A Daughter of Mystery

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10237, 13 May 1911, Page 2

A Daughter of Mystery

OUR SERIAL.

CHAPTER VII— Continued

"It'i; Monday to-day. Give me until Thursday, Mr Golding. I haven't much upon which I can raise the extra money, but the bankers have done our business for the past fifty years. Well, I must be off. Good-day!" They shook hands, and Ronald went back to the vicarage. His visions were becoming rosy. If lie could build a new and up-to-date foundry and engineering work.j. If There was a similar business on the opposite side of tho canal, employing five hundred men —and it was a ramshackle place, too. Ho wrote to his bankers, asking for the loan of one thousand pounds. Ho offered the foundry as security, and described his speculation. Everything looked very simple on paper. The letter mailed, he threw all his thoughts of business to the winds. There was a« atmosphere of quiet expectancy at the vicarage. No one could think of much else but Elneth Tyndall. After lunch the parlour was brightened up, and Mrs Cooper put on one of her prettiest fcoiks'. The vicar postponed a very important engagement with his warden, and Ronald stood at the vicarage gate and gazed along the lane. Elneth would have to come that wav.

CHAPTER Vlii. PAUL MOROSOV. Paul Morosov was a perfect type of of the Russian "intellectual." He was tall, dark, and heavily bearded. His face was that of an ascetic, lined with deep thought and eonstant privation. He was a handsome man of his kind, and in dilierent circumstances would have been a shining light in social circles. Mrs Morosov was a gentie, yielding little woman, who never questioned her husband's right to shut her and her children completely

"Pah! I will not know him—l will not have him here. He will not set foot in my house. Oh, lam astonish- } ed that you should betray me!" "Betray you!" Elneth began heatedly. "You are unreasonable." "Silence 1 Let me spealk. I mean that you should hever have listened to this man without my consent. You are barely twenty three years of age, and know nothing—absolutely nothing. lam your guardian—your trustee —everything until you are of the age of twenty-five. The legal papers are here, in my library, and all the documents connected with your parentage." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "You had better do nothing rash until you know who and what you really are!" Was there some terrible and tragic meaning to these sinister words? Elneth's heart failed her for a moment. "You are xrymg to rrlgliten me, Mr Morosov. My father was Captain Ralph Tyndall. He was killed at Rajahpore, while serving his country ; and my mother -" "Ah! Your mother! What do you know of her? I nm sorry to shade your illusions, but that is enough. I was at tho University with your father here in England, and I was sent to India some years ago, when I met him again. He had great people in this country, but they would not recognise him. They would not acknowledge you. Be warned, my clear child, or y«« will be buried in the ruins of your hopes and ambitions. I never thought that you would have met this Ronald Heseltine again, or I would have warned you. I regarded the messages between you when you were fellow prisoners merely as sympathetic and silly sentiment. For your sake I hope it is nothing more." "Elneth was speechless. She seemed to be choking. A hand of steel was gripping her heart. "I am sorry, because I love you as my own daughter," Morosov contin- ( ued. "I hardly realized until now] that you were a child no- longer. The J truth? I will tell you everything in detail in my own time. You know how I'm suffering in the shadow of the oocasion. Give me a little time, Elneth, but don't say that'l haven't warned you."

out of the world. Living under the same roof, ho wos neither seen nor heard by Ids family for days and days; then he would emerge from his Cten, ghastly, trembling and exhausted. No one, except Roff, the Polish Jew, had ever been permitted to enter this mysterious room of his, and its secrets were jealously guarded. After a particularly long spell of I seclusion, Paul Moroscv would go to i London for a short while, sometimes \ one day and sometimes two. Upon these eocasions he was driven to Birmingham railway station by Roff, and Roff met him on his return. The people of Castle Claydon were very inquisitive. When his London visit was drawing near, Morosov let his wife and i Elneth k«ow of it by remarking i>hat; tho roady money was becoming short.' It was always the same thing, said in'j the same way. j "I must replenish the finances.' How much have you in hand, Miss I Tyndtull P Three pounds ? Mercy, I j must go to my bankers to-morrow, or! we shall be starving. I would rather starve than ask a favor of these Castle Claydon people. When I drive out with Roff the men and the women run to their doors to stare after me." . This occurred at the tea table on Suuday afternoon—that blessed Sunday when the aspect of the whole world had changed for Elneth, and Paul Morosov: watched her with furtive, troubled eyes. He looked so ill and nervous that she felt almost ashamed of herself for being so happy. Then he turned to his wife, saying: j

"Is there anything I can get for you in Londoa, Vera? Oh, but you seem to have all that you want. Yes—yes, 1 we have everything lsut peaco of mind. Wo must leave hero soihj, swiftly and secretly, before something happens. You vi ili want money, too, Miss Tynla'. You are .lot sending half the littlo annuity left yon by your father. A hundred pounds a year, and you have nearly fifty." "A good deal of that she spends on the children, Paul," Mrs Morosov I said.

"Oh, she is a good girl—she is like a fond daughter to ws, Vera." His eyes lost their hunted look for a moment, and beamed upon the girl. "I do not think you will want to leave us, Elneth, my dear—not for a little while —a year, perhaps." He hesitated, then spoke sharply to his wife. "Go away, Vera, over there. I must speak to the child. Don't listen, Vera. I will talk to you later." His voice had become a little hoarse, and Elneth moved uneasily. He bent over the table until his face was on a lino with hers. "My child," he' whispered, "you

He got up and left the room. Mrs Morosov bad already stolen away, so that Elneth was alone. For some minutes she sat perfectly rigid, staring stonily at the smoke-stained window. A revulsion of feeling stirred her heart to rebellion. For the first time she realized that she hated the stuffy rooms of the Rookery, the faded furniture and carpets, the dirty curtains and neglected windows, the untrimmed lawn, tho weedy paths, and the loneliness and gloom of it all. (To be continued.)

BY F. L. DACRE, Author of "Was He the Man?" "A Phantom of the Past," Sir John's Heiress," "A Loveless Marriage," "The Doctor's Secret," etc.

1 have no secrets from mo? . Eighteen years ago your father left you in my care." Ho pausod, choked with emotion. He made a half despairing gesture. "Roff saw you in the wood this morning, talking to a man—a big, young Englishman. Who is he—who is he? Speak." } Elneth's face became suddenly white i and then named red. "Roff \ as quite right, and I wanted to tell you. How daro Roff make trouble behind my back?" Sho was angry and indignant. Morosov made an impatient gesture. "Our very lives may bo endangered. You know that you are wrong to bring any one here. See how I have always trusted you. Oh, and you have suffered for me. I don't forget that. "Who was the man?" "Ronald Heseltine. We were lovers in the Schlnesselburg fortress —we are lovers now. He found me acidentally, and I never dreamed that he was near until I met him this morning." A bitter cry passed Morosov's lips, and his face became anguished. He rose to his feet, swaying back and forward. Then by an extraordinary effort he controlled himself, dropped on t his seat again, and covered his eyes with his handg. "Oh, my nerves! They are like a bundle of live wires, and for one terrible moment the suspicion flashed into my mind that this Ronald Heseltine was a Russian spy. God! It was appalling!" "What nonsense," Elneth said, half angrily. "You love this man?" "Yes." Her cheeks flamed. "I . want you to know him."