HELD IN BONDAGE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10514, 2 January 1912, Page 2

HELD IN BONDAGE.

OUR SERIAL.

BY L. F. I>ACRE. Author of "Siufoad'B Valley," A Phantom of the Past," "The Shadow Qf Shame," "Six John's. Heiress," "A Daughter of Mystery," etc.

CHAPTER XVl—Continued. "O'h, I know. You need not tell ;no again. lam not quite without imagination, although it. isn't of the lurid kind possessed by Mis.' Edith son." He smiled bitterly. "You miss the companionship of Dolly, voa ini&i) your miusic, and feel hard hit !>y tho jealousy of a mad woman. Well, Miss Thornton, you wili hear no in ere of it. I have talked Mrs Ward into reason; I have had to show the hand of a master. Dolly will be with you to-morrow; you may enjoy your music; tihe whole place is free to you. I can't afford to lot you go." He made ■an im.pa'uicnt movement. "We can't run Cliff House on very conventional lines." Hiis persuasive manner half convinced Margaret. She looked him atraiglhit in tihe eyes, ;>nd oliokeil a little before speaking. Her throat foil hot and dry. '-'You have miade me think that I am trying to get .away from my agreement with you without sufficient reason." "If you like to pmt it in that way/', he said gently. ''You are paying me a large salary

"Tha/t is also parit; of the agreement too," he interrupted. "I bough* your services for a price, and I have a rigfat to them for another montlh ,or two, (haven't I?" He smiled down at tier. "There I .think we understand each other, and you wall have no further cause to complain.' fjVlrs Ward wishes to kiss and make friends, and apologise."

Margaret was astonished.- She looked at him witlh wide eyes. "I iam glad—so glad. You are wo.iderful. T did not want to go really, but iny nerves are jarred, and I iust thought '' She arose in confusion, lier heart leaping. He took one of her trembling 'hands between his own.

"Now compose and rest yourself, «Miss Thornton. Gk>up to Dolly, if you like, and take the poor child for a iun outside."

"But the work you want done?" "Oh, Monday will do for that. Do it at your leisure. You know where it is, and what it is. Now, I must see what the workmen are up to in the foundry." Sunshine again for Margaret. She felt that a load of oppression luad been lifted from her heart. She mentally resolved to write and tell Edith Janson how unjust her suspicions hv-.d ibeen, but that would do In a day or two, and slhe would enclose a lett-er for (her aunt at the same time. . She could not leave Patrick Ward's

employment for a little wfliile. She w as morally and legally bound to respect her contract with him. S!he went upstairs with quickened steps; her headache was going; there was a song in her heart.

Mrs Ward's door was standing open, and Dolly rushed, half h:df crying into her arms. Margaret pickj ed the child up, aucl strained her to i £er bosom.

"Doily H'* 111 * 8 you. Dolly lias been a naughty eirl, )m r nmv slie is S° ikl ' Miss Thorn ton.' 1

"Dear littlo thing!" "Will you ta&o Dolly tor wa |jv - now?"

"If mother would like you to go!"

'Mrs Ward oame out upon the la rifling, and seized one of Margaret's [hands. . . "I have been unjustly suspicious oi you, Miss Thornton." There was a curious inflection in her voice. "Fatrick has explained things to me. -ifa r\\ as .very angry with me, -vViIJ you kiss and be friends. I feel 'ike a very cihild. I WttS afraid " "" "Oh, don't fcHpfean, please Mrs Ward. I tuft S'.o glad thtat I must not go awivy> We will always bo ,_,nod friend?) now." , "Patrick was angrier tlxan 1 nave ever known him to be before," she went on impersonally. Her face was impassive; slhe spoke like one re-pea ti ing a lesson. "He threatened to send me hack to India, to have nothing more to do with me. Wouldn't that oe dreadful, Miss Tliornton?" "But Mr Ward diid not mean that," Margaret stammered. Tlie brilliance of the woman's eyes disconcerted her. "Oh, lie did indeed. You do not know Patrick Ward sis I do. He compels people and things to do as lie f wishes."

"Oh," saicl Margaret faintly; then sho thought: "I feel it that way myself. He 'has compelled me to do all till at he desires." Then she looked up again, and told an untruth. "1 :m sorry for your Indian nurse." ' 'Lootah! Oh, Loot;)!!)., I am not sorry. She puts sucli fears into one's mind. Sho is sulking now." Mrs Ward slipped back to her room. "You will read and play to me again, Miss Thornton. I have missed tho beautiful music so muoh." Mangarefc went for a ramble in the garden . with the overjoyed Doliy. They romped together till lunch time, and after this meal Margaret resolved to make>an inroad on the copying thns was waiting for lier in tilie study. Once more the atmosphere of tilio room was one of sacrediiess, of romance. She wandered round, looking at the bookshelves, packed with thousands of volumes, and her heart leaped in anticipation. In some places they were , piled ono upon the other, some on end, some Hat, backs the wrong wlav, and all were stained with the dust of several years. Working at odd times, the work of dusting re-arranging and cataloguing, would take many delightful hours. She took the cover off the typewrit-

fdsl or, and was sorting out the first locumeiit to copy when a moving shadow fell .across tflio French window, and through the window onto tilio carpet. .Eiho looked up sharply and saw the tiguro cf a man on the lawn. Ho advanced to the window and peered int) j the room, his glittering eves rooting ! the girl, rigid and motionless, to the J ground. With a sense of acuto and be-

waldcring horror she recognised her husband —George Aston. CHAPTER XVIT. IN THE SAFE. Tilio terrifying fear of thos few moments was stamped on M|argaret's mind far the rest of her life. That Aston knew who ,s'!io was she did not even doubt for a moment. She saw the sudden contraction of the luatefuil and she saw them dilate and burn with savage exultance. Then tllie face vanished and she remembered with thanlcfuilness that She hiad followed Batrick Ward's injunction to always lock the dloov after her, whether entering or quitting tlie study, and to put the key in her pockeit. Ho kept; a second key about his own person, s.> that there would be no difficulty in admitting himself to iJhe room at any time without disturbing her. j Margaret stood, one hand pressed over her leaping heart, her lips slightly parted, her brefcutlhing little, short : gasps. Then she heard the doomob l.eing turned, and she flew across to a small windowless room at the end of the study. This room was called th" "safe" for Patrick Ward kept most <>t his valuables there.- ,She threw ope-i the door, and taking tho key from the outside, locked herself securely - in. She remiained perfectly still, hardly daring to breathe. Ifc seemed to her for a little while that her very life had been suspended. If, George Aston had positively recognised her, wluat action, would he take? What would the 'aw permit him to doP Her knowledge upon this point was extremely hazy. She belonged to (the man in /a . legal sense, and would probably whisk her t off somewhere, and perhaps kill her in I his insensate fury! He was subject to fits of madness, and tlie law would probably call his violence justifiable. I She liad married him and deserted aim and tHie worst possible construct tan j would bo put upon her conduct bv > ! -; unbiased minds of a h< — ... ; , ~ ~ „-l y ! She liiad 'iaa ft fleetrnw ' J , . . „ . , ' hypnotising her —<she felt now that she hiad no<t been a free agent; but the very same tiling might" be said of Patrick Ward. Ho it was who Itad first, suggested that Ge- rg6 "l s ton Am cursed or g'/ 4 . t:€ <j with the powers of but had he not him sol f placed a kind of pleasing spell on her? Had not his wife said that he was poso?ssed of peculiar compelling powers? Nonsense, and merely the poor excuses of weak and impressionable women.

She made a scoffing gesture, >nd breathed pantingly; then every sense was strained to listen.

'J:here were voices in the studymen's a.ngry voices. First the liatef i', sneering tones of George Aston, then the cold, cutting rejoinders of Patrick Ward, or both speaking together —a tuimoil of words.

"So I caught you prowling around my property/ Ward. '"Rather fortun/ate that I was here —for me. ' "I m'otored hero to see you." , "You lie! You came here believing 'that I was in the north of England ; you came to spy aiul to steal, since your tools have failed. "But you, ii'ke they, have bungled." "You are determined to quarrel with me,' roared George Aslton. He stamped with the fury of a wild bull. ''l warn you to bo careful, or I will crudli.you.like an eggshell! You have lived abroad all these years simply to play fast and loose with your partnership responsibilities. You .are trying to defraud me of my rights; but I will exact my share of the prodxidts of your brain to the uttermost fraction. Do yon think that you can fool me? In matters of business, of finance, of diplomacy, you are the silliest sort of baby I have ever como across. The.sc .works tlhat you are building in behind high walls .s'hall be razed about your ears. Yon build nothing as long as our contract runs, and my lawyers shall bo instructed to get an injuuetior to restrain you." (To be Continued.)