A SECRET FOE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10157, 29 November 1910, Page 2

A SECRET FOE.

(OUR SERIALS

Ty GERTRUDE WARDEN. Author of "Scoundrel or Saint?" .< The Secret of a Letter," "A Bold Deception," "The Wooing of a "The Crime of Monte Carlo," etc.

CHA.I-TER VII .—Continued. Fitzahm's fresh colour deepened and lie ciime close up to her. "When you sot so little store b\ my affection," he said in a low voice, "you don't know how much I risked to serve you. Your uncle's money illicit he yours at the present moment, thanks to me, but for that blundering fool, Drogo Gordon." "What do you mean?" "I mean about the shipwreck —but I can't tell you now. The luncheon bell may ring at any minute, or. your mama may come in. Let us not waste time in quarrelling, Dagniar. Kiss me again, before we are interrupted." rie snatched the billiard cue from her hands and pressed her again and again closely to his heart. It was solely for her beauty that he loved her, and his affection, being wholly sellisn and sensual, was, perhaps, not of much worth; but such as it was, Dagmar prized it more dearly than anything else in the world. "I cannot tell you what I suffered when I read of the wreck of the Atlantis," she whispered, shudderingly. 'I must never let you go so far from me again." . "It was a very good thing I was there," he returned, "if only to keep •an eye on Mallyon and the girl you hfivo got in w.e house now. What induced you to take her on as governess?"

"Uncle Jasper wrote to mama yesterday, telling her that he had travelled over witn a highly educated lady, the daughter of a very learned professor, and strongly advised mama to engage her as governess when she called here, as. he had told her to do. Of course, we were expecting some oul frumpisn, and elderly person, and when from my window, I saw this girl I could hardly believe my eyes; Mama didn't seem to know what to do, so I ran out and got her engaged at once."

He had one arm clasped round her waist, and now began stroking his moustache; nervously with his disengaged hand.

"Why in the. world did you do that?" he asked.

"Can't you see that in the preposterous " event of Uncle Mallyon taking a fancy ..o any one, it is a thousand times setter for me to have her nere under my own eye? I suppose she is some cunning little adventuress, come to England in search of a victim, but as long as she remains the childrens' governess all her going out and coming in will be known to me. But you don't think he is really at all attracted to her, do you?"

"There's no fool like an old fool!" observed Fitzalan oracularly. "And she's decidedly pretty in her way, you know."

"Do you really think so?" she asked, a sudden lire of jealousy sparkling in her eyec. "It's a pity your admiration is not reciprocated. Miss Travers has the bad taste not to admire you at a i."

"Oh, she will grow out of that, you will see," he coolly returned. Secretly, he was greatly, piqued, by Ins' indifference ,and resolved to return to the charge at the earliest opportunity, if only for the fun of making Dagmar jealous. "We got on splendidly, on board ship," he added complacently. ."Unfortunately l>rogo Gordon fished her out of the sea when she tumbled off the ladder in getting into the boat, and so. I fancy she erected his image in her heart in place of mine. And he rather admired her, too."

"You seem to have made this washed-out, mouselike little person, by common consent, the belle of the ship," Dagmar scornfully remarked.

"Well, you were not there, you see," he explained, "and she really hadn't much to beat in the matter of beauty. Besides, she is really a nice little girl when you come to know her, and she can see a joke without much explanation." "Understand," Dagmar exclaimed, turning fiercely upon him, "I will not submit to your flirting with her! I put up with quite enough as it is—the falseness of the whole position, the wearisome waiting, the burning jealousy and the constant conviction that I have made a mistake, a gigantic mistake, in loving you as I do. But what I cannot bear is the humiliation of seeing you carry on a a love-affair with this demure,' slyfaced thing under my eyes. I have, borne a great deal for vour sake, Ted ,but I won't boar that." She looked dangerous as she spoke, her rich, deep voice trembling, her eyes alight with passion. Fitzalan thought he had never seen her look more beautiful, and catching her in his arms, he was kissing the angry words from her lips when the sound of the luncheon-bell came upon their ears to break up their tete-a-tete. <

"Mr Fit/,alan and i have been quarrelling over a game of billiards," Dagmar coolly observed to her mother, as she preceded the Honourable Edward into the breakfastroom.

"It is reallv a pitv that two young people cannot get on better together, i* n >t it 9 " said the unspectmg lady, as they took their places at the table.

Carlotta Mavrogodaio was too lazy in general to cherish ardent likes or dislikes, but Fits Milan was a great favourite of hers. He had the knack of looking at her as though she were a young woman, and she really believed that his constant were prompted by his romantic admiration for herself.

She was extremely puzzled by her daughter's prompt action with regard to -ris. The fact that her brother-in-law had recommended so young and pretty a woman, and one, too, who had been his fellow passenger from America, Carlotta regarded as disquieting to a decree, and so far Dagmar hau ..ad no opportunity of explaining her motive. Mrs Mavrogodato stood in considerable awe or" her strong-willed, high-spirited daughter, whose word was law in the house, where Carlotta herself was a mere cipher. It was not only Dagmar's beauty and head-strong character which lent her value in her step-father's house. She was, in addition, the nearest, and indeed, the only near living relative of the great Lord Mallyon, who was over sixty I years of age, known to have valvular j disease of the heart, and possessed of a very large fortune. He was fond and proud pi Dagmar, and had given her various handsome presents of jewellery, besides paying off her debts on several occasions, and bestowing sundry highly acceptable cheques upon ~er on her birthdt^;.; and at Christinas time. He had often requested Dagmar and her mother to preside at his table and receive his guests, and the belief was pretty generally entertained in London that '"the beautiful Miss Mallyon" would be tlie great lawyer's heiress.

wnether Lord Mallyon was aware of this notion was by no moans clear. Although popular in society, Baron lviallyon had no real intimates, anc'. he was the last man living whom any of his acquaintances would have ventured to question concerning his private affairs. The conversation at the luncheon table turned on him, and, although Iris never suspected it, botii Dagmar and Fitzalan aided in a passive way by Mrs Mavrogodato strove to represent their relative as a very old man, worn out by th constant exercise cf an arduous profession.

Iris' thoughts were far more with Lord iur.!lyon's secretary than with Lord M.'.llyon himself, but she was ingenuous enough, when appealed to on the subject of her distinguished fellow-traveller, to express surprise at the notion of associating age and infirmity with so handsome and vig-orous-looking a man.

"Indeed, I thought Lord Mallyon could not be more than fifty," she *aid. "There is no sign of age about lnm except his silver-gray. hair. It must be delightful to be related to a man so great and distinguished, who has done so much good in saving innocent persons and getting the guilty punished."

A short silence followed her speech, which for various reasons was by no means greatful to any one of her hearers. Then Fitzalan laughed.

"I don't like to disturb your faith in human nature, Miss I'ravers," he said, "but, as a matter of fact, whether Mallyon gets the innocent or the guilty convicted depends entirely on what side his brief All an advocate has to do is to pocket his fees, and turn on his eloquence ill cue required direction. It is.mere acting, arid always a matter of chance whether iustice is on his side." "But in all cases I have read about he. seems to be in the right,'' protested Iris. "That's because Mallyon's got such a trick of eloquence that lie carries his audience with him. Don't you know how W. S. Giloert puts it in 'j.ixal by Jury.-'

"'All thieves who could my fees afford, Relied on my orations; And many a burglar I've restored To his friends and relations.'

"I'm a lawyer myself, Miss Travel's, and in the years to come I may possibly be plessed with a brief. But I sincerely hope it may be to defend a notorious wicked monster—say a man found boiling his wife, and family in a huge copper kettle, or something cheerful of that sort. There; is more 'dust' to be gained in whitewashing that sort of person." (To be Continued. 1