A SENSATIONAL CASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3009, 5 October 1908, Page 2

A SENSATIONAL CASE.

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

CHAPTER XXXlX.—Continued. There was no help for it. Reluctantly enough, Lady Kenslow gave her Linley's letter, and drew back the curtains to give,her light enough to read it. It was as follows :-■- "Golden Fleech Inn, Canterbury. "My Darling Wife: What shall I say to you? How can I-ask you to forgive the mad outburst of passion which possessed me to-day? 1 think I was mad, Netta—mad with misery and despair; fori have known myself for some time now to be a ruined man, dependent on the charityHeaven save the mark—of that miserable Jew, whose slaves we have been for the past few months. It is his hateful presence which has been a blight upon us, quenching for a time your love for me and forcing me to hide mine for you. But it has killed not our affection. Netta, dear; and now, in my helplessness and my misery, in my loneliness, I cry out to you to come to me. lam in terrible pain, Netta. I have hurt my ankle badly, and can scarcely put my foot to the ground. Won t you come to me, my own darling wife, and let me have your gentle, tender hands about me instead of the cold touch oif a stranger? 1 implore you Netta, to come and to forgive my cruelty to you to-day. As for what you thought, it was not true it was the falsehood of it which made me so angry with you that/1 forgot myself. I did not rob the Jew; I only took the miserable pittance he had often promised and would never give me. I defy him to prove it was a thief. But another trial would kill me; and so I ask you to come to me secretly, choosing a time when you will not be watched, and giving out that you are only going back to town to your aunt's. "In the sweet hope of seeing you soon, my darling Netta. "Your unworthy but adoring "LINLEY." Netelka read this letter with dry, feverish eyes. Then she put it away under her pillow, and refused to say anything about it except that Linley was very sorry for what he had done. She conceived, as Linley had known she would, that it was her duty to go to h3r husband now that he was both ill aid apparently repentant. It was not that she had no suspicion of Mi good faith; on the contrary, she Ci.-ne pretty near the trutn in her estimate of his motives. Still, as she had put up with him so long, she thought that she ought at least to see him, and to try Ij work upon him to restore the the property he had stolen from Harrington Moseley. She might, perhaps, by this means bribe Moseley not to prosecute. She had another motive for wishing to rejoin her hußband, which she did not quita own to herself. So she lay back in bed, quietly turning over in her mind the question as to how she should best carry out her intention of going to Canterbury. Of course, to ask permission was not to be thought of; she must manage by herself. She thought she might, perhaps, trust Jem as a confidante, and accordingly she asked Lady Kenslow if she might see the young girl. Lady Kenslow suggested that she should wait until the doctor came; and Netelka, very unwillingly, resigned herself to this delay. In the meantime Jem was in the throes of an unusual excitement. Mrs Colliogham had gone out, and she was sitting in the dining-room with the children, superintending their lessons,' when the housemaid entered, with an expression of consternation on her face. "Please, miss, there's that genlemaii come, Mr Thorndyke. And what shall I da, miss? We're cleaning up the drawing-room, and I've Wc him standing in the hall. Shall I show him in here, miss?" As xhe dining-room opened upon , the hall, which was, in truth, the narrowest of narrow passages, Jem tould not give her directions aloud. "No, no!" she whispered energetically. "Say Mrs Collingham's out,/ and then he'll go away!" "Ob, no, he won't! chimed in a man's deep voice. And poor Jem jumped up with a cry of consternation as Hugh Thorndyke's red face appeared at the door. The housemaid retreated at once, having no doubt in her own mind that everything would come right if the young lady and the gentleman were left alone together. "At least, of course, ho must go if you insist on turning him out. Only he hopes you won't," went on Hugh, as he modestly entered the apartment and cast pleading glances at its haughty mistress. Jem wished to be very chilling, but the children, remembering Hugh's last visit, upon which occas ion they had decided that he was a decidedly depirable acquaintance, began to descend from their chairs and to stand round and smile at him with looks of invitation. Hugh stooped and distributed kisses among j the little girls and shook hands with Willie. "You oughtto be at school, sir," said he to that young gentleman, who was decidedly old for the domestic schoolroom. "Of course he ought," said Jem dismally. "And so ought Anette. 1 don't teach them because I know how, hut because if I didn't they woilJ't get taught at all. Don't you think," she went on, not looking at Hugh, and speaking with constraint, "that even bad teaching is better than none?"

"Why, of course, I don't," said Hugh gently. "Bad teaching is w orse," far worse, tnan none. But yours is not had teaching—it is the very best. You give them lessons all day Jong in kindness snd unselfishness, and thojgbtiulness for others."

Who could help" being mollified by such a speech as this, uttered, too, in accents of deepest sincerity? Jem blushed, and tried in vain to show that she did not mean to be persuaded. "You want to see mamma?" said she, still keeping her eyes for the most part away from his face. "Well, I want to hear how Mrs Hilliard is, and they seem so disorganised at 'The Firs' that we can't get a proper answer to our inquiries." "We?" asked Jem ingeniously. "Gerard Waller and I! The poor fellow is distracted. He didn't dare to present himself here; he said he was afraid you were offended with him. I told him you were offended with me, too, but that I, being a creature of pachydermatous hide, should call, all the same." At this ending, Jem, who had been perceptibly softening, grew stiff again. "I'm sorry you both think me so foolish. lam not offended at anybody. As for Mr Waller, he might have called; I should have liked to see him." "Of course." Hugh did allow his rone to be rather colder as he said these words. Jem reddened angrily, and drew herself up. But the anger had died away into shyness when she spoke. "I should have liked," she said gently, "to reassure him about Netelka. That is the one subject in the world for him." Something in her tone made Hugh think that his own prospects were brighter than he had supposed. He put his hand on the back of a chair which was near the end of the table where she had been sitting. "May I sit here," said he, "while you go on with the lessons?" "You can sit there, certainly," answered Jem. "But," and she shook her head very decidedly, "I couldn't attempt to go on with the lessons. I shall give the children a holiday." And she closed the geography which was on the table befoie her and sat down. As there was a pause which she found awkward, she said with great suddenness: "This is a farewell visit, isn't it? Mr Waller said you were going back to Yorkshire either to-day .or to-morrow." Hufch took up a slate which lay in front of him and began to draw grotesque figures upon it with a slate-pencil. The children crowded round him, making comments on his ability and shrieking with delight. He found that the din they made helped him. (To be continued.)