A Daughter of Mystery

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10249, 27 May 1911, Page 2

A Daughter of Mystery

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.

OUR SERIAL.

CHAPTER XVII— Continued. "If we are dull," Mr Mobberly remarked cheerfully, "we are at least respectable." The cab pulled up at the fourth house on the right, and its name was "Belvedere." The window curtains in the downstairs room fluttered rather wildly, then the front door was thrown open, and a prim looking lady, thevery counterpart of Mr Mobberly, stood revealed. A few paces behind her was a maid, who flaunted a wonderful white cap, with streamers a yard long. "Home, Miss Tyndall," Mr Mobberly said, "and that is Mrs Mobberly in the doorway." "What a pleasant faced lady," Elneth thought. "And how remarkably she resembles Mr Mobberly." CHAPTER XVIII. THE PHOENIX FOUNDRY. In. the meantimo Ronald Heseltine had descended upon Castle. Claydon like a raging lion. He had received Elneth's letter in the morning, and six hours later was in tho vicarage parlour. Ho was pacing up and down, and glaring angrily at Basil Cooper, who was sitting at the table, looking flushed and angry. "A pretty nice friend you are," Ronald stormed. "So you actually accompanied Miss Tyndall to the railway station, and saw her off! And all you can tell me is that she has gone to London. Do you call that an act of friendship? I call it an act of war!" "You are talking arrant nonsense, Ronald! The young lady was determined to go, and the least I could do was to carry her bit of luggage. She had heard something about her origin, and something about your engagement, to Lady Eva Lorrington." He paled, and his voice shook. Like a flash Ronald swung round, his eyes ablaze. "You told her that?" "She unfortunately overheard me talking about it to Edith. Lady Eva and her brother motored up here, on a search for you, and, when they were gone, I very naturally made comparisons, having the good of all at heart." "Curse your comparisons!" "When a man gets between two women what can he expect?" flared Basil. "Lady Eva regards you as her property, and rightly so. And here you are raging about another girl. -I —l—l —oh, d the whole thing!" Ho struck the table with his clenched fist, and stifled a second oath. Parsons have to use the safety valve sometimes the same as other men.

jting room to be a vast improvement 'upon the stuffy study at the vicarage. The room was spacious and | lofty, and the windows looked out upjon the street. The bustle there seemed to give him a zest for work. Between six and seven o'clock he ate a substantial dinner, and very gradually his nynd resumed its normal tranquility. Worrying would accomplish nothing, but his feelings toward Basil Cooper remained exceedingly bitter. Basil had presumed to make comparisons to Elneth's disadvantage, and upon his findings had delivered a judgment which affected the whole future of three persons. It was monstrous! Oh, these good intentions! Small wonder that hell was paved with them! After dinner he wrote half a dozen important letters. For days there had been one continual round of bankers, lawyers, architects, and builders, and these men would have to play a very important part in the business for some time to come. He wanted a practical manager, too,, some man with a reputation gained in a similar industry. Almost everything depended upon the master mind which controlled the actual production of me works. No doubt there were plenty of men who believed themselves capable of performing the services required, but the credentials of all would have to be subjected to a searching analysis. The final letter was to the private detective who had already spent so much time and money in making inquiries concerning Elneth' Tyndall. Ronald hardly knew what to write, and his heart sickened within him. Elneth had been swallowed up in the great vortex of London, and as she wished to remain undiscovered, he half hesitated about putting a spy upon her movements.

"She was frenzied at the time, and did not really mean it," he argued. "A little jealousy, perhaps, and a great deal of nonsense about her connections. She is quite unfitted to faec the world alone, my poor little love? Good heavens! Her sufferings must have been ten times greater than mine. I will leave no stone unturned until she is found." "Spare no expense," lie wrote to the detective, "and not an hour's time, but work unobtrusively. Miss Tyndall does not desire to be discovered by her late guardian, for very cogent reasons. She believes herself to be shadowed by his criminal folly, and mischief makers have told her that a marriage between us would bring everlasting disgrace upon me. There you have the case in a nutshell.'

Ronald flung him one bitter look of contempt, and trampled out of the room. -Upstairs he went, and gathered up his belongings, and ho rowed that he would leave the vicarage, never to enter it again. He made a second -bundle of his papers and books in the study, and, shouldering his double •burden, strode out of the house. L "Never again," he said aloud, "can I have faith in so-called righteous people. They are meddlesome, tactless, mischief makers. They believe, in their infernal egoism, that they have a prescriptive right to regulate the lives of their friends. And what can have possessed my poor Elneth? She must have been driven to madness by something. What do I care about her origin. I wnoder if she met Ladv Eva?" His brain was too confused for connected thought, it throbbed,throbbed, throbbed with fierce insistence, and all that passed through his mind resolved itself into a very tiny circle. It seemed that he was starting life anew ; he had to begin again, with nearly thirty years of waste behind him. The events of the past few hours had altered his whole outlook. His unreasoning rage calmed to a fixed determination. He would find Elneth; he would have an understanding with Lady Eva Lorington; and the story of ; his fight with fortune should some day set the world ringing. He had. no desire to draw back; he could not if he would. A portion of his marvellously acquired capital was already invested. The iron foundry was his, and the deeds lay in his lawyer's safe. He would take formal possession in a day or two, and begin to rebuild on a large scale. He was fighting for love and business. From the vicarage he walked into

He went out to mail his letters, and while buying some stamps'found himself face to face' with Paul Morosov. The Russian had been described to him so accurately by Elneth that he recognised him at once. Morosov turned away and busied himself with the despatch of three or four telegrams. He seemed to be in. a.fever of haste, and from time to time cast furtive glances round the office. As the telegrams were in cipher, he had to spell the grotesque words to the telegrapher. Ronald strolled to the door to wait, resolved to have a word with the Russian, but Morosov darted after him, tapped his shoulder, and whispered:

the high street, and proceeded, with long, raking strides ,to the Central i Hotel. He was well-known to the [ management by this"time. The Cenj tral was'the commercial hotel of Castle Claydon, and the new owner of Golding's foundry had been one of the principal topics of conversation for days. Ronald dropped his satchel and the bundle of books and papers, and the landlord emerged smilingly from his office. "I.want some decent apartments," Ronald said shortly. "A bedroom and a sitting-room. My friend, the vicar, can't accommodate me since I am settling here, and my luggage will be coming by train to-morrow." "Wo can fix you up to a T, sir." "You won't mind people coming in to see me?" Ronald asked. "The office at the foundry is all topsv-turvv at present." "Only too pleased, Mr Heseltine. The more the merrier for the Central Hotel. All in tlio way of business!" Ronald was soon installed in his new quarters, and discovered the sit-

! "I know you Mr Heseltine. I willbe with you in one minute. The telegraph girl is so slow." He went hack to the counter, but was soon beside Ronald again, and snapped out the single word, "Now!" "You%ish to speak of Miss Tyndall? "Exactly, but first tell me what you I know. You are the cause of her flight, of all her misery and mine. By a mere accident she found out a little secret, and her spirit is lofty and proud. She left my house and has vanished. Do you know whither? I am desolate —desolate!" "No!"_ Ronald said harshly. "I believe you —she fled from you-*-not from me. And now lam going. I have been all day arranging my affairs here and—elsewhere; to-mtfrro\v I shall be gone ." His black eyes were dimmed with tears, and his voice was trembling with emotion. "You flunk only of your small disappointment—you, who have wrought all the trouble." , He'broke down, and waved his hand in farewell, walking faster, but Ronald easily kept pace with him. "I have nothing more to do to-' night, Mr Morosov, and will walk with you, if you don't object." "But Ido object. I don't like you. You are one of those men fated to bring trouble upon all who intimately > know you." • * ' "Absurd!" was hte angry rejoinder. "Is it wrong of a man to give his honest love to a woman?" "One woman—no; but two women! How many more? Even if you Avere honest, why did you not come to me first, and I would have told you the utter impossibility of a. marriage between you and my child—my ward. Yon smile, but it is utterly impossilbe. Elneth knows it is so now. .Go your way now; I hate, you f For you there i<: poison in my heart. I spit upon you !" Ronald was swelling with fury: his eyes glowed, his brow darkened, and be clenched his fists. Then he turned away, and Paul Morosov went on alone. (To be continued.)