A SENSATIONAL CASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9178, 29 August 1908, Page 2

A SENSATIONAL CASE.

By FLORENCE WARDEN.

■Author o! " in Black," "An Infamous Fraud," "For Love of Jack," Terrible Family," "The House on the Marsh," etc. etc.

CHAPTER XVII.- Continued

Netelka hesitated to take the girl with her to Aunt Mary's, since Lady Kenslow's susceptibilities would certainly be offended by the introduction to her of a young lady with untidy hair, a shabby jacket, and no gloves. Some of these defects might be set right, certainly. But there would remain enough of the untamed savage about poor Jem's manner and appearance to produce a bad impression upon the calm-mannered, carefully dressed woman of the world. To think a way out of the difficulty, Netelka took the young girl to the book-stall, and considered the situation while her eyes ran mechanically over the covers of the current literature of the day. A hissing whisper from Jem made her start. "That gentleman over there knows you, I'm sure!" murmured Jem. Netelka was conscious that she blushed, and that her breath came more quickly. The main incidents of the trial flashed into her mind, and, without looking at the man indicated by Jem, she walked away in the opposite direction. Jem was surprised. "You didn't look at him!" said she, as she came up with Netelka. "Why do you walk away like that? I'm sure he isn't a stranger; he must be some old friend. And he has a nice face," she added ingeniously. "Oh," said Netelka, with an affectation of indifference, v"I don't want 'to be delaved now by talking to any old friends. I—l " She stammered, and stopped in hexspeech, and the colour suddenly left her face, even to her lips. "Netelka! Netelka! Ah, I was sure it was you!" Instinctively Jem fell back a step as the stranger came up, for there was something in hia v6ice which told her that this was not an ordinary meeting between two old acquaintances. "Hugh!" faltered Netelka. And there came up from her heart to her lips a very faint cry, only just loud enough to reach the ear 3 of the man himself and Jem, but plaintive enough to bring tears to the young girl's eyea by its note of bitter pain. CHAPTER XVIII. LOVE-SECRETS. Jem retreated discreetly to the book-ataJJ, and read the titles of the various papiiff*, \vhilt? at the same time she took in, by f? la nc<;s, every detail of t'nS &£#taranfle u* e i unknown gentleman who called Mrs I Billiard by her Christian narrie, and j whom she called by hia. I

. \yaa ft man, with a bronzed and ruddy complexion, fair hair, touched with gray about the ears, and ;r,ild blue ey He was about five-and-thirty years of bge, but looked older, and he had the undefinable and unmistakable bok of one who has been "roughing it" ior ■ a long period. "This is lucky,'' said he, with the slight hesitation of one who is not sure that he has got the right word. "1 thought—l don't know why I thought so, but I did think—that you were up in the North still. You are married, are you not?" "Yes," answered Netelka briefly; "didn't you know?" She turned her face quickly up toward his, full of «nxiety. "Well, yes, I did know that. But I want to know a lot more. Are you happy?" He looked searchingly down into her face, and Netelka bushed uneasily a? she felt that he read in her eyes a truer answer than her lips gave him. , "Hapfjy! Of course I am. Did you ever know me to be anything else?" i "In the old days—no," said Hugh Thorndyke sentimentally. He had been in love with Netelka in those old days, but had gone away without asking her to be his wife, because he had believed her to cw a coquette, who flirted with him as she did with half a dozen others, without heart enough to care much for any one of them. And, before h j had made up his mind whether lie should write to her or not, the brief mention of her marriage had reached him. / "Well, the new days are the same as the old as far as I am concerned," said Netelka, with an assumption of flippancy. "I am happy, because I never intend to be anything else. A::d you—how are you getting on? Are you married, too? Have you left for good thy bush, or the Colorado mines, or wherever it was you were? 1 really mustn't stop to ask questions now, f am in such a hurry; but, still I should like to hear as much as \ou can tell me about youra'ilx in about twelve words." 2f"Thank you',' said Hugh, rather dryly. "I :ame back from Bsputoland last week, and I am not married, and I think that's all you wanted to know." She held out her hand. "It isn't half what I wanted to know," she said, "but it's all I have time to h2ar. I hope we shall meet again." "Thank you," Paid Hugh again, evidently both hurt and offended. "1 dare say we shall. You live in London?" "Oh, no,"said Netelka quickly, "1 live a long way oft. But, of course, everylndy is always coming to Lon don; it's the rendezvous of the world, isn't itY' "Yes, I suppose so." He had let bar go; when suddenly, as she rejoined Jem, his longing to know something more of the fortunes of 'he woman he still loved made hi in swalhw his offended pride and run after h«tv The offended pride was, however, still to be noticed in his tone. "I heg your pardon. Am I too presumptuous, or may I know the name of your husband? I never heard

it." She was trembling violently, and she answered in such a breathless way that Jem glanced at her with eyes full of furtive inquiry. "Oh, of course, I forgot to tell you. Hilliard —my name is Billiard now. What shall I do with you, dear?" she went on, to Jem. "Oh, you needn't do anything with me. If you can't take me with you, I ca njust get into the next train and go bac< home." "But you'll get lost, 1 know you will. You say you always do." Hugh Thorndyke, standing a few steps away, came forward. "Let me relieve you of your responsibility, and see this young lady to her train," said he. Jem showed so much willingness that Netelka, much against her will, had to introduce them. She did not want Hugh to know where she lived. ! So she despatched Hugh to the book-ing-office to get Miss Collingham a ticket, and seized the opportunity of saying to Jem: — "Don't tell Mr Thorndyke where I live, or anything about me. I don't want him to come down, as I'm sure he and my husband wouldn't get on well together." Jem tuok in this injunction with the alert interest of a young girl who finds herself upon the trail of a romance. So Netelka got into a hansom, -leaving Jem and Hugh Thorndyke together. He was very much attrated by the pretty, shy face of the young girl, and he was quite glad to find that she had just mis3ed her train, and would have nearly an hour to wait for the next. Jem, on the other hand, felt nothing but embarrassment, being sure that this dis-tinguished-looking man with the quiet manners must think her a great bore. "Please don't wait," said phe, in tones of distress, as he walked up and down beside her; "I don't at all mind being by myself now that I know which platform to go to." "If that means that I'm a nuisance, of course I'll take myself off without delay," said Hugh gravely. "But if it doesn't —•—" "Indeed, it doesn't," interpolated Jem with great fervor. , "Then I'd very much rather stay, if I may." "Of course you may stay if you like, and I shall be very glad. But I don't like to take up your time—a man's time is so much more valuable than a girl's—and, besides, I am not good at conversation. Everybody says so, and I always bore people." "Well, wouldn't it be a feather Jll Ca P> then, if I could manage U pass fl f 11 " three-quarters of an hour iviih yGu wltfconc Dei»& 1 ."should realjy like to try. And in ths meantime you might tell me where you got the preposterously extravagant notion that a man's time is more valuable than a girl's," "Oh, well, It ought to be; that's what I meant. There are so many more things a man can do." "Many more ways of getting into mischief, perhaps?" "Yes, I think that, too," said Jem. "And you think time is valuable that is spent in getting into mischief?" "To the people who enjoy that occupation, I suppose it is," said Jem. And then, unconsciously, she sighed. (To be cdntinjed.)