PRIMROSE DELORAINE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10278, 5 July 1911, Page 2

PRIMROSE DELORAINE

OUR SERIAL.

THE MISER'S DAUGHTER.

By MAISIE PENDENNIS, Author of "Sir Whim," "The Forgotten Heir," "Rival Beauties,' 'etc.

CHAPTER V.—Continued. j The door opened softly, and a manservant appeared on the threshold. "Sir Gerard Letsbie," he announced, and the door closed again, and ho disappeared as noiselessly as he had come. Mrs Vivian stirred slightly in her no t of old-rose cushions, and held out I a slim, jewelled hand to the newcom- ] er. "It is very opportune of you to arrive just now," she said, in hor light frivolous way. "But you generally manage to be opportune." Sir Gerard took her hand in both of his own, and held it for a moment, as lie answered, with rather a rueful smile: "It is about the only thing that I do manage to be, then. Oh, dear, life's awfully tiresome sometimes, isn't it?" Mrs Vivian sighed a i;igh that seemed to come from the very deptlis of her heart.. "Awfully tirajome?" she echoed. "I just think it is. It is perfectly maddening, especially when you've lost fifty pounds at bridge, and your dressmaker has the bad taste to send you a bill, and you want a new hat, and do not know where to got the credit for one." i Sir Gerard drew up another big armchair, and sat down facing his hostess. "Those are troubles, indeed,' he remarked, with a half smile, "but, bad as they are, there's a way out of them. I may be able to help you through a bit. And now I want to tell you that I have just developed a trouble that I should like you to help me through." She looked at him with lazy enquiry. "What is it ?" site asked. "Tell me all about it. Have you become a bankrupt?" "No," he answered, "but I have become something almost as bad. I have become a guardian."

"A guardian," she repeated. "What ! tort of a guardian? Do you mean a poor-law guardian, or a guardian of the peace, or what?" ' i "I mean a guardiaii of a girl," Sir j Gerard replied. Ho then relapsed in ] to gloomy silence. Mrs Vivian's eyes grew suddenly bright. "What girl," slie asked. "Whose girl? I didn't know you had a girl to be guardian to." "Neither did I," returned Sir Gerard. "I hadn't the ghost of a notion of it till two days ago. It knocked me over, I can tell you." "Two days ago," she echoed. "Two days ago, and you never told me till now. Fancy keeping a secret from me for two whole days!" He laughed, and moved his chair nearer. "My dear girl," he said. 'I haven't seen you. for two whole days. If I had I couldn't have kept the secret from you for one half s<econd; you know that." Then, with a quick, caressing gesture, ho put his hamd on her round, dimpled arm, just where the loose falling sleeve of her tea gown left it bare and white. "You know that," ho said again, and smiled. "1 don't know anything," Mns Vivian retorted petulantly, 'except that I have lostt fifty pounds' and don't know how to pay it." ■ Sir Gerard laughed in. spite of himself. "Oh, Valerie, Valerie, what a child you are. But you oughtn't to lose more than you can afford, you know." . She laughed, too. "I know I should not," she said, "but if one never did what one ought not to do, what a terribly dull thing life would be." "Of course it would," said Sir Gerard, 'from our point of view, anyway But you kiiow, Valerie, there are people in. the world who never do things that they ought not to do." 1 "I .suppose there are," said Mrs Vivian, and laughed again, "but I ltope I .shall never meet amy of them. They don't live in London, as a rule, do they?" And then she grew grave, and moved her arm so that her hand rested In his. "Tell me about the girl," dhe said. "I suppose if sne's your ward you're her guardian. It is very funny, isn't it?" Sir Gerard grew grave, too. ' "It may be funny from your point of view," he said, "but I can assure you that it's anything but funny from mine. Imagine mo guardian of a girl of nineteen, whom I have never Seen. What on earth shall I do with her?" ■ ' "Marry 5 her!" Mrs Vivian promptly returned. "That is to say, if she has any money; and I infer that she has. Wards generally have." "Oh, yes. she has money," said Sir Gerard. "A lot of money; but I don't want to marry her, for all that. There's* fo nly one woman, in the world I want to marry, and—and " "Well, you can't marry her," Mrs

Vivian laughed. "That is to say, if you mean me; and I suppose you do.'' And then she patted his hand softly. "You silly fellow," she went on. "You more than silly fellow. Think of all you could do with a plentiful supply of money. Why, you could pay off all your debts, and restore the manor, and buy all the things you want to buy, and can't afford to buy, and do all the thing? you want to do, and can't afford to do, and—and, besides, 'you could pay all my debts, too." "With my wife's money?" he said, in a lower tone; and then there was a pause. "I will pay your debts for you, Valerie," he added presently, "but I will pay them with my.own money. The manor has waited so long, it can wait a little longer still—and so can I." "You haven't told mo the girl's name yet," said Mrs Vivian, "or who she is, and what slie is like, or where sue comes from, or anything." "Her name," said Sir Gerard, "is Primrose Deloraine, "but I don't know what she is like, for I have nevelr seen her. You have heard me talk ' of my old friend Deloraine, well, she is his daughter. Deloraine married beneath him, you know, and then cut the country, and..went to Australia, and settled down in a desolate place called Red Tree Camp. He struck gold there, and this girl has, as I remarked before, a lot of money." "Two days ago I got a letter from Deloraine, written about six weeks or so ago, saying that he had just seen a doctor, who-had told him that he had some incurable disease, and that he might live a year, or he might live only a few weeks. He also said that he was leaving his daughter to my care, and ho hoped, for the sake of the old friendship, I shouldn't mind. Ido mind, though, all the same; but j that's by the way. He said that if J anything should happen to him PrimJ rose would come over to England at ! once to me; but he hoped that nothing would happen, at any rate, for a few months." He broke off.

"I, too, hope that nothing will happen," lie went on, " for many reasons. One is that one never likes to hear of the death of an old friend, \ even if one hasn't seen him for half I a lifetime. And another is that I simply dread the idea of having a girl of nineteen on my hands. What I shall do with her the Lord only knows —I don't." "Marry her," Mrs Vivian said again. "You'll have~to marry her, of course." But he took no notice of the words. "I think," he went on, "that it w»uld be a good way «ut of the difficulty—when it arrives—for you +o take charge of Primrose for me. I've been thinking of it ever since I heard she was coming. You see, you could chaperon her, and introduce her, and all that sort of thing; and, of course, I could make you a big allowance for doing it. What do you say?" I Mrs Vivian pondered for a moment frowning thoughtfully. She did not quite like the idea of having a girl in her house; it might interfere with some of her ways and schemes. Besides, she did not know what the girl would bo like. She -night ho rough and uncultivated, and quite unpresentable ; yet she might be pretty and attractive, and it was difficult to say which alternative appeared to he the more unpleasing in her eyes. | But, then, Sir Gerard had spoken of a big allowance; it would be an easy way of making money, and she wanted money very badly. Besides if the girl was in her charge, it might, after all, be .more easy for 'her to oarry out the plan that her quick brain had already formulated, the plan of marrying Primrose to Sir Gerard.

It would be a good thing, she was thinking, it he could marry a girl with money—a good thing for him, ana. incidentally, a good thine for her. Of the girl sihe did not think; she only thought of herself and Sir Gerard. His maxriage, too, would leave her more free to carry out certain schemes that she was very anxious to carry out, and so—and so "I must think about it," she declared. (To be Continued).