PRIMROSE DELORAINE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10283, 11 July 1911, Page 2

PRIMROSE DELORAINE

OUR SERIAL.

THE MISER'S DAUGHTER.

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

CHAPTER Vll.—Continued. , "Why should I help you," she asked. "Whatever you suffer it can't be more than you have made mo suffer. Some day perhaps you will know what it is to see the man you love go mad about another woman! Some day, perhaps, you will know what hopeless, unrequited love is. Some day, perhaps you will know what jealousy is! Some day perhaps you will know what it is to love a mon who doesn't ' love you ; and then you -will know what suffering means! And then—and then " She stopped abruptly, and her glowing eyes gleamed with such a direful light that Primrose's heart sank with a leaden sense of fear and dread. | There was no chance for her, she thouglit. No help, no hope! This woman hated her so via-lioci/iily that it vas useless to nppe.-»; I ) iff. <l>v had no; come there to help her. She had or.lj come to m-y;k at I.or t .n-ory and helplessness and d a; .nr. She K> <■« : o pit;., no mercy! S'-e only knew hatred jealousy, Tt-c; revenge "I." Eve went on in t! e sine passim ate way, "have lost, and you in.ve v, ; i| But it nic T not he <;ii al.vivs 'ihe dav may cone >• 'ten \>n ' ,11 j.vye and I shall win. How I shall rejoice then!" For a moment Primrose looked at her, meeting the blazing light of the green-gray eyes with a piteous question in her own. Then she turned away and covered her face with her hands again. "No hope," she said, in.a low tone. "No help. No escape! I never knew until this moment what a terrible thing it was to have no hope! I never knew " "There are a lot of things that you don't know," a cool, lazy voice interrupted, "and apparently the fact that there is no such thing as hopelessness is one of them." Then, an a tall, broad-shouldered, well-remembered figure came leisurely forward into the bright lantern light, Primrose clasped her hands with joy. "Captain Jack!" I .she cried. "Oh, Captain Jack!" CHAPTER IX. THE KISS. Captain Jack stood still and looked from one to the other of the two women who faced him —from Primrose, pale, trembling and tearful, to Eve, calm, cold and scornful—and as he looked at the latter his grave mouth hardened a little. "I am afraid I have come in rather unexpectedly," he said; "but really I couldn't wait any longer. You said , you would come back and tell mo if the coast was clear, but you were so long about it that I thought I would j enter and see for myself. After all, it didn't particularly matter to me I if the coast was clear or not. I don't think I should have cared if it hadn't been.*' Whereupon he turned to Primrose, and took her hands in hia, and held them for a moment. "Never mind," he commenced. "Don't you trouble any more. It is all right. So never mind." Eve bit her lip, and the baleful light-still-glowed in her eyes. "I've done my best," she curtly remarked. "Not for you, but for myself. Now I'll go outside and keep I watch j but you mustn't hang about for long. Poker Bill might be back at any moment. If I whistle, you will know that there is danger, and you must come out quick.*' "That's all right," said Captain Jack, and then he turned to Primrose again. "I seem," he said, "to have arrived just at the right moment, but I am afraid I can't claim the credit for it. All the credit belongs to Eve. She found me wandering aimlessly around your empty hut, thinking that you had gone to England, and bemoaning my fate because I Hadn't been in time to say good-by to you; and for reasons of her own she had told me that you hadn't gone to England, and that Poker Bill—Poker Bill ' ' .He paused, and his eyes lighted up suddenly. '.'l; won't talk about Poker Bill," he , said.!■■'"lf I do I may say something that'you wouldn't like to hear." Then his strong clasp tightened on the little hands that he still held, and his gray eyesisoftened as they looked into hers. "Are you glad to see me?" he added. She looked back at him, and flushed daintily. "Glad?" she echoed. "Glad? Oh, I can't tell you. I shall never be able to tell you." "Don't try to tell me," Captain Jacksaid, very gently. "Don't think about it any more. It is all over now, and; you are safe. Leave the rest to ,meV .But if it Hadn't been for Eve—" He stopped short, and shrugged his shoulders expressively. Primrose looked round Ker nervously. ; "Eve hates me," she whispered. "I think she has always hated me!" Captain Jack smiled, with an expressive shrug of his 1 shoulders. "Yes," he said, "she hates you and shejoves Poker Bill. Those are two queer facts, aren't they P But life is full of queer facts, and it doesn't matter whether she hates you or not. She has guided me here to you, and so, you see, in a way you owe much to her. If j she hadn't chosen to tell me what had

happened I should have gono mooning off none tlio wiser, and you —and you Well, we won't think of it." Primrose shivered as she came nearer to him. "We won't think about that," she echoed. Captain Jack smiled again, and his eyes were very tender as they looked into hers. "We will think about ourselves, for a little while, shall we?" he said. "It isn't often one gets a chance to think about oneself in this contrary world, is it?" And then he drew nearer to her. "Have you missed me?" he ask- i ed. "It seems rather a ridiculous ] question to ask, considering you have only seen mo once, and you needn't answer if you don't want to, but I I should rather like to know. My reason for wanting to know is, of course, curiosity, pure and simple—nothing else." His tone sounded mocking, but she caught the look in his eyes, and she flushed again. "Yes," she answered, very low, "I have missed you." And with that answer he seemed to be content. "That's all right," he said, "or, rather, as a matter of fact, it's all ' wrong. That sounds like a paradox, but I will explain what I mean some ( time. Just at present the question is: What had we better do? I suppose Poker Bill will be back here before long, and, much as I should like to meet him, I think I had better deny myself the pleasure of his society until you are not with me. In plain English, I think we ought to be going soon —l've got the gray mare outside, and she's game to carry the two of us. Therefore, if you like to trust me, I'll get you out of this, and land you somewhere within reach of the nearest town before morning. But you will have to trust me." Then he looked at her again. "I suppose you can?" he added. "I am a trustworthy persor, I assure you." Ho paused agam, and Primrose tried to answer, but her overwrought feelings carried her away, and she burst into tears. For a moment Captain Jack watched her in silence, and his (-yes grow softer and more tender stil'. Then be touched her shoulder lightly with his strong, brown hand. "Don't cry," he said, 'you will spoil your eyes, and they are much too pretty to be spoiled. Don't cry.- It i« all right now. I'll take care of you. You needn't be frightened any more. I've got everything planned in my head, and I'll get you out of this safely. If I'rfcer Bill comes back a little too soon, well, he'll wish he hadn't, that's all." Primrose made a brave effort to check her tears. "It has been awful," sin sail —'too awful to think about—but I'll try not to think about it any more now. It's all right, now that you have coma to help me. I know it will be aU right, and I must try to forget the fast, or to think of it only as an unpleasant dream." Then she looked up at him. i "I have missed you," she said again. "I wish—l wish you had come before. " His hand still rested on tier er"l wish it too," ho said. "But, however, better late than aevor, as the saying is. I've come now, and that's something. And now that I've come we can at least say 'good-by,' can't we? I didn't like to think that you were going away to England without a word, when perhaps I may never see you again. After all, it is something to say good-by.' It isn't much, perhaps, but it is something." "Oh, but you will see v me again," Primrose said. "We are sure to meet again some day. The world is ismall, you know. We are sure to meet again some day.' Captain Jack smiled rather regretfully. "The world isn't so small as people imagine," he said. "Anyway, it is quite big enough to lose people in even if you don't want to lose them. And we may meet again, or we may not. Time will show. At present our paths seem to be about as far apart as it is possible for them to be. But still the may come when they will cross again." And then he bent down to look in her face. "Should you be .sorry," he asked, in a low tone, "if they uever did?" Primrose looked at him again, but she did not speak, and as he met her eyes he realised, with a swift pang of remorse, that he had said more than he meant to, and more-than he ought to. have said. He ought to have been more careful; he knew that now, but, manlike, he had not thought about it before. Manlike, he had not considered her side of the question, had not considered the chance that she might learn to love him, until her innocent eyes revealed to Him the secret that she was too inexperienced to conceal. However, it was too late to think of that now. The mischief was done. (To be Continued). I