A SENSATIONAL CASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9184, 5 September 1908, Page 2

A SENSATIONAL CASE.

By FLORENGE WARDEN. Author o£ " in Black," "An Infamous Fraud," "For Love of Jack," "A. Terrible Family," "Tho House on tlie Marsh," etc. etc.

CHAPTER XXll.—Continued. Gerard had been seized by the major and forced to sit down to cribbacce with him. He now jumped up hastily, with an apology, being just as anxious to see Hugh as Hugh was to see hirn. Of course, both he and Jom had maintained a discreet silence as to the scene which had just taken place at "The Firs." Major Collingham laid his hand imperiously upon the young man s arm and insisted on his resuming his seat. "We will have your friend in, said hb urbanely. "Sybil, my dear, run down and ask Mr Waller's friend to come in." Waller protested that it was too late, and that they would be keeping Mrs Collingham up; but neither the major nor his wife would hear any objection. They liked to be kept up> they said; they wished they had the chance of it every night. The fault of their lives was that there was no One to keep them up, and nothing to require them to stay up. So Hugh Thorndyke, looking rather haggard and harassed, and unlikely to add to the general liveliness, walked in and was introduced. He thawed a little under the influence of Mrs Collingham's effusive kindliness. It struck his simple soul with aur prise that she should be so very grateful for the service he , had rendered to the young lady whom she called her "little girl"; for he had not taken to heart Netelka's remarks about the Collingharns, and he certainly never suspected the vivacious woman of a wish to throw her stepdaughter at the head of a man of whom she knew nothing. Mrs Collingham, nevertheless, had really conceived the notion that this good-looking stranger, whom she guessed to be well off from some remarks he had made to Jem, would "do very well" for her stepdaughter. So she contrived to leave the entertaining of the visitor to Jem, while the major and Gerard went on with the everlasting cribbage. and _ she pottered about in her airy and frivolous manner, which suggested anything rather than the deliberate plan it concealed. "Jem, my dear, show Mr Thorndyke those photographs of Swiss scenery," said Mrs Collingham, as she toyed with a tidy on one of the chairs, and then proceeded to hover about the fire with the tongs. "Don't you adore Swiss scensry, Mr Thorndyke?" "Yes, yes; oh, indeed, I do," answered Hugh mechanically. And Jem, who had carried a huge album of photographs across the room to a little fragile erection of sticky white knickknackery called a "cozy-corner," suddenly bowed her head in a fit of laughter. Hugh promptly sat down beside her. "Are you laughing at mo, Miss Collingham?" Ashamed of her own merriment, Jem looked up with a perternaturally solemn red face. "Oh, no, no," she hastily answered, throwing open the album with suih awkward haste + .hat it cracked and threatened to divide into two parts. "Mind what you are doing, said Hugh/ gently. See you've almost broken the back of the book." "I wish to goodness I could!" said Jem viciously, as she invited him, with a sweeping gesture of her right hand, to admire the first picture she offered to his gaze. "You're the one thousand and eighth person to whom I've shown this wretched book. I always have to do it, because 1 cpn't do anything else!" she said despairingly, under her breath. I know all the pictures, by heart, and could find any one of them blindfold. And I know what you will say, or at least what you ought to say —what everyone else says, to every one "of them !" "Then I needn't say anything," said Hugh, with a great sigh of relief. "I've never been in Switzerland, and don't want to go there, because I've an idea that it's chiefiy inhabited by curates. Not that I have any objections to curates, but to meet them in llocka, like that, I c .n wait patiently until I get to a better world." A little smile hovered about the corners of Jem's mouth, but she gravely said: "It's lucky mama didn't hear you say that. She would think you flippant. Curates are so useful in the suburbs; you know they're the only gentlemen you can get to come to While Hugh laughed, Jem put her hand into her pocket and produced her purse. "I'm going to pay you for those gloves," she said, in a delightful whisper, a etill more delightful blush. "Gloves! Oh, what nonsense!" cried Hugh, in stupid, stentorian tones, which, of course made everybody turn round and look at him. YVhile this happened, Jem nat rigid and pale as death, after tho manner of self-conscious, shy younir girls, to whom the important matters of life are but as trifles and dreams, while trie trifle.? ard elevated to tire ranx of tragedies. "It's not nonsense," she saiJ, in a nissing whisper, with dilated eyes. "You mu.it let me pay for them. I I shall feel so mean if you don't! As if I had left my purse at home on purpose!" "I don't care what you feel," said Hugh, obstinately. "I don't enre a straw for anybody's feelings but my own. And those feelings are feelings of delight in having taken down your pride and made'yqu accept a pair of gloves from 'that ' superior creature, man!" ,Q<J if? i" "I didn't say man was a superior creature, protested Jem spiritedly. "You politely implied it, when you said a man's time was so much more valuable than a woman's. Or was it —ah, I haven't thought of that!—

, only a neat phrase, intended to get rid of me?" "Perhaps that was it," said Jem demurely. "If so, it was a failure, you must admit that," remarked Hugh, with composure. "In the meantime, persisted Jem, as she put a half-crown down on the open album, and a two-shilling piece on that, and a sixpence on the top, and pushed the pile toward him, "in the meantime, I will pay for the gloves." "In the meantime," said Hugh, putting his hands in his pockets, "I wont let you. I want to make Waller jealous." Jem's face clouded. "I wish you could, she said ingeniously. Hugh looked at her sweet young face with a very tender smile upon his lips. "Don't you know," said he, in a voice very little above a whisper, "that there isn't one man in a thousand who is worth being cared for like that?" He was rather surprised by the promptitude and aptness of her answer. "That may be," said she. "But if we think he is, what does it matter? Now, I think Mr Waller is; and I suppose you yourself would admit that he is quite as worthy of that wonderful treasure, my liking as any other man you know?" "Why, no, he isn't," protested Hugh, "because he doesn't appreciate it, while most others do." Jem looked grave. "I should think less of him than I do," said she, "if he could think of ine when there is poor Mrs Hilliard to think about!" Hugh looked astonished. "What, 'the married woman'?" "Yes," said Jem deliberately. "I should never be jealous of Netelka; I love her too much. If she were unmarried, Mr Waller would marry her, and they would be happy, and I should be glad. As it is, his devotion does no harm to anybody, and it helps to make her life bearable, poor i thing!" Hugh could scarcely believe his ears. He did not feel sure that he was not even rather shocked. "lam afraid I can't agree with you," said he. rather shortly. "I think his attachment is a most unfortunate thinsr for both of them, and I'm going to do my best to put an end to it." Jem's innocent eyes saw only one thing in this view of the matter. "You are jealous," said she. Now, this accusation, bold and unexpected, annoyed Hugh greatly. It hurt his self-love, both because it came from the mouth of a charming girl, and because it imputed to him a motive which he had not suspected. He rose, and said, with the least possible stiffness in his tone, that he must really take Waller away before the milkman came round. Waller, who had finished the last game somewhat sleepily, jumped up with eagerness, and the two friends got away, and at last found a chance of being alone. It was just outside the gates of "Tho Firs" that they stood for a few minutes, before bidding each other good night. Waller was rather cold, not being able to forgive Hugh for the pain the latter had inflicted on Netelka, and for the aspersions which lie had, in all ignorance as to her identity, cast upon her. Hugh had to be very humble, very apulogetic, very persuasive. (To be continued.)