A SENSATIONAL CASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 2998, 22 September 1908, Page 2

A SENSATIONAL CASE.

By FLORENCE WARDEN, ■Author ol « The Lady in Black," "An Infamous Fraud," "For Love oi Jack," "A Terrible Family," "The House on the Marsh,"

CHAPTER XXXI.-Continued. : i She interrupted him at once. . "I have indeed," she said. Ot ] course I know it was all my own , fault; but~but—don't let us talk about it: it's all over now, that's one } comfort." , ~ t ,. ' And she inhaled a deep breath this ( tim* of relief. Hugh pulled the ends i of his mustache. i "All over now?" he echoed diffi- , dently. "You mean our—engage- , m Jem Btarted as if she had been . "It wasn't an engagement!" said , she angrily. "It was only-only-oh! it was only the most pitiful piece , of folly I have ever committed, and ( •that's saying a great deal." 3 And she bit her lips to keep the tears back, and played nervously with the tassel of her parasol. Hugh j looked reflectively at the flying landscape. .-" .. ~, 1 "It didn't turn out very well, did , it? But you did it with a good mo- , tive, at any rate." ; "A good motive 1 That a nothing! ( broke ouc Jem impatiently. "Everybody has what he thinks a good motive for everything he does. I shall never forgive myself. But don t talk about it-don't please." "But I want to talk about it, persisted Hugh, in a meek voice. 4, At least, 1 want to say just this—that I am very sorry that you should retain such an unhappy memory of what has been to me the—the plcasantestdayof my life." Jem looked up quickly, and then stared at him stupidly. **oh, of course you are bound to jay that!" she said at last, in qui'o a vindictive tone. 1 "But I thought better of you than to suppose you took me for a girl you had to say things like that to!" "I'll tsll you what sort of a girl l do take you for," said Hugh, in a different tone, as he suddenly changed his seat for the one beside her. "I don't want to know!" said Jem fiercely. For was he not already presuming upon that fictitious temporary relationship which she now decreed tj be a thing of the past? Whereupon Hugh changed the iorm o: his speech: . "You are the sort of girl, he went on with dogged persistence, "to make a great fusi about a little thing!" . , ~ Jem turned upon him m her wrath. '"Little thing!" she tempestuously cried. "Do you call my having to let you kiss me a little thing!" This, then, was tho thorn which had been rankling all this time. Hugh looked at her with a mixture of amusement and admiration, which sle ielt to be a fresh insult. She t lrned her head sharply away. "It was a very modest and —and de:oru9 kiss, though, wasn't it?" suggested Hugh mildly. ' Jem, now that her pent-up feelings had at last found vent, was in no mood to listen to his protest. , "When 1 had always said that—that I —that I would never be kis3ed by any but the man I was going io | marry!"

At this there fell a silence upon them both, and Jem wiped her ayes, blushing more deeply than ever and feeling that she had said something foolish. Hugh broke the spell, speaking in a judicial tone of voice. it would be a pity to break a vow like that. You'd never feel the same j woman afterward, "if you did!" i Jem laughed nervously. * "Oh, nonsense!" tried she. "But it's not nonsense," said he, pursuing his advantage. "The breaking of a vow that brings, as I was saying, a loss of self-respect which a sensitive mind liKe yours never gets over. Happily there is a way by which this loss may be avoided. If you were to marry me the author of the injury from v> hich ybu are suffering " "Marry you! Ob, no, no!" She took the proposal witli a mixture of consternation and incredulity. "Why not? Don't you like me? I thought you did at first. Don't vou think th .t we should get on splendidly together? And wouldn't it be nice to go about together, and buy gloves and eat tarts, as we did that day, that jolly day?" said Hugh, growing persuasive, fired by his own eloquence and rising to quite a lofty height of passion under the influence of hiß own- words. But Jem shook her head.

"Mo, 1 shouldn't like to marry you at all," she said decisively, "even if I could pet Mr Waller, whicn I can't." Sho perceived that Hugh movtd impatiently, and she looked at him and gravely added: "I dare say you think it very silly of me to be fond of a man who is not for.d of me." He interrupted her, with an a3sbmpt;on of plaintive despair: "How can i think so, when I am fond myself of a girl who isn't fond of me?" i , „ Jem, who had recovered self-poss-ession as sjum us Hutfh made his proposal, smiled. "But you're not really in earnest, she said. "You only ask me to marry you so that 1 iuay not feel so uncomfortable over my own stupidity.' "Do you really think I don't want you to say yes, then?" asked Hugn h)tly.. , .. Thd answer was given very decidedly indeed. "I am sure of it!" Hugh eat back, thoughtful and rathtr bewildered. Her lack of vanity was a charm, but it was perplexity... Before he had yet resolved ona fresh plan of approach to his formidable citadel of girlish simplicity, Jem herself heaved a. sigh which was full of restored contentment. . "I am very glad you asked me, though—very glad and very grate-

ful," she said meditatively. "It has cleared the ground, as it were, and put us back on the old footing again. It would have been awkward for you, though, if I had said yes; now, wouldn't it?" Hugh looked at the girl uncertainly, not feeling quite sure whether there might nut be a little spice of coquetry in l her apparently astounding simplicity. But there was none. Too silly brought up to be reticent about her affection for a man who held it lightly, it seemed to her that that affection, openly acknowledged, was a barrier sufficient between her and any other man. As soon as he had made up his mind that this was simplicity and not coquetry, Hugh allowed himself to feel mortified at his want of success. "I suppose so," said he shortly. And he leaned back, not caring to hide the fact that he was offended. For some time there was silence between them, each considering the situation, and both aiittle sorry for their share in bringing it about. At last, at the same moment, an impulsa caused each to cast a furtive glance at the face of the other. And in a moment they smiled and were friends again. "You'll forgive me for everything, for the sake of our being such old pals, if I may use such an expression," said Hugh, in his most persuasive accents. Jem put out her hand impulsively, and Hugh seized it. "Oh, yes, and I'm so glad. Do you know, Mr Thorndyke, that I'd never had any friends—what I call friends until I met Mrs HMiard and you? And having only two, I don't want to lose either of them." "Well, you sha'n't lose one as long as you want him," said Hugh, immensely thankful to have reached •this sure ground again. And they both felt that a great cloud had been happily lifted from their sky, and the rest of the journey was passed in the pleasant manner of their eariler acquaintance. But Hugh did not dare to return to the subject of their engagement, and when he left her at the gate of "The Maisonette, ' declining her perfunctory invitation to come in the important point of the footing upon which they were to stand to each other in the view of the young lady's relations was left undecided. '• l'ner<i will be complications, and she will soon hate the very sound of my name!" thought Hugh uneasily, as he walked back quickly to Wimbledon station.

CHAPTER XXXII. Before Jem reached her home that evening, Netclka and her loving husband had already returned to "The Firs." The man who opened the door, the same wno had given the Hastings address to Hugh Thorndyke, was shocked at the change m-Mrs Hilliard's looks during the short time she hal bjen away. Linley percieved a bo'i of alarm, in the man's face as he opened the door, and, drawing his wife's arm affectionately through his o,vn, he slid in his softest voica: "Ah, Miher, Mrs Hilliard doesn't much <-n° better for her holidav, do'.3 she? I think we shall find that home is the be3t place, after all. Now, my dear," he went on, turning to Netalka. and leading her toward the staii- sue, "I insist upon your going str; i*ht to your room at once. I will send you something to eat. You are really too tired to mike an appeai'ance at the dinnerta'ile." (To be continued.)