A SENSATIONAL CASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3004, 29 September 1908, Page 2

A SENSATIONAL CASE.

By FLORENCE WARDEN. &ithor ol" The Lady in Blaok," "An Infamous Fraud," "For Love of Jack," "\ Terrible Family," "The House on the Marsh,"

CHAPTER XXXV.-Continued. The words were out before Waller had had time to consider the enormity of the offonce he was committing in bullying a lady. Jem smothered a sob. Finding he was "in for it," Waller threw scruples tu the wind and bullied her still more. "I'm going to live in Asia," said ho decidedly. "I'm tired of the airs European women give themselves. Here in this mismanaged hemisphere we poor men are martyrs to the caprices of girls who don't know their own minds, and I don't know how much better off than they deserve they are when a decent man takes a fancy to one of them! Why, if I were a girl, and a man like Hugh Thorndyke honoured me with his notice, I should go down on my knees and kiss his feet!" Jem raised her head with a sudden movement of indignation and resentment. "Really, I think the sooner you go to Asia the better," she said haughtily. "And 1 hope you'll persuade your friend Mr Thorndyke to go with you." "He is going to his home in Yorkshire either to-morrow or the day after. And as he will no doubt speedily choose a wife from among the throng of girls who will be ready and anxious to have him, you will find him practically as far away as you could desire." "I'm very glad to hear it," snapped out Jem. And, havine by this time reached the fortune-teller's tent, they entered in silence, each feeling a little resentment against the other because each would have chosen a different companiim. Waller wanted another conversation, a final adieu, in fact, withNetelka; while Jem was conscious, in a dim, vague way, that a tete-a-tetj with Waller was no longer the highest pleasure the world could afford her.

CHAPTER XXXVJ. KNAVES FALL OUT. Hugh Thorndyke had lost no time in securing a talk with Lady Kenslow, who, in gray sutin with touches of old lace, looked as charming a picture of graceful middle-ago as her niece did of brilliant youth. Hugh found her a seat under a baech-treo which spread its grateful shade over a corner of the lawn, from which they could see the tonnis-playing, with which a few enthusiasts were beguiling the sultry hours. "I have been dying, as they say, | for this opportunity," said he, as he i handed her the cup of tea she had asked for. J Lady Kenslow knew what was i coming, or at leaht she knew what | the subject was that he was going to introduce. She inclined her hsau j gravely, and hs went on: "I am going to tell you, in as few words as I can, the fresh reason I have for asking you to induce Netdka to leave her husband." "I will hear you, and I will hear your reason," answered Lady Kenslow imperturbably. "But I waru you j that I shall not interfere between ' any wife and her husband. You know my views.on that subject. I think the best woman in the world married to the worst man suffers more by separating from her husband than by remaining with him. Need I say any more? Knowing this, are you not wasting your time with me?" "No. 1 want to argue the matter with you. Your view might be all very well in the days when women were looked upon as mere chattels; but now that they are treated as reasoning beings, with control over their own property, and that they're expected to have minds and ideas of their own, don't you think they loso their scU-respect if they remain tied to a scoundrel?" "There may be romo risk of that. But 1 maintain that the wife of a scoundrel who remains with her husband as long as there is a hope that her presence may prove a restraint, or even a comfort to him, is in a bitter position, than the wife of a scoundrel unattached." "Then you make your own sex occupy a very subordinate and degraded position'" "Subordinate, not necessarily degraded. And the subordinacy is nature's doing, not mine." "But do you know what this Hilliard, or Dax, has been 'Tying to do?" "I know all that id alleged against him, but nothing soems to have been proved. Netelka and I had a long talkHhia morning; she told me everything, and T heartily applauded the resolution,of remaining wich him in spite of it all." "Have your read this?" asked Hugh, as he handed to her the paragraph from the morning's paper about the escape of a lunatic. Lady Kenslow read it through with evident interest. "I should think," said she, as she handed it back to him, "that this is more thrin a coincidence. Such—such moral pavvursity shall we say V—as Liuley'« has certainly something in common with what we call lunacy." "And it does not cause you to altar your .^jinion 9 " "Not in t.ie least. There are more dangers and difficulties for Netelka if she leave? her huiband, than if she brav s Ho peril of his becoming a maniac." Aid as she pp-k*', Lady Kenslow involuntarily glanced toward the spot where Willier sat beside Jem, , with his eyes fixed, not on her, but on the graceful figure in veiled rosecolour that flitted about among the groups on the lawn. Hugh's pyes followed the direction of hers; and in the annoyance*" ha felt at seeing waller and Jem side-by 1 Bide, talking in aiijevidently confidential manner, he forgot the subject which had

been occupying his mind in one which interested him still more deeply. In the pause which followed, Lady Kenslow, who had given the entertainment the light of her presence to signify her approval of Netelka's course of action, was seized upon by i_.inley, who was very proud of the honour conferred upon "The Firs" by her visit. Hugh, left by himself, found his elbow touched, and, turning his head, saw Harrington Moseley standing by his side. "Very nice of her ladyship to come down, wasn't it 9 " said the Jew, who was following Linley with glances in which Hugh thought he detected unusual intensity. "Done to please Mrs H., of course. Her ladyship wouldn't go out of her way to oblige Linley, I'm thinking!" Hugh did not love the Jew, but he was curious to know on what terms he and his partner stood to each other, for there was little appreciation of Linley in Harrington Moseley's tone. So Hugh said: "Well, he's only her relation by marriage. There's no necessity for any great show of affection between them." "I should like to know who could show great affection for a fish-blooded creature like Linley!" cried the Jew, with an appearance of indignation which Hugh did not at hrst trust. "Don't you like- him ? " asked Hugh, who felt himself invited to ask ! a question. i The answer came in a tone of convincing sincerity: "Like him! No, I should think not! I tell you what it is"—and Harrington Moseley, much to Hugh's disgust, took him by the buttonhole, lifting up his head in the endeavour to get nearer the Yorkshireman's level—"l—l'm afraid of him! I think he's becoming demented—l do, indeed. Ho talks to his china! I've heard him. Now, do you think that's the sort of tning a man would do while he was altogether saner Do you, I ask you?" "It's eccentric, certainly," assented Hugh. Buft his face changed for this piece of information about Linley's habits bore to him even a greater significance than it did to Moseley. In spit* of Netelka's depreciation of the entertainment she was offering her nuests, toe afternoon was undoubtedly a very successful one. It m-'v be that the dubious reputation "The Firs" had acquired a pleasant zest to the commonplaces of a garden-party; certainly the conversation was livelier, the laughter was i more frequent than is generally the j cuae at thebi solemn functions. vVhen thd evening shadows had I grown long upon tho grass and the j group* on the lawn had begun, to thin, Mrs Collingham, as she shook ' hands with Netelka and assured her j that she had spent such u delightful afternoon, drew Mrs Hilliard's attention to the fact that Linley had Lfor some time been lost sight of. "I couldn't go without seeing dear Mr Billiard and wishing him good-by," went on Mrs Collingham. "You know lam | quite in love *ith him; he makes all | tne other m:n one knows seem so noisy and coarse!" "I dare sjy he has gone into the house with my aunt," said Netelka, looking round and failing to catch a glimpbe of her husband. (To be continued.)