THE EASTERNERS. OR MARRIAGE BY PROXY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10453, 19 October 1911, Page 2

THE EASTERNERS. OR MARRIAGE BY PROXY.

BY WILLIAM PERRY BIIOWN

CHAPTER V.—Continued

"We must be going, M. Muraliki," she began, in a voice poor Sidney would havo recognised and thrilled at in the dark. "I fear we will barely make the >toa,mship pier in time." "Good heavens!" now broke from Greer. "Alma —can this be you ?"

Ho hurried forward with such energy as to iioarly overturn the consul, and placed his tall figure directly before the two in the hall.

Mustafa Boy sworo under his breath and was divided in mind as to whether to insult Greer or remember the lady on his arm. t

"This is certainly I," confessed the giri, showing considerable annoyance. "But I thought I had bidden you good-by in Washington." "But —but was not that you in thecarriage yesterday, whom I later saw go down the bay in a steamer?" "Madam," interrupted Mustafa sharply, "our time is limited. Let us go. I may see you later, Muraliki." They started toward the front door, with Sidney still blocking the way, dazed, angry, yet irresolute. Here the consul' drew the Westerner aside, saying brusquely: "Come, sir. These are my guests. You are to K*e a stranger. Permit them to pass." And pass they did ; but Greer broke ; away and followed Alma. "My dear girl," he pleaded, "you really must stop and listen to me, if j only for your uncle's sake." The girl half turned, as if weary of his inopportune persistency. She stamped her foot in anger. "Oh, youty' she exclaimed, with such an accent of utter disgust that the true-hearted fellow stopped as if he bad received a blow. "Why can you not let mo alone? I—l hate you!" She turned, half dragging Mustafa, while Greer stammered, hesitated, until he found .himself alone in the office. The consul was putting the couple into the brougham himself, then, •with two trunks now strapped on top and behind, rattled briskly off. Greer was still in a state of coma when,; the consul returned. He glowered at the tall Westerner in an im- j friendly fashion. "Pardon me," began the official. "I! think youv conduct requires explanation. You enter my office its a j stranger and at once proceed to „in-, suit a lady who " "Enough of this!" exclaimed Sidney, rejoicing to vent his indignation : on a man. "That lady is the niece of j an intimate friend of wine; who is her i guardian as well. At one time, she j was, in a way, promised to me in mar- I riage, you see. So far as ex-1 plaining anything to you, I must ask ; you to put me straight upon some j points yourself. You have my card at your desk." M. Murahki, casting his eye over Greer's ample proportions, concluded that he Avas sincere and that he might be dangerous. Were not these Americans often capable of any eccentricity? 1

"What a. fool Rotan Pasha is to want to cumber ihimself with, one of their women," was the consul's first thought, for he knew Rotan well. '''But he has Prankish blood in his veins. I mr.st humor l-hia barbarous Goliath of a gaiour. It is. th.6'-easiest Vi - nv to rid myself of a miisaftGe." Then Murahki hid his heart behind .a diplomatic smile, as he replied aloud "If you sta?jd upon those terms with this lady"—here a shrug and lift of the eyebrows "little more is to be said. She has probably changed her mind. Women will often change their minds when men least expect them to

change." "Yes, yes; but what I want you to explain is this: Yesterday I came from Washington, charged by M. Marsovian, her uncle, to see this lady. Some information had transpired since her

departure, that disquieted us as to' her future. She met Rotan in London •two years ago; they corresponded and later became engaged. ■'. But she had understood that at heart the pasha was a Christian, and unmarried. I fell out of the race, and submitted, being solicitous only for her happiness. But now we find that this Rotan has other wives. Among them is a daughter of the sultan."

"True, sir." Murahki smiled blandly. "His highness is a, favorite with His Imperial Majesty. The Princess Aydoul was given him in marriage on the fifteenth of lastßamazan—the day when the sultan visits the holy relics at the seraglio. It was a special honour to a servant whom Abdul Hamid delights to please." "Is it likewise true," ?aid Sidney, "and no .one knows this better than yourself, that such -a gift, on such an occasion, nullifies not only prior marriages, but any other marriage Rotan may make. In short, it makes such connections valid under your law only in a state of concubinage. Am I right?"

Another shrug from the consul, as if ■he said : "Why argue so self-evident a point?" Greer's tone became more stern.

"Miw Burian insisted on the marriage by proxy, that Rotan suggested by indicating Mustafa Bey as "his representative. She knew ' that such ceremonies are permitted under your Jan-, and being a native Armenian, she felt secure. As his wife she would be at liberty to go to him, ho having declared that his master could not spire him from his duties as Governor of Armenia and adviser to the sultan. At the last moment I gave her a letter from a trusty friend of mine in London, relating the bare truth about! Rotan's marriage to the princess, of'

OUR SERIAL,

I which Rotan had most carefully kept ] Marsovian and his niece in ignorance. 1 Still Murahki smiled, while Greer uttered a deep sigh, then continued: "She probably read it on the way to New York, but it seems not to I havo disturbed her confidence." "As I before remarked, M. Greer, women aro peculiar in their beliefs. Therefore, we havo the harem. Also, j you will remember the lady was ali ready wedded —by proxy." i "Marsovian was alarmed when I told him of this letter." Sidney did not appear to notice the other's remark. "It was agreed I should follow the girl —" , . . "You? The rejected lover?" The consul's smile was satirical. "Was that altogether wise? She would attribute to you selfish motives." "Not 20. She should know me better." Yet Greer coloured at Muraliki's open sneer. "We have known each other in the W r est ever since she was sent there a little cliild from her nativo Armenia. Marsovian could not go. I only was- willing and ready." "Most lovers are, my dear sir, when the object is to injure a successful rival. Proceed., most excellent sir." The consul's manner made Greer want to kick him, but he could only tamely endure the affront. ""Yesterday I saw Miss Burian," — he would not call her otherwise—"in your brougham, accompanied by an elderly man. They drove to the Hudson River, boarded a steam yacht, and put to sea at once." "To sea?" exclaimed the consul, in real or feigned surprise. "That perplexes me!" "Same here, especially when I again met her with" Mustafa, in your office. How did she get back? It looks very queer to me." v The consul recovered his composure; ho smiled more urbanely than ever. "And now I must deprive myself of the further pleasure of your valuable oompany." He consulted his watch. •>MI have anv appointment." - "But what does all this mean ? How came the lady to leave that yacht, nearly at sea, and this morning appeal- here as your guest, accompanied by that dirty little Mustafa?" "Do not ask me why, sir." The consul assumed his most official air. "I can tell you —nothing. In my professional capacity I am in receipt of many confidences " "But this savours of rascality of some kind." "Oh, sir!" Murahki was greatly shocked. "Officially I cannot listen to you further. Permit me to retire. I kiss your'hand, my good sir." Before Sidney fairly realised it, the consul had dexteriously wisked himself away, leaving in his place a bowing clerk who had somehow evolved himself from some obscure corner. ; , The Westerner swore profusely, but the clerk only bowed more profoundly. "Allow me to show your excellency to the door," he vouchsafed. "Charmed to have you call. You will be sure to give us the pleasure of beholding you again." Thus he rattled on without giving Greer a chance to remonstrate until the Westerner somehow found himself <in the front steps, while the door was ! gently closed in his face. Greer walked off, swearing under his breath, and wondering what he had better do next. I He wandered aimlessly about, taking a tasteless.lunch at a restaurant, and feeling, as he expressed it: "Worse and more thoroughly wipped than a case of original sin in high heaven." Sacrilekius, perhaps, but racijy Western. He lounged in Battery Park, dreaming of the many happy days ho had spent in Alma's company, prior to that unlucky European trip when she had met Rotan Pasha in London. He, Marsovian, and the girl toured the Continent together that summer. What a pleasant time they hod- enjoyed before she met this Eastern magnifico, with his Oriental glamour. She herself, was from the East; and doubtless something akin to its grand, mysterious -ways, yet foreign to the sturdy Westerner, had appealed to her imagination. And —now she was gone, wedded by proxy, and here he was .wandering disconsolate, and—worse than that —fairly balked, impotent, deserted! . He recalled Rotan as he had seen the man in London, A tall, fair, mature | sort of Adonis, with penetrating eyes j and a sensual mouth and chin. Rotan J was then chief altache at the Ottoman embassy, with an extraordinary pull with the Porte, in a land where 'pulls' are more potent and varied than elsewhere. Abdul Hamid, then in the zenith of his power and cruelty—though now so helpless—was said to have an eye on him for more import- 1 ant service. 1

I Some averred that' lie was of Frankish Wood, French, English, German, and so on. Others that his father was an. Amercian trader of Trebizond, and his mother a Kurdish princess. AH agreed, however, that he had been early orphaned, and had made his own way from a mountain hut to the .very steps of the imperial throne J that he was influential with the sultan and an anti-Armenian, and could do pretty much as he pleased, both in Armenia and Stamboul.

"It was the glamour of the man and what he was and stood for that captured the poor girl," sighed Greer. "Sho thinks she will he a sort of queen in her native land, whereas she is'on the way to become that most pitiful of slaves, the toy of a tyrant's idle hours, if she is not already cast aside by this later idol of Rotan's, the Princess Aydoul. God help me! What a fool f am!'' ('To be Continued.)