PRIMROSE DELORAINE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10293, 24 July 1911, Page 2

PRIMROSE DELORAINE

OUR SERIAL.

THE MISER'S DAUGHTER.

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

CHAPTER XV— Continued

She made an impulsive movement forward, but the tall, broad-shoulder-ed man by Sir Gerard's iide bowed formally ac, ho looked at her steadily with quizzical gray eyes—the -eyes that she had first seen in -the light of an Ausi:an moon, shiningt lira ugh the slits in a black mask. It was Captain Jack!

Captain Jack, the bushranger, the camp raider, the outlaw! Captain Jack, whosn wild, lawless reputation and reckless, daring deeds had spread throughout the length and breadth of Australia! Captain Jack! But how could Captain Jack be Lord Evcrsdeno ? How could the English nobleman, the head of a great, famous family, the last of a .splendid historic line, and the Australian desperado bo ono and the same person ? What did it mean ? She caught 'her breath as cho„ looked at him, feeling dazed, be- , wilde-red, like a woman in«a dream. "I am charmed to meet Miss Deloiaine," the man said, in cool, lazy, and well-remembered tones "and I shall be more charmed still if Miss Deloraine will condescend to waltz with me." The cornel's of his grave, strong mouth twitched a little, as he spoke, ,but his face was imperturbable in its impassive calm. Primrose was quick to take her cuo i from him, and she bowed as formally asj he. "I can 'give you the next waltz, she said, and smiled her pretty smile

even Oh, I say, the girl opposite is coming toward me. I had better go Lind mot-1 her half way. hadn't I? I boliovo I've forgotten what you havo to do in the lancers." Ho-went forward and performed hir> part of the danco with coolness and precision. Then ho returned to his partner. "I lu'veivt forgotten, after all," he ;;aid. ' L generally forget most things, but it so cms I haven't forgotten that. "I hope you don't forget old friends,'' said Mrs Vivian in a low tone. Lord Eversdene looked down at her quickly, and read a challenge in her eyes. Then swiftly his thoughts went back to the past, the past of only sorco two year.; ago, and ho remembered the very a* dent flirtation tha had been broken off by his departure for Australia.

agam. As lie took the dainty card from her his hand touched hers for a moment, and the touch, slight as it was, caused the warm colour to oome to her cheek and thrilled her heart with unforgotten memories. j Her eyes softened involuntarily as j they met the well-remembered light in his.'. . He glanced down at the card, and scrawled a big "E" several times, and then handed it back to her. "Numbert hree to begin with," he said"calmly; and then he turned vo Mi's Vivian, who wiais standing near. "Ithink this lanoers is ours, Mrs Vivian," lie said 1 ; "shall we go and get a ' decent place before the rush aad tum- , bio begins?" ■ , He held out his arm as he spoke, and, as Mrs Vivian laid her small, white gloved hand upon it, he moved away, with a last look at Primrose. '■ Mrs Vivian peeped up at him as : they made their way toward the end of--the room, and her forget-me-not eyes I. were:'suspiciously bright. She liad ( v seen what Sir Gerard had failed to see i > —the swift look of glad, recognition and welcome that bad flashed into Primrose's uplifted eyes;, her quick, impulsive movement, so quickly checked, snd wondered what it all oould mean. But, being a clever woman of the world, and wise in her generation, she was careful not to refer to what . she had seen. , "It is a long time sinoe I danced with you, Lord Eversdene," she said. seem quite a stranger." "Most people) seem Grangers, even if you are always dancing with them," saidt Lord Eversdene quietly. And , then .be smiled down at the tiny, roseblush lade that hardly reached above .his' elbow, the Dresden china figure, slight, and dainty, in a bewildering I cloiid of corn-coloiji*ed chiffon that j seemed t<v hold it in a golden mist. • i"lt ia good to be back/' he went on, "and it is good to dance with you again; and, when .I oome to think of it, I haven't danced since the last time I danced with you. I have been rather , outjthe way of dancing the lasfefcvrd years." 1 As lie spoke ; his face clouded suddenly and giew grave with the shadow of many memories. The old, wild life in the Australian bush, the life when he had been Captain Jack, a bushranger and an outlaw, seemed alomst like a dream. Yet he knew that it was no dream, but a stern reality, and the thought brought a cairious light to his eyes. Mrs Vivian saw the look on his face, and wondered again as she had won- ' derea before. e have you been the list two yens?" she "Nobody seems j ; to inaw.t Onehas .heard rumours of. yep from time to time, but I dare say | they. weren't true:." ■ ' "Rumours very seldom are true," Lord Eversdene replied. Then he pull-, ed himself together. "Oh, I have been here, there, an deverywhere/' he, said lazily, "And I won't bore you with details thut wouldn't interest you, and '

It l;aii been a flirtation pure and simple, nothing more nor less, on his side, a nd he had thought that it had been the srme on her side. It had never occurred to him in those days that she had taken either him, or herself, or the flirtation, seriously. But somehow, all at once it occurred to him now,, and the thought was a distinctly unpleasant one, and made him feel vaguely uneasy. \ In days gone by lie had sown his wild oats thoughtlessly, heedlessly, with an open and reckless hand, little dreaming of the bitter harvest that would one day be his to reap. For no man can see so far as Fate. Lord Eversdene shrugged his shoulders. , 1

"I don't," he said, very gravely, "forget old friends, Mrs Vivian, but it isn't always easy to take up the threads of a friendship just where you dropped it, and isomehow it's simply impossible. Sometimes, you know, the thread takes such a lot of looking for that it's like looking for a needle in a haystack. And that reminds me, isn't it timo we set to partners, or something of that sort?" He turned to the girl on his left ashe spoke, and Mrs Vivian said uo .more. She was one of those women who are clever enough to know hovj to be silent—oh occasion. Next to this dance was Lord Eversdone's first waltz with Primrose, and, after getting Mrs Vivian the ice i:i which her frivolous soul delighted, and doing his duty nobly to her, he* delivered her into the hands of one of her numerous admirers who also happened to bo her partner for that dance, he then wentin search of Primrose.

He found pher in a far corner of the brilliant ballroom, standing by a great bank of hothouse lilieis, whose subtle soent weighed the warm air with -

fragrant perfume. She looked like a lily herself, he thought, with one of his odd lapses into dreamy fancifulness —a white, fair lily, the purest, sweetest flower in all the flower world; and hi 3 lazy eyes lightened with a swift, strange fire.

The little court of admirers of which Primrpse was the centre fell back by common consent as Lord Eversdene strolled leisurely up to her, a tall,' splendid, picturesque figure in the brilliant scarlet of his hunt evening coat, with its white silk facings an I black '.satin knee breeches, and left him in full possession of the field.

He was. the sort of man who generally found himself in possession of what her Rpproached, for all other men seemed to sink.insignificantly .into the, ba»kgiciind..beforo his strong, doniin.Eorono brief, intoxicating in>>n;o»it, as thry s'.t-od there, the blue cvus .\d th-vprnv ir- t in a glance That .;swi.pt.; awav t lie t,reary waste of 'hi immtjf since they had parted on the other side of the world, as if they had never been; an dtook them back in a flash to the soul-thrilling, l passion-sweet hour of their parting beneath the velvet darkness of an Australian skv. JFor one brief moment, while', Primrose's heart throbbed wildly, and her pulses quivered madly, with the old passionate thrill of feckless delight that only the presence of this one man in all the world had power to rouse in her. Then "Lord Eversderie raised his eyebrows with the old, quizzical, well-re>-menibered movemtn. . "Shall we revel or rest?" he asked, in the low, lazy voice that rang into her soul like unforgotten music. / "In plain English, would you like to dance or shall we hunt for a quiet place in the conservatory? I leave the choice to you. Choose wisely." (To be Continued).