PRIMROSE DELORAINE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10298, 29 July 1911, Page 2

PRIMROSE DELORAINE

OUR SERIAL.

THE MISER'S DAUGHTER.

By MAJSIE PENDENNIS, A,uthor of "Sir Reginald's Whim," "The Forgotten Heir," "Rival Beauties,' 'etc.

CHAPTER XVlll—Continued. He broke off, and his eye:; met and held hers for a moment. Then they na rowed suddenly, and a strange light flashed into them. "Your chauffeur?" he went on, then paused again. "Ah, yes! your chauffeur," lie added. "Where did you raise him. sweetheart?- Is any good?" Primrose hesitated for a moment. "I—don't know," she added doubtfully. "I don't think I like him. and I want Sir Gerard to send him away, but ho won't. He says he must be given a chance, because every man ought to have a chance." I The gray© eyes that held hers narrowed again, and then Lord Eversdene laughed, shortly. "That," he said, is a beautiful theory, but it isn't everyone who puts t into practice. So you want to senl your chauffeur away, little girl? Tell mo why." Ho looked at her auestioningly, and she hesitated again, wondering if sho ?ihould tell him all about Smithers as she had told Sir Gerard. She felt half inclined to, but the fear of being laughed at once more stopped her.

"I will tell you some day." she said hurriedly. "Not now. It is rather a long story. But I don't like him, and I don't trust him."

Then, as they the ballroom, she turned to the partner who came up to claim her, and a moment later she had floated away over the polished floor, a dream of white and crystal. Lord Eversedene stared rather in a blank manner at the scented card in his hand.

"I wish," he reflected, "I needn t dance with Mrs Vivian again. I wisn it wasn't such a confoundedly caddish thing to cut a danoe. What did she mean by looking at me like that? "J hope to goodness she doesn't fancy herself in love with me. or fancy that I way. ever in love with her. Thai would bo, a climax, because that little woman, for all her pretty, flaxen softness and all her pussy cM, ways, hf* a deuce of a temper hidden away, if I know anything of women. She ooii\d scratch, too—how" she could scratch I I hope she won't take it into 'her head to scratch Primrose —my Primrose!" So he mused, as he sauntered lazily awav, after resigning Primrose to her eager partner. But his face was quite imperturbable when he halted at Mrs Vivian's side. "Our waltz, I think," he Paid. He he! dout his arm, and Mrs Vivian peeped up at him over the edge of her fkn and-shook her head. "I don't want to dance." she said frivolously, "I want to .sit out and talk; You can't talk when you are dancing, at least, not in the same way." : Her eyes flashed a meaning glance, into his, and Lord EversdeDe shivered inwardly, but outwardly his face was as impassive as'ever.

, "Talks." ho said, "are dangerous things. ' But women -are fond of dan- [ gferous things. We will go and talk, x by ail means,.Mrs Vivian."

I,'Slxe peeped uprat hijtn again wli'eri j ,tliey:'had found a quiet corner on tre I rbofednin balcony, and again he re ad I a {challenge life her eyes. It was only a few v minutes since she -had watched him with Primrose in their lovely lCdeii-—only a/few minutes since the dream o( her life seemed to fall in ruins at her feet. But she was playing her cards as coolly, playing her game the same, as if she had never beep a witness of that scene in tho conservatory

| Her quick thoughts flashed back to . the look that she had surprised ; in , Primrose's eyes, and she began to nu+. two and two together. Primrose had come from Australia. Lord Eversdene had been in Australia. They had met before, and had met out there. It was no fancy of herT that they "were not strangers, but the truth.

"I'want to all about what you have,been doing since I saw you last," she said,, '"and you haven't told me anything yet. You used to tell me ali sorts of things before you went away the last time,", you know. . We were great friends then."Lord Eyersdene surveyed the irreproachable tips of his 'shoes ively for a moment.

"Aren't we great friends still " tie 'returned. She, leaned a little nearer%ohim, and her tiny hand touched his arm ,vfor< a moment. ''Sometimes it almost used to seem as if mo wer« more than, friends,", shewhispered., Seductively. . "I .fancy sometimes—" She broke off, and still' holding that challenge, mingled with a subtle; alluring' softness, met and held his. He bit his lip. .. Fancies, like talks, are dangerous things/' he said. casually. "Don't fa ™y Mrs Vivian. It's a bad habit." Then !he fidgeted uncomfortably, wishing he could think of some excuse for stopping the conversation. But Mrs Vivian had no intention of letting hiift go. She had just made up her nnnd to have & throw for happiness, just one mad throw for the happiness sho coveted - and, come what might, ghe meant to have it. She knew now that his Jove was given to Primrose - the,x<cenethat . she witnessed had told her that. But, in:, spite; of her "knowledge, ,she meant ftave just the same. 1 It might .fail—-probiably would. fail; but $ worth tlie; risk. - And if-it failed f well, then it would be time to think of what was to come after.; . - Light' and frivolous as .she always .seemed, f hidden laway beneath the frothy society, surface of her nature there were depths that people did not guess, at—a tenacious will, a selfish, { callous indifference to every interest! lh the world save her own; light, fickle 1

But why were they posing as strangers? Why did not they say they knew one another? W'hat oould be tho meaning of it? - Her woman's instinct scented a mys-' tery, and her woman's revengeful anger for an Unconscious slight vowed that if woman's wit could unearth tho mystery it shouldbe unearthed. Lord Eversedene smiled his lazy, reflective smile. ? •'' "Certainly Australia," he said, in cool tones. notP I have been everywhere in the wortd. Why should I not go to Australia? But why jumo to conclusions, Mrs Vivian ? Who toM you I liad spent the last two years, in Australia? :X' ,am; sure" I didn't.: ,X" only said I hadji't forgotten your -waltzing when I wjas-, : to where I -have spent the last "two years, that is, if you will forgive my 'saying spj-mv affair;' a,nd for reasons •of my don't care to tell thetn to anyone, not even you •" - ; H<?r,Jiig eyes had; never leftbisface; but her gwas as unconscious as a child's, "Oh! of course," she answered lightly. "I don't know why I should be so silly, I suppose it is because I am a woman." ' | But all the sam ehis words had neither deceived nor impressed Jher. On the contrary, -they had strengthened her belief. She felt certain now, abso- i lutely certain, where before she had only felt suspicious, that the last two years, during which he had been lost w his,friends and all who knew him, had been spent in Australia. "Shall fcej" the man suggested, £o l>ack to tho ba-lIroQUi?' 7 " j' : - •® e . :in t ado a movement aS'if "to-rise, but_she_wa« too quick for him. Sudidenly, before he realised what was happening; she had .thrown her arms a tout him and was pressing close to him, half laughing, and Half crying. Sment - UP iilto in CTo be Continued).

passions easily swayed from hate to Jove, from love to hate. Of all women in the world women of that type are the most dangerous, because the fact that they are dangerous is, as a rule, utterly unsuspected even by those that know them best. And Eversdene, t-o whom, oddly enough, more than ono s.ufjpicio?! had oome in the course of theii- flirting friendship, wished with pll hi", heart that he had'hevter embarked on a flirtation with her. It was playing with fire, as he realised now, and fire might burn his fingers. That did r>nt matter. But it mi?iht also bur a the fingers that were very dear to h ; m —soft, sweet, girlish finders that hod just brought a wonderful jov, a marvelous, dreaming bliss into his life. M~s Vivian's v>n,n<3 touched his arm apnin. then, sliding down, stole iti seductive way into his S'he IfMine'l her nn-air°+ his «hrsnl<W. and the scent that clung "bout- ! ro " hair, and the golden miit of the ohifFon deaneries floa+ed up to him sv.-Vlr.-i_ Iv, bringinn: with it a wave of half forgotten memories. their flirtation had a, fairly ctronpf one. he admitted to himself, "ruefully. Stronger than it ought to have been, considering that ho had never one moment been at all serious. But +>An he had never thought that Mrs Vivian s had ibeen serious, either. Such a thi-"g had never occurred to him. He had iust olaved the game, a. Ucht society frivolous game of make-believe, in whose ruies he was a. past master. He pressed the tiny hand liehtlv, then laid it pentlv down, moving uneasily as he felt the flaxen hair brush hi°. cheek. "Shall we go back to the ballroom ?' he suggested. "It's a rinping wa.lt?; they are t>lavin<r. and if I remember vou used to be the best walt/er in London. I haven't that, you see, though I have been so long in Australia." The name slipped out unconsciously, without bis noticing i+. Then. a*, he realised what he had said, he set his teeth grimly. What a fool he he thought, to have made that slip. He had never meant to mention Australia, to anybody, never meant to let anybody guess that he had ever been there. Hvi had been setting a t a refill guard on his words so far but now, in the worry and ftmbarrassaient of the moment e had somehow forgotten to bo carefu'. And with Valerie Vivian of all people in the world, tie one person whom he. ha dthe most reason to be careful with. "Fool!" he thought to himself, bitterly. "Oh, fool I fool!'.' She glanced up quickly. "Australia? Australia?" she echoed. "It's tliere. then, that you have been hidden all this time; and every one who knew vou wondered where you could be, and no one had the least idea.* What on earth haro you been doing in Australia for two years, and why did you make such a mvsrtery of it —why ? Why didn't you say where you, were?" ,