Hugh Gretton's Secret.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8472, 25 June 1907, Page 2

Hugh Gretton's Secret.

CHAPTER V.~ Continued. The staunchest of Lady Yclvertoun's admirers hud never been able . to claim for her that indefinable loveliness, that power that comes from the beauty nf the heart. She had ever been cold, imperious, inimitably selfish;goodness, charity, generosity, tenderness had never been associated with the name of this well-known woman of society. It did not take John Bynge two minutes to realize the infinite iniperiorityofthis girl's beauty, mental and physical, to that owned by the mistress she served. "I have not seen you on deck." he said, speaking only with a hazy consciousness of what he was saying, and wondering vaguely what fate it was that awaited this fair and lovely young creature. "I have been busy," Sigrid repeated; a little colour stole into her cheeks. She did not wish to tell him that the (promenade deck had been denied her. "What have you been doing?" John Bynge asked her. She gave him a smile from her eyes and lips. He discovered then that her eyes were nioro akin to the tone of the deep blue-hearted violet than to the blue of the cloudless sky. "I have been helping the doctor in his hospital. He has had several invalids in the Bteerage, one a poor little child who had the misfortune to break her arm very badly. It has been my first experience in nursing," Sig* rid said thoughtfully. "I liked it. 1 believe the doctor is right; and I have avocation for nursing." "It is a hard life, I fear," Byhge said. Like herself, he had a sense of complete acquaintanceship with her; it seemed to him that they knew each other well. Sigrid answered his words almost passionately. "But at least it would be a useful one," she said; and then quickly, very quickly, as if sho regretted having said as much, she spoke about Mr Gretton. "I am very sorry to hear from the doctor that he is so ill," she said. A moment later she added slowly. "It is very silly of me, but I cannot rid myself of the 'feeling that in some way I was the cause of that sudden fainting attack. Perhaps I startled him; he looked frightened I thought." John Bynge's brows met, not in a frown, but in a contracted way significant of worry. Sigrid's words set hia thoughts in a new direction. Assuredly it was true that Gretton had been seemingly quite well, until his attention,had been drawn to the beauty of the approaching girl, and then "It is not possible you could have startled him," he answered, after that little pause. "I fear this illness must have been upon him many days ' before. If any one is to blame for having given him a start it must have been I, for I remember now I attracted his attention rather sharply just the moment before you reached us." Sigrid remained silent a little while. "And his daughter knows nothing. Is that wise?" she asked, rather / - hurriedly. "Not wise, but it is his wish—a dying man's wishi" "It will be hard for her—very hard." John Bynge bent his head affirmatively. Each word she spoke seemed to him fraught with a new charm.' Her sympathy,and feeling for Millicent Gretton was none the less great because it was spoken so quietly. They were standing, not speaking any further, when Dunning, the valet, came hurrying along the deck toward them. There was no mistaking the look on the man's face. John Bynge's heart gave a sudden leap of pain, for he knew the message the servant was bringing before it was spoken. "The doctor will be glad if you will come, sir," Dunning said agitatedly. "There's a sudden change, sir. My master " He could not say the rest easily, for he had served Hugh Gretton faithfully for many years, and he had loved the man. John Bynge only paused to touch Sigrid's hand in a little farewell, then with pale face and a sorrowful heart hastened to the big state-room where he had spent so many hours during the past week,-and which was now the chamber of death.

CHAPTER VI,

"I THINK IT IS BETTER WE SHOULD NEVER MEET AGAIN." The hours that had to pass before the voyage came to an end were sad and anxious ones for John Bynge. It waa he alone who could prevail upon Millicent Gretton to leave her father's body and go to her room for reat and sleep, if possible. The girl's grief was far more intense than even he had anticipated, and the shock was one that he feared would affect her health for many a day to come. He had much to occupy and distress him. As yet he could not clearly ascertain how it was the end had come so suddenly. When, eventually. Millicent had been taken away, and had succumbed to the narcotic the doctor had administered—when night had fallen on the painful excitement of the day, and Bynge found himself able to have an hour or so of quiet as the Columbia was steaming up the Channel, he called Dunning to him, and questioned the man as to all that had happened. The valet had very little to say. "The master was just the same this morning, sir, leastwise it didn't seem to me he was so much weak-

By EPPIE ADELAIDE ROWLANDS. Anther of "SeliHrts Lore Stora," "A Splendid Heart," "Jlrave Jiarbara," "The Temptation of Maru liar," "Ihe Interloper," etc., etc.

ei*, sir," Dunning said, as they paced up and down the deserted deck. "You will remember you hadn't left him very long before I came to find you again. I've been thinking, perhaps, that it was Miss Millicent's coming so unexpectedly upon that lady that gave the poor master a start. But there." the man added, sorrowfully, "he was so weak that it didn't take much, I suppose, to send him off at the last." John Bynge was listening not too intently. He was feeling tired and depressed. The night was dark, and the waters were rougher than they had been for some days. Now and then, far away in the distance, the glimmer of some light from the coast broke the blackness of the night. By early morning they would be almost arrived? He had known that Millie had been actually with her father at the last, but he had not known till now that she had gone there of her own inclination. He had imagined she had been summoned perhaps by the doctor. He roused himself to question further. "Were you there when Miss Gretton came?" he asked. Dunning answered in the affirmative. "Yes, sir, I was sitting, just talking to the master. I've got some writing he made me take down at odd times, sir, when you were not with him. It's to be given to you. sir; it's a sort of will." Dunning explained. Then he went on: "Well, I ,vas sitting there quietly, when Miss Millie pushed open the door and came in. She looked pleased when she saw the master was awake, and she went up to him and kissed him. " 'l've brought you a visitor,' she' said, and then she turned round and asked her ladyship the countess to come in. 'My father ,knows you will excuse all ceremony,' Miss Millie said; and the and said something, and then as she came in, my master jumped up in the berth, sir. and gave an awful cry. It fairly startled me, sir, and that's the truth; and as for Miss Millie and the lady, they were trembling from head to foot. I saw in a minute, sir, that it was something very bad, and I put my arms about him, and sent Miss Millie flying for the-doctor." "And Lady Yelvertoun?" Sir John questioned abruptly, as the servant paused for breath. < "I took no notice of her at the first, sir. I was only thinking of him, and trying to do something to restore him. His eyes were staring before him, and then I saw he was looking at her ladyship, and that she was white as anything, and looking fit to faint at any moment. I made bold to tell her to get out into the air; but she never moved nor spoke till the doctor and Miss Millie came back together, and all was bustle and confusion. I heard afterward, sir, that her ladyship was very much upset, and was obliged to go to her cabin." John Bynge talked a little while longer with the man, arranging everything for the painful business of the morrow, and finding a certain comfort in Dunning's eager desire to help, and in his knowledge of his late master's business connections. It was the valet who gave Sir John the information as to the whereabouts of Gretton's London bankers and lawyers, and who volunteered to go himself and make all necessary arrangements for the interment so soon as the ship was at anchor. "I fancy my poor master would rather rest in some country churchyard.'sir; he had no love for big cities," Dunning said, as "they parted at last. "This should be subject to Miss Gretton's wish, if she is m a condition to discuss the matter," Sir John answered. He remained a long time on the deck after the valet had left him. He felt, even knowing so little as he did, that the mystery of poor Gretton's last illness and swift death lay, to a certain extent, close to his hand. Thought was naturally chaotic with him; he was, moreover harassed and quite overwhelmed by the position in which he found himself. It grieved him to think that Millicent's father should have gone in the way he had, dying with the secret his heart evidently had desired to speak, unrevealed, unuttered. It grieved him further that he should have been away from Hugh Gretton when the last struggle had come, and he found himself wishing more and more that he had been present to note personally the excitement that had, according to Dunning'a statement, seized the sick man when Lady Yelvertoun had entered his cabin. (To be continued.)