A SECRET FOE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10133, 6 December 1910, Page 2

A SECRET FOE.

(OUR SERIAL.t

ry CERTRUDE WARDEN. Author of "Scoundrel or Saint?" "The Secret of a Letter," -A Bold Detention," "The Wooing of a Fairy," "The Crime o2 Monte Carlo," etc.

CHAPTER IX.—Continued. "In none, thank .you," she- answered. "But I am very glad I have an opportunity of telling you I am not ungrateful." *"Pray don't speak of it again. This t'lien was all you had to say when you sent the telegram?" "I hare never sent a telegram to anyone in my life!" she returned, with evident' astonishment. "Not this?" He took it from his pocket and showed it to her. She read it nnd Mushed a rosyred as she looked up at him. "Could you really suppose that I should be guilty or such an impertinence to a comparative stranger?" The moment the words were out of her mouth she regretted them. He drew back as though he had been stung, and a deep ilush spread over his face. "I beg your pardon," lie said without looking at her, crushing the telegram in his hand and thrusting it back into his pocket. "It was mo it ; absurd of mo, of course. I can't think how I could have made such a mistake." . In order to give him time to recover his self-possession, Iris spoke again: "It was Miss Mallyon who suggested that I should come here to the Flower Walk and wait for her. But I don't think she will ho coming now, as she said that she was not certain that she could find time."

"Miss Mallyon? Ah!" "Perhaps it. was she who sent you the telegram ? : ' Iris suggested, turnin perfect innocence upon him. "Perhaps it iv:;;;," he returned dryly. The strangeness of his tone struck her, and s'hs suddenly remembered the story Fitzahn had told her of the secretary's unsuccessful wooing of Dagmar. To Drogo's mind, however, it was clear that the whole thing was a plot of Dagmar's to get Iris out of the way on account of Lord Mallyon's visit. He had not the slightest doubt that the Mavrogodatos had only engaged Iris because they were fearful of offending Lord Mallyon, and that they secretly resented the interest their wealthy relative took in the girl. It was desirable, therefore, to get up a flirtation between the young governess and somebody, and, failing any one more appropriate, Dagmar had fixed upon him. The thought that he had been expressly inveigled into the park for the purpose of making love to Iris, in order to annoy Lord Mallyon, and that he had very nearly fallen into the trap laid for him, angered him extremely, and he was besides deeply annoyed at learning that Iris was in correspondence with Lord Mallyon and installed among his relations. Yet the worst part of it all was his disappointment because Iris had not sent him that telegram.

For tho first time in her life Tris began to feel very liopeloss "jiikl very lonely. Drogo's looks and tones had somehow conveyed to her the idea of her own ignorance concerning the ti'ne character of the people with whom her lot was cast. Clearly, she and Drogo had diametrically opposite views concerning Lord Mallyou and his niece Dagmar. And f-'he would have liked so much to think the same as Drogo, and to be friends with him. Was it her fault or his that the thing seemed impossible ? Twice already they had seemed so near together—once on the sinking ship and again to-day, when he had quoted those lines of Browning bending towards her, his brown eyes aglow with passionate- feeling. That unlucky letter of Lord Mallyon's had parted them. Would the opportunity come in their lives again? Iris had heard and read of cases where people, living within a mile of each other, in some great city such as London, went on for years in tho hope of meeting, and yet to their dying day never saw each other to carry on the love or frienship once begun. Would such a case be hers and Drogo's ? Absorbed in thought she remained out of doors \intil past five o'clock, when, suddenly realizing that her time was no longer her own and that the children were expected back about tea time, she hailed a hansom and returned to Lancashire Place. The children had not yet returned, and .Dagmar was shut in her " own room in a very bad temper, after a long interview with her uncle. He had angered her almost beyond endurance, and had seriously alarmed her as well. In courteous and unmistakable tonus he had given her to understand that he would slightly increase her yearly allowance, provided that she curbed her extravagance; but that she must at once, give up all idea of profiting by his death, as, in the. first place, he intending living for fully twenty-five years more, a.3 his father had lived before him, ano. in the second place, by his will, which was already made, she would in no Avay benefit.

"I have always been afraid this sort of tiling might happen," he had said, "that extravagant relations would outrun the eonstahle, and count, ghoullike, upon my death to set them right, and I have always resolved that should i.ot be."

Dagmar did not for a moment believe him, but the mere suggestion frightened her more than he know. If wishes could have destroyed him, and his will, too, he would never have left Lancashire place alive, and Dagmar, as his only near relative, would have come in for the lion's share of the property she so much coveted."

A long and embarrassing pau.sc. fellbetween tliertfi, "I think I must he going ?)aok to the house now," Iris said at hist, rising from her seat. "Miss Mallyon is not likely to join you here for some time." o 1 served Drogo. 'I drove to the park with Lord Mallyon, who was making a call upon her at her invitation, and proposed staying at the house some time." "Lord' Mallyon ?. Are you sure?" "Quite sure. Ihey are going to have a business talk together." "In that case, she will not want me, and, as the children are out, I can do some shopping," she said tentatively. She hoped that he would either ask her to stay cr suggest that he might accompany her. But he did neither. He.rose at once and held out his hand, as though accepting a dismissal. Had she been more of a woman, of the Vorld, she could have put things right in a few words. But, as it was she could only put her little hand in his in token of farewell", looking almost as sad as she felt, Drogo's heart, as he looked down into her face, went out to this lovely, fragile creature, alone and unsuspecting, among' scheming natures, whom, in her simple directness, she did not understand. Ho would have liked to have warned her, but knew not in what words (o frame his admonition. "You—you are very fond of Miss Mallyon?" he said suddenly, as their hands touched. "Very. She is the most beautiful and fascinating creature I have ever seen, and her treatment of me is beyond description. She treats, me just like a dear sister." "She has sonic motive for that," he remarked at once, speaking his thoughts without choosing his words. Iris withdrew her fingers sharply.from his. "She has the motive of wishing.to' make me happy and to spare my feelings," she said. "Good-bye, Mr Gordon." "Good-bye, Miss Travers." That was all. And she saw the trees and shrubs through a mist of tears as they parted, she to pass out into tho High Street, and he to make his way back to Knightsbridge*

But Lord Mallyon, after presenting his neice with a cheque for a hundred pounds as some solace after his reprimand, had passed out of the house scathless, after further arousing her ire by repeatedly inquiring after Tris and deploring her absence. Dagmar's southern blood was up. The strong control which she was ■forced to put upon herself during the period of her uncle's visit, brought about a hysterical reaction. She was in one of her periodical royal rages, during the continuance of which no one ventured to approach her. Every member of the Lancashire Place household was ruled by Dagmar, from her stepfather, who admired her very much, and whom she alternately coaxed, nattered, or bullied into doing all that she wished, to the page-boy, who would have willingly worked all day for her for nothing, and who sobbed his heart out in the pantry whenever she scolded him. Miss Mallyon o-'d her mother were to go to the opera that evening; it was an off-season, conducted by an Italian impresario, and a box had been given them by a friend. At a little before eight Edward Fitzalan | was to come and escort them to the theatre; but Miss Mallyon did not put in an "appearance at dinner, being, indeed, too angry to eat; and ; when the Honourable Edward arrived, the pink of hair-dresser's and tailor's perfection in evening dress, with a Malmaison carnation in his buttonhole, he found no one to receive him, Mrs Mavrogodato being still at her toilet, and Dagmar invisible. The Honourable Edward had dined at the Savoy with some wealthy American friends. His meals hardly ever cost him anything, as he was one of the most popular and assiduous diners out in London, and the Honourable Edward, although not in the least intoxicated by the champagne he had consumed, felt happy and genial, and inclined to make friends with men and love to women. The keen edge of his passion for. Dagmar had been worn off, and her variable . temper sometimes teased him. He stared at himself in'the tlrawing-room mirrors, stroked his moustache, and deceided that he looked irresistible. The. parlour-maid at Lancashire Place being neither young nor pretty, there was no one upon whom to exercise his fascinations, and his thoughts went to the little governess alone in the schoolroom. Thither he repaired, and softly opening the door, peeped in. (To be Continued.)