A SENSATIONAL CASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3003, 28 September 1908, Page 2

A SENSATIONAL CASE.

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

CHAPTER XXXV.—Continued. v, t< ' , ir And he took from the mantel a j* similar envelope, addressed to him- 1* self, informing him that "Mrs HilJi- »■ ard" would be "at home" on the ±ol- e. lowing Thursday, the 26th, "four to ij seven." „„ L , .. "Yeg," said Waller, "that's it. Are you going?" J "Of course, I am. And you? w "Rather." ™ "You'd better not." »' "I know that; but still, do you &] see I'm going. I want to see little oi Jem. 1 think, as a punishment to you a for preaching, I shall try to cut you t ° U Hu£h turned all sorts of colours, tt and he answered very shortly:, Si "That will be easy encugh. I m « quite out of the running; I've called there twice in the last week and can t ai get her to see,me; all through hu- hi mouring a whim of hers!" # J" And, after a little persuasion, for g the whole affair was a sore point ci -with him, Hugh told the story of the w engagement and its consequences. It n did not restore his wounded self-con-ceit to see Waller roll on the sofa in oi fits of laughter at his expense. ci "I've do douht it seems to you ex- ai ceedingly funny," said he, cool- -J sess. "And I dare say it will add to sc your enjovment of the joke to hear ai that Mrs Collingham was very cold » •when I called, thinking I must have d« -done something awful for Jem to re- « fuse to see me\" i , ' At this Waller laughed so much as w seriously to imperil the good feeling it which existed between him and Hugh. Before, however, Hugh, had si made up his mind whether he should a bo deeply offended, Waller perceived y tie danger and apologised. Then k Hugh affect?d to be, entirely in- 1 •different about it. ' "Oh, I thought you spoke, when I « .saw you last, as if you were really N hard hit?" said Waller, trying to t< .si e .k with great solemnity. tint this would not now ac g knowledge. »,,..* "Oh, come xipvt, you are calling in i< theai; bf-aeur imagination!" «u> :swen(d he,, with a forced, laugh. Ox course, it isn't pleasant for one's var- n ity, a thing of this kind. But I don't troubl/ myself about the git! except h on thub account. I have something a more important to talk to you about. f< Have you seen thi ?" . " Hu»h handed him that morning s r "'Daily'News," pointing out the fol- v lowing paragraph: d "EXCITING CHASE OF A LUNATIC. ' ' J "Our Warchester correspondent • r teJgeraph<s: "This morning an excit- j 'ing-'chase, fortunately ending in the j n recapture of the fugitive .took place j on the outskirts of the town. An ell- .' erly gentleman named Richard Lin-, t ley Dax, who has been for some j v years an inmate of a private lunatic j asylum a few mile i from here, effect- c ed his escape, and, after crossing the , fields in his. slipp- c ers, caused considerable constjrna- j tion among the inhabitants jf a farm- j house,, into which he had crept on finding himself pursued. Fortunate- ■ ■ ly, he was secured without much diffi- i culty, but not before he had attacked ; one of the farm-servants with a hatchet, this being, we understand, his , fourth attempt at homicide." ' | ' "Now Linley Dax is an uncommon combination," said Hugh, when 1 *' Waller had read the paragraph. "And , I happen to know that Hilliard's real . name is Linley Dax. Now, don't you ( think it's, reasonable to suppose that, this lunatic is some relation of his, ! and that there's insanity in his : blood?" ' - Waller, much impressed, concurred in this view, and they resolved to , make some inquiries, starting upon' this basis. - r ! "Jf we could prove Linley insane and Bhuthim up," suggested Hugh, ■ "at any rate we could save her from - the risk of being ihurdered by a maniac, which it seems to me , thero is a good prospect of Llnley's beroming, if, aa I am inclined to suspect, he is not one already." Waller looked gloomily at his friend. "Not a very lively prospect that," said he, "of being timed for life to a lunatic!" % ' ' "At any rate, it's better than bekg .murdered by one," retorted Hugh. This was unanswerable, and the subject was dropped. ! On Thursday, the 26th, when Mrs Hilliard received her friends, she was j looking her very best. Hugh and \ Waller, who went down together, | . were astonished at- 1 her brilliant ap- j paararce. Shd was always well . dressed, being one of those women I whose natural advantages of figure and carriage, increased by good taste, ! give a grace to their clothes, instead of being indebted to them. On this j occasion she wore very pale pink : silk with a dull-ribbed surface, cov- j • crfd with chiffon embroidered in silk > oi the some colour. Her throat was just long enough for her to wear a iiand of black velvet, which she wore J studded with diamond daisies. j The entcrtailiment was an idea of | Linley'd, dv which he 1 proposed to; dissipate the air of mystery and of i something 'vorse which "The Fir 3" j had acquired, and to inaugurate a new idea of unimpeachable respectability. The choice of guesta was his own, and the gathering was a mi cell anemia one. A selection of >the habitues of tho place, including -Hugh Thorndyke and Gerard Waller, Lady Kenalow nnd u friend, the party ■fropi "The Maisonette," a few acquaintances of Harrington Moseley'a; and a selection of local people who came for the first and last time out of curicsity—these were the component parts of an assemblage which differed from the usual afternoon at home in the preponderance of the tnnle sex. -«h The weather being line, Netelka,

who had tied herself in her invitation to no particular form of entertainment, had made it, on the spur of the moment, a garden-party. The two lawns were dotted with enormous Japanese sunshades, under which croups of chairs were placed invitingly. Netelka affected to regard the whole affair as a dreary joke. "There are the usual desperately dull entertainments; a fortune-teller who doesn't even interest you in what she say 3, though she looks very nice; a quartet who sing horribly out of tune, and who. trampled on my carnations in their search for a place on the flower-bed where they will look picturesque; and there are warm ices and cold-tea in that room which opens on to the garden. It is very good of you to come and be bored." This was her greeting to Hugh and Waller, with whom she shook hands in exactly the same manner as she had done with her other guests. Waller was stupefied, chilled. He was ,ahy and reserved with her, and left the talking to Hugh. "I am sorry to hear," Netelka went on, turning to Hugn, with a mischievous glance at Mrs Collingham and her stepdaughter, who were standing near, "that you have, in some unknown way, which I cannot discover, deeply offended Jem and her mama. I thought, as Jem came down to Hastings under your escort, that you were the beat of friends." Hugh was astonished at the coolness with which she alluded to the Hastings incident. "The charm of your sex," he answered, "is its unexpectedness. Jem and I were goo'd friends when I saw you last; but we are not now. That is all I can tell you about it. It is all I know myself." , It was easy to see that he was not so indifferent as he wished to appear. Netelka smiled archly as she turned to Waller. "It' 3 an ill wind that blows nobody good," she said significantly. "Come and take Miss Collingham to have her fortune told." Waller hung back a little. " Let Thorndyke take her," mur-; mured he. with a pleading look. But at that moment Mrs Collingham caught sight of him and rushed at him with outstretched nands. Before he had recovered breath from her uttack he found himself told off, he hardly'lenew how, with Jem, and they were'walking across the lawn in the direction of the fortune-teller's tent. "You didn't want to come with me, I know," said Jem, in a tone full of mingled despair and resenti ineht. ' i "(Only because I knew how much j Thorndyke would have liked it," an- . swered Waller. "And I'm afraid he'll ; punch my head as we go back to i town, just to restore the balance | which Providence has disturbed," ■ "What do you mean by that?" asked Jem, rather crossly. ! "It is my elegant and literary way of expressing the fact that fate has been kinder to me thnn I deserve in letting me have the pleasure of your society" "You needn't talk like that to me. And don't talk about Mr Thorndyke at all; I hate him!" Gerard stopped short, overcome by surprise. 1 "You hate him? You ungrateful girl! When the only fault you have to find with him is that he has been too submissive to your whims!" , (To be continued.)