PRIMROSE DELORAINE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10293, 22 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 XlV.—Continued

■'J think," she said, "we lmd better go home now. Smithers. i'nese winter afternoons clost: ii> oO quickly, ant! it is nearly lighting-up time already. There's a short cut round by Lversdene Castle that will let us get baciv by tea time. Turn first to the right, then to the left, and go straight on. We oan't miss it."

The chauffeur turned obediently, and followed her directions, and presently they were speeding down the lane that ran outside the great park surrounding Eversdene Castle. And Primrose's eyes wandered curiously to the beautiful old house with its flying flag, and she wondered when she would see Lord Eversdene, and what ho would be like. She had heard so much about him from Sir Gerard and their friends in the neighbourhood, that she could not help feeling interested in the man whose personality was as yet unknown to her; the man whom everybody seemed to like. Just past the lodge gates the lane dipped down suddenly into a steep, awkward hill, with a sharp, difficult turn at the end, and the chauffeur jammed on t(h© brakes as, the oar began the asoent. For a moment all went well. Then, suddenly, the unexpected happened. So far the car glided along smoothly, soundlessly, swiftly, without a jar or break, a perfect dream ,of delight, as Primrose phrased it to herself. Now all at once something went wrong.

j when I saw you first, but you're real ( enough, aren't you, Primrose?" He bent a little nearer, and Primrose watched him as if she were in a dream. It was Captain Jack, she kept saying to herself, in a dazed, mechanical way, Captain Jack! But how could it be, when Captain Jack was on the other side of the world? She had left him in the Australian bush. How oould he be here in England? And what was he doing? What did it all mean?" She isighed tremulously. "Captain Jack!" she said, under her breath. "Oh, Oaptain Jackl But it can't be you! How can it be you? I don't understand. I "

"Hush!" the man interrupted, and laid a warning, silencing finger on her lips. "I can't tell you everything now, but you will know it some day. Don't say any more —not a word. The chauffeur is coming to life, I see, and I have the best of good reasons for not wanting him to know that you and I are —old friends."

He bent lower still, and once again she felt his lips touch her hair, as she had felt them the night of their wild ride through the moonlight.

Then, before isJie oould say a word, or try to keep him, !he had laid her down gently and disappeared in the gray gloom as mysteriously as he had come.

And as Primrose watched him go she still felt that it was all a dream.

The next instant the car fras rushing down the hill like a thing possessed, the brakes absolutely useless, the whole, powerful machinery utterly beyond control.

CHAPTER XV

ONCE AGAIN

• Faster and foster they fltiv, the oar gathering speed as it went. Primrose saw herself face to face with death.

She gave a little, frightened, gasping cry, but Smithers did not look at her. He was still clutching the steering wheel in a last desperate effort to avert a ghastly tragedy. f $ am afraid there is£ 1 t much of a

The ballroom at Lesbie Manor presented a gay and animated scene, and . Primrose looked round her with girlish, amused interest.

chance for us,' 1 he said. "The oar > has got away with me. Goodness knows }iow it happened, but it has ■ done so, and I can't,stop her. But I will do my best, and if only I could steer her safe round the corner —there is a big hill the other side that might pull us up.. But " . The words froze on his lips, for even as he spoke them tlhe very thing that he had tried so pluckily to avoid hapi pened. With all his skill and care it was impossible to steer the oar, at the mad pace they were going, in anything like safety round tlhe sharp curve of thej road at the; bottom ofth'e hill. And as he tried it lurched violently to one side, dashed into a gqgat tree, cannoned off thie trunk, andvcrashed up a bank on the other of the lane, where it turned a complete somersault, and then fell over pn its side. a moment Primrose was unconscious. Then as she slowly opened her ©yea, still dazed anid bewildered from the terrible shock she caught her breath in startled Strong arms had raised her from the ground and held her close; her head was resting on a rough, tWeed shoulder, and a, brown hand, a hand thatseemed delightfully, , oddly, I£amdljar,' was clasping her owitti

... A few yards aw^yi.ishe,.could see the chauffeur lying on the grass by the upturned car, stall and motionless; and then, with &n' effort she raised her eyes, and looked up, through the gathering shadows of the wintry dusk, to meet the passionate gaze of two quizzical gray eyes that rihe had thought she would see no more, save only in her dreams;

And as she looked, spellbound, in doubt, thinking ahe must surely still be unconscious, #dd that this of a delirium too sweet to last, the voice that she had longed so wistfully to..hear again broke the, strained silence.

, It was her first glimpse of an English ballroom ,her first experience of an English ball —or, indeed, a ball of any kind—and she was prepared to enjoy it to the full. It was such a pretty scene, she thought—the large, brilliantly lighted room, lavishly decorated with great banks of lilies that scented the warm air with a wealth of perfume, the restless, ever-varying crowd; the bright scarlet of the men's hunt coats; the dainty softness of the women's evening gowns, the flash of diamonds and the shimmer of pearls; the gleam of bright eyes. , The scene was so pretty, the music so entrancing, that Primrose, as sho stood, fell into a dream—a happy girlish dream that lifted her for a moment beyond the realities of life. It was all about the man whom slhe had met in the wild, unconventional, lawless life that had onoe been hers, met and learned to love as she knew she could love no other man—the man who had come to her rescue so strangely and mysteriously only the day before, and held her in his arms and kissed her hair, as he had onoe kissed it under the light of an Australian moon, before he had vanished into the gray gloom and obscurity from which he had come. Why was lie in England? she wondered, as She had been wondering aIJ day. What could have brought him there ? And would she isee him again ? He had not said so, had not breathed a word of any future meetings, but still she hoped—oh, how she hoped! that dhanoe might bring them together again, as it had brought them s together before. ■ Of course they would meet, she told, herself happiljr,. two were in England. Fate could not be so merciless as. to keep them always apart.It must- chance that they would be together once more, and happily . together, since they loved one another. For, though Captain Jack had never told her that he loved her, somehow she felt that he did—felt it in ©very fibiy of her being. And she—ah, how she loved hini, ;with a love that would live through thewftole of her life—a- , love thlat only waited his' touch, his. I kiss, to flame into the passion of newI born womanhood.

"Venua in a motor car," the voice said, half tenderly. "Venus seems to find faenaelf in some' queer situations nowadays.".

Then, as-the giri looked up, stall too absolutely.' bewildered and amazed to speak or even the man who held hex* laughed a little, and went on. "I saw the whole thing," he said, "and it gave me shivers, I can tell you. I don't know how it happened, but perhaps your chauffeur can explain. At present he is unconscious, but he seemed like coming round wlilen I looked ait him a minute ago. Great heavens! I thought it was your ghost

She was so absorbed in her-dreams that she did. not- see Sir Gerard come up to her with a man by Ms side, and she started as her. guardian's voice fell on her ear, calling hex; to herself. "Primrose," he said quietly, and With .the: dight constraint that always marked his ilianner toward her since her refusal of him, .'Primrose, I want you to spare a danoe for someone who is a very old friend of mine, and also a connection of your own. Let me introduce Lord Eversdene to you Primrose looked up quickly, and turned with her pretty smile to greet the newcomer, no warning of what was coming stirring in her heart. But even as she turned the smile faded quickly from her lips, and her eyed glowed suddenly with a strange, rtidi, ant' light. (To be Continued).