A SENSATIONAL CASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9173, 22 August 1908, Page 2

A SENSATIONAL CASE.

CHAPTER XIV. NETELKA'S FLAN. When Netelka had taken off her hat and came down, dressed for dinner, she found Arthur and Sam, in a stat; of the wildest spirits, in tha urawing-roorn. She could hear Arthur's boisterous laugh, indeed, long before she reached the rooms. As she entered, the two rushed up to her, both talking at once, and laughing so much at the same time that they were at first quite unintelligible. Then they became suddenly silent, and bowed their heads low before her. "Why. what have you done to yourself?" asked Netelka, conscious that there was some difference in t;ieir appearance besides that caused by their,each wearing an enormous bouquet of hothouse flowers as a buttonhole ornament. After a little more spasmodic laughter, they drew her attention to the fact that they had curled their hair. "And I shouldn't like to have to do it every day, like you ladies," said Arthur. "I've burned my fingers, and I've singed my hair." "But why did you do it?" asked Netelka, whom the young men had infected with their own merriment. "Well, you see," said Sam, "we couldn't stand being cut out by that fellow Waller. He stole a march upon us by going to church, so we thought we would have recourse to more worldly arts to make an impression." "And we trust," said Sam, drawing himself up and linking his arm in Arthur's with the air of a man who has distinguished himself, "that we have succeeded. Waller may be better than we are, but can \ou honestly say that he is handsomer?" They both struck attitudes of affected elegance, and Netelka, who had begun on that day to remember that she was young, laughed till she cried. In the midst of their mirth, Netalka pretently observed that a slight change came over the faces of the two young men. It wa« not a very great change, nor a very definite one, but it was sufficient to cause her to make a sudden effort to recover her gravity. Turning away from them in oruer the better to effect this, she saw that I her husband had entered the room. And instantly their laughter died I away. Yet she did not know why. The fun they had been enjoying was of the moßt innocent, not to say childish kind, and Linley was certainly no Puritan. But there waa something in his personality, whether it was excessive refinement or acdateness, for some other factor adverse to laughter. His presence seemed to dry up the springs of merriment, and to remind them all unpleasantly that they were making foois of themselves. ,• J It seemed that he felt this, and was annoyed by it. '•Well, what's jthe matter? I'm not a bogey, am I? Go on, go on!" said he irritably. "There's nothing to go on with," exclaimed Arthur. "Sam will make an ass of himself, and he's just getting over it, that's all." But they were sobered, and Linley knew it, and only the entrance of Harrington Moseley and Gjrard Waller prevented him from becoming j rather disagreeable. i "We're not going to be shuffled off to the smoking-room to-night—-that is, ivjt if you will have anything to say to us," said Arthur to Neta'ka. "You will have us to amuse ts well as Waller." Netelka agreed to this, although she was afraid of meeting some oppofition, or at least disapprobation from Moseley. She was astonished and puzzled to find, however, that ■both the Jew and Linley seemed well satisfied with the arrangement. Netelka, therefore, was not left long alone in the drawing-room after dinner. The three young men fallowed her very quickly, but without either her husband or the Jew. "Aren't the others coming?" asked she, when she could make herself heard during a moment's cessation of Arthur's boisterous talk and laughter. "No, we've got a blessed respite," explained Arthur. And then he blushed and stammered, and drew attantion by his clumsy confusion to the awful mistake he had made, ot which ho had been reminded by a surreptitioiH thump on the back frdm Sam. "I—l mean," he explained neatly, "that--that I —that we shall enjoy tneir society all the more aftjrward, if—if they don't make themselves too cheap now." And then Arthur retired into the background and rolled up his eye-.. " Well, what are you goim* to do?" asked "Can you aina?" "I can," replied Arthur quickly, "'at l-:avt I can sing as well as I can do anything else. AnJ I like singinar " "Because it enables yon to bawl oven louder tb:m when you are talking," Gerard finished for him. Never mind, you may sing. It will take you off our hands." "But it will take Mi-3 Milliard off your hands, too," r.'Sorted Arthur serenely, "because I can't play my own accompaniments." Th(y passed an even'rg which Nj!elka lound curiously pleasant, considering the inttllectui'.l aid artistic level at which both music and c-nivtr ■ sation ware kept by the presence of Arihur, who bawled sentimental songs, >o his own enlir-j satisfaction, in a voice hoar.-ie with smoking. He had obtlined permission for them to smol e, and he did not scruple to paufe even in the middle of a word for a puff at his eigare .te. "It's ever so much jollier than it

By FLORENGE WARDEN. Author of " The Lady in Black," "An Infamous Fraud," "For Love of Jack," "A Terrible Family," "The House on the Marsh," etc. etc.

used to be two years ago to come down here," Arthur remarked, when they were bidding Netelka good night. "There used to be such a rackety lot down here," pursued he, taking no notice of the derisive laughter of Sam and Gerard. "One couldn't enjoy oneself quietly like this; it was all caids, cards, cards, and losing one's money from morning till night, and night till morning again. Whenever you like to have me clown here, Mrs Milliard, I don't mind coming. I can't say more than that, can I?" "Shut up, Arthur, if you can't express yourself better than that," said Sam loftily. Gerard Waller, who had been enjoying himself more quietly than the rest, got a word with Netelka while the other two had a short altercation. "I never enjoyed myself so much in my life," he said simply. "You make the place what a home ought to be, but never is, as far a<* I can make out. I may come down again on Saturday, may I not?" "Why, yes, I thought that was S3ttled," answered Netelka. "I'm looking forward to it quite as you say ycu are, I assure you." "I—l—l " stammered Waller, and stopped. Before he could get any further with his broken sentence, Linley and Harrington Moseley came in, and everybody grew a little more prim of manner and conventional of speech. "Now, mind," said Netelka, imperiously, in a low voice to Waller, "you are to make these boys £o off to bed without any card-playing, you understand?" "Your wishes are commands, madam," replied Waller, with a burlesque solemnity which allowed her to see that she would be obeyed. The next morning the whole party, including Linley, went up to town, and Netelka missed them dreadfully. It was hardly her fault that she did not miss her husband more than the others. Linley was, however, particularly affectionate to her at parting, and Harrington Moseley expressed to her his conviction that her "gentle feminine influence" would be the salvation of the three young men, and particularly of Gerard Waller, who was, he added, with a solemn shake of the head, "on the highroad to ruin." Netelka shivered, and watched them all drive away in the cab, which had been ordered for the purpose, with a painful uneasiness. The Jew's words, if they had been uttered by any one else, would have given har unmixed pleasure; coming from him, they filled her with suspicion. She had never liked or trusted Harrington Moseley; she was sure he was making "a good thing" out of the extravagance of these young men. What was the reason, then, for his being so delighted, as she felt sure he was, at her keeping them from the cards? (To be continued.)