, which,was but a poor pretence of (its summer self. The figure of Liberty had dwindled into a sort of doll in the distance, and Staten Island was being left far behind. The Columbia was now fairly started on its ocean journey, and there was to be'no time lost in the passage to Southampton. Sir John had to make a long explanation to Lady Yelvertoun. "It was really the most extraordinary thing," he said. "I was just bringing Gretton up to you when he was seized with this sudden heart attack. I thought it was nothing more or less than an ordinary fainting-fit, an exaggerated beginning, perhaps, to a heavy attack of mal-de-mer; but I am sorry to say the doctor, finds it more serious." (To be Continued.)