PRIMROSE DELORAINE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 1033, 14 August 1911, Page 2

PRIMROSE DELORAINE

UUR SERIAL.

daughter. „ jIE pendennis. <. "Sir Reginald's "The Forgotten Heir." "Rival Feautiwi,.' 'etc.

CHAPTER XXXlV.—Continued

Three cf tlio men moved forward, and ;u tho light fell on the face of the foremost one Primrose started with a little amazed cry. "Whv, it's Smithers!" she said. "What"is Smithers doing here?" Lord Eversdene smiled easily. "Smithers," ho explained, "happens not to be Smithers at all. That is only a name that he assumed when it suited his purpose to pose as your chauffeur, my dear child. His .real naroo is Henry I/ester, and ho is on© of tho bloodhounds of Scotland Yard—tho cleverest detective of the day, it is said. The two men with him, who look so embarrassingly shy about accepting my hospitality, are policemen in. plain clothes, and I don't think I need to tell you what they have come for. Perhaps Mrs Vivian would like to do that. It seems a pity that she shouldn't do something, as she has taken the trouble'to come." He bowed coolly to Mrs Vivian, who was watching him with malicious, triumphant eyes, and a mocking smile twitched at the corners of his. mouth. | "Mrs Vivian," he said, "will now 'take the stage' in the approved melodrama fashion."

And Mrs Vivian looked straight at Primrose with deadly, vindictive hatred.

"Since Lord Eversdene doesn't care to explain," she said, This is my revenge. My revenge on him and oil yon. It is I who have put the last cluo into Mr Lester's , hands, I who have brought Lord Eversdene's house of cards tumbling about his ears; and now I have come hejre to enjoy the revenge I planned. I. have come here to see him arrested and taken away, as I pray, to his death. Ihate him! Oh, I hate him! I hate you, too, you white-livered little coward. Ask him why I hate him, and you, if you want to know. He knows." She flashed Lord Eversdene a furious glance, and he looked steadily back iit her, and something in . the calm, contemptuous gaze of his gray ,'£yes'made her draw back ; suddenly, .flushing scarlet. It was something she did not care to meet.

Primrose shrank nearer to Lord Eversdene with a choking, frightened little cry, and put out trembling hands to clasp Kis arm; and he drew her closer to him. For a moment his face softened as he bent over her. Then he raked 'his head again, and faced the men who were waiting for him. And as he did so another interruption came.

"I can explain that," a voice .said. "You needn't trouble Captain Jack. I can explain better than he can, and you didn't expect me here, did you ? That is where you made the mistake. I shall enjoy myself over it, and he wouldn't:"

And Primrose cried out again, a shrinking, terrified cry, as Poker Bill's heavy form lurched forward into the room, and Poker Bill's sullen, furtiva eyes glared into hers with cruel exultation. Lord Eversdene's arm tightened rotfnd her, and Poker Bill went on jeeringly.

"There's a good deal you don'l know, Primrose," he growled, '.'and it's my pleasant to pnligliien you. Mrs Vivian is in love with Captain Jack, or I should say Lord Eversdene. She fell in love with him before he went out tel., Austria two years ago, and •she's %ien waiting for him ever since, and fitting and planning to get him. And because she couldn't get liim, because he refused the l lov© she degraded herself to offer him, and because even the fear of death wouldn't make Him untrue to you, or you untrue to him, she gave him away to Scotland Yard. And now she's come down here to jsee the end of the precious mess she's made. Oh! I know Valerie Vivian. Don't you make any mistake about that. I know her."

Vivian, as wo all know, posed as a widow, but one "man knew tho secret that her husband was alive —that was Sir Gerard Lcsbie. Sir Gerard loved Mrs Vivian passionately, and but for the existence of her reprobate husband would have asked her to be his wife; but as it was he had to repress his love to ioime extent since she could be nothing to him. "But for all that they remained the greatest friends, and it was to Sir Gerard that she turned in all her difficulties, and he who helped her in every one. They made a compact that ho was to be allowed all.the privileges of a friend so long as he did not make love to her, and he tried to keep the compact faithfully. The reason of the compact isn't far to seek. It was Mrs Vivian's suggestion, and she suggested it because, though Sir Gerard loved her, she had no love for him; ; for she was madly in love with Lord Eversdend. and her sole idea was to wait for him. She kept Sir Gerard hanging on because he was useful to her in many ways, and she had no scruples about taking the money he generously placed at her disposal. But, like ail women of her sort, though she was willing to take everything, she wanttd to give nothing in return." He paused for a moment, and shot a ken glance from Mrs Vivian to Sir Gerard, who was standing in the background, grave and motionless. • "When one day," he continued, "news came to her of her husband's death —false news, as we know now — she scrupulously kept the news from Sir Gerard, because she knew if she told him he would ask her to/marry him, and then, if she refused, as she would do, she would lose him altogether. So she went on playing her part, deceiving the man who trusted her in every way, and waiting for Lord Eversdene's return. But when Lord Eversdene came back she discovered the secret, of his love for you, Miss Deloraine, and since then, sinct, she realised that her love for him was hopeless, she had only one object in 1 life, and that is to .revenge herself on him and you. ■ i--1 ' "But for all that,'* he went on, "she 1 is a woman, and still, in spite of ev{erything, she clung'to the desperate hope that one way or another she might win him back, and when chance put into her hands the secret that meant life or death for him, she tried to use it as a means of separating ! him from you. She had already done her best to persuade Sir Gerard to marry you, and had succeeded in inducing him to propose to you; but you refused him, as you know, because you had known and loved Gaptain Jack in Australia. The plan failed, and all her other plans have failed, until now. But now " He paused again, and Mrs Vivian laughed wildly. "Now I have succeeded," she cried. "Now I have succeeded, for death will separate them; and if Lord Ever sdene can be nothing, to me, still he can be nothing to any other woman. So I have won the day, after all." Lord Eversdene bowed to her once more. "Congratulations," he said. "My best congratulations on your—er — womanly tactics." The mocking smile twitched at the corners of his mouth again,, and once more Valerie- Vivian shrank beforo the fire in his eyes. Then he turned to. Primrose, wli'o was still clinging to him with heartbroken sobs, dazed,

I He chuckled to himself with fiendish glee, and Lord Eversdene turned on him in a flash. "What are you doing here; Poker Bill?" he asked. 1 ' "Why are you Jiere and what drtyou.kriov? .about Mrs Vivian and her motives?" i*oker Bill looked back at him, and his sullen face lowered darkly. . , j: > "Why am I here'P" ; ; he' repeated, slowly. "I'm her&on.yoiir track, of course. Your track and Primrose's. I came over, to England to pay you out for getting Primrose away from me in Australia, and to get Primrose away from you in my turn. That's what 1 made up my mind to do. To get Primrose away from you, and get her for myself. As for what I know aboubj Mrs Vivian and her motives, that is I another story, and I'm not going to ; tell it to you," He scowled defiantly, and then the man whom Primrose had known as Sinitliers, really Henry Lester, of Scotland Yard, stepped forward. "But I am," he said quietly. "Since there's so much, explanation going on. /vve may, as well make it complete, and it's rather hard on Miss D&<>raine -that she shouldn't know everything. I ,am sorry that I have had)io bring; trouble oh such a charming young lady, but duty is duty, and I must do my duty at all costs." Then he turned to Primrose, who was watching him with wide, agonised eyes. "Let me tell you the whole story as quickly as I can," he went on, "and then I am afraid I must ask Lord Eversdene to go away with us. There are one or two things that you don't know yet. . One is that this man, the man who is now known as Poker Bill, hap T i pens to be Mrs Vivian's husband. Mrs

stunned, trembling, and bent over her tenderly. "My dear," he said tenderly, "do you understand now that you have heard the whole story ? It's a very sordid story, isn't ii? The sort of story one doesn't care to think much about. And I—l who have played the part of hero in it, well, no words can express the scorn and contempt that 1 feel for myself; how bitterly I reproach myself for having asked you to be my ■'wife.. I had no right to ask, no right at all, for even then, even when 1 fesked you for your love at the ball at Lesbie Manor I feared that chances wid dangers surrounded me. I had seen Smithers, as you called him, you ,l»ow, -dearest, the day before," when I ,found you after your 'motor accident, and had recognised him, for I had known him by sight. Why he chose to pose as Smithers, your chauffeur, I think he had better explain himself. He stroked the bright head that lay on his shoulder with, strong, gentle fingers, his eyes bent on the white, ftear-qita'ined face. And the detective took up the tale again. "It is like this," he said. "Captain •Jack was wanted, as we knew, for the j murder .of a man who was killed on | one of his Taids—murdered deliberately in oold blood—and there was a prioe on his head. Somehow or other the smartest detective out there, who happens to be a great friend of mine, : struck the idea that there was some connection between Captain Jack and England, and "lie wrote to Scotland on the. strength of it 1 ; and ithe fend of it was that T was sent out there to see if I could help him in the case. (To be Continued).