The Romance of a Business Girl.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 15 November 1912, Page 2

The Romance of a Business Girl.

OHAPTKiI XVI [. (Continued.) Soon after Mrs Maxwell Hope had , loft.. Serena wont to telephone hoi j uncle. | "j have seen her," sho brioily announced. "Did sho erupt?" "A little. I have merely promised to go to Richmond to-morrow—mere-ly a call. I can't explain my feelings ; I am like a magnetic needle with a thunderstorm raging." "I understand, dear girl, and I sympathize with you. Still I think that the worst is over. You will keep in touch with mo?' 5 1 "Oh, ye«." "Heard from Mr Curling yet?" "No; I don't expect to until tomorrow. Oh, I have lots to do—letters to write, sowing, and—my o,v thoughts." "Come to us iJ' you f«d lonely. This thing will soon straighten itself out, now. Good-by." Serena busied herself writing until late that night. Eight clo.->e!y written letter pages to Phil- Mayhew--the story of the lost jewels, and Captain Mayhew'.s trouble. Thus ran the letter : "Dear. Dear Phil : Your husband is thoroughly repentant-, and his fancied slights toward yourself were not slights at all. He has explained to me and to Jim how he was worried nl>out money matters, but acknowledges that ho was inconsiderate without meaning to be so. He is just wearing himself to a. shadow" (a bit of iningin'tion ran riot here) "with' anxiety—all for you At last he has had a stroke of hick with pome of his investments, and when you come hack he says ho will buy quite a in':-!' place in the country for you. J wiv-h he c 'lihl clear up the mystery of Lady T.aurrs jewels. Would you bo'ieve it. she accused Captain Mayiiew of stealing them! Arid he declares tint he will never speak to her again until she begs his pardon. . . . How wrong you were to be jealous ot Lady Liura. Don't you think that we women are beyond understanding, even bv ourselves? We can never be grouped under a general law; T am sure of this, after a careful study of my sex.

.wott .iomom: pnq o.uuf f,, and rem.irkable experience, which yon shall hear of later. Of course, I don't pretend to be one whit better than anybody else. "Cable me at once, and sav that you are returning. T want you home before my marriage." This -short excerpt From n very long letter will show that if Serena's mind was not exactly incoherent, it was obsessed by the extraordinary vagaries of the women she knew. She counted them on her fingers, thinking of those who had lately become factors in the ruling of her life. There was Phi'.lis Mayhew', Lady Liura. Mackinder, Jim's sister, and now Mrs ' Maxwell Hope. The best of them i breathed lava afc times. And yet the men insisted that women were but n little removed from the angels. Tt was all >a huge psyehologicil mistake. Some of the worst shrews at the Corner Shop were honey to the youthful among the male customers, and gloried in their shameless deception. "T wonder if I am as bad as the rest of them," Serena thought, with a long, indrawn sigh. "1 know tint poor Jim hasn't had *a minute's real peace of -mind since he first knew me. He got into hot water the first day, and the temperature appears to bo increasing at time goes on." Inwi.rd views of this kind were not consoling, and the trouble with her mother was the. most disquieting of all. She longed to tell Jim all about it, but with the longing there was a qualm of fear. Jim would be amazed and perhaps a littlo sorry, bjit she knew that ho would laugh at Mrs Hope's threats. But what about Jim's people? The next morning brought three letters one from her loved, one from Captain Mayhew, and a cheery little scrawl from her uncle, bidding her ! "buck up." Captain Mayhew wished to know if she lvid heard anything of lii..s wife yet, and proposed' calling early that dn-v. He knew that .Mibs Fleming appreciated his liatura, anxiety. Then sho opened Jim's letter ,atid pressed her lips to the writing before rending a woixl. Jim, the honest— Jim, the adorable —and sho was such a poor make believe, after all. Her eyes became blurred when she read his straightforward, uncoil/en tion d woids of tender love—truth, goMen truth, in every line! He couldn't get back to London until (Monday, and it was a confounded miisance. These ut KSuqatmi ipns o[doocl tpuoj^

BY F. L. DACRE Author of "A Fleet of D reamg, ' "Sihr Docninsxot'S ' aue zuaao <v of Shirne." "A Phantom 'A fcho Past," i! ©ld in Bondage etc.

"11 ' UU: i US ' ° SKOlilSl'.'f most insincere people on the fuee < i Lho eai+it as regarded promise's, otherwise lie should h;ve boon home en Kridav. His beloved must .-end lum a long, long letter —tell lum all ulu had been doing, and if all was right with her. Ho was not usually S'vc-u to morbid fancies, but the days dlaggod along so wearily, and he longed for a sight of her beautiful face. Fntil he had met Serena he had seollro at men who became slaves to the passion of love, but now he understo".:! the meaning of it, and rejoiced. She sit down, and wrote a fond reply, but mentioned no word about Mrs Maxwell Hope. It would be best to keep silent until she could tell him everything. Besides, it would be unkind and selfish to disturb him in his work in Paris. Very soon after breakfast Serena ; saw Captain Mayhew's tall, thin !ig- ! uro turn in at the gate. She went to the window and nodded encouragingly. It was thrown open to .-.dmit the fresh air of the bright moininpj, and Captain Mayhew walked across the garden with quick, eager steps "My goodness," Serena exclaimed, "you will get into tremble if Captain Vance sees you. Ho thinks the world of his flowers, and you're crushed some of them. Tees, I've heard iiom Phil. Don't knock; I'll open the door." Mayhew obeyed with the alortnes;". of a boy. The moment he ,v:is inside the room he pressed Serena's hand, and betrayed a depth of emotion of ( which she had never thought him cap- , able. "I got this letter from Phil yesterday," she said, "and I hive sent her a letter—the. kind you wanted me to. .Perhaps yon had better wait till .! J hear again. I've piled a;' the age.i.y j pretty thick," she .1 nigheil, "and yo'.: | don't want to spoil it. The stolen I jewel-;, you know, and your coosi::'-; unjust .suspicions. That will be lealiy one of the most .-mviiuing arguments." Mayhew's brow \\: il-1 "d. T\e a great mind to sail for Now York by the first bo it leaving ti'is side," he .said. "And terrify her before, she get.; my letter. Don't do inything of the kind. The' insVi.it i-he heboid you she would think mat yoi; were after her with a mob of policemen. You don't really think that she had any hand in that business, do vou?"

"1 don't know what to think; I'm distracted. 'The police have discover- : cd nothing.". He paced recklessly to and fro. "I've been thinking a lot about my treatment of Phil;l've been more cruel than the wife beaters we hear about in the police courts. These women expect ill treatment, and they thrive upon it. You see, Miss Klein--ing. I was brought up as it is termed.' by .:i maiden aunt', and I dm't know much about girls. 1 was stationed in India, for many years, and for months never saw a white woman." le.s." she said encouragingly. "My military training made a bit of a martinet of me, too. | think the majority of army officers are an insufferable lot of prigs in the eves of the ordinary layman.'' "I've noticed that: They seem to to think th' t they are the onlv people worth considering."He winced. (To bo Continued.)