The Romance of a Business Girl.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10710, 14 October 1912, Page 2

The Romance of a Business Girl.

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CiIArTKR If. Continued.) l'le was ihinking of tiie Comer Shop and li.v gid whom he hud ehaiiipaauvi while ii> v i\U> Jus lunch, nnd again .while dressing' for Lady Laura Mnekinder'?, reception. Ho was wondering a little uneasily if the girl had her-ri made to suffer i\>r Us-actions. What r.vre lier real circumstances':' Mny"h",v had rather tabooed the question. TheM' business girl;; knew how to t-i.Kc ••.-ire of themselves. .lira ivas not quite sure whether he liked Captain Mayhew or not. He was ..Mire that he did not wholly triJ-'-i. him. lus eyes were too steeiy blue and too coir]. He was tolerant, even to snobbishness, of those who did not move in Iris own set. He was masterful even to cruelty toward his inferiors. His comparative poverty no doubt rasped his banality nature, -and Jim Garling suspected that his young wife had good reason for leaving him. lie drove in a taxicab to Mayhew'R flat, near Bayswater, and was a ston- j ishod at the sordidneKs of its <;nr- J rottndings. It was on the third floor | of a building euphoniously wiled somebody's "Mansion." Th-' stairway was dark, and badly ventilated, and from somewhere below came tho odor of stale cabbage. JYJayhew opened, the door to. his friend, and cheerfully bade him come in. "I'm in a higgedy-piggedy mess, but I only sleep here two or three times a week. I rent the place furnished, and it's the best J can do until Fortune turns up smiling. I have some land in Vancouver, and my bank .holds a batch of options. It was having to live here\ and lack of money, that upset my wife; but I should think .anything were preferable to serving in a coffee shop. Light up .and smoke, Girling, while I shave." May-how disappeared into the dres- ! sing room, to emerge fifteen minutes later, faultlessly attired. With all his poverty he seemed to have no lack bf embellishment, J-Vd !he know how to wear his clothes and jewellery. "iThe itaxicab'.s waiting .outside, ' isn't, it?" ihe asked. "Yes." "Then we have heaps of time. Lady Laura hangs out at Kensington ,and her olaoe in the centre of some very nice social gatherings. She's a first cousin on my 'mother's side. Affects the artistic temperament, and people say that she is physically a feminine replica of myself." On the way to Kensington Mayhem' stopped the cab at a florist's, where he procured a magnificent bunch of flowers. "Three guineas," he remarked, with a grimace. "A little bit more on the slate! But Laura, would never forive met if I went empty .handed." iMayhew and Garling were ~ ushered into a charming room when they arrived, at Lady Laura's house;, soft colors, soft lights, and faintly perfumed air. "Nobody else here?" Mayhew said familiarly to tho butler. "No, sir." "Good! Announce us." But Lady Laura Maskinder was already in the doorway, and Jim darling thought that he had never beheld so beautiful u woman. Yes, she was very like her cousin the same blue eyes, only bluer; the same fair skin—only that it was less delicately tinted ; and then the likeness became less apparent. The woman's outlines were gracefully moulded, until .Mayhcw's bronzed features coarsened by the contrast. Lady Laura and Jim speedily became friends. Sho had a trick of gazing lingeringly into the eyes of men in whom she was interested, and more than once he felt flushed and confused. She gave him abundant opportunity to talk, but conversation was not a strong point with liim at any time. "T have .reserwd the whole afternoon and evening for you, Mr Carling,''she. smilingly told him. "if you care to stay. My cousin has told me :so much about you, and I caught a fleeting glimpse of you in tho Rowtins morning." "I am highly honored," said Jim.' "I didn't know that Captain Mayhew talked about me." He blushed. "What has he been saying? Nothing . to my detriment, I hope?" He laugh- 1 ' ed now, and assumed n tone of rail- ! lory. J Mayhew had strolled into the con- i servatory to read a .letter which tho j butler had so surreptitiously .handed | to him. His address at Bayswater i was unknown to many of his'friends and creditors. "Braises— And nothing but praises! You are good and natural—quite unspoiled by the world. You are clever, too—quite a notable inventor, and, in addition, a .sort of modern knighterrant." She laughed musicallv, her quizzical eyes never leaving 'his face. "What an ass Mavhew is," Jim thought. "Oh. that confounded restaurant affair," he blunely said. "I hope the young lady -hasn't lost her situation tlirough mv blundering J hadn't the faintest excuse for interfering. She. was just freezing hi,,,

BY F, L. DACRE Autlior of "A Fleet of Dreamr,," "Silnr Bennington's Money," "Tho Sliacio wof limine," ,f A Phantom'of tho Pa»t," if old in Uoiidsgo etc.

with. a. gia:iee, and I don't know what .made mo (t.> its. We are not s > .-.uueamish in tho North as you people ia ttic Sr.uth appear to be. I hear men. call each others liars in quiet conversation, hut such a thing it! iiie North would mean a broken head for .Sti.'iicbmiv." "Mow fierce you look!" Lady Laura' laughed. "I can well believe it. o'f you ; but .1 am glad to know that you feci that you were a tiny hit indiseroet. Tho class of girl one finds employed in the restaurant is used to every liral of talk, from men, and that i-.; just why she is there. Men are such fools." She glanced in the direction of the conservatory, and, satisfied that her cousin was, fully occupied with his correspondence, turned again to Calling. Her tone became quiot ana confidential. "You are aware how Captain Mayhew h.as ruined -his life? A brief infatuation for one of these vulgar and designing creatures. I have never i seen her, but I suppose that she. is pretty in a, ilorid \vn~,. The whole affair is bewildering. My cousin is nearly forty years of age, and credited with a nature almost as cold as death. How she managed it is a mystery. Of course, tho creature jumped too soon. Sho believed Louis to be a rich man." "There may be something else," Jim observed, awkwardly and combatively. "Another man? Very likely." "I wasn't suggesting that, Lady Laura. I am rather inclined to be sorry for your brother's wife." I "Even without knowing her?" "Yes. You confess that you have never seen the lady, and it would bo more charitable to' suspend judgement until you know the whole of the i facts." ■ I Lady Laura bit her lip with vexa- I tion. "Surely you are not going to quarrel with me, Mr Garling?" she exclaimed, after a little pause, and confusing him with one of her most dazzling smiles. "Quarrel .with you, .Ladv Laura? Good gracious, no! fam merely expressing an opinion. I hope there Ts no wrong speaking one's mind, even when in disagreement with 'one's hostess?" "Oh. Mji- Garling, you -are ho origin. al,,and so charming!" sho cried, clasping her hands together Then' ■sho shook out a tiny lace handkor- ■ chief, and Jim was half intoxicated by the subtle fume wafted from it. ■but you. are utterly iiioxperienced ■■•■• the wiles of women. "I don't like the word at all Tt implies unscrupulous deceit. J h-ive a mother and a sister, and i s it not 'unfair to yourself, Ladv Laura'--" ' His earnestness was amusing then.she flushed a little, and a nvist' fid fight shone in her. eves. Truth rang in J lfß VO ; TOj and h I." Ji of his was beautiful to see • Wo are not all augels, Mr Carlinothoi We love and hate with a n„s----»on that men will „ f . vw lmdl , We are very human, and Jike to en«y deto the fullest; a„d we U J at we want, if we can, either bv f«ir»n« insorjl.vfo,,!. You don't Ik' £h nW}. And yH ,t is so, and 4» <kv you will bo d i. si]il ,s ionoi '™< «w will f.,„ Wi| ■ d < ** be sorry for you. You are he .sort of man wh„ will become imn!