TO THE UTTERMOST FARTHING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10444, 9 October 1911, Page 2

TO THE UTTERMOST FARTHING.

CHAPTER XXV.—Continued

"By Heaven, you shall come!" As she sank clown upon the .settee, weak now that her defiance was spoken, he bent over her. "Do you think," 'he said, "What I will 'let you defy mo like this? Not quite,' my pretty termagant ! Fight as you like, I'll have you!" He laughed. "It is good, considering all things, to hear you speak of the man you love!" "Be careful, Sir Derek!" As though the words had been a spur to move her, she sprang to her feet and faced him. "Don't goad me too far!" she cried. "I warn you for your own sake! Don't goad me too far!" "For my own sake?" -Once more he laughed. "Why, what have Ito fear? It is he') I fancy, who might find my little communication distressing He is madly in love with you, I don't'doubt, but still Is it 'Yes,' or 'No' ? 'Yes', and you are sure of me ; we will leave here in an hour. Which, is it to bo?" "Don't goad me too far!" she cried again. "I warn you! For your own sake, Sir Derek, don't goad mo too far!" "Bah!" He laughed again. This tragedy comes a little too late, Lorraine! You warn me? Against what? What possible risk do I run if I speak ? What possible harm can come to me if I say to your lover what I say a second time to you—that I know who stole Sir Bernard's will!" The door had been opened before he had uttered the last words, hut, excited and vehement, he had neither heard nor seen. It was flung wide as they left his lips, and Severance, Harry, Seton and M;r Bethell stood there.

CHAPTER XXVI:

Sir Derek stared back at the three figures, .instantly understanding that all must have 'heard 'his words. No sound, no movement came from Lorraine. For once Severance did not glance toward her; his shock of amazement for the moment absorbed him ; it was at liis cousin he looked. Harry's face was a picture of blank astonishment. Mr. Bethell had flushed deeply. "So I was right 'after all!" Severance said. ''You do know, Sir Derek, it seems, who stole Sir Bernard's will?" "Yes, my dear felllow, I do, now." In spite of his chagrin and discomforture he made an effort to .maintain his usual nonchalance. "Although at the time I denied it I assure you I was entirely innocent of suspicion. As for my discovery it was the result of a sudden iatuition, if I may use the phrase. It was made in your presence, too, which, is rather humorous. You no doubt remember a certain visit I paid to your chambers, and probably remember that you were annoyed at the amusement which I displayed. Very natural on your naxt, but,the position was really too irresistible! I appeal to Miss Lartouctfie for her opinion.":

I "Miss Lato'uche? Miss Latouclie | has nothing to do with it. Be good j enough to leave her name out of the .matter!" Severance, said hotly. "I ask you for the name of (the person who robbed me since you say you know itr • ■■■?<• j Sir Derek did not answer; lie smiled ! and raised his' eyebrows, looking at Lorraine. She moved back a pace, regarding iher lover intently. She made 'that curious downward gesture with her hand that he had seen before, as though she indicated a gulf beween them/ ''< "I stole the will!" she said. She swayed, and. it was' Harry Seton who caught and supported her. Severance for the moment stood stricken motionless. Her weakness passed in a moment and slie stjf>od erect again, i '. "I stole the/ will!" she said again. "It .was I who robbed you. You know now why I refused to be your wife, why I tried to sentl you from me again yesterday. In my heart I knew when I yielded that something of this would surely coine, for iJhis man (had let me knfw'befbre that he had suspected me. But to have the truth known is less horrible to me than, to bear the offering.pf his love, wWch 'he has made to me.|twice. He gave me the choice between letting you know it and prombe his wife. If you had hot overheard I should not have told you, as I do now, that it was I who stole f Sir Bernai-d's will." ,'

Severance did not answer. Something in her look, in lier attitude, forbade him to advance. Sheer amazement kept him dumb; he could only look at her. "Looking back, I can hardly say that I;am sorry," she said. "Everything that I hiave rested uppn has given way under me. I have been proved wrong and futile in afT ways. But I should do it over again in the same belief and) with the 'same temptation. Clare wak. all I had in the world then, and 'it, was for Clare's sake!" v "For Glare's sake?" Severance "echoed. Some faint inkling of the truth was breaking in upon him; but Harry had echoed the-words too, and it was to him that she turned. "For Clare's sake!" she said-again. "It won't hurt you now, Harry, if J say where her love had. then gone. You know it, too. I thought it had gone for ever. I believed it would break her heart if she could not marry Derek Willoughiby. She said so, and lie told me that he could never make her his wife while he was poor. I believed ho loved her—that his : poverty would be the only obstacle between >them. It nearly drove me distracted to see her suffer, the more so

(OUR NEW SERIAL.)

By CARL SWERDNA, Author of "A Mere Ceremony."

because I had told Sir Bernard something of tho story which made him a iter his will. There was only one way that I could see, and I stole the will as I knew Sir Bernard would never relent!" She Stopped, but kept in the same position; her head did not turn toward Severance' again; it seemed that she dared not look at him, and he made no effort to approach her. She went on speaking as though it were to herself and die were alone in tho room. "It was easy for me to get away from Redbo'unie, although when I did it I did not know Sir Bernard was dying. It was easy for me to disguise myself—l have played in private theatricals often—and I knew I could alter my voico too. It was not likely that anyone who saw mo in my.disguise and in a dim light would recognise me, and so I took the risk. It was for Clare's sake. It does not matter what I went through. Everyone here knows what I did, and why I did it —how the will was stolen. It was absurdly easy. I did not even have to look for it. The door of the room was partly open. I listened 'and so heard where it was—saw it taken' from the drawer and put back. The two minutes when I'was alone, afterwards were quite enough for. mo to take it and put the blank parchment in its place. If things had fallen out otherwise I should have made another appointment and tried again. I did not think of risk or failure or of the crime I was committing—l thought only of Clare. I got back to Redbourno and no one knew."

Her head dropped upon her hands; she leaned ;i gainst the settee as if she no longer had strength to stand. The movement that Severance made to go to her was checked as Sir Derek spok&. "The motive was tolerably clear to me at the time of my discovery," ho said, addressing Severance. "Miss Latouchc's entire devotion to her foster sister is too well known and too charming to need comment ;from me. As ,for my .amusement at the time, I confess it arose partly from my knowledge of the hatred with which she is so good to regard me, and partly from my suspicions of the entirely oppocito sentiment that J could plainly see that she felt for you, although liow £ar it had gone I did not, upon my honor,realise until to-day. And.tihat, remembering + ! hat she had robbed you and benefited me in exactly equal proportion, rendered the situation exceedingly humorous. It fails to appeal to you naturally, but I frankly confess that it .amuses me, and never more so than at present. In spite of this little revelation, I have no doubt that you infinitely prefer your part of the bargain. And now, with Miss Latouche's permission, I should like to put one question to her upon which I think I may be pardoned for feeling some considerable curiosity. I shall be glad if she will inform me when, after her most masterly theft of it, she destroyed Sirßernard's will?"

'Lorraine slowly raised her head, stood upright, and faced him. There was a faint smile on "her face. "I warned you just now,'' she, said, "not to goad me tod far. I, warned you for your own, sake. I "would have spared you if you had spared -me. I would have robbed the man I love so that I might have kept his love. I would have left you r whom I hate, in possession, of all that should be his. JJut now f The colour swept ihlo her white face like a flame as she caught |Mr Bethell's arm. "The packet that I gave you months ago," she cried—"old papers of my parents' as I told you—and that I wrote to you to bring back to me to-day—you have it ? It is safe ? Give it back to the man from wihoni I stole it! It cpritaiiVs Sir Bernard's will!" With a furious look and a wild execration ;Sir Derek started towards her: ■' '.■ '•/.;■' jade!" he cried. "You lied tome!" "Yes, I lied." She laughed. "What is a lie to a woman, such as I' am, driven to suoh a pass? Yes,-I led you to think I had destroyed the will. I would have 'done so the day you married Clare—that was what I had meano to do, but not before the marriage."

Sir Derek fell bade, ills livid face a picture of helpless rage and mqreifioation. Mr Bethell had hastily taken a packet from 'his pocket and torn it open. Harvy to look at it, too Once more .Severance made a quick movement towards Lorraine, but she waved him back a-nd reached the door. [ All the passion had-died out of Hier face. Profound despair -was upon it as she looked at him. "I thought," she said, "that I had .suffered the worst punishment which my crime could bring upon me when I first knew that I loved you- I was wrong —I, endured a .thousand 'times more when I saw that you loved me. It) was possible to bear a worse agony still, and I bore it when I refused to be your wife. : There was one last conceivable torment for me, and I undergo it now that you see me asl am and know that we are parted for ever." "Lorraine!" cried Severance. But she was gone and the door had closed behind her. (To be Continued.)