The Swoop of the Vulture.
OUP SERIAL.)
CHAPTER I .—Con tinued. "That is distinctly curious," he said, laying; down the paper lie \va,; reading. "It ought to he a very interesting meeting for you. though I hope you'll like the professor personally hotter than I like those theories of his. great man a she certainly is. I wonder what the niece wi'l be like? Large* and angular, most prohabiy, with the muscles of a man, and the •complexion of a Japanese. That's | the worst of those travelling women." Two days later Harold Knsto"e had the bast of reasons to alter t'ds very I sweeping assertion. Sis Godfrey [ brought back an invitation to dinner ! from his hithorto unknown friend, whom he enthusiastically described as a most charming man and a thorough gentleman, and warned him that he was to meet the possibly formidable niece. Harold,, somewhat against his inclination, found himself forced to agrcewith him p.s to tho professor. Ho was certainly a man of birth, breeding, and education, and ; n addition ho possessed that indefinable air of "at-home-nesf." which only travel can give. But for all that there was something about, him, an air of quiet, repressed power which even suggested irresistible authority if once seriously exerted, which he found, himself ros.cnting .within the first five minutes of conversation. In addition to this he possessed the most extraordinary pair of eyes that Harold had ever seen in a human head They were very large—too large for a man—and intensely luminous. They differed, too. in colour with every changing light. Sometimes they were dusly and sombre almost to blackness. When their owner .became animated they brightened to a deep violet, which at times paled slowly. When they looked toward tho light, which they very seldom did, they were a. greenish gray, with frequent, glints of reddish fire, in them. To look directly into tliem for more than a momentary glance was not possible without a disquietingfeeling, or, rather, a suggestionof possible submission to the control of the forceful soul which was looking out of them —at le:'.st. that was Harold's first impression. J But when he went into the drawing ! room, and he saw those same eyes set ' like glorious gems under a pair of dark j delicately curved, brows, and lighting ' up the most exquisitely lovely face his j own glowing fancy had ever dreamed of, his opinion suddenly changed again, both as to rainbow eyes and woman travelers. "My niece, Miss Grace Eomanes,"
.said the professor, as the slender form 1 and the royally noised head, crowned ! with its diadem of red-gold coils, bowed before them. When the introduction was over. Sir Godfrey looked at him with an expression which re- , minded him ■ forcibly of his rash rei mark at the breakfast table a few ! mornings before. When Miss Romanl es spoke he had some difficulty in rei pressing a visible start, as often hap- | pens when one hears for the first time ; a voice of extraordinary sweetness, j How the dinner and the couple of , hours which followed at the opera ■ passed Harold never exactly know, I hut when Jie ;;ot up next morning, with his soul full of the most fantastically delightful dreams, he first informed himself that he was little better than a driveling idiot, and then expressed the opinion at breakfast that girls like Miss Grace Romanes ought not to bo allowet to go about loose. It was not fair to men who had eyes in their heads and blood in their veins. Sir Godfrey laughingly sympathised with him. and tol<l him for bis enmfortthat he had asked Doctor Holkine and his niece to pay a visit to the manor for the purpose ofcomparing scientific notes. He suggested that if Harold felt that tho proximity would J be more than his fortitude could saFe--1 !y risk, a month's fishing in Norway
would afford excuse for a dignified retreat. Master Harold decided to take the risk, and feltabsurdly pleased with himself when, a very few days later, it developed into a delightful and yet harrowing certainty. The. conquest of Harold Kn.str.ne was as rapid as it was complete and irrevocable, and it was accomplished before his fair conqueror appeared to liavcthe slightest knowledge of her unconscious triumph. She was a charming companion, perfectly natural and unaffected, as might he expected of a. girl whose education had been,, begun and completed amid the realities of life and the eternal problem of nature, instead of the artificial trivialities which form the surrounding of the average society girl. Tit is gave her an added charm in his eyes which no other woman could have had. His own life and education had been the same, and so from the beginning there was a bond between them, of which, as she afterward eonfessed, she must even then have felt the strength without realising it. He had one of those open natures which make anything like concealment or the most innocent deception irksome and even unbearable where friends are concerned, and, therefore, as soon as he had made up his mind
to the inevitable, he went to his father —as he always called and considered 'him—and told him everything. It so happened that on the morning of the same day, Doctor Halkine, with whom Sir Godfrey had apparently become fast friends,, had promised
BY OWEN MASTERS. Author of "His Heart's Desire," "One Impassioned Hour, "Captain Kmlyn's Bride," "The Devorell Heritage," "The Ironmaster's Daughter," etc.
to rent a snug little dower house ,-n j the estate, so that .he mirjht solt'e down 1-.) the pursuit of Ids studios. not on';' in absolute ruiet. '-.'it ;>!■■(> i:i tT!»>. H-it''» a l:?-u]r:"j ..";•■■. "-,■ ;"„',,. intellectual activity's am! •-.•i.^rstlH;-ii-«pii-af jon.s were practical!; i v"'lic;-i! with his own. ! Curiously enough, as it seemed to hiin then, the ardent In'..- did n't find himse'f able to look >-i,i; I'^ii';'.'-'-tied approval upon this arraurromon!; despite the far': that it would, gi\ -'. i him the best of opportuniticr. for an , almost ideal love-making, hi the firs) ! place, ho liked difficulties, and this , looked as thoutdi things wore going I to ho made too easy for .him iiT one. j sense, and perhaps in another im;;os- . siblo, if Grace ever rat a ..suspicion .that -niatters had heen arranged tin's I way. Again, he did not like the pro- , feasor. He was tho only man with whom he ever fo!,t .unconifo'table, and that was probably hec.mse he was the only man of whom he had ever ;'elt
in. any sen so afraid. He despised, and, for Grace's sake, , reproached himself for this fooling; but it was no use, though, out of deference for Sir Godfrey's great liking for him, he kept his sentiments strictly to himself. At the same time he thought it only fair; both to Miss' -Romanes and himself, that she and her uncle should he told frankly that he loved her, and meant to win her if he could, before they finally decided to settlo at the dower house. Sir Godfry fully agreed with turn, and put the matter with perfect plainness before Professor Halkine, who accented tho situation witii quite philosophical consideration for a natural infirmity of age and sex which interested him only as one of the phenomena of human life in its present phase. Whether or not he acquainted his niece with the state of affairs ) did not appear just then; but the house was taken, and the two guests remained at the manor until it was ready for their reception. .Harold accepted the decision as a tacit permission to press his suit open- j ly, and he proceeded to do so with such effect that within a month he telt j justified in .speaking out, and asking ■ Miss Grace to decide his fate his dim. She did so with a quiet gravity which at once delighted and puzzled him. She gave him, with sweet earnestness, permission to undertake the most entrancing of all tasks that a man cm set himself—the winning of a seif-will-ing maid; but all through the conversation which meant so much to him, he was haunted by a strangely chilling sense of impersonality in her manner. She was as sweet and gentle as the most exacting lover could wish —and yet there was something want-, ing for which he was fain to account by the strangeness of her early .surroundings, and the unconventionality of her bringing up. Moth Sir Godfrey and his now al- ; most inseparable companion, tho professor, gave their approval and their congratulations, but here again Harold was mystified, and in his •father's case, somewhat angered, to discover the same element of impersonality, the same suspicion of aloofness, or mental detachment. Later on he told Grace of this, but she only increased his difficulties by turning those marj vcllous. all-compelling eyes upon him, J each, of them with a. note of interrogation in it. and saying in a sweetly exasperating tone of unconcerned inquiry : "I can't say that T have noticedanything uncommon in their manner, but surely one .cannot expect men who pass their lives in the actual presence of the greatest mysteries of existence to be very deeply interested in this little love affair of ours." As the said love affair happened just then to be the most important matter for him within the limits of human concerns, he entirely failed to agree with her. He said so, and with that he was fain to be content until the Fates should vouchsafe an explanation, if they ever did. of a mystery, in the presence of which he was as helpless as a little child. (To he Continued.)
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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10704, 27 August 1912, Page 2
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1,605The Swoop of the Vulture. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10704, 27 August 1912, Page 2
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